If you can hustle one of these babies around the track, nobody will ever question your manhood {vsig}2005-1_1810{/vsig} The Can-Am Series for unlimited sports cars began in 1966, and a year later Bruce McLaren won his first championship, driving a car bearing his own name. Teammate Denny Hulme was second, and for the next four…
Behind the wheel of a P3, Tazio Nuvolari bested the Third Reich on its home turf, winning the 1935 German Grand Prix in one of the great come-from-behind drives of all time {vsig}2005-1_1804{/vsig} The P3 Alfa Romeo sculpture offered here is patterned after the fantastic and dominant single-seat, eight-cylinder Alfas of the early 1930s. Cast…
I was the one who sold 308 GT4 S/N 10540 for $23,500 back in 1990 {vsig}2005-1_1720{/vsig} Ferrari’s family of immensely successful V8 road cars began in 1973 with the 308 GT4. The Maranello factory’s first V8-engined road car and first mid-engine 2+2, the 308 GT4 was styled by Bertone rather than the customary Pininfarina.…
No less an authority on grace than Sir William Lyons was rumored to have tossed his scones on his first sight of a Dart {vsig}2005-1_1803{/vsig} Daimler of England startled the automotive world in 1959 with the Dart roadster, a swoopy sports car powered by an advanced 2.6-liter, hemi-head V8. With a chassis inspired by Triumph’s…
These lightweight, small-displacement sports cars provide a true pre-war motoring experience at a fraction of the cost of their more expensive French cousin from Molsheim {vsig}2005-1_1807{/vsig} Of all the small sports-racing cars that proliferated in France after World War One, the Amilcar was the most famous and most successful. Built at St. Denis from 1921…
I’m going to blame this one on Ed Welburn, General Motors design chief. The two of us were kicking tires at the RM Amelia Island auction last March, and came across a 1966 Sting Ray coupe. Welburn mentioned that it was nearly exactly what he wanted, a car in driving condition with a small-block.“But it…
“You only ride like a Pacer if you’re wide like a Pacer” If you’re among the many who laugh at AMC Pacers, let us introduce you to “Weird” Harrel Lamkin of Ruston, LA. He drag-raced a 550-hp Pacer from 1987 to 1996, turning 10-second quarter miles at 124 mph. As he said, “I wanted to…
In the collector car world, there is no more immediately recognizable sight than a 300SL with its doors open. Introduced in 1954 as a coupe with signature “Gullwing” doors, the legendary 300SL was conceived as a high performance street machine that was really a thinly veiled racing car. It was fast, solid, and handled well,…
GM design chief Bill Mitchell’s “personal luxury” land yacht set sail as a sophisticated merger of Ferrari GT car style with Rolls-Royce luxury {vsig}2004-12_1536{/vsig} Although Buick was primarily a luxury line, in 1963 it issued a sports model, a beautiful coupe called the Riviera. It was America’s answer to the Ferrari GTs, a car for…
The U.S. MG distributors were hoping to put a gleam in the eye of the dentist from Columbus, who might imagine his car out there running with the Ferraris and Porsches {vsig}2004-12_1541{/vsig} Sebring in 1964 was one of the world’s top-tier endurance races, part of the FIA’s Challenge Mondiale and Prototypes Trophy, along with the…