In 1950, at the first Formula One Grand Prix in Britain after World War II, 150,000 spectators, including the royal family, watch in dismay as Italy's Alfa Romeos take the first three places – ahead of seven more Italian Maseratis. In Paris, at the Salon d'Auto, Pininfariana's breathtakingly stylish Lancias, driven form Turin by the designer and his son, are denied entry. Parked outside, they nevertheless steal the show. How can it be that Italy, pummelled into submission by Allied bombs, is already setting new standards of speed and style that leave the rest of the world for dust?

The answers lie deep in Italy's cultural heritage, in historic links between art and machine going back to Leonardo da Vinci. In Superveloce, Peter Grimsdale traces a century of Italian design genius and the rise of its great automotive dynasties, Ferrari, Farina, Maserati and Fiat's Agnellis. We see the lives of fiercely charismatic and competitive drivers like Ascari, Campari and Nuvolari, and explore the mystery of how a nation that never had an industrial revolution like Britain and France set standards of design innovation that other nations struggled to match.

Grimsdale takes the reader on a journey of discovery through Italian history, design, speed and beautiful, beautiful cars.