Columns
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1959 Elva Mk V
{vsig}2010-9_2528{/vsig}Frank Nichols’ first sports-racer was built in 1954, designed by Mike Chapman, competing immediately and successfully against the similar small-displacement Lotus sports-racers of Colin Chapman. Its success encouraged Nichols to emulate its design with the first few Elva live rear axle sports-racers. Mk II featured a De Dion rear axle. The Mk IV had fully…
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1957 Ferrari 250GT LWB Berlinetta TdF
{vsig}2010-9_2525{/vsig}The LWB Berlinetta was one of the great Ferrari racing cars and was the start of the 250 GT Berlinetta’s competition career. It would win more races than either of its legendary successors, the 250 GT SWB Berlinetta or the 250 GTO. Introduced in October, 1954 at the Paris Salon, it was a refined evolution…
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1957 Austin-Healey 100-6 BN4 2+2 Barn Find
Introduced for 1956, the 100-6 represented the most radical step forward in the “Big Healey” sports car development. Despite its initial success, sales of the original Austin-Healey 100 had begun to decline by the mid-1950s, so the model was revamped as the 100-6, BMC’s 2.6-liter C-series six-cylinder engine replacing the original four-cylinder Austin Atlantic unit.…
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1961 Cisitalia DF85 Coupe
{vsig}2010-9_2524{/vsig}Established by Piero Dusio in 1939, Consorzio Industriale Sportiva Italia manufactured and sold a variety of sporting goods. After World War II, Dusio built a number of Fiat-powered racing cars using the extended acronym Cisitalia, and branched out into passenger cars in 1947. The Cisitalia 202 had a space frame with Fiat 1100 mechanicals, and…
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Buy the Car, Start the Journey
{vsig}2010-9_2530{/vsig}There are two new members of the SCM menagerie, aka collection, representing opposite ends of the car world. The first is a 2006 Lotus Elise, the best new vintage car you can buy. The second is a 1958 Mercedes 220S, the beginning of the fabled S-class model that continues today. Each of these cars has…
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Greece and the Ferrari Market
How quickly the tides do turn. Only six months ago, in my March SCM column, Dashing Euro Dreams, I wrote, “As the dollar had declined over the last eighteen months, the asking prices of American-based collector cars suddenly look like bargains” The lead time on my column is thirty to forty-five days, and as I…
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The “Jay Leno Special Edition” that Wasn’t
Our sister publication, Corvette Market, reported the sale of a 2007 “Jay Leno Special Edition” Corvette at the Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction in April. The well-optioned, 1,873-mile Corvette was in show-car condition. Leno reportedly “handpicked” the car from a Carson, California Chevrolet dealer. The Corvette was autographed on the valve cover by Leno, carried Jay…
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BMW M6: Still Hot After All These Years
{vsig}2010-9_2521{/vsig}For BMW enthusiasts, the E-24 generation 6-series is one of the marque’s most beloved models, introduced in 1976 to replace the outgoing 3.0 CS and CSL. In 1983, BMW unveiled the ultimate specification of the series, the M635CSi. Specially outfitted by the “M” division with the 3.4-liter DOCH six-cylinder engine of the legendary M1, this…
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Looking Into The Crystal Piston
Here are two extremes of collector car acquisition. The first is the barn find, where, wearing your “Tom Cotter Taught Me How to Buy Cars” T-shirt, you slog through the backwoods of the (usually southern) countryside, until you see the back of a Ferrari 250 Monza or Split-Window Fuelie inside a falling-down garage. You find…
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1996 Porsche 911 Turbo Coupe
Based on the all-wheel-drive 911 Turbo, the Turbo S was the most exotic and powerful Porsche production car offered for sale in North America. Externally, it was distinguished from the Turbo by its unique bodywork featuring Aerokit II front and rear spoilers, left and right rear side panel air ducts, and additional light-level front air…