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Italian sports cars ignite a passion that is a very difficult thing to explain though. The only halfway rational thing most of us can come up with is that it is something you need to experience.
One thing that sets them apart are their gorgeous and timeless designs. Even the most popular brands had a variety of coach-builders working for them, who were all more than willing to come up with different versions of the same car.
Even normal modern Italian cars come with strange quirks straight from the factory. Performance is always top of mind, but they rarely feature on a list of “the most powerful” and still manage to almost always be on a list featuring the “most desirable.”
10 ISO Griffo
ISO, or Isetta, was famous for developing the little Bubble Car. Once licensed to BMW it sold in droves, this GT car was somewhat different though.
Marrying beautiful Italian designs to an even halfway reliable powertrain could be a way of cracking the code. So, they took a Corvette engine with proven reliability and inserted it into arguably one of the most beautiful cars of the 20th century.
9 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTA
This generation of the Giulia has become some of the most sought-after collector cars, and sadly the price of a car in good condition has gone up alarmingly.
The GTA is also one of the most valuable versions. It is also easy to see why this has become such a well-received model, its timeless design will make you fall in love with the car without ever even sitting in it.
8 Lancia Fulvia Coupe
For the little Fulvia, all its character is under the hood. Other models might be just as good but none of them have a highly strung V4.
Over the last few years, cars in good condition have quite literally doubled in price. Rarer models are getting sold for close to the 6 figure mark, so if you ever have the chance to get behind the wheel, it might be your only opportunity.
7 Alfa Romeo Alfasud Sprint
Naturally, being an Alfa, it had to have a few quirks. One obvious quirk was that boxer engine. It was unusual for them, but made decent power and was also pretty efficient.
Its less desirable quirk was unusual levels of corrosion, as they rusted away before their owners' eyes. Often scrapped well before reaching a decade old. These cars designed for the masses were otherwise excellent, fun to drive, fuel-efficient, and practical. The sporty Sprint model is by far the prettiest.
6 Lancia Kappa Coupe
For Lancia, things took a turn for the worst in the 90s. Fiat drove the once proud marque into the ground with one middling model after another.
Widely criticized for its looks (or lack thereof), this got consigned to the scrap heap with all those other underwhelming models. This is still a sports coupe made by Lancia though, and in the right tune makes as much as 220 horsepower.
5 Alfa Romeo SZ
Dubbed “il Mostro,” this took the ugly theme to another level. For Alfa, a brand usually known for its beautiful designs, the SZ certainly had shock value.
It was one of the most controversial designs in their history, and even though they were extremely advanced for the time, nobody really wanted them. Today, they are true modern classics.
4 Lancia Montecarlo
The Lancia Beta was to be their most futuristic model when it came out in the early 70s. On paper, it certainly was, it was also the best of both worlds with Fiat engineering and Lancia design.
In reality, it was anything but that and had alarming rust issues. The Montecarlo was unusual though, it also rusted a bit, but it is still the only mid-engine Lancia ever produced. It certainly toes the line between a sports car and a coupe, but it can easily be viewed as both.
3 Alfa Romeo GTV6 3.0
The usual 2.5-liter V6 got bored out and stroked to achieve the 3-liter displacement, this pushed the power up to 180 horsepower and was enough to get the car from 0-60 in 7.2 seconds.
Only around 200 of these got made in South Africa purely for homologation purposes, and with growing global demand the prices have skyrocketed.
2 Fiat Dino
Ferrari doesn't give its engines to just anyone, so when it does share its power plants, it is always newsworthy. The Ferrari Dino was the closest they came to a budget supercar. The Fiat Dino, takes it one step further, adding a Fiat badge.
The closest we get to this now is the Alfa Romeo Giulia which has a V6 engine that got engineered by the same people who designed the Ferrari V8 engines.
1 Lancia Fulvia Sport Zagato
It beggars belief that this got based on the aforementioned Fulvia because it couldn’t have possibly looked more different.
Somehow Zagato created a completely different vehicle out of this tiny car. With the potent 1.6-liter V4 engine, it became their fastest car and was a poster child for what they could achieve before Fiat got involved.
Sources: Collecting Cars, FCA Heritage