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An Inexact Science
While selling exotic cars is an inexact science, it is a tenet within the trade that buyers want to pay something “back” of the dealer’s cost, while sellers want to “net” some number based on the highest result at the most successful, recent auction. Buying from a classic car dealer allows personal time for back-and-forth…
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Aston Martin DBS, Unloved No More
Aston Martin was in trouble again. By the mid-1960s, it was clear that the DB6 was in dire need of modernization, based as it was on a design with its roots firmly in the now-archaic DB4, which was launched in 1958. William Towns, who would serve Aston well (if controversially at times) through the 1970s,…
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March Madness
I’ve just returned from a sensory overload collector car experience in the Sunshine State. Somewhere between RM’s BMW 600 “limousine,” Gooding’s Alfa 2000 spider, Sam and Emily Mann’s Mercedes 540K Special roadster, and the Collier ex-Martini Porsche 917, ten days of March have disappeared in a collector car blur. Between auctions, seminars, meetings, and television…
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1973 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS Lightweight
The Carrera 2.7 RS has long been regarded as one of the great cars of all time and, by some, the greatest of all road-going Porsches. Their competition achievements speak for themselves, while their on-road performance remains special to this day. Even the extraordinary (for the period) 0-60 mph acceleration time of circa 5.5 seconds…
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1967 Chevrolet Corvette 427/435 Convertible-The “Survivor Platform Car”
In recent years the word “survivor” has gradually entered the collector car lexicon as a way of describing a well-preserved, original, unrestored vehicle. “Survivor,” in context, is also a trademark registered to Bloomington Gold founder David Burroughs. And in 1989, this Marlboro Maroon 1967 427 convertible became Burroughs’s benchmark for establishing standards for the Bloomington…
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1969 Chevrolet Camaro Trans Am Race Car
This Camaro is the car that Vince Gimondo drove to a 2nd in class at the 12 Hours of Sebring, 9th overall at Watkins Glen, and 2nd at the American Road Race of Champions (ARRC) at Daytona in the 1969 season. For 1970, Gimondo drove this car to a 1st in class and 14th overall…
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1963 Ferrari 250 GTE NHRA Pro Street
Few cars shock the senses quite like a well-executed Pro Street machine, and this gleaming black Ferrari 250 GTE may be the most shocking Pro Street car we have ever seen. This is believed to be the world’s only Pro Street version of the Prancing Horse. Professionally built and based on a real Ferrari 250…
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1965 Aston Martin DB5
“Opinions vary greatly-and inevitably-on which is the ‘best’ of the new breed of Aston Martins. Sir David Brown puts his money on the DB5.”-Geoff Courtney, The Power Behind Aston Martin The DB5 arrived in the autumn of 1963, essentially a positive development of the Series V DB4, sharing its classic Superleggera body construction devised by…
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1935 Avions Voisin C25 Aérodyne
With a price of 88,000 francs when new, the purchase of an Aérodyne truly represented a small fortune, compared with the 70,000 francs asked for a Bugatti 57 Galibier or with the 22,000 francs necessary to buy one of the very new Citroën Traction 11 Légère sedans… The car was revolutionary in form, with keel-shaped…
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The Nightmare of Litigation
He learned that the broker and seller were going to be in Monterey that August, so he made arrangements to serve them both at The Quail About two years ago, a Los Angeles SCMer contacted “Legal Files” hoping for advice about how to get his money back after a long-distance Ferrari deal went bad, very…