Editor’s note: This piece is part of the ClassicCars.com Journal’s Muscle Month. We’ll be featuring stories, muscle cars and people during July about everything and anything that goes fast.
If you like muscle cars these days, then you are spoiled. There are numerous high-performance options out there from the Dodge Hellcat and Demon to numerous Shelby Mustangs and high-performance Camaros.
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the modern muscle car was thought to be practically extinct. Ford had the Mustang GT Cobra and GM had the Camaro and Firebird, whose days were numbered.
The Firehawk convertible has gone fewer than 16,000 miles
Near the end of this doleful period, some engineers had the idea to make the highest performance Firebird ever and created the Trans Am Firehawk edition. Created in conjunction with outside engineering firm SLP, this car abandoned the old LT1 V8 and introduced the new LS1 engine to the old F-body cars and added a 6-speed manual gearbox.
The new engine developed 345 horsepower and the car could go zero-60 in 5 seconds and cover the quarter mile in a bit over 13 seconds, extremely quick in the day.
The Firehawk also featured upgraded suspension and true Ram Air induction, and it wore 275/40ZR/17 low-profile performance tires on special alloy wheels. These cars are quite rare and look back at how we got to where we are now in the world of high performance muscle cars.
The Firehawk hood wears a nicely painted rendition of the Trans Am screaming eagle
The Pick of the Day is a 2002 Firebird Trans Am Firehawk edition convertible that has covered only 15,757 miles since new and is 100 percent original, according to the Ham Lake, Minnesota, dealer advertising the car on ClassicCars.com.
The car is finished in Black with matching black fabric top and tan leather interior, and rated by the seller as being in 99 percent flawless condition.
Production numbers for a manual-equipped Trans Am Firehawk convertible are somewhere between 200 and 300 total built, making these cars not only fast but also incredibly rare. In fact, according to the Firehawk register records, GM only sold 71 manual-transmission convertibles in black.
The Firehawk interior looks to be in excellent original condition
The Firehawk is one of those cars that those in the know have always understood were something special from the time they were new. And if you want to get something that is practically a guaranteed collectible muscle car, this one is pretty much a sure thing.
At an asking price of only $29,995 I would consider this car money in the bank.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
One of the rarest and most-revered performance motorcycles of the post-war era, and a famous dirt bike with a solid Steve McQueen connection, highlight Bonhams motorcycle auction October 6 at the Barber Motorsports Museum in Birmingham, Alabama.
The performance bike is a coveted 1949 Vincent Black Lightning, a limited-production motorcycle model from Vincent HRD of Great Britain that held world speed records and was considered the fastest motorcycle on the planet.
The 1970 Husqvarna 400 Cross might not have the speed-record credentials, but it has unmatched star power as the “Husky” dirt bike on which McQueen is shown riding, shirtless, for the cover of Sports Illustrated and in the documentary film On Any Sunday.
A Black Lightning ridden in a period photo | Bonhams archive
The Black Lightning, a lighter and more-powerful factory version of the iconic Black Shadow, is described by Bonhams as the “Ferrari GTO of two wheels.”
“Possessing the golden combination of rarity (only around 30 were ever built), evocative design, forward-thinking engineering and racing success, the British-made bike is simply unmatched in the collector world,” according to a Bonhams news release.
“And like a GTO, these coveted machines rarely, if ever, come up for sale.”
Steve McQueen on ‘Sports Illustrated’ cover
This Black Lightning is the second example built with full ownership history, and is the earliest known in existence, Bonhams said. Bonhams sold a similar Black Lightning, one that held the Australian speed record, for nearly $1 million earlier this year at the auction company’s Las Vegas sale. This Vincent is expected to gain similar interest.
The Husky at Bonhams motorcycle auction McQueen’s favorite autocross bike, according to his son, Chad McQueen, and is offered with extensive documentation, the auction house said in the release. The paperwork includes its California registration naming Solar Productions, McQueen’s company, and the actor’s entry form for the 1970 Saddleback 500 Senior Race.
The sale also includes McQueen’s “lucky penny,” a 1960 coin from the year of Chad’s birth that was found inside a clear plastic case tucked away in the cavity of the motorcycle between the engine and frame.
The Husqvarna 400 was said to be McQueen’s favorite dirt bike | Bonhams
The Swedish motorcycle is a desirable bike in its own right, but as McQueen’s own machine that appeared on the famous magazine cover and landmark film, the sky is absolutely the limit. Watch the Steve McQueen magic take over the bidding for this one, as it has for so many other McQueen items auctioned in the past.
