It was 18 months ago that SCM Legal Analyst John Draneas and I bought a 1965 three-cylinder, two-stroke Saab 96 on eBay, plucked it out of a barn in Rimini, MT, and tried to drive it home to Portland.Readers may recall that we covered 400 of the 700 miles with little drama aside from a…

The second-generation Pontiac Trans Am was in production for twelve years, from 1970 to 1981, and effectively captured a generation of car enthusiasts in an era when Motor City muscle was in decline. Admittedly, the Trans Am of the mid-1970s was a pale imitation of earlier models, an underpowered, portly beast that nearly fell victim…
When you restore one of these, you want to make sure you have found all the holes in the body. {vsig}2004-6_1231{/vsig} There are better cars, and there are better boats, but there is no better way to draw a crowd than with an Amphicar. Designed by Hans Trippel and built in Germany, the Amphicar was…
The ringmen worked this sale hard, and at its dramatic conclusion the owners were high-fiving as though they’d just won the lottery {vsig}2004-6_1232{/vsig} The Zephyr Street Rod on offer here is one of the most famous street rods ever created. This custom, all-steel Lincoln Zephyr three-window coupe was nationally selected by Goodguys and judged winner…
A tech inspector looked at the front suspension of a J2X and said, “Wow! Where’s the ‘crimes against nature’ checkbox on this form?” {vsig}2004-6_1233{/vsig} During the mid-1980s, Glenn Shaffer began a search for an Allard J2 with racing heritage. He found this Allard J2 in Lima, Peru, suspecting it was the “missing” #2 Le Mans…
This 1900 has been to more European auctions than most SCMers. But this time around, the seller really timed it right. {vsig}2004-6_1228{/vsig} The 1900 debuted with mechanical specifications worthy of the marque’s history. Fitted with a double-overhead-cam four-cylinder engine, it was a modern car that was easy to maintain. It was the first Alfa Romeo…
The Shah of Iran was so impressed with his 500 Superfast that he bought a second one. {vsig}2004-6_1225{/vsig} The high-performance, luxury gran tursimo was a new automotive idiom in the prosperous years following World War II. Powerful, limited-production GT’s supplanted the great cars from Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, and the grandes routieres of France, which had…
At a time when a Corvette cost just $8,000, convertible Interceptors were $25,000. It’s no wonder Jensen Motors Ltd. bit the dust. {vsig}2004-6_1226{/vsig} In 1931 brothers Alan and Richard Jensen opened a coachwork factory in West Bromwich, U.K., which supplied many British car manufacturers. Four years later, they built the first Jensen on a Wolseley…
Unlike many of the first mid-engine cars that were compromised with small interiors, tiny trunks, and delicate construction, the Bora is a refined car that offers comfort with no sacrifice in performance. {vsig}2004-6_1229{/vsig} Maserati introduced the Bora in 1971, the successor to the front-engined Ghibli. A mid-engined car in the fashion of Ferrari’s Boxer, the…
I recently spent two weeks streaking across Florida in a Mercedes E55 AMG, one of today’s definitive high-performance full-size sedans. From its 469-horsepower supercharged V8 to its crisp-shifting, manually-controllable automatic transmission, the car is a finely-tuned machine that delights in gobbling up vast distances effortlessly. Aside from its expectedly pathetic navigation system, the E55 is…