Estate sales can recirculate heretofore unobtainable cars, which-absent their owners’ passing-would have remained tucked away indefinitely {vsig}2008-9_2227{/vsig} Harry Miller’s name may not ring a bell as loudly as Ettore Bugatti’s, but Bugatti acquired Miller race cars to study before producing his first dual overhead camshaft engine in the Type 50 […]
Archives: Profiles
Ford’s Sleeping Beasty
The Pantera was legendary for either killing famous owners or inciting them to violence-Elvis pumped a .38 caliber slug into his {vsig}2008-8_2204{/vsig} By the late 1960s, Ford seemed to be concentrating more on holding grudges than building cars. Still smarting from its failure to acquire Ferrari, Ford grabbed a weak […]
1964 Ford Galaxie 500 Hard Top
My 9-year-old son was very agitated as I loaded the car. He said “Dad, you can replace any one of the others-this is unique” {vsig}2008-8_2205{/vsig} Built by tobacco heir Zachary Reynolds, the “Tobacco King” 1964 Ford Galaxie was as wild an example of a Rocket Drag Axle-equipped car as one […]
1976 Lagonda V8 Series 1 Saloon
What’s interesting about “007” is that it has been hot-rodded, modernized, and neutered of its ZF 5-speed {vsig}2008-8_2208{/vsig} Lagonda had been dormant for a decade when Aston Martin revived the marque in 1974 as the model name for a sensational new four-door sedan based on the existing V8 coupe. Launched […]
1966 Maserati Mistral 4000 Spyder
Unless and until a U.S. owner wants to ship a car to Europe to sell, don’t consider this the price you can get here {vsig}2008-8_2209{/vsig} Last of the classic 6-cylinder Maseratis, the Pietro Frua-styled Mistral commenced production in 1963. The 3.7-liter version of the Modena manufacturer’s long-stroke engine was fitted […]
Making Sense of $43 Million at Maranello
Buyers will pay over the odds for a perfect, no stories road car just to feel they have the best available {vsig}2008-8_2210{/vsig} Machiavelli was Italian. So were Mussolini and Enzo Ferrari (not that I’m comparing them). And although he isn’t, Scuderia Ferrari’s director Jean Todt has probably lived there long […]
1944 Volkswagen Schwimmwagen
Schwimmwagen owners seem to be an enthusiastic crowd, often seen in the company of drastically less hip Amphicars Porsche’s Type 60 (the Volkswagen prototype), with its strong backbone chassis and air-cooled engine, had been recognized as an ideal basis for the German army’s proposed Kübelwagen (“bucket car”)-a lightweight, open utility […]
1971 Ferrari 512 M
These difficult cars have finally gotten the development they didn’t get when racing in anger and have become superb vintage racers {vsig}2008-8_2214{/vsig} In 1968, the rules for sports car racing were changed, limiting Group 6 prototypes to a maximum 3-liter engine capacity. For the 1970 season, Ferrari decided to do […]
Zoom-Zoom, Slurp-Slurp
Early RX-7s rarely see 20 mpg highway and can be driven down into single digits; owners laugh at later claims of 30 mpg By the late 1970s, the sports car world was looking bleak indeed. A 1975 Road & Track comparison test of the Maserati Merak, Lamborghini Urraco, and Ferrari […]
1963 Dual-Ghia L6.4 Coupe
If the Chrysler-powered Facel-Vega is a French Imperial, consider the L6.4 a Mopar Maserati {vsig}2008-7_2193{/vsig} The brainchild of Eugene Casaroll, the Italian-American hybrid known as the Dual-Ghia was largely based on the Ghia-designed Chrysler Firearrow, a concept car for which he acquired the production rights. Luxurious and extravagant, it had […]