A 1959 Maserati Tipo 60/61 “Birdcage” prepared for racing by Alfred Momo is on the docket for Coys auction scheduled for August 4 at the Classic Days collector car shows and Masterpieces & Style concours d’elegance at Schloss Dyck in Germany.
“This historic Maserati is a light and powerful sports racer produced in 1959-1960 that exhibits superb aerodynamics,” Coys said in its news release.
1963 Maserati 3500 GTi among cars that will be offered for bidding
“It acquired its nickname ‘Birdcage’ because of the exceptional design engineered by Giulio Alfieri. It has an intricate tubular frame and chassis made up of approximately 200 small diameters, chrome-molybdenum steel tubes of varying lengths and thicknesses welded together with a unique Italian process.”
Coys adds that the car gained its Historic Technical Passport/FIA class documents in 2010, making it eligible for such events as the Classic Le Mans, Goodwood Revival, etc.
“This car offers a collector a chance to own a unique race car,” added Chris Routledge, Coys chief executive. “It is going to be sold with a large amount of documentation, photographs, full rebuild invoices from Steve Hart Racing and confirmation of the cars original components used directly from Momo.”
Also on the auction docket is another Alffieri design, a 1963 Maserati 3500 GTi Superleggera by Touring.
“The car is finished in arguably the best color combination for a 3500 -– gunmetal gray over red,” Coys said. “This wonderful example of the marque is also reported to be in excellent mechanical order.”
A 1921 Wolseley set records, this is a re-creaiton of that car
Also on the docket is a re-creation of the 1921 Wolseley 200-Mile Record Car. Coys reports that the car, which had been in dry storage, was acquired in 2003 by Stephen Battye for his Yorkshire Car Museum and was stripped and reassembled.
Other featured vehicles include one of 576 1933 MG L-Type Magna Tourers, a 1977 Maserati Bora 4.9, and a 2003 Porsche 996 GT3 Cup racer.
You see all kinds of strange things at the dragstrip, as racers compete not only for best times but for the coolest and most-unusual cars. No one would expect to see an AMC Pacer, the original fishbowl on wheels, out there, but here it is and looking pretty awesome despite its humble roots.
The Pick of the Day is a bright-orange-and-black 1977 AMC Pacerthat has been set up for track-time fun, although the Lenexa, Kansas, dealer advertising the Pacer on ClassicCars.com indicates that the car is streetable, though it might be tough to see traffic around that ginormous hood scoop.
The Pacer’s competition gear includes wheelie bars, slicks and a parachute
The AMC is also packed with top-drawer performance goodies, the seller adds, and goes by the name of Pacer X Treme.
“This is one of the most amazing AMC Pacers out on the road today,” the dealer says in ad. “It had an 8-year full restoration and given a monster 351 Winsor V8 packed full of goodies like .30 over KB performance forged pistons, forged steel crankshaft, forged steel rods, crane cam with 214/224 duration at 50degree, qual cast high-volume oil pump, heads are GT40 big valve and headers from a 95 Lightning, Ford Racing aluminum intake and valve covers, MSD ignition feed by a Edelbrock AFB 820 cfm carb from a 20 gal fuel cell.
“All that is mated to a Hughes-built C6 heavy duty transmission and 2500 torque converter, with steel shafts and shift kit, and a B&M rachet shifter. All of that is connected to a Ford 9in posi rear with 3.90 gears. It is stopped by 4-wheel power disc brakes and a working parachute all riding on M/T racing street slicks on Weld racing wheels.”
A Ford racing engine lurks under the hood
The Pacer racer was built from a rust-free Arizona car, the dealer adds, and is in clean condition through and through. It has gone just 25,000 miles.
Whether you intend to drive and show it or take it to the strip for some heated vintage competition, the Pacer is most certainly a head-turner and conversation-starter. The asking price of $19,900 seems reasonable considering all the work that’s gone into bringing this Pacer up to its X Treme state.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
When American troops returned home from the World War II European campaign, they brought with them a passion for the sportscar competitions staged on that continent’s winding public roads. Similar events were subsequently organized in small towns — such as Watkins Glen, New York, and Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin — giving the sport a foothold in this country that led to the birth of designated racing circuits, such as Road America.
