Today we discuss a car company that could have been the 1960s F1 rival to Ferrari, a car company that should have stolen the grand touring seat from the prancing pony, a car company that helped pioneer mid-engine placement in grand touring cars, and car company that couldn’t quite get it together. Today we discuss Automobili Turismo e Sport aka ATS.

To understand ATS, you have to start in Maranello in 1961 with the famous “Palace Revolt.”

Alright it is the ’60s, Ferrari is successful but chaotic. Enzo Ferrari is running the place like a personal kingdom and he and his are fighting like there is no tomorrow.

Ferrari staff tensions are boiling over when several senior staff clash with Enzo and, most importantly, with his wife Laura, who was increasingly involved in business matters. The result was a mass walkout (and a few firings for good measure) of some of Ferrari’s brightest technical minds, including chief engineer Carlo Chiti and development engineer Giotto Bizzarrini, one of the brains behind the 250 GTO.

These “Ferrari runaways” were angry, ambitious, and very aware that Enzo’s dominance in both racing and road cars wasn’t inevitable. So they went to wealthy industrialists such as Giorgio Billi and Bolivian mining heir Jaime Ortiz-Patiño, and with a few other rich backers they decided to create a rival of Enzo Ferrari.

And that was the dramatic start to Automobili Turismo e Sport aka ATS. TheATS was founded in 1962 in the Bologna area and their goal was simple. BEAT FERRARI.