“The significance of these two motorcycles can’t be underscored enough,” Ben Walker, Bonhams Head of Motorcycles, said in the release. “One is truly a legend in every regard and the other is monumentally iconic. We’ve offered a multitude of important motorcycles at Bonhams over the years but these are real standouts.”
For more information about the Bonhams motorcycle sale, visit the auction website.
VW brought the electric time attack special to this week’s 2018 Goodwood Festival of Speed in an attempt to blitz the event’s hillclimb and set a new record for electric cars.
On Saturday, Romain Dumas — once again donning his lightweight race suit and climbing into the cockpit of the ID R — managed a blistering time of 43.05 seconds. The previous record for an EV was the 47.34 set in 2013 by Jonny Cocker who drove a Lola-Drayson B12 69/EV.
The ID R wasn’t the only electric car to break Cocker’s record. Nio with its street-legal EP9 running racing slicks set a time of 44.61 the same day, showing how much EV development has progressed in only a few short years.
The overall record for all cars at Goodwood remains the 41.6 set by Nick Heidfeld in a McLaren MP4/13 Formula 1 car back in 1999.
On a hillclimb like Goodwood, the ID R had a number of things working in its favor. This is an extremely high downforce car, which means it was able to stick tight through all of the corners. Further, with that instant power and torque delivery (we’re talking 680 horsepower and 480 pound-feet) it could get on the power immediately after ripping through the corners.
Finally, if VW was holding back the power at all during the 12.4-mile Pikes Peak run as a move to preserve battery power, the team didn’t have to worry about that on the much shorter Goodwood hill climb. In other words, this was a fully uncorked ID R on display.
But since everything at the 46th annual Iola Old Car Show in Iola, Wisconsin is super-sized — more than 2,500 show cars, 4,200 swap spaces and 1,000 car corral spaces — it was too difficult to narrow the field down to just six cars.
No problem! I’ll just pad my imaginary wallet a bit more and extend my fantasy to select the 10 cars I would like to take home from the Midwest’s largest swap meet and car show. You can check them all out in the video above.
First, some criteria: I like quirky models in unusual colors. I like honest survivors over incorrectly restored or modified cars and almost everything I would want — with a few exceptions — must have a manual transmission.
The first car is an early series Excalibur SSK Roadster. This is not a kit car, but rather a factory built “replicar” credited for starting the retro rage in the early 1970s. Initially using a Studebaker chassis and V8 engine, later production cars like this used a small block Chevy powerplant. The owner of this car claimed that Harley-Davidson stylist Willie G. Davidson painted the car in the semi-matte grey paint that would later appear on Harley’s new Softail.
Canadian readers will recognize the Beaumont, which is essentially a Chevrolet that was sold as a Pontiac to our neighbors to the north. This one ticked all the right boxes, with a 396cid four-barrel engine, 4-speed manual transmission and all the great features from the Chevelle SS along with custom Pontiac touches that make it a Beaumont. Only 451 of these cars were produced.
Who can resist a Grabber Orange 1969 Shelby GT350H? Fans of the marque will know that the “H” signifies its use as a Hertz Rent-A-Racer car (as would the automatic transmission), but this car has also had a famous previous owner: shock-rock king Alice Cooper. Cooper’s signature appears throughout the car and its previous sale at the Barrett-Jackson auction in 2003 caused quite a stir.
The 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport is a guilty pleasure, because my dad owned a four-door Torino in exactly the same color. Always wishing it was the two-door Sport model, I was bowled over when I saw this original paint version in just the way I had always imagined the old man’s car could be.
Most of the Hurst/General Motors collaboration famously took place over at the Oldsmobile division, but Pontiac got on board with a special Hurst Grand Prix available from 1970-1972. Later models can be identified by the gold livery on the trunklid, like the 1971 model here. A rare luxury muscle car with great lines.
A queen of the jet-age, the 1958 Pontiac Bonneville had long, low lines and a stylish use of coves, fins and chrome. It looked so lovely in two-tone green that I immediately added it to my imaginary stable of cars.
The 1969 Ford Mustang Mach I is simply one of the best-looking muscle car designs ever produced. Everything on the car implies speed and the ill-handling manners and indifferent build-quality of the cars when new have all been remedied through the aftermarket, leaving nice, attractive cars like this. Looking great in red and sporting a 390cid V8 with a four-speed transmission, I would drive this car every day of the week.