Safety concerns following a tragic bystander death at the Watkins Glen races ended the use of public roads in the 1950s and spurred the development of purpose-built racecourses. Today, vintage events in these early race towns offer special allure to fans looking for a historically immersive experience.
Road America’s WeatherTech International Challenge with Brian Redman is one of North America’s largest vintage races, fielding an impressive array of more than 400 historic competition machines at the 4-mile racecourse in Elkhart Lake.
A favorite feature of the event for both fans and drivers is the Friday night Race Car Parade. A police escort gives temporary exemption to race cars — which aren’t street legal — as they thunder through the village and park on the same streets that once hosted these early road races.
A highlight was the attendance of three UOP Shadow team cars. The menacing mid-70s Can-Am racers were among the fastest cars of that era in the hands of drivers Jackie Oliver and George Follmer.
A trio of black UOP Shadows made for an impressive sight. | Doug Schellinger photo
Saturday night, a street car show took over the same road in front of the lakeside Siebken’s Resort.
The parade allowed for close-up viewing of some of the world’s most famous racecars and interaction with drivers and car owners, while the weekend-long race schedule afforded further opportunity to see these machines driven with purpose at the wooded, rolling facility nicknamed “America’s National Park of Speed.”
Veteran car guys and gals can tell the difference between the model years of the Tri-Five Chevrolet Bel Airs at a quick glance. But maybe you’re new to the hobby and aren’t quite sure — and certainly don’t want to be embarrassed by guessing incorrectly.
H&H Classic Parts, Arkansas-based supplier of parts for classic Chevrolet vehicles, has created a Tri-Five spotter’s guide to illustrate the unique exterior details for those 1955, 1956 and 1957 Bel Air models.
“Chevy made enough changes to the Bel Air during this time that you could identify the year whether the car’s coming or going,” Tray Smith, vice president of H&H Classic, says in a news release accompanying the chart.
“Taillights, fins, so many things we could’ve included but the chart just got too busy. This one’s focused on the front end. Maybe we’ll do a guide for the Bel Air’s rear end another time.”
“For those who aren’t well-versed in Tri-Five Chevys, here are some quick identifiers shared in the graphic,” the company adds:
The slight “brow” above the 1955 Bel Air headlights is subtle, compared to the next two model years’ “headlight fenders.” As the spotter’s guide shows, each iteration became a bit more heavy-lidded.
The parking lights on the ’55 are teardrop shaped and integrated into the car, sitting on each side of the centered grille.
The 1956 Bel Air gained some embellishments — a V front and center on the hood and a side trim that ran almost the length of the car. That trim is chrome but has a distinctive, painted center.
Unlike the ’55, the ’56 has a grille that runs the entire width of the front end. That grille is flanked by two rectangular parking lights.
The 1957 Bel Air doubled its hood ornamentation — this year’s model had two ornaments jetting ahead of the Chevy’s driver.
The ’57 has round signal lights integrated into each side of the grille guard and a new bowtie emblem was added to the center.
“As Tri-Five fans, we did want to add more to the graphic, but we settled on just providing some fun facts here,” Smith noted.
Additional Tri-Five facts to enhance a Bel Air spotter’s knowledge:
The 1955 has more prominent vertical lines on its grille — the other two model years have grilles with a more horizontal design.
The wraparound bumpers were new in 1955.
The Nomad, a 2-door Bel Air wagon, was introduced in 1955.
The ’56 hardtop, pillarless Bel Air sedan offered an unobstructed view.
The 1957 grille is the most elaborate – lots of chrome and anodized gold finish.
The ’57 is the only Tri-Five with side scallops on the front end.
For more information, and to see what it has available for various Chevy models, visit the H&H Classic Parts website.
Interesting how geography can play a role in both the preservation and the value of a collector vehicle. Take, for example, the Pick of the Day, a 1984 Porsche 944 being advertised by a private seller on ClassicCars.com.
