What this is about is the pre-war Grand Prix experience in an attainable, moderately bomb-proof and reliable package The Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Prix took its double barreled name from an ex-military major who in France was known as Antoine, in England as Tony, but in his native Venice, Italy, had […]
Columns
1954 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series I
The Mondial evokes the larger and more powerful 375 MM. Those who can live without the extra eight cylinders will find their reward in the bank This Ferrari 1954 500 Mondial was the sixth of 22 Series I motorcars constructed. Scuderia Ferrari prepared a group of Mondials to compete at […]
1952 Jaguar C-type Roadster
Jaguar’s chief engineer William Heynes said that until he went to the 1950 Le Mans race, he had “never seriously contemplated designing a car for racing.” Then he watched Leslie Johnson push his more or less standard XK 120 as high as 3rd until the clutch failed. William Lyons watched […]
1938 Bugatti Type 57C Special Coupe
With so many spectacular Bugattis, it takes a special car to stand out. It’s safe to say that this one-of-a-kind Type 57C Special coupe is one of the most intriguing Bugattis ever constructed. In June 1938, this car was built at the Bugatti factory in Molsheim. The frame, no. 278, […]
The Long-Distance Purchase and the Lawsuit
The court ruled the buyer had opportunities to inspect the car before buying it and to call the seller to ask about the car, and chose to do neither Suppose you have a not-so-nice collector car you want to sell for big bucks. Your best shot might be to list […]
Defining the Pre-Purchase Inspection
Last month’s column detailed a threatened $182,000 lawsuit against a Ferrari shop because of decades-old damage to a 37-year-old car, which was discovered but not mentioned to the would-be buyer during a $300 pre-purchase inspection. The many lawyers I spoke with all declared that any claim against the shop would […]
When X1/9 Marked the Spot
By the early 1970s, some were predicting the demise of the inexpensive sports car. Modern small sedans like the Audi Fox and VW Rabbit were threatening to render sports cars redundant. It didn’t help that the standard-bearers for the under-$4,000 sports car class were the MG Midget and Triumph Spitfire. […]
Assisted Suicide, Clunker Style
Over the next few months, nearly 750,000 clunkers are going to be scrapped. Not dismantled, mind you, but smashed and melted into their base, formative materials. Whether or not this is good government policy we’ll leave to our friends at The Economist. And others can debate the relative environmental effects; […]
1961 Messerschmitt KR 200 Microcar
The plastic dome permits excellent visibility, but hot, sunny weather turns it into a sauna The roots of the Messerschmitt “Kabinenroller” (cab scooter) go back to post-WWII when Fritz Fend designed a car that wheelchair-bound vets returning from WWII could drive. Two major features made the design work for disabled […]
1936 Lincoln Model K “Howard Hughes” Boattail Speedster
This Lincoln Model K speedster started out as Howard Hughes’s personal 1936 Lincoln K model V12 Limousine, until he converted the car into his idea of a Boattail Speedster. It was originally shipped to Long Beach, California, in January of 1936 and apparently special ordered with only one foot rest […]