Usually, getting a good buy at one of the Monterey Car Week auctions is just as likely as having no traffic on California 68 between Monterey and Salinas on Friday morning.
Yet it does happen. The following three cars — at three different venues — represent good buys for the money spent. Unlike my usual Cheap Thrills tendencies, two of the three are in upper-middle-class money, proving that a good buy doesn’t always translate into debit-card money.
For the first time in 31 years, I missed Monterey Car Week.
On the weekend before the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, I can usually be found leading a ragamuffin “Catch Me If You Can” group of sports-car fanatics on a road trip down the Pacific Coast from Portland, OR, to Carmel. It’s SCM’s annual Caravan to Concorso.
Not this year.
I continue to make measured progress from my January stroke — as a dear friend always says, “Slow and steady Read More
SCMer Lee Cross, a Shelby enthusiast who organizes the annual GT350 Tour, shared a very interesting story:
I am passing along an incident as something that might present a topic with wide relevance to your audience; i.e., the legal technicalities that arise when a collector attaches a trailer to their tow vehicle.
I usually trailer one of our Cobras across the country when I depart Delaware for Monterey. This year was a little different. My 289 Cobra was already in Read More
Over the past six decades, the 250 GT Tour de France has become one of the most sought after and collectible of the classic Ferraris. Marrying advanced engineering with magnificent aesthetics, the TdF achieved a fantastic racing record, paving the way for future competition berlinettas such as the 250 GT SWB, the 250 GTO, and the 275 GTB/C.
The Tour de France presented here is the fourth example of the 36 built in the single-louver style and one of even Read More
The pedigree of every one of the 15 Ghia 8V Supersonic automobiles is unequivocal. However, this example comes with a celebrated history and provenance, rendering it ultimately rare.
Conceived as the sports car for the elite, chassis 0043 was completed alongside its stablemate, 0039, by Ghia in 1953. Car 0039 was painted ivory, while 0043 was finished in white with red leather, a front grille with additional lights and no bumpers. The two Supersonics were shipped from Genoa, Italy, to Read More
The third of just four “Goldfinger” DB5 examples built, this Aston Martin is a fabulously rare example of what author Dave Worrall termed “The Most Famous Car in the World,” as he titled his 1993 book on the subject.
Quite simply the most iconic car of all time, DB52008R is the most legendary Aston Martin ever built, as one of the cornerstones of a marketing relationship that exists to this day. It would crown any important collection and offers a Read More
Few automobiles have achieved such status as the Ford GT40. Detroit’s first purpose-built prototype-class race car, it was developed to beat Ferrari — and famously went on to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans for four Read More
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