Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
Columns
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Dude, Where’s My Car?
When you pull up to a restaurant or hotel and valet-park your car, it is reasonable to expect to get that car back in the same condition as when you dropped it off. Unfortunately for Mr. Carlo DiMarco, that is not always the case. According to a case filed in the District Court of Harris…
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2012 Aston Martin V12 Zagato
Immediately recognizable as not only an Aston Martin, but one with Zagato coachwork, the V12 Zagato is clothed in lightweight hand-rolled aluminum and carbon-fiber body panels. Underneath the gorgeous coachwork was Aston Martin’s highest-specification Vantage drivetrain to date: the company’s competition-proven 5,935-cc 4-cam V12 engine that produced 510 bhp, mated to a 6-speed manual transaxle.…
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1950 Jaguar XK 120 Competition Roadster
One of Australia’s best success stories in terms of motorcar sales and racing, the tale of Bib Stillwell began with a humble garage in Kew, Australia, in 1949. Early on, as agents for British sports cars MG and Jaguar as well as Morris, B.S. Stillwell & Co. established a fine reputation for excellence in client…
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1971 Monteverdi 375/L High Speed Coupe
Over two decades in business, Monteverdi produced a wide variety of models — all limited-production offerings hand-built in small numbers for an exclusive clientele. The company’s products found their way into the stables of enthusiasts the world over, and collectors favor them today. For comfort, performance and superb style, they are hard to beat. The…
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Why You Buy an Underlig
“Underlig” is a Swedish word that means curious, odd, peculiar or strange. Any of those terms could fairly be applied to the venerable Saab 96 and its kindred. No matter how you look at it, these little cars are funky. They’re not as odd as the Messerschmitts and Isettas of the world, but they’re strange…
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From Chateaus to Lava Fields
Each August and September, the collector car world hits high gear. Everything that happens before just anticipates the explosion of activities that mark the end of summer. Normally, this is a busy time for me — and the gang at SCM. But this year, hectic, frenetic and “my hair was on fire” seem too-mild adjectives.…
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Matching Numbers in Court
Put yourself in Gary Duncan’s shoes. He had owned this great, numbers-matching 1970 Pontiac GTO for over three years. He’d had some good fun with the GTO, but he owned a lot of cars and it was time for this one to move on. So he consigned it to an auction, expecting to even make…
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When Chevrolet Built a Porsche
In the fall of 1964, Chevrolet introduced the second-generation Corvair in direct competition with the Ford Mustang. While the Mustang seemed to take all the air out of the room for a small, sporty American car, independent thinkers in the know realized the two competing products couldn’t be more different. The Mustang was great looking,…
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1930 Packard 734 Speedster Runabout
In 1930, as Detroit was in the middle of an escalating horsepower race, Packard unveiled the 734 Speedster — an understated high-performance model that is perhaps the finest sporting machine built by an American manufacturer during the Classic Era. Despite its limited production, the 734 Speedster was offered in five distinct body styles: runabout, phaeton,…
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1960 Aston Martin DB4GT
The stars aligned for David Brown and Aston Martin upon the introduction of the all-new DB4 model in late 1958. A competition-oriented variant, the DB4GT, was formally introduced in September 1959 at the London Motor Show, based on the race-winning prototype DP1991. The GT was shorter, lighter and more powerful than the production DB4. The…