Columns
-
Many a Slip Between Dock and Ship
The transporter demanded payment, but when Ric produced his receipt from the broker marked “Paid in Full,” he drove off in a huff Sometimes it seems like our old cars spend more time being transported by others than transporting themselves. At first glance, it might seem that having your car buttoned up on a hauler…
-
Ferrari Tests Its Brakes
In last month’s column I discussed how Ferraris have evolved through three distinctive eras in the past 60 years: 1. Racing-based evolution of the Enzo Ferrari era 2. Mass production of the Fiat years 3. Even-higher-volume of the di Montezemolo era I concluded, in part, that the Enzo-era cars are the most collectible and highest…
-
Tin Lizzie: 100 and Counting
Model Ts can be quite fun in an agricultural way; simply knowing how to start and run one is a tribute to our great-grandparents The difference between the world today and the world into which the Ford Model T was born 100 years ago couldn’t be more stark. In 1908, the U.S. auto industry was…
-
All That’s Gold Still Glitters
We’ve had quite a run-up in the past few years, so a modest correction will still leave most collectors far ahead of where they were in 2004 At SCM, we sometimes feel like we are in a small spotter’s ship, stationed in the middle of an ocean. From time to time as we crest a…
-
1938 Horch 853 Special Roadster
Though the 853 bears an uncanny resemblance to the legendary Mercedes-Benz 540K, and has a similar output, values lag behind the better-known car Horch is one of the four companies that merged to form Auto Union, from which the present-day Audi descends. After training as a blacksmith and qualifying as an engineer, August Horch set…
-
1933 Duesenberg SJ LaGrande Phaeton
Duesenberg expert Randy Ema affirms that cars like this, with original major components-chassis, body, engine-are at the top of the scale Duesenberg Automobiles was plucked from the post-World War I recession by Errett Cord, the savior of Auburn. By 1927, he was looking to build a more prestigious car and bought the innovative but struggling…
-
1976/77 Jaguar XJ12 Broadspeed Coupe
Going, turning, sticking, and stopping were evident and well in hand, but keeping the Jaguar in one piece proved to be more difficult than anticipated R alph Broad’s racing team had excelled in touring car competition since the early 1960s, running Ford Anglias, Mini Coopers, and Triumph Dolomites. Leyland subsequently contracted his Broadspeed team…
-
1972 Ferrari 246 GTS Dino
In May 2003, I wrote that $86,000 was “all the money” for an equivalent car; boy, was I wrong. $153,000 for this example is not over the top As the first series-produced, mid-engined Ferraris, the early Dino V6s are landmark cars, and the line they founded would prove to be an immense commercial success for…
-
1997 McLaren F1
The buyer wouldn’t be beaten. He replied “Yo” to each raise of $150,000, all the way to $4 million, winning a lot of affection from the crowd No ABS. No traction control. No power steering. No airbags. No add-on spoilers. The McLaren F1 didn’t need them. The thinking man’s supercar was conceived in 1988, when…
-
1908 Isotta Fraschini Tipo FENC Semi-Racer
While lacking the race-winning cachet of later cars, this little Isotta will get its owner into every vintage race, tour, and concours he fancies Perhaps the most influential light car design of the first decade of the twentieth century, the Tipo FENC Isotta Fraschini was derived from the Tipo FE Isottas built for the…