Columns

Why Market-Driven Beauty is Only Skin Deep

Buckle your seatbelts and tighten your shoulder harnesses. Based on the results from Monterey, the collector car market is in the midst of a wild and woolly ride, with little way of predicting the crests and valleys in the year ahead. There are a few things we can all agree […]

Where’s the Video, Dietrich?

Enzo case takes another bizarre twist, and Porsche enlists industry allies to make what could be bitter lemonade This month we revisit two old friends-one the Pacific Coast Highway Enzo crash, and the second the Porsche Lemon Law special. Last summer’s big car story was the Ferrari Enzo crash in […]

Collecting Ferraris for Art’s Sake

To the aficionado, Ferraris have always been industrial art, the pinnacle of technology and styling of their era. Many of my clients have described their Ferraris as user-friendly interactive art. In the last decade, auctioneers and collectors have created a new world of art buyers intertwined with Ferrari buyers. Most […]

Concours on the Avenue

By contrast to other weekend concours, the classes here were oriented toward production cars to which the spectators could relate {vsig}2007-11_2086{/vsig} “Monterey needs another event like it needs a hole in the head,” was a typical comment on the enthusiast blogs when the announcement was made earlier this year that […]

What Makes a 356 Worth $176,000?

This B Cab had tools, a Carrera horn ring, Hirschmann antenna, Blaupunkt radio, headrests, and its original engine {vsig}2007-11_2088{/vsig} Hot on the heels of the recent Monterey auction results, I received an email, which asked the following question: “I just saw that nice black 1962 356B Cabriolet sell at Gooding […]

Alfa GTV6: Best of the Bottom-Feeders

The Maratona edition was referred to as the “Marijuana” edition, in reference to what Alfa must have been smoking at the time {vsig}2007-11_2084{/vsig} For many Alfisti (our esteemed Publisher included), the saga of Alfa Romeo in the U.S. effectively ends after 1967, when emission controls began to sap their essential […]

1965 Porsche 911 Coupe

What’s so special about the original 235 911s? Not much, and most of it is bad. But they are different and that was enough {vsig}2007-10_2080{/vsig} In the late 1950s, Porsche began working on what would be a new model to entirely replace the 356. The styling was based on a […]

1965 Porsche 911 Coupe

In the late 1950s, Porsche began working on what would be a new model to entirely replace the 356. The styling was based on a set of guidelines prepared by Ferry Porsche and developed by his son, “Butzi.” The new Porsche was intended to be an evolutionary design and continue […]

1974 Pontiac Trans Am Super Duty

The Trans Am was not without options, and one in particular made this Trans Am the king of the no-horsepower kingdom {vsig}2007-10_2071{/vsig} The year 1974 was a tough time for American automakers, with many legislated changes. The results were not good. New emission regulations, which had gone into effect in […]

1953 Ferrari 340/375 MM

340/375MM coupes are hot, claustrophobic, cacophonous, and demanding to drive. The spyders are simply demanding   {vsig}2007-10_2081{/vsig} Ferrari has been called a racing company with a production department, and nowhere is that emphasis more evident than in the production sports cars of the early 1950s. Not only was Enzo Ferrari […]