Having owned a number of GTOs, I’ve always had it in the back of my mind that someday I’d own a Judge. In Carousel Red with a Ram Air 400 V8, four-speed transmission, woodgrain steering wheel, hood tach and Rallye II wheels (minus the trim rings on the Judge package, of course) this is the quintessential ’60s-’70s muscle car, and an easy choice for me to make.
Using the same concept as the Judge, Oldsmobile created the H/O (Hurst-Olds) 455 in collaboration with Hurst Shifters. The 1969 model introduced the Firefrost Gold/White paint scheme that would identify the special edition 4-4-2 for years to come. Reportedly, only 913 cars would be made in 1969, making this Olds variant much rarer and quirkier than the Pontiac GTO Judge.
Finally, the Formula Firebird may have been the second-tier F-body performance Pontiac in 1971, but the sculpted twin-snorkel hood and subdued styling have aged very well next to its more boisterous brother, the Trans Am. This Navajo Orange example is well-equipped with a 455cid and a four-speed transmission and would fit in just fine with my imaginary 10 takeaways from the Iola Car Show.
My internal skeptic’s alarm sounded as I read the Introduction to Pontiac Trans Am: 50 Years, in which author Tom Glatch contends “no American automobile has ever consistently delivered style, performance, and image the way the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am did.”
Only, I thought, if Glatch’s definition of style, performance and image is to be consistently audacious.
And it appears that it does, because in 176 pages Glatch supports his contention with details about the model that celebrates its 50th anniversary early in 2019. It was at the Chicago auto show in the late winter of 1969 that Pontiac unveiled a high-performance, four-seat sports coupe with flaring twin hood scoops and wide blue racing stripes above a body-colored Endura front bumper, an additional pair of scoops on both front quarter panels, and an elevated spoiler across the car’s rear flank.
Such audacity would continue — consider the “screaming chicken” hood ornamentation that was yet to come, or the car’s image-enhancing roles in movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and television shows such as Knight Rider.
Glatch notes that Smokey became such an immediate American cultural phenomenon that Pontiac started offering CB radios as a $195 option.
Glatch introduces us to John Z. DeLorean’s two-seat, six-cylinder Banshee concept car that GM vetoed in fear that it might cut into Corvette sales, notes that Formula One racer Jack Brabham helped set up the handling of the original Trans Am, and how a labor strike nearly scuttled sales, which were buoyed by the car’s popularity with movie and television producers.
Pegasus was a based on the Trans Am, but carried a Ferrari V12 under its hood | GM Archives courtesy Motorbooks
He also shows us and tells the story of the Pegasus, a Trans Am-based, Ferrari V12-powered design proposal done for General Motors’ design director Bill Mitchell, who liked audacious automobiles, and the gold-trimmed black 1974 Trans Am show car with a 455 V8 under its hood. He also shares that while performance was in decline in Detroit during the late ‘70s and ‘80s, the muscular Trans Am continued to account for nearly half of all Firebird sales.
“It’s hard to believe,” he writes, “but 1979 was the 10th anniversary of the Pontiac Trans Am.In just a short time, it had gone from being a little-known option to an ingrained part of the American culture.”
But the Trans Am could not escape destiny; in 1970 it was equipped with a V8 rated at a mere 135 horsepower. Aerodynamics helped overcome a lack of power as the third-generation of GM’s F-body launched, and movies and television kept the Trans Am in the public’s eye. By 1989, the Trans Am again was pacing the Indianapolis 500, albeit with a turbocharged V6 engine under its hood.
Banshee-inspired styling was back for the fourth-generation styling revision, and so was a V8 engine. There was a 30th anniversary model for 1999, but the 2002 model year would be the last, and when GM put Chevrolet’s Camaro back into production a few years later, there was no longer a Pontiac division to seek a new Trans Am version for its dealers.
Nonetheless, Glatch writes, “The road goes ever on” with a couple of aftermarket companies offering Camaro-styling kits that would make you believe the Trans Am is back in all of its audacious glory.
There are all sorts of collector car road rallies, from low-key events such as the Copperstate 1000 or Colorado Grand and more serious competitive events such as the Tour de Corse Historique (see below). And then there’s the Hell on Wheels: Monterey Car Weeak, speaking of which, since the word Week is purposefully misspelled, shouldn’t it be Wreak or perhaps Wreck in this context?