“This is a very special 944,” the seller’s advertisement begins.
But doesn’t every seller want you to think his or her car is “very special”?
Ah, but the ad continues: “It was purchased new in Idaho Falls, Idaho, and has only 51K documented original miles. If you don’t know Idaho Falls, winters are cold and long. Snow falls in November and doesn’t leave until May. This car was a summer-only driver.”
And not only that, the second owner bought the car in 1990 with 39,000 miles showing and drove it an average of only 500 miles a year until selling it because of age — his, not the car’s.
“When I bought the car it still had tires with 1991 manufacturing date,” the seller notes, adding that those tires still showed plenty of tread.
The seller has maintenance records on the car dating back to 1990 when the second owner acquired the vehicle.
“There is zero rust, no quirks, no squeaks or rattles,” the seller says. “It’s tight and fresh. It has the original Porsche Fuchs wheels in pristine condition: no weathering, no curb rash.
“The interior is as-new and everything works as it should.”
The car has moved from Idaho Falls to Boise and the asking price is $14,500.
Owners of the Paul Stephens-built Le Mans Classic Clubsport Porsche 911s will be given the opportunity to receive their cars at one of the most famous locations in racing: the Le Mans start line at a Circuit de la Sarthe in front of thousands of fans.
Stephens has committed to building just 10 of the cars, which take about 3,000 man hours each. The Porsches were expected to be ready for delivery for the biennial Le Mans Classic in 2020.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the response to our Le Mans Classic Clubsport edition, but now the hard work sets in,” he said in a news release. “After touring Europe with the car this month, we’ve now started production for the first confirmed build slots.”
The cars will all be powered by a 3.4-liter air-cooled flat-6 rated at 300 horsepower. They will also have a cross-shaftless ITB injection system with GT3 plenum, a programmable ECU mapped in-house, RS-specification camshafts, a lightened and balanced crankshaft, lightweight conrods and a lightweight flywheel mated with a Getrag G50 gearbox and limited slip differential.
The 911s will be available with Touring specifications — which has a curb weight of 2,369 pounds -– or with Lightweight specifications, weighing as little as 2,138 pounds.
All that performance will come at a price. The Porsches start at £250,000, or just shy of $328,800.
It’s become popular — too popular — for people who can afford it to buy an exotic new and limited-production vehicle and almost immediately move it into storage so they can offer it for sale with ultra-low mileage sometime in the future.
And then there’s David Kyte, who just took delivery of the first customer-delivered McLaren Senna — chassis number 001 — and set off on a 1,400-kilometer road trip in the company of four other Sennas, three of them cars and one of them being Bruno Senna, nephew of the late racing superstar Ayrton Senna.
Their destination was the Circuit Paul Ricard and the “Pure McLaren” driving experience taking place this weekend in the south of France, McLaren Automotive noted in its news release about the delivery and drive, which also included a McLaren 720S and 600LT.
“Handing over the key to the first customer McLaren Senna built was an honor for me and a milestone for the company,” McLaren Automotive chief executive Mike Flewitt said.
Senna racer and new namesake
“David Kyte is a longstanding McLaren enthusiast with a true passion for our brand and a number of McLarens to prove it. We have had many conversations about the car he has now taken delivery of and while I believe that the McLaren Senna is already incredible in every respect, the additional work that David has commissioned from McLaren Special Operations has taken ‘Senna 001’ to another level.”
Kyte’s Senna wears McLaren Special Operations Aurora Blue colors with the Senna brand emblem on the wing endplate, a bespoke McLaren Senna roof snorkel, T-Bar and fuel filter cover in Satin Visual Carbon Fibre finish, Burton Blue brake calipers and Volcano Red center-lock wheel nuts.
McLaren noted that the special paint — prep and application — consumed 600 hours of work by two specialists.
Other special features of the 001 car include the years he won the World Driving Championship engraved on the throttle pedal and the layout of the Interlagos racing circuit in Brazil on the front of the car. The interior also has black Alcantara trim with diamond-stitching in the seats and the Senna “S” logo in each headrest in Harissa Red.
