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End of the Line
The Lotus Esprit Turbo S4 was the last 4-cylinder turbo model — and the best The S4 is the final, best-developed (and longest-lived) phase of the Esprit, which was launched in 1976 as a replacement for the Europa. Like that car, its appeal lies in its superb handling and performance, at less than Porsche or…
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The Heavy Burden of Light Cars
Dad’s passing was tough — and parting ways with his collection is no easier Never parting with anything means everything becomes someone else’s cross to bear There was a lifetime of hardware in Dad’s shop. Steel, aluminum and fiberglass, almost all of European descent, almost none of it expensive. And when he passed last summer,…
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Title Troubles
I recently received a call from “Charles,” who allowed me to share his story. He is the happy owner of an Austin-Healey he purchased several years ago from a California resident. The seller’s family had owned the car for many decades, and the car had spent 40 years in storage. Charles knew he had purchased…
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Kindred Spirits
David Gardner with his hand-controlled Porsche 996 Tiptronic. Photo courtesy Raymond Thompson Jr., WVU When I bought our 1991 Alfa Romeo S4 Spider in February 2022, the seller claimed it had 21,917 original miles. I had no reason to doubt that, as when the car arrived it looked like it had been well taken care…
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Prancing Horse Power
Two books trace the history of iconic Ferrari models 275 By Bacchelli & Villa, 275 pages, Artioli Editore 1899, April 2026, €599 Ferrari books tend to arrive with an expectation of grandeur, but 275 distinguishes itself by grounding that grandeur in genuine archival depth. Published by Modena-based restoration specialist Bacchelli & Villa in partnership with…
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Neat Stuff
Get Your Kicks The U.S. Postal Service has issued a set of eight stamps to commemorate the centennial of Route 66. Each stamp shows a site from a different state along the 2,400-mile route from Chicago to Los Angeles. The highway was first designated as Route 66 on November 11, 1926, though the rise of…
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2023 Ferrari Daytona SP3
At a reduced Euro-market price, this SP3 sale was still a multimillion-dollar windfall The Ferrari Daytona SP3, the second model in Ferrari’s “Icona Series,” is many things at once — a rolling tribute to one of the marque’s most triumphant afternoons, a showcase of naturally aspirated engineering at its peak, and quite possibly the final…
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1966 Maserati Mistral 4000 Spyder
Few 4-liter Spyders were built; this one was well bought This top-of-the-line 4.0-liter engine was fitted from new to Maserati Mistral chassis number 1633, as confirmed by Maserati Classiche. One of only 37 Mistral 4.0-liter Spyders produced, this example was delivered new to Rome in the summer of 1966, originally finished in silver Argento Auteuil…
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1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible
A fair price for an “instant collectible” approaching its 50th birthday When Cadillac announced that 1976 would be the last year of the convertible Cadillacs, there was an instant increase in demand, and production went up by 156% compared to the year before. The convertible was reintroduced in 1984, but it never became the same…
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1929 Bugatti Type 43 Roadster
A darling of Bugatti collectors faces a challenging pre-war market Of the approximately 160 examples produced, the Bugatti Type 43 chassis number 43248 was assembled in the Molshiem workshop and invoiced to the Belgian Bugatti agent Joeseph Reinartz for the amount of 95,940 francs, then delivered new with a temporary 2-seater body on January 15,…