A VISION REBORN

As a longtime lover of cars, racing and automotive history, I can’t believe I’d never come across the story of ATS until reading the esteemed Winston Goodfellow’s intriguing article here in Robb Report. Even after years of reading magazines like Forza, frequenting Ferrari forums and mixing with Italian exotic owners at events, drives and track days, I’d never heard anyone mention ATS. The pedigree, design and performance were, and still are, striking — the one below sold for $3 million. The visionary design was ahead of its time and it’s a great story!

Ferrari was dominating LeMans and Formula 1 when eight of their top execs and engineers abruptly quit. A few went on to form ATS with the express goal to outdo Ferrari! The 2500 GT they developed was a supercar for the time with a top journalist raving about the car’s “truly great performance and brilliant design.” One can’t help but wonder what would have happened to the marquee if a rift among the founders hadn’t occurred and funding hadn’t run out. As much as I love Ferrari, Scaglietti and Pininfarina, it was painful to read about the company’s demise right before it had a chance to prove itself to the world. That is, until now…

50 Years Later

Enter Emanuele Bombi and Daniele Maritan who have revived and revitalized ATS from the ashes and it couldn’t be in better hands. Daniele is an amateur racer and successful entrepreneur, while Emanuele has extensive experience in coachbuilding. In Goodfellow’s words:

“As their friendship blossomed, their mutual interest in ATS — and tantalizing speculation about what could have been — came to the fore, and the two decided to collaborate on reviving the nameplate. Both savvy in production and design, they took the basic ATS recipe of an elegant, high-performance, mid-engine, two-seat coupe and adapted it to the 21st century.”

The design is sublime and the company is based near Lake Como in Italy — my favorite place in the world. The culmination of these is my personal automotive heaven (well that and to take it up to Spa to run it through Eau Rouge).

Emanuele Bomboi and Daniele Maritan with the ATS GT. Photo: Winston Goodfellow | Robb Report

A friend who is a concept artist in Hollywood got his start in automotive design. He perfectly described what was lacking in car design at the time which was a beautiful “tension in the curves” — thankfully seeing a return to form here. Of course beauty only gets you so far; performance and handling are absolutely essential.

My Near Miss

Anyone who’s had the privilege of driving race cars on track at well over triple digit speeds knows just how instantaneous and scary finding the limit can be. I experienced this firsthand at Road Atlanta in a torrential downpour. We were driving purpose-built racecars, which have the nets in the windows. The cars were slowly filling up with water, and when you'd slam on the brakes at the end of the back straightaway, the water would rush up through the floorboards like a wave machine.

I was feeling in one of those "flow states" and turning my best laps. I kept pushing a little faster and braking a little later into each corner. Coming through a fast turn at over 100mph, I quickly started running out of track. My options were A) head across the icy grass, lose all traction and slam into a concrete wall, or B) gently add steering and braking and hope for the best. I went with B of course, but this unweights the rear end of the car, and before I knew it, I was instantly heading backwards into the opposite concrete wall. I distinctly remember looking back over my shoulder, staring at the wall rushing towards me and thinking "this is going to hurt!". They teach you in these situations, you're just a passenger at that point. You take your hands off the wheel to avoid breaking your thumbs, and keep your feet planted on the brake and clutch. By some miracle at the last second, I spun back around and came to a stop in the middle of the track. My friend was up with the instructor at the corner, who told the group, "that was a big one".

My 3-day school at Road Atlanta (the day it was sunny)

I later asked what went wrong, and the instructor chalked it up to too much entry speed. He said I did everything right, but with more experience I would have realized I was coming in too hot and corrected earlier. I was pretty shaken the rest of the day, but the next day I was back in the saddle.

If you’re into cars and racing, you truly appreciate what goes into engineering and handling. Your life depends on it. To have an automotive journalist the caliber of Winston Goodfellow lavish the drivability and performance in glowing terms is no small feat. The specs are equally impressive (the standard ATS GT’s 3.8-liter V-8 produces 730 or 830 hp, while the crazy 4.1-liter Tipo 4100 V-8 makes 900, 1,012 or 1,200 hp). When it all comes together as stunning as the new ATS GT, the sum is greater than its parts and it becomes a work of art — one you can both appreciate aesthetically and experience the visceral thrill of as well!

At the moment only a lucky few will have this privilege. Even more enticing, these cars will be created bespoke for their individual owners. I sincerely hope these GTs won’t sit in a collection and will be out on tracks and driving roads as they were intended.

Congrats to Emanuele and Daniele on resurrecting this new chapter in the ATS story in such brilliant fashion — we’re excited to keep abreast of the progress!

— Chris Cummings

BRANDS WE LOVE: ATS

A VISION REBORN

50 Years Later

My Near Miss