“I committed to buying a McLaren Senna as soon as I became aware that McLaren was developing the car – so long before the name was confirmed – but leaving the McLaren Technology Centre after the handover ceremony was the first time I have actually driven one,” Kyte said.
“Now, with 1,400 kilometers covered, I’m delighted to report that as someone who rates driver engagement as crucial to driver enjoyment, the Senna has more than exceeded my expectations.”
Sergio Marchionne, the plainspoken, sweatered CEO of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles pulled few punches in public—and fewer in private. Longtime interior designer at FCA, Klaus Busse, tweeted Wednesday that design reviews with Marchionne “weren’t easy.”
“If he did not like what he saw he made sure you knew…When he liked it, it came with a cliffhanger ‘what the f… is this? – it looks amazing!'” Busse wrote.
Marchionne’s famously abrasive attitude shows in the cars that helped define his tenure atop one of the world’s largest automakers. From high horsepower and seductive shapes, to furious flame outs and an SUV “unfit for human consumption,” the cars that Marchionne left behind are almost as memorable as the man.
Almost.
Here’s a short list of the cars we’ll remember from a CEO we’re not likely to forget:
Alfa Romeo Giulia
The 2018 Alfa Romeo Giulia | Alfa Romeo photo
It read like a love letter to drivers and car fans around the world, even though Marchionne may not have been a bred-in-the-bone car guy. He was a trained tax accountant and lawyer, after all.
The Alfa Romeo Giulia brought back the Italian automaker to the U.S. mainstream, even if it largely flopped. “Giving a voice to the real Alfa Romeo was a moral imperative,” he said when the Giulia was unveiled. Especially with a Ferrari-derived V-6, the Giulia’s voice spoke loudly to us all.
Dodge Dart
The Dart was discontinued in 2016. | Dodge photo
Even if another car on our list strictly qualified as a “compliance car,” the Dodge Dart (and related Chrysler 200) certainly fit the bill, too. The Dodge Dart helped fulfill the terms laid out by the U.S. government for the brokered merger between Fiat and Chrysler in 2009 and the subsequent government loans.
A high-mileage Eco version of the Dart was harder to spot than a suit on Sergio, but the Dart’s relatively short run helped bring the company back from financial ruin. Just as quickly as it was developed and launched, it was unceremoniously killed — another Marchionne hallmark — but its modular platform underpins other vehicles still very much alive in the FCA portfolio, including the Jeep Cherokee.
Jeep Wrangler
The 2018 Jeep Wrangler | Jeep photo
The new Jeep Wrangler unveiled in 2018 is an explicit understanding of FCA’s past and future. The boxy, tall SUV is virtually indistinguishable from its predecessors, a relative rarity among new cars that have smoothed over shapes for better fuel economy — or a capitulation to trends.
The old-school Wrangler figures heavily into FCA’s future, too. It’s a bestseller for Jeep and an icon for purists. Marchionne’s favor for the Wrangler was clear; his last public appearance was to present police in Italy with a Jeep Wrangler in June.
Fiat 124 Spider
The 2018 Fiat Spider | Fiat photo
The Fiat 124 Spider was intentionally and unintentionally important for FCA in the U.S.
First, the automaker’s partnership with Mazda for the 124 Spider/MX-5 Miata signified a willingness to join with other automakers to bring to market niche vehicles that were important to their brands, but perhaps not commercial blockbusters. The Fiat 124 Spider also showed Marchionne’s unflagging attitude toward protecting provincial brands in his portfolio.
Although the 124 Spider easily could have been called an Alfa Romeo Spider (a name with better cachet in the U.S. that lasted until the 1990s), Marchionne famously insisted that an Alfa must be built in Italy, not Japan where the Fiat 124 Spider is assembled.
Jeep Renegade
The 2018 Jeep Renegade | Jeep photo
Just as easily as Marchionne quashed any idea of building Alfa Romeos in Japan, he favored vaulting Jeep to a worldwide audience. That meant building the Jeep Renegade in Melfi, Italy.