Lemons event organizers say their automotive adventures are celebrations of “the oddball, mundane and truly awful” of the automotive world.
Among the rally’s mottos is: “Why break on track when you can break on the side of the road?”
The “track” is a reference to a related event, the 24 Hours of Lemons, a Le Mans-style series of races for inexpensive race cars, and we use the term “race cars” tongue in cheek. The 24 Hours of Lemons begat the Concours d’Lemons, think Concours sans d’Elegance, and also a series of Lemons rallies.
The rolling car wreck starts August 21 in Seaside, California, and takes its victims, er, we mean participants, on a route to San Pedro, California; Yuma, Arizona; and then back to Seaside (and the Concours d’Lemons) by way of Desert Camp and Santa Cruz.
Points along the route are scored for such things as “creative roadside repairs,” best junkyard parts acquired along the route, best story told to police after being pulled over, for the age of your vehicle (with bonus points if you complete the entire day’s route), and for the most ridiculous clothing worn by driver and co-driver.
If you don’t find this to be totally obnoxious but rather a great automotive adventure and are interested in participating, you can register on the Lemons website.
Concorso Italiano’s next drive is July 28
In the run up to its big celebration of all things Italian — and especially automotive things —in August, organizers of Concorso Italiano are staging a series of “Magnificent Monterey Drives.”
The next one is set for July 28, with cars leaving the Black Horse golf course in Seaside, California, for a drive to a winery for lunch. The event is open to 25 vehicles. Registration costs $25, with the money going to the Child Help charity. For information, visit the Magnificent Monterey Drive website.
Concorso Italiano, now in its 33rd year and featuring around 1,000 Italian vehicles, is scheduled for August 25.
E-types to lap British isle
The Jaguar E-type Club stages its annual 19-day ‘Round Britain Costal Drive, this year starting September 17 from the historic Pendine Sands in Carmarthenshire, again as a fund-raising event to support Prostate Cancer UK.
The tour, in its third year, will cover 4,000 miles of coastal roadway
“The aim was to give E-type Club members a great driving event at the same time as raising funds for, and awareness of, prostate cancer,” said event co-founder Philip Porter. “It was meant to be a one-off event but proved so popular that we’re now running it for the third consecutive year.
“We have cars and crews coming from abroad, including the States, and even have people who have bought an E-type so they can take part.”
Land Rover celebrates at Goodwood
70 Land Rovers | Land Rover photos
The first Land Rover, the Centre Steer prototype — led a parade of 70 Land Rovers up the Goodwood Festival of Speed hill this past weekend. The parade included not only the oldest and newest of the British maker’s vehicles, but round-the-world expedition vehicles and those specially modified for police and fire use.
Why were 70 vehicles included? Because 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the off-road marque.
Revived stages for Tour de Corse Historique
The 18th Tour de Corse Historique, scheduled for October 9-13 on the island of Corsica, will include 10 special stages that are either brand new or that have not been used in recent years, organizers report. Among them will be the special stage at Notre Dame de la Serra, a daunting, 35-mile seaside challenge.
“The Tour de Corse Historique is a magical rally where past and present meet to revive the legend,” said Jose Andreani, president of the organizing committee. “Our one and only goal is to share the passion for motorsport.”
Corsica hosted a grand prix race in 1921 and its first Tour de Corse rally in 1956. The Tour de Corse Historique for vintage vehicles launched in 2001.
Tour de Corse Historique action | Frederic Chambert photo courtesy tour committee
Some custom cars were just meant to be, such as the Pick of the Day, a 1950 Mercury Club Coupebuilt in the classic style of a lowdown “lead sled,” smoothed out for high-style urban cruising.
“Lead sled,” by the way, refers to the old-school customizing technique of filling seams and contouring the body with lead filler to create a sleek and flawless form. While lead has largely been replaced by more-modern (and less-hazardous) fillers, the term lead sled has stayed with us.
The rear deck has been completely smoothed, with a hidden trunk lock
This Mercury was professionally built with a spectacular result, according to the O’Falllon, Illinois, dealer advertising the custom coupe on ClassicCars.com. The car, which has gone just 180 miles since completion, is painted in Candy Apple Red with pearlescent ghost flames.
“This coupe is a car that the more you look at the more attention to detail you see,” the seller says in the ad description. “Starting at the front underneath the phantom flames, you’ll notice (the) subtle touches such as the corners of the hood being smoothed out and given a better fitment.
