1950'S - 2. 1958 FERRARI 250GT EUROPA — 5.9 SECONDS

January 1958

What We Said: “The 250 [Gran Turismo line] is a masterpiece. Hardly any other cars in the world compare with it—except other Ferraris. . . . If you’ve driven Ferraris before, you expect to hear the raucous, jangling whir of a pair of overhead camshafts clattering against 24 valves. But when the 250 [Europa] comes to life, there’s an instant when you wonder what’s wrong. It’s too quiet. Then you realize that the builder has succeeded in civilizing one of the world’s most savage powerplants. . . . The combination of this kind of low-speed pulling power with screaming, slam-in-the-back acceleration that hustles you from zero to 120 mph in 24 seconds is just one of the unusual virtues of this rather unique machine.”