Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
Columns
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1959 Volkswagen Beetle 1200 2-Door Sedan
The pool of original cars continues to shrink, thanks to fires, floods, rust, and kids with a hankering to build a sand rail {vsig}2009-2_2282{/vsig} The Volkswagen Beetle sedan inspired unusual loyalty and enthusiasm based on its practicality, reliability, adaptability, and affordability. Originally conceived by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche in the earliest days of his consulting…
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1967 Chevrolet Stage III Nickey Camaro
To those not familiar with the documented, dealer-converted supercar market, $446,250 would appear to be a staggering amount for a lowly Camaro {vsig}2009-2_2279{/vsig} Nickey Chevrolet of Chicago was one of the largest Chevy dealers in America and had big plans for Chevrolet’s new pony car in 1967. Working with legendary Chevrolet engine builder Bill Thomas…
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1965 Ferrari 250 LM Berlinetta
Cars that were once wild girlfriends have become trophy wives, with all the cattiness that accompanies competitive collecting {vsig}2009-2_2283{/vsig} By 1962, it was becoming clear that the 250 GTO was no longer competitive, and something completely new was required. So starting in 1961, Ferrari began experimenting with a rear-engine design. A series of V6 and…
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1996 Ferrari F50
Rather than producing a car that would be compared to the F40, Ferrari chose a different path and decided to build a Formula One car for the street {vsig}2009-2_2285{/vsig} Fifty years of racing, 50 years of winning, 50 years of hard work.” With these words, Luca di Montezemolo introduced the F50 on March 6, 1995,…
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1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato Re-creation
I doubt whether anybody could tell the difference between this and aSanction II without looking at the chassis number {vsig}2009-2_2281{/vsig} The competition variant of the legendary Aston Martin DB4, the DB4GT, was introduced in September 1959 at the London Motor Show. It was based on the race-winning prototype DP199/1, which won in its first outing…
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1942 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Cabriolet
No member of the German General Staff would have ordered a fire engine red Italian convertible in the middle of a war Virtually identical in displacement to the 8C 2300 Monza, Vittorio Jano’s new 6C 2500 was simpler to produce and designed to be inherently reliable and capable of excellent performance. The 6C 2500 employed…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…