Elva sports racers — designed by Frank Nichols — enjoyed considerable success during the 1950s and 1960s on both sides of the Atlantic. A Kentish garage owner, Nichols had commissioned a Ford-engined special with which to go racing, and the result, the CSM, was first seen in 1954.
Nichols put his next creation into production under the name Elva. The Elva featured a simple, light and rigid tubular chassis. Major departures from the CSM were the Standard Ten-based front suspension Read More
Three of the Alan Mann Racing Ford P68 or “F3L” coupes were constructed, of which we are delighted to offer this well-presented example.
In the late Alan Mann’s wonderful book Alan Mann: A Life of Change, the British Ford-specialist private entrant recalled how, “at the end of 1966, Len Bailey started a new design for us called the P68. Having won Le Mans comprehensively with an immense show of force, Ford of America suddenly pulled out of prototype sports car Read More
Holman-Moody was initially allocated three GT40s for the 1966 season: chassis P1016 (the car offered here), P1031 and P1032. Although the chassis numbers were among the sequence used for production GT40 road and racing cars, they were each built to new Mk II specifications. The GT40 Mk II was the product of Kar Kraft, Ford’s stateside sports car facility, which took the initially British-built GT40 and problem-solved its weaker aspects. The chassis was made stiffer from thicker-gauge steel, and it Read More
Bonhams is delighted to offer this ultimate, individual Aston Martin Zagato to the car-collecting world. This competition coupe — always known by its distinctive U.K. road-registration number “2 VEV” — is simply the best known and most charismatic of all Aston Martin DB4GT Zagatos.
This ultimate Zagato variant, the 1962 “Manage Project 209,” was essentially a development prototype — sharing a near-identical new chassis structure to the DP214 Works-run “Project car” design then forthcoming for the Aston Martin factory team’s Read More
It is evident from our long years of market experience that the essence of truly collectible and iconic competition cars is surely a combination of several very significant factors.
The crème de la crème cars upon the very pinnacle of collectibility each have an individually unique and completely verifiable racing history, jeweled by significant success. They also embody the finest standards of contemporary competition-car design and construction. They often embody design and manufacturing technology that is a joy to behold, Read More
By the mid-1960s, Colin Chapman’s boundless energy had produced no less than 36 distinctive Lotus automobiles. But the entrepreneurial engineer still yearned to build an inexpensive mid-engine production car with a race version for Team Lotus — and for sale to privateers. Thus the Type 46, or Europa, was revealed in 1965. Built around a box-section central spine chassis, John Frayling’s fiberglass bodywork was bonded to the chassis to form an exceptionally stiff monocoque structure. Crucially, the Europa was low Read More
The present owner of this shining Lotus Eleven is no stranger to the type, having owned and raced another Eleven.
Keen to add to his Lotus collection, he found another Eleven in the U.K., though it had been badly crashed — when and by whom is unknown. This car’s long recovery to health began in the early 1980s and included a completely new body from Williams and Pritchard. While most of the damaged panels were discarded, the owner retained the Read More
It was in 1953 that the Maserati A6GCS found its perfect form. Having left Maserati for Stanguellini, Alberto Massimino left a space that was filled by Gioacchino Colombo, known for his work at Alfa Romeo, and the designer of the V12 Ferrari engine that took his name.
Colombo perfected the development of the twin-cam, twin-ignition 6-cylinder engine adapted for the sports version, and with its lightly modified suspension, this became the A6GCS/53.
Marketed as the Maserati Sport 2000, the car Read More
There has been a small batch of Spyder sales since March 2012, when David Gooding auctioned a Porsche 550 at triple the SCM Pocket Price Guide number.
The question then was whether the $3,685,000 price was an aberration or a new reality. Subsequent Spyder prices have shown that David Gooding’s sale indeed marked a new normal. Now, in 2018, we have enough “new normal” results to infer some factors determining today’s Spyder pricing.
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