Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
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1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Spyder Corto
The Alfa is so light and quick, you almost forget it’s pre-war. Imagine a tall Lotus 7 with 19-inch tires and a lot more horsepower The chassis serial associated with this 8C 2300 is 2211051. This serial was the earliest number applied to the second-series of 8C 2300s, the brainchild of Alfa Romeo’s fabled chief…
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Fuelies-The Story Behind the Story
So is it worth paying a 15%-20% premium for a car with a notoriously troublesome FI system? The market seems to say it is {vsig}2007-9_2065{/vsig} In the early years of the horsepower wars, in the mid-1950s, Detroit was looking for ways to get a jump on the competition. The new frontier was fuel injection, with…
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1962 Ferrari 330 TRI/LM Testa Rossa
Phil Hill’s 1962 Le Mans winner-the last of its line-sells for a cool$9.25 million and heads for a museum in Argentina The first car in a series is good. But the last car is best. A real, documented and important history makes it better. Commercial success is good, but success in competition is better, and…
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Aston Martin DB6 Mk II Volante
This sale proves that a rare car can be slightly modified from original with nary a complaint from a qualified and educated buyer This quite exceptional DB6 Mk II Volante comes with what is surely every Aston enthusiast’s dream provenance-a complete, illustrated record of its total restoration at Works Service. Prepared by the Aston Martin…
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1961 Facel Vega HK500 Coupe
The ultra-glamorous French coupe became the car of choice for owners including Picasso, Tony Curtis, Ava Gardner, and Stirling Moss Almost all automobile marques carry the name of their creator. But that’s not the case of FACEL (Forges et Ateliers de Construction d’Eure-et-Loir), the company founded in 1939 by Jean Daninos, which became Facel-Métalion…
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Time to Buy, Sell, or Hold?
It’s been nearly 25 years since we’ve seen prices like this in the sports and exotic market. As nearly everyone knows by now, RM came within just $500,000 of setting the record for the most expensive car ever to sell at auction at their Maranello sale, where the 330 TRI/LM, s/n 0808, brought $9,281,250. It…
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Porsche Lemon Nets Owner $266k-and the 911
The service advisor explained that the computer did not find any error codes, so there couldn’t be anything wrong Wisconsin attorney Bruce Tammi was a car guy from when he was a kid. His all-time favorites were Porsches, and he owned two of them-a 1978 911 Turbo and a 1999 Carrera. But one night his…
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4-Seat Supercars
Most 456 owners go straight to the 30,000-mile service, at a “starting” cost of about $5,000 (Part II: Bring the kids. Contemporary 2+2s) Modern four-seat Ferraris are user-friendly, entry-level supercars. You might compromise on the number of seats, but not on performance. Last month I reviewed Ferraris with more seats than doors, starting with the…
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Sunbeam’s Snakebit Tiger
I asked a group of gearheads why Tigers can be bought so cheaply, and almost in unison they said: “Because of the styling” The story of the Sunbeam Tiger remains a frustrating one to aficionados, who struggle with a version of the Rodney Dangerfield Syndrome. If the car can win respect for its performance, why…
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Best Investments? Dial 911
Low-mileage cars are a funny part of the hobby; you can’t use your new toy or you drive away its distinction All 911s were not created equal, and they are not treated equally by vintage car buyers. Each move in the market favors certain models, making superstars out of some and leaving others behind. Herewith…