Return of the Palace Revolt

As we cloased for press with this issue, it was announced that ’60s Italian flash-in-the-pan ATS (Automobili Turismo e Sport) would be revived to launch a new ATS roadcar at this year’s Salon Privé. “This is a pivotal day for ATS and our new supercar,” said new owner Daniele Maritan. “We use words such as challenge, adventure, beauty and passion to represent the values that were shared among all the founders of ATS in 1962. Today we find the same values in the talented people bringing back this historically important brand.” While I’m not entirely certain that another long lost, “historically important brand” needs to be resurrected in the form of half a dozen, space age, carbon fiber supercars, this rebooting of the ATS name does remind me of one of the truly great tales of automotive melodrama.

In many ways, the birth of ATS can be traced back to June 30, 1956. It was this day that Enzo Ferrari and his wife Laura lost their only son, Alfredo “Dino”, to Duchenne muscular dystrophy. As can be imagined, the parents were stricken and dealt with their grief in decidedly different ways. In the case of the Commendatore, he became more withdrawn. In the case of Laura Ferrari, she became confrontational and erratic.