“Moving back to the center of the car, the door handles have been replaced with a set of custom billet buttons that allow you to open the doors. Last but not least is the hidden trunk latch that is located inside the gas filler door, helping to give the rear of the Mercury a great sleek finish.”
The Mercury coupe is embellished with fender skirts and front spinner hubcaps
While most of the chrome trim bits have been extracted and the mounting holes filled in, such flourishes as the side spears and gas-door surround have been kept to accentuate the clean lines of this Merc. he roof has not been chopped, nor has the suspension been drastically lowered.
The coupe has loads of rumbling power to turn heads on the street, the seller says.
“Underneath the hood lives a 383-cubic-inch stroker V8 that starts with the greatest of ease and produces more than enough horsepower to move this cruiser down the road while producing a great throating rumble,” according to the seller. “Handling the job of shifting gears while you are rolling down the road is the TH-350 automatic transmission that also adds to the comfort of this lead sled.”
The dashboard looks largely original aside from the modern gauges
The custom interior has been finished with tuck-and-roll leather seats in red and white, with aftermarket gauges housed within the original deco dashboard.
The Mercury looks very clean and well-finished in the gallery of photos with the ad, and it should be well-worth the asking price of $49,995.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
Editor’s note: This is part three of a five-part series looking at the history and future of the muscle car. Read the whole series during July, when the ClassicCars.com Journal celebrates all things muscle.
The mid-to-late 1960s through 1970 were the magical years for muscle cars, when the domestic automakers were competing to see who could come up with the fastest and most-audacious horsepower machines.
The roots were planted nearly a decade before, starting in 1956, when Semon Emil “Bunkie” Knudsen was appointed general manager of General Motors’ Pontiac Division with the mission to improve the brand’s public perception and to ignite the lagging sales of its vehicles.
Knudsen took Pontiac to the race track. “Wide-track” became the new advertising theme, backed by the improved performance of cars, led by new chief engineer Pete Estes, who came over from Oldsmobile, and the recruitment of his assistant, John Z. DeLorean, who had been at Packard.
Add advertising executive Jim Wangers to the mix, and things would get very interesting.
Long before “We Build Excitement” would become the brand’s advertising tag line, the Knudsen/Estes/DeLorean/Wangers crew did just that. It created the Detroit muscle car phenomenon, although at first it had to do so with a back-door effort to avoid the scrutiny of the GM bureaucracy.
GM had an internal rule that reserved its largest V8 engines for use in its largest cars. But the Pontiac engineers realized that there was room under the hood of the “intermediate” (mid-sized) Tempest model for the 389cid V8 from the Bonneville. Typically, the Tempest carried a meager, 140-horsepower inline 6-cylinder. But the big Bonneville benefited from its 325-horsepower unit.
The solution: A special-option package for the 1964 Tempest LeMans. Check the right boxes and for less than $300 you got the V8, heavy-duty 3-speed or Muncie 4-speed manual transmission, stiffer suspension, improved steering gear and tires, dual exhaust, and badges that proclaimed your car as a GTO.
That’s GTO as in the famed Gran Turismo Omologato of Ferrari fame (pity that the Italian sports car maker hadn’t trademarked the name).
Enhancing the car’s image was Wangers recruitment (actually, his creation) of a rock ’n’ roll band, Ronnie and the Daytonas, to record what became a hit song, Little GTO. That, and a Car and Driver magazine cover proclaiming “GTO vs GTO” and a story about a supposed drag race between the Pontiac and Ferrari models.
The “GTO vs. GTO” cover on the March 1964 cover of Car and Driver only added more fuel to the muscle car fire. | Car and Driver photo
By the way, the GTO-optioned Pontiac could sprint to 60 mph in about 6.5 seconds and run the quarter-mile in less than 15 seconds.
By 1966, GTO became a separate model line for Pontiac. Empowered by such a vehicle, Pontiac soared to third in sales among all Detroit automakers, and Knudsen was promoted in 1961 to head Chevrolet. Estes moved up at Pontiac, and then took over Chevrolet when Knudsen left for Ford (and later would become president of GM). In 1965, DeLorean got the top job at Pontiac and, at age 40, became the youngest person to head a GM automotive division.
As you might imagine, the success of the early GTO created some controversy within the GM family. Other divisions wanted their own “muscle cars,” and they got them. And the rest of Detroit jumped on the bandwagon as well.
