Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
Columns
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Still at Sixes and Sevens
Although it’s hard to believe today, BMW nearly didn’t survive the late 1950s and 1960s. Thirsty and expensive Baroque sedans, the hard-to-find V8-powered 507 sports car (253 built), and the tiny egg-shaped Isetta wasn’t really a formula for success. The “New Class” 1,500-cc sedans of 1962, which led directly to the 2002 and a successful…
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Steady as She Goes
Every week, we send out the “SCM Insider” email, chock full of breaking news, auction results, select videos, and a reader poll to more than 30,000 rabid collectors like you. Our question in the June 30 newsletter asked readers to choose one of four outcomes for the 2009 Monterey weekend. Forty-four percent of you thought…
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1951 Porsche 356 Split-Window Coupe
This car is fitted with the rare 1,500-cc engine, when most were 1,100 cc to 1,300 cc. I don’t know if it’s the actual engine from new, but it is correct During the Second World War, Ferdinand “Ferry” Porsche and a handful of his faithful employees started work on development number 356 in their workshops…
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1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe
In 1963, Shelby’s new Cobra had established its supremacy on the short road courses of America, but Shelby and Ford shared a more ambitious goal-to beat Ferrari to the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) World Manufacturer’s Championship for GT cars. After victories at Le Mans and Goodwood, Shelby narrowly missed the 1964 championship, vowing to…
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1949 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Prix
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 been christened Antonio Lago. Major…
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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 the 21st Mille Miglia and…
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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 the race with Heynes, and…
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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, was equipped with a blown…
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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 it on eBay or some…
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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 focus on whether there was…