Cars

Two hours east of Los Angeles, the valley is the longtime winter destination of Hollywood stars and car aficionados seeking warm sunshine and an escape.

The Desert Classic Concours weekend kicked off on Saturday morning in Rancho Mirage, with a driving tour for concours entrants and enthusiasts. The 75-mile route headed out of town, winding along Box Canyon Road, before concluding for lunch at Cuistot Restaurant of Palm Desert. Chef Bernard, a serious vintage racecar collector himself, provided another outstanding meal for the tour.

It’s extraordinary to see that the 456 dates back to 1996, the year of its launch at the Paris Motor Show. A successor to the timeless 400 series, the 456’s understated styling now brings it into the category of ‘modern classics’.

After its introduction, an automatic ‘GTA’ version was offered. And if you (or the Sultan of Brunei, who commissioned several one-offs) wanted a shooting brake or convertible, the special projects departments at Pininfarina and Ferrari were only too happy to oblige.

Please meet, then, the BMW M550d, whose 3.0-litre, straight-six turbodiesel generates an astonishing 381bhp and, even madder, 546lb ft of torque.

These outputs hurl this second-maddest of 5-series models to 62mph in just 4.7 seconds, yet the official average fuel economy is 44.8mpg and the CO2 output 165g/km. It is, frankly, a miracle. How can these figures all occupy the same sentence?

It is the efficiency of this new engine – in terms of mechanical, combustion and fluid-dynamics technology – that allows the F12berlinetta to claim the title of “the most powerful and high-performance Ferrari road car ever launched”. The 6262cc 65° V12 delivers up to 740HP and 690Nm of torque, 80 per cent of which is available from just 2,500rpm. Ferrari promises us “an unrelenting surge of acceleration all the way to the 8,700rpm limit.” The engine is mated to the F1 dual-clutch transmission, with closer gear ratios developed specifically for this car’s performance.

The headline figure for the new Sportbrake is a stonking great luggage capacity of 1,675 litres when the rear seats are folded – an impressive volume that has been achieved with only a 5mm increase in length (and a 70kg increase in weight) over the XF saloon on which the new car is based. Also, Jaguar promises us that the Sportbrake is every bit as rigid as the saloon, so the handling characteristics and fun-to-drive factor should be every bit as good.

Until the 8 April, the imagery will accompany the major Ferrari retrospective at the Pantheon. After that, the display will make its way to Cape Town and Johannesburg, before being shown in Japan, China and Hong Kong.

The photographer Gunther Raupp told Classic Driver of his enthusiasm for Ferrari sports cars: “A Ferrari is more than just a sports car. Indeed, the value of a Picasso adds up to more than just the value of the canvas and the paint. My pictures show that Ferraris are just the same.”

The Lyonheart K came about when Swiss businessman Robert Palm teamed up with Swedish designer Bo Zolland to create a modern remake of the much-loved Jaguar. Last year, it previewed the car under the name ‘Growler’ – but it’s now been given some styling tweaks and, thankfully, a name change. In its latest incarnation, the Lyonheart K should reach series production, as long as 50 pre-orders are placed.

Does this signal a revival of the battle between the Italian design houses that kept us captivated through the second half of last century? We certainly hope so, because that rivalry produced some of the most beautiful cars we’ve ever seen.

Pininfarina’s contender – named after the Turinese municipality in which the design house is headquartered – is a diesel-hybrid saloon. In each wheel sits a 79bhp electric motor, while a diesel turbine resides under the bonnet. Pininfarina claims a top speed of 170mph, with an impressive sprint to 62mph from rest in 4.2 seconds.

The limousine underwent its extraordinary transformation for its role as the centrepiece in the ‘Otis’ music video, performed by Grammy award-winning rappers Jay-Z and Kanye West. The final scene of the video promised that the car would be auctioned off for charity – and the duo have made good on their pledge.

A few weeks ago, Bertone released teaser sketches of the concept which showed a resemblance to the firm’s wedge-shaped concept cars of the 1970s – in particular the Stratos, which we featured in last week’s Classic Concepts series.