I guess if you had the cash to splash around on any of the beasts that we’re about to talk about then you didn’t really have to worry about most of the day to day mundane issues that most of the rest of us have to fret about.

Here we are going to take a nostalgic look at the Ferrari F40, the Jaguar XJ220 pounds and last but not least the Bugatti EB1 10SS.

These were really well and truly the big beasts off their day and quite frankly had performance figures and specifications that would frighten you almost as much as the price tag.

I guess though, as is being said on many an earlier article if you had the cash to splash on any of these three vehicles then you wouldn’t really have to give a damn about many other problems anyway.

Let’s take a look briefly at the various specifications of these beasts. The Ferrari F40 had 32 valve V8 2936cc engine that developed 478bhp @7000 rpm and had a maximum torque of 426lb/ft @4000 rpm. It had a five speed manual transmission driven from the rear wheels, rack and pinion brakes and a naught to 60 of 4.6 seconds and a speed that topped out at almost 3 times the legal speed limit at 202 miles an hour. The price tag was, wait for it a staggering $328,000. There were only ever 1315 of the F40 made between 1997 and 1992.

The Jaguar XJ220 on the other hand had a 24 valve V6 3498cc engine that developed 542bhp @6500 rpm and had a maximum torque of 473lb/ft @4500 rpm. It had a five speed all-synchro transaxle driven from the rear wheels. It had servo assisted ventilated disc brakes and a naught to 60 of over a staggering 3.6 seconds! The top speed was reputed to be 211.9 miles an hour and the price tag at the time would have set you back a cool $850,000! Was there any surprise that there were only ever 218 of these cars ever built between 1991 and 1992.

Lastly let’s look at the Bugatti. The EB11 OSS had a 60 Valve V12 3500cc engine that developed 603bhp @8250rpm and had a maximum torque of 479lb/ft @ 4250rpm. The Bugatti had a six speed manual transmission that was driven from all four wheels. Like the HJ 228 had servo assisted ventilated disc brakes and claimed a naught to 60 of 3.1 seconds! The top speed of the Bugatti was again claimed to be 218 miles an hour. The prize tag was a mere $576,000. Again like the XJ220 production tally barely got into three figures with 123 cars being built between 1992 and 1995.

Truly it could have been said that if you had been a proud owner of any one of the above and actually took it out on the road to drive then you possibly had more money than sense. That having been said, again if you actually had the money to own one of these cars then you wouldn’t have had to give a damn about what other people thought anyway!

Unlike Ferrari’s founder (Enzo Ferrari), Lamborghini’s founded did not have a passion for racing cars like Enzo did, quite the contrary, Ferruccio Lamborghini had a tractor factory!. This tractor factory was indeed the financial base used to create the car company Lamborghini.

The origins of the company as told by Ferruccio Lamborghini’s son is quite amazing. It turns out that Ferruccio went to meet Enzo Ferrari at his factory to complain about he quality of the clutch in the Ferrari 250 GT which he owned at the time (this is a sports car model of the 1950’s). Enzo Ferrari then sent him away by telling him to go drive tractors because he didn’t know how to drive cars. Lamborghini then had his Ferrari’s clutch dismantled and realized that the clutch manufacturer was the same company which provided the clutches for his tractors!, Lamborghini then found a spare part in his warehouse which the thought might solve the problem and voila!, it did the job indeed. Ever since, Lamborghini became a dissatisfied Ferrari client and aimed to beat Ferrari in his own game.

Ferruccio then decided that his cars would have a V12 engine so he hired Giotto Bizzarrini who worked under Ferrari’s engine development team in the past.

And as it turns out, Ferrari and Lamborghini are two automotive groups which are considered rival companies, and equivalents in quality as well as price.

Ever since its creation, Lamborghini has experienced continuous sales growth. It’s cars are among the most powerful, expensive and exclusive in the world, they feature several exclusive characteristics such as high tech V10 – V12 engines, carbon fiber construction and custom styling by the most prestigious automotive designers such as: Franco Scaglione, Zagato, Marcello Gandini, etc.

Among the most recent popular models produced by this company we have: the V12 Lamborghini Diablo reaching a maximum speed of 330km/h; the V12 Lamborghini Murcielago; the V10 Gallardo; the V12 Murcielago LP640 and last but not the least the one of a kind Lamborghini Reventon debuted at the 2007 Frankfurt Auto show. This vehicle manufacturer is without a doubt one of the best in the world.