Early in one of my other blogs, Formula 1 Latest, I posted about the Italian ATS team that attempted racing in F1 in 1963. That attempt ended in complete failure but was caused partly by the brand new company trying to do too much, too soon. In addition to running the F1 team, they designed and built one of the prettiest GT cars ever to see the light of day, the 2500 GT.

In fact, the car was not just pretty. It was one of the first production cars to put the engine behind the driver and ahead of the rear wheels - what became known as mid-engined. And the 2.5 liter V8 engine was designed by Carlo Chiti, who had been one of Ferrari’s top engineers. The ATS V8 was acknowledged to be a fine engine, one of the best products of Italian design at the time.

So it is a great shame that only twelve 2500 GTs were made; the company disintegrated as promised financing failed to appear and everything fell apart before the end of the year. Yet the car itself continues to be one of the most desirable classics of all time and deservedly so, I think.