Buy What You Love, Pay What You Should
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Enzo Crashes: Repeat as Needed
This Enzo was a stunt car in the filming of “Redline,” and had unquestionably been used hard and put away wet {vsig}2007-6_2022{/vsig} As virtually everyone in the car world knows, on March 26 actor Eddie Griffin crashed a Ferrari Enzo at Irwindale Raceway in L.A. while practicing for a promotion for the movie “Redline.” The…
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Three Wheels on My Wagon.
The Scootacar was promoted as having room for a driver and groceries, but in practice, it was one or the other Sometimes I wonder how the British ever managed to produce distinguished automobiles when the government threw so many obstacles in the path of the motor industry. Perhaps the most significant was the motor vehicle…
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You Gotta Know When to Hold ’em.
One good way to judge when a car becomes collectible is to simply note when its value rises above the original purchase price {vsig}2007-6_2021{/vsig} Part I: Defining the Collectible Porsche Why do some Porsches accelerate quickly in value, while others languish? We can all agree that pedestrian models, such as the 924, will never be…
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Jaguar’s XecrableJS
A bad XJS will rip at your wallet the way an actual Jaguar tears flesh from a gazelle {vsig}2007-6_2018{/vsig} Few automakers have had a more unenviable task than that facing Jaguar when it came time to replace the E-type. Instead of taking an evolutionary approach, as Porsche did when replacing the venerable 356 with the…
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1971 Mercedes-Benz 280SE 3.5 Convertible
There comes a time when a desirable old car just jumps in value. That time may be now for the 3.5SE The 111-series of Mercedes-Benz automobiles of the 1960s and early 1970s is much appreciated by collectors who also enjoy driving their cars. There is a solidness to the ride and handling that helped Mercedes…
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1937/40 Duesenberg Model SJ Rollson Cabriolet
This Duesenberg might be Rudolf Bauer’s best-known work; it’s certainly the most valuable Faced with the surreal scale of the Duesenberg’s chassis, some designers attempted to reduce the scale of the car. Not artist Rudolf Bauer. His intent was to create the longest, most distinctive Duesenberg ever built. And he did. Bauer emphasized the dominant…
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Maserati Tipo 65 Sports Racing Prototype
It’s an iconic Italian failure, a testament to chaos, caffeine, grappa, panic, and an unwillingness to throw in the towel This remarkably imposing V8 rear-engined, sports-prototype is the last of the line of Maserati competition cars built during the Gruppo Orsi Empire’s long ownership of the Italian marque. As such, it marks the high tide…
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2004 Ferrari 575 GTC Competizione
I’m told that four friends from Switzerland bought the car for $144,000 over the estimated price. What were these guys thinking? Following the success of privately-entered 550 Maranellos in international GT racing, including an historic class win in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 2003, Ferrari developed its own in-house evolution of the successful 575M…
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1963 Aston Martin DB4GT
It was the last standard-bodied DB4GT produced-cool beans. The first or last always generates more buzz and is a nice fact for collectors Introduced in September 1959 as a higher-performance version of the DB4, the DB4GT took the already-powerful (240 hp) DB4 engine, added twin ignition from two distributors/coils and twelve small (10 mm) spark…
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1972 Lancia Stratos H.F.
It’s one of the most successful rally cars ever built, wicked and unforgiving to drive, a spaceship for the road Lancia was struggling when Sandro Fiorio, the company’s director of public relations, and his son Cesare, head of Lancia’s rally team, spied the Fulvia-based “Stratos” concept on the Bertone stand at the 1970 Turin Motor…