The original car called "3-litre". It was powered by an extraordinarily large four-cylinder engine which displaced 3 litres. Also extraordinary is the use of single overhead camshaft actuating 4 valves per cylinder. It delivered about 70 reliable horsepower. 3-litre won Bentley the first Le Mans in 1924.

3 years later, the engine grew to 4.5 litres. It took two more Le Mans title in 1927 and 28. In the next year, Bentley upgraded it with a 6.5-litre six-cylinder engine. This car, called "Speed Six", won another two Le Mans in '29 and '30.

But there was still one more famous derivative which never won any races - Bentley Blower. It was developed base on the 4.5-litre, with supercharger added to pump out 175 hp, pushing the car to 125 mph. That was the fastest version and the most desirable Bentley to car collectors, although not reliable enough to win any significant races.

The answer is: its fenders were fully integrated into the body while the cabin engage the full width of the car. Many people regard this Pininfarina design as one of the most beautiful cars. Its admirers include New York's Modern Art Museum, which has one of the rare surviving 202 exhibiting. To me, what it impresses me is the influence on subsequent cars - today, all cars still feature its invention.

It also inspired Ferry Porsche, who worked for a Cisitalia GP car project before creating his own 356. The Cisitalia 202 was built largely on Fiat's mass production 1100 c.c. engine, transmission etc. to cut cost and simplify production, despite using its own chassis, body and with the engine tuned to 60 hp. Porsche 356 followed this trend by using Volkswagen Beetle's parts and modified in the same way.

Powerful it was certainly not, but Cisitalia was rather light and aerodynamic efficient. Therefore it managed a top speed close to 100 mph. It also pioneered the first tubular space frame chassis in road cars, although this had little influence on later cars.

The car, simply called "DeLorean", is a rear-engined sports car with many unique features. First of all, you'll see the gullwing doors, then the body panels are all stainless steel, bolted to the glass-fibre underbody which was produced by Lotus. (who else had more experience of building glass-fibre body ?) The body panels were unpainted, showing their original beautiful stainless steel color. Power came from PRV 2.8-litres all-alloy V6, with a modest output (but qualified for US Federal emission regulations) of 130hp at 5,500 rpm. Transmission could be chosen between a 5-speed manual (possibly came from Renault) or a 3-speed automatic. Coping with the heavy steel body, performance was just OK. But it was the styling, build quality and reliability rather than driver appeal to impress. It was not a real sports car.

DeLorean was built in a plant in Belfast of Northern Ireland, subsidised by the British government in order to create more jobs. Most of the cars were exported to the US market but obviously the high production cost resulted in limited sales and debt. Between 1981 and 83, only 8,583 cars were made, then John DeLorean was arrested and charged against drug distribution (eventually discharged), consequently the company collapsed.

It would not have been so famous if it were not featured in the Hollywood film "Back to the future" as the time machine. Oh yes, the unique Giorgetto Giugiaro's design worthed it.

Mangusta was the second car, and the first supercar built by that notorious Argentinian ex-racing driver. Young Giugiaro gave it an exotic appearance over the backbone chassis. Power came from the bargain Ford 289 cubic inches V8 - but of course it was the Shelby-tuned version that had already appeared in AC Cobra, Ford GT-40 and Mustang GT-350. Three hundred and six horses running in the middle of the car were enough to make a supercar.

Of course the Ford V8 was not really able to challenge the revvy and smooth V12s from Ferrari and Lamborghini, but what let down the world was the chassis - the backbone chassis was too weak, generated too much flexing that resulted in unpredictable oversteer / understeer in corners. That ruined half of its reputation. Another half was ruined by the poor built and corrosion. So, Mangusta is still the best in Matchbox form.

With the close relationship between Ford and De Tomaso, Ford fully backed the Pantera project in order to boost its image. Surprisingly, given the experience of radical thinking in Mangusta (De Tomaso's previous car), given chassis expert G. Dallara to design the chassis, having the memory of the advanced Ford GT40, Pantera did not turned out to be a sophisticated supercar. Instead, its unitary steel chassis was intended to be cheap for production, so was its Detroit pushrod V8.

Comment about the early Pantera was: strong and torquey engine (if not smooth and musical), slick ZF transaxle, sharp steering, taut handling, decent brakes, cramped cabin and bad driving position.

It had generous equipment, even included air-conditioning, because American market was its first concern. Nevertheless, lack of crash-protection and emission concern accompanied with oil crisis eventually led to the withdrawal from the United States in 1974.

Since then, Pantera continued surviving and updating in Europe. Most modifications were made to cope with newer emission regulations - to retain power while passing the regulations. The most powerful version, GTS appeared in the mid 70s, which had 350 hp, but then replaced by the 300 hp GT5, which was surrounded by beautiful spoiler and skirts to create "ground effects". In 1983, the aerodynamic accessories were discarded in the GT5 S, but power rose to 330hp. Then stricter emission controls dramatically dropped the output to 247hp.

Obviously, the Cleveland V8 could no longer survive in the environmental-conscious era, therefore in the 1991 revision (called Series II), it was replaced by Mustang's electronic fuel-injected 302 cid V8. Heavy rework gave Pantera a healthy 305 hp output. Along with new engine, master designer Marcello Gandini also gave it a new look which was refined by new bumpers, skirts and spoilers. De Tomaso also claimed there would be a twin-turbo version called "Pantera 200" capable of 450 hp, but I don't know whether it was really built.

Once again, the Mustang V8 suffered from tougher emission regulation so that output dropped to 248hp in 1992. That was the last news I heard about Pantera.

Chrysler returned to profitability, but its model lineup with the same underpinning hardly inspired people. This was not going to be changed until 1992, when Chrysler launched the Viper - a concept car turned into production car, a modern muscle car and the only American supercar.

Viper was first launched in RT/10 roadster format. Never in American car history has a car looking so muscular, so dramatic and so wild. It was styled by the company’s star designer Tom Gale.

The muscular appearance is backed up by a muscle-car-style engine - a  truck-sourced, Lamborghini modified pushrod V10 which displaces a very truck-like 7990c.c.. Early cars pumped out 400hp and even more torque. 0-60mph took about 4.6 seconds, earning USA a place in global supercar chart.

Viper was a small scale production. Its chassis was tubular steel backbone riding on classic double-wishbones suspensions. Body work was by composite plastics. With big wheels and fat tyres, it had abundance of grip, if not sufficient traction for its torquey V10. The engine was loud, raw and gearchange was truck-like. Ride quality was hard. Refinement was low. However, people loved all these shortcomings in the same way they loved muscle cars of the 60s. Viper replaced Corvette as the icon of American sports cars.

In 1996, Chrysler launched the hardtop GTS version. It had a lot of improvement, ranging from a more powerful 450hp engine, stiffer chassis to sharper suspension tuning thanks to the experience gained from motorsport. A French racing team helped Chrysler won 3 Driver and Manufacturer Championships in FIA GT2 category from 97 to 99, beating even Porsche. The GTS-R also stormed Le Mans in 98 and 99. Viper eventually won the deepest respect from the rest of the world !