Profiles
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1962 Jaguar XKE SI 3.8 Convertible
Raise the bonnet and you are treated to one of the most beautiful engine layouts in sports car motoring. As Sir William Lyons was rumored to have said, “It costs no more to make it pretty” {vsig}2004-11_1461{/vsig} The E-type is one of those rare gifts to the automotive world, the result of a passionate team…
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1970 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia Convertible
Not only will your collegiate daughter love it for its looks, but it certainly isn’t powerful enough for her to get into too much trouble {vsig}2004-11_1466{/vsig} Volkswagen’s popular Beetle spawned a number of other automobiles, creations like the Thing, Microbus, and most interesting of all, the Karmann Ghia. One of the most sought-after air-cooled convertibles…
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1935 Mormon Meteor Duesenberg SJ Speedster
Prior to the auction, guesses as to its eventual selling price were rampant, and the result was a staggering achievement for a Duesenberg. {vsig}2004-11_1470{/vsig} In an era of record-setters, Ab Jenkins and his Duesenberg Special surpassed them all. Racing on the Bonneville Salt Flats, he performed landmark miracles of speed and endurance. The Model J…
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1969 Chevron B16
Chevron B16s are just about the coolest, most beautiful, fastest little fantasy of a race car that you can get your hands on {vsig}2004-11_1475{/vsig} Only 23 Chevron B16s were built and today they are universally praised by their drivers for handling, performance, and-most elusive of all-an exceptionally graceful design. Indeed, the Chevron B16 is among…
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1965-66 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa
The most controversial car of the 20th century Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Ralph Nader didn’t kill the Corvair. Blame can be more squarely placed on the Camaro, the pony car that rendered Chevrolet’s weird, rear-engine small car irrelevant to its product planners. Indeed, when the Camaro was introduced…
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1937 Cord 812 Westchester Street Rod
Purists cry out in despair when custom cars are made from desirable models, but in this case the builder told me he had found four Cord Westchester bodies in a Texas wrecking yard and used “the worst of the four” {vsig}2004-10_1423{/vsig} This all-steel, all-real 1937 Cord Westchester 812 started life as a four-door sedan but…
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1968 Riley Elf Mk III
The Elf was designed to appeal to older “Buick and Oldsmobile” customers, with a miniature vertical grille, leather interior and a strange projecting trunk that pretty much ruined the Mini’s perfectly cute lines A luxury Mini blessed with marginally greater trunk space and an improved interior, the Riley Elf (along with its Wolseley Hornet stablemate)…
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1948 Cisitalia 202 Cabriolet
Cisitalias are one of those odd exceptions to the “top goes down, price goes up” rule, and in this case the coupe is actually the preferred model {vsig}2004-10_1440{/vsig} A talented “gentleman driver” and owner of the sports equipment concern Consorzio Industriale Sportiva Italia-or Cisitalia, as it was known-Piero Dusio recognized that post-war Italy would have…
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1952 Ferrari 212 Inter Berlinetta
Once described in a magazine as the world’s most beautiful Ferrari, the 212 was somewhat unfairly known in my neck of the woods as the world’s ugliest {vsig}2004-10_1443{/vsig} Whatever the chosen medium, artists’ earliest works are always among their most desired and sought after. Artist-in-metal Enzo Ferrari is a case in point, all the more…
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2002 Mercedes-Benz CL55 AMG
Electronic gadgetry in late-model Mercedes has recently taken its toll-the latest J.D. Power numbers finds Mercedes lagging behind such stalwart marques as Hyundai and Mercury {vsig}2004-10_1445{/vsig} When Mercedes-Benz set out to build the finest sports coupe in the world they came up with the CL500 and its V12-powered sibling, the CL600. Beautifully designed, meticulously constructed,…