Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
Columns
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Sorry, You Can’t Get That Part Here
Much has been written-both positive and negative-about Ferrari Classiche, the arm of Ferrari set up as an official certifying organization for its cars. For decades, Ferrari had no interest in the older cars and only pricked up its ears (and its legal department’s pens) when the elusive William Favre began building and selling 250 GTO…
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How One Little Car Brought Down An Empire
Conservatives bolstered Rootes fortunes in the ’50s, but Labor and the Hillman Imp doomed it in the ’60s Of all the sad sagas told about the collapse of the British automotive industry, none is more depressing than that of the Rootes Group, and the once-respected marques it took down with it. We all know about…
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The Speedster Spell
Ferry Porsche considered Speedsters silly cars, but Europeans love them and have been buying them for a decade What is it about the Speedster that has caused prices to rise to unheard-of levels? While other 356s and Porsches in general continue on a solid upward trend, Speedsters seem to be on a tear. What’s so…
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Ford’s Sleeping Beasty
The Pantera was legendary for either killing famous owners or inciting them to violence-Elvis pumped a .38 caliber slug into his {vsig}2008-8_2204{/vsig} By the late 1960s, Ford seemed to be concentrating more on holding grudges than building cars. Still smarting from its failure to acquire Ferrari, Ford grabbed a weak consolation prize when it acquired…
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Cobras, Cobras Everywhere
“My brother and I just wanted to have a car that would always be the fastest at a stoplight drag race, and it has been” Driving a 427 Cobra with sidepipes and an open exhaust is a ticket to be the badboy you always dreamed of being in high school. Within seconds of turning the…
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1955 Mercedes-Benz 300S Coupe
Stuttgart’s choice of pre-WWII, 540K designer Hermann Ahrens masked brilliant new engineering with an image of the past {vsig}2008-7_2198{/vsig} More expensive than the 300SL sports car and almost double the price of a contemporary Cadillac, the Mercedes-Benz 300S was one of the world’s most exclusive automobiles. Elegantly styled in the prewar manner, yet technologically up…
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1963 Dual-Ghia L6.4 Coupe
If the Chrysler-powered Facel-Vega is a French Imperial, consider the L6.4 a Mopar Maserati {vsig}2008-7_2193{/vsig} The brainchild of Eugene Casaroll, the Italian-American hybrid known as the Dual-Ghia was largely based on the Ghia-designed Chrysler Firearrow, a concept car for which he acquired the production rights. Luxurious and extravagant, it had the longest production line in…
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1972 Ford Escort RS1600 Rally
A Kenyan safari guide tells of this car landing so nose down that everyone thought it was going to go end over end This 1972 Ford Escort RS1600 Mk I comes to auction directly from the finish line of the Kenya Airways East African Safari Classic rally, where it was driven to victory by triple…
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Fangs for the Memories
The Shelby influence is very much evident on the Viper, and he is considered one of the car’s “four fathers” {vsig}2008-7_2194{/vsig} The discontinuation of several Chrysler models to help stop the corporation’s financial bleeding is no secret. Rumors abound about Dodge’s Viper being on this list, and numerous Dodge “insiders” claim the Viper will be…
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1967 Ferrari 330 GT 2+2 Series II
There was a time when 330 2+2s were the entry-level Ferrari. Now they are too expensive to be donor cars or parts cars {vsig}2008-7_2197{/vsig} Reporters anxiously awaited the unveiling of the new Formula One car at the annual Ferrari press conference in 1964, but Enzo had a surprise up his sleeve. It was here that…