Before the end of the 1966 model year, Oldsmobile offered a 4-4-2 upgrade on its F-85/Cutlass. The numbers came from the four-barrel carburetor, four-speed manual transmission and dual exhaust. For 1967, The Cutlass Supreme 4-4-2 offered a new 350-horsepower, 400cid “Force-Air” engine with ram induction.
Let the muscle war commence: Oldsmobile’s 4-4-2 package available with the F85/Cutlass was its response to the GTO. | ClassicCars.com photo
Buick tried to match the GTO with its 325-horsepower Skylark Gran Sport.
Chevrolet’s response was the Chevelle/Malibu SS 396, equipped with a 375-horsepower, 396cid V8, dual exhaust, four-speed manual gearbox, stiffer suspension and a 160 mph speedometer. For 1965, 200 Z16 versions were produced with stiffer frames, narrowed rear axles, Impala brakes and hydraulic lifters like those used on the Corvette.
Chevelle remained a leader in the mid-size muscle car wars, culminating in the 1970 Chevelle SS454 LS6, a valuable collector car today.
The1970 Chevelle SS454 LS6 was one of a slew of cars that resulted from the muscle wars. | ClassicCars.com photo
Meanwhile, Mopar engineers started the decade working on a NASCAR engine that would wind up setting the trend for large-displacement V8 engines for street or strip, the legendary 426 Hemi that used a revolutionary hemispheric cylinder-head design to improve air flow at all rpm, and which was rated at 425 horsepower.
The sturdy Hemi ruled NASCAR after it showed up to win Daytona in 1964, was banned in 1965 for the lack of homologation, then was back to its winning ways in 1966 as thousands of 426 Hemis found their way into muscle cars for the street.
Things got serious for Chrysler in 1966 with the introduction of the Dodge Charger, a Coronet-based fastback available with the 426 Hemi, and the restyling of the Plymouth Belvedere/Satellite, dominated by the GTX version with the 440cid V8.
For 1968, the Dodge and Plymouth intermediates were ready for true muscle car makeovers, with Plymouth offering the Road Runner with a standard 383-cid V8, the GTX with a 440 “Super Commando” V8, or the 426 Hemi, and the Dodge Charger with corresponding engine choices.
The NASCAR influence on Mopar performance was most exemplified by the Road Runner Super Bird and the Charger Daytona with their long, aerodynamic front-end add ons and towering rear spoilers. As outrageous as they were on the street, they were effective on the NASCAR track.
The front end and massive spoiler on the 1970 Dodge Charger Daytona may have been a bit excessive for the street, but it excelled on the track. | ClassicCars.com photo
Hemi V8s are revered today as muscle car icons, and any numbers-matching Mopar powered by one draws a strong premium value. For instance, an original 1970 Plymouth Hemi ‘Cuda could set you back in the seven figures.
GM and Ford played catchup with their own 427cid big blocks. In the showrooms, Ford offered its 427 V8 as an option in its midsize Fairlane and a 390cid V8 in the Mercury Comet Cyclone. Ford’s focus was on beefing up its Mustang, highlighted by such things as the Boss 428 with the Cobra Jet 428 racing engine under its long hood.
Ford’s top entry into the muscle madness was the 428 Cobra Jet racing engine. | ClassicCars.com photo
The Cobra Jet was used by the end of the decade in the Ford Talladega and Mercury Cyclone.
GM used its 427 in a number of high-performance applications, ranging from Corvettes to Impala, and notably in such towering performance beasts as the Camaro ZL1.
In the heyday of the Detroit Muscle Car, even American Motors joined the party with its Rebel SST and Rebel Machine models, and its Rambler Scrambler.
Model year 1970 is seen as an apex for muscle cars as a confluence of engine technology and corporate will came together to create some of the greatest muscle cars of the era. But it all began fading away the following year, as Department of Transportation regulations and soaring insurance rates spelled doom for high-performance muscle cars.
The final fatal blows were right around the corner, when the OPEC oil embargo of 1973 heralded the end of cheap, plentiful gas, and emissions regulations strangled the horsepower output of once-mighty engines.
It was fun while it lasted, but the Detroit muscle car era had come to an end, though it was an end that would prove to be only temporary.
Editor’s note: Follow all of the action and updates on our special Monterey Car Week page.
The 1955 Ferrari Mondial in French Racing Blue going to Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach, California, auction in August has a most remarkable history, first of motorsports prowess and then of a care-taking dedication that spanned more than a half century.
Nicknamed “the Admiral’s Ferrari,” chassis 0556 (0446)/MD has been consigned to the auction by U.S. Navy Admiral Robert Phillips, considered one of the most-revered authorities on Mondial competition cars and who has owned this Ferrari 500 Mondial for 58 years.
He is also the young naval officer who, in the spring of 1960, rescued the Ferrari Mondial that he found in derelict condition in the back shop of a Rambler dealership in northern California. He purchased the car and, while stationed in Oakland, talked the head of the base auto shop into allowing him to work on the car on site.
“The following nine months proved to be quite an education in Ferrari mechanics for Phillips, as he repaired the engine, transaxle, and bodywork,” Gooding says in a news release. “He began racing the car at events throughout California, until the Navy transferred him to Turkey and then to New Jersey.
“Refusing to part with his beloved Mondial, he flew back out to Oakland and drove the car across the country to his new post in New Jersey.”
David Gooding interviews retired Admiral Phillips in this video, which also shows the car in action now and in the past:
The Ferrari had a colorful racing history before Phillips rediscovered it, competing in 35 events in period. These included winning first in class and fifth overall at the 1955 Grand Prix of Venezuela, driven for the works team by Eugenio Castellotti, who replaced driver Harry Schell after Castellotti’s racer was sidelined with driveline failure.
“The Admiral’s Ferrari Mondial was the only Series II Mondial campaigned by the Scuderia Ferrari factory team at the Grand Prix of Venezuela and was the only time the Ferrari factory campaigned a car that was not painted in the customary red livery,” according to the Gooding release.
Phillips never did part with his Mondial, keeping it through the decades as he rose in rank. In 2000, he assigned marque specialist David Carte to perform a comprehensive restoration, “with conservation in mind,” which took all of eight years to complete.
“Admiral Phillips, now considered one of the foremost experts on four-cylinder Ferraris, had completed an enormous amount of research prior to restoration,” the release says. “The body was repainted in its original French Racing Blue, just as it raced at the first Grand Prix of Venezuela.
The car was displayed at the 2008 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it won First in Class honors and the Enzo Ferrari Trophy for the best Ferrari on the eniter show field. It also has won more than 30 top awards in 18 concours, including the Palm Beach Cavallino Classic Concorso d’Eleganza, where it won the Scuderia Ferrari Cup for the Best of Show.
Still owned by Phillips, the Ferrari Mondial has an estimated auction value of $5.5 million to $7.5 million.
Gooding holds its annual Pebble Beach auction August 24 and 25 during Monterey’s famed collector car week. For more information, visit the auction website.
A 1929 Ford Model A Tudor and a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro were selected as Street Rod and Street Machine of the Year at the recent Goodguys Rod & Custom Association’s PPG Nationals held at Columbus, Ohio.
The winning Street Rod was built by Troy Trepanier and Adam Banks at Rad Rides by Troy for car owners Mark and Dennis Mariani. The car previously won the Battle of the Builders at the 2017 SEMA Show.
“The sleek hand-crafted sedan is a reimagining of a Model A that’s shorter, lower and much more stylized, with a distinctive wrap-under grille,” the Goodguys said in the announcement.
“It rides on a one-off chassis with adjustable front and rear torsion bar suspensions and custom-machined 19- and 20-inch wheels. Power comes from an aluminum small-block Chevy backed by a five-speed.”
Runner-up for the award, presented by Classic Instruments, were Bill Allen’s ’32 Ford coupe, Dana Elrod’s ’36 Ford roadster, Robert Anderson’s ’36 Pontiac sedan, and Tim Devlin’s ’33 Ford coupe.
The Street Machine-winning Camaro was built by Detroit Speed for owner Stuart Adams. The car was a Great 8 finalist in the running for the Ridler award at the Detroit Autorama.
“The flawless black finish covers literally hundreds of subtle body modifications,” the Goodguys noted in the news release. “Naturally, it has a Detroit Speed front subframe and QuadraLink rear, with one off chrome-plated 19- and 20-inch Forgeline wheels. It’s powered by a Kurt Urban-built LS2 topped with a Harrop supercharger and backed by a Bowler-built Tremec six-speed.”
Runner-up for the award presented by PPG were the Ringbrothers’ ’72 Javelin built for Preston, Vic Buraglio’s ’69 Charger, Mark Berger’s ’65 Mustang, and Jeremy Miranda’s ’69 Camaro.