The Renegade became the first Italian-built Jeep sold in America and the smallest Jeep on sale since World War II. The Renegade is a global Jeep with roughly 14 different powertrains available worldwide and it is built alongside the Fiat 500X crossover.
Ram 1500 EcoDiesel
The 2018 Dodge Ram 1500 EcoDiesel | Dodge photo
Although the Ram 1500 full-size pickup predated Marchionne’s tenure as CEO of FCA, the diesel engine sourced from VM Motori had his fingerprints all over it. The 3.0-liter diesel engine was ported to the Jeep Grand Cherokee in the U.S. and touted to be a fuel-economy champ in for rapidly growing pickups and SUVs in FCA’s portfolio.
In 2017, when federal investigators accused FCA of illegal emissions violations, Marchionne loudly struck back at comparisons between FCA and Volkswagen by saying critics must be “smoking illegal material.”
Ferrari LaFerrari
The Ferrari LaFerrari | Ferrari photo
As head of Ferrari, Marchionne pushed the exclusive Italian exotic automaker to new places. He feuded with former Chairman Luca di Montezemelo about plans to produce more Ferraris and reportedly kept several of the expensive road cars near the FCA test track in Balocco, Italy, to drive.
Despite Marchionne’s publicly lukewarm feelings toward electrification, he warmly embraced hybrids as part of Ferrari’s future — something once unthinkable for the Italian automaker.
Fiat 500e
The 2018 Fiat 500e | Fiat photo
Despite warm feelings for Ferrari’s electrified future, Marchionne famously threw cold water on the all-electric Fiat 500. Although the Fiat 500 had already won accolades in Europe before it was brought over to the U.S., the Fiat 500e was begrudgingly built and buried in Fiat’s portfolio as a “compliance car” that only existed so his company could sell other cars in California.
“I hope you don’t buy it,” Marchionne said in 2014. “Every time I sell one it costs me $14,000.”
Jeep Commander
The Jeep Commander | Jeep photo
The Commander certainly predates Marchionne’s tenure at the top of FCA, but his vociferous criticism for the big SUV portended his leadership style. Calling the Commander “unfit for human consumption” while models were still at dealership lots, Marchionne set a frank tone early.
Later in his career, he seemingly challenged VW’s CEO to a fistfight: “If Volkswagen, through its chief executive, thinks that it needs to do something, tell them to show up tomorrow morning at 7 o’clock at our stand,” he said at the 2012 Paris auto show. Later, he quashed rumors about a Ferrari SUV: “You’d have to shoot me first,” he said.
In 2015 he offered a bizarre proposal to merge with crosstown rival GM by saying, “I can hug you nicely, I can hug you tightly,” according to Automotive News.
Dodge Challenger Hellcat
The 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat Widebody | FCA photo
Marchionne’s leadership led FCA through the brink of ruin thanks, in part, to cars like the Challenger Hellcat. Even though the Challenger’s (and Charger’s) origination predates Marchionne’s tenure, it was the high-power show of the Challenger Hellcat that distracted many from the automaker’s relatively bare product portfolio.
In a few years, the Challenger and Charger emerged as moneymakers for Dodge and the overpowered supercharged V8 engine in these raucous muscle cars epitomized the CEO’s penchant of creating something from relatively nothing—perhaps his legacy.
He summarized his climb at the Brookings Institute on the automaker’s bailout in 2014.
“I mean, this is a company that had been run by a foreign entity for a long period of time that had taken all its wares on the way out. In 2006-2007 it had been flipped over to financially competent, industrially incompetent private equity investors who had run it for a period of time and then run into a brick wall in the middle of a crisis…it was a question of really rebuilding the company culture and rebuilding our portfolio and the business from scratch.”
About $1.09 billion in aftermarket parts were purchased for classic cars in 2017, a report from the Specialty Equipment Manufacturers Association released Friday said.
The 82-page report said classics — defined as cars older than model year 1973 — accounted for 3 percent of the overall market but bring in about 10 percent of total internal engine product sales. SEMA defines internal engine products as camshafts, cylinder heads, pistons, cooling products and similar items.
A breakdown of classic car sales showed 20 percent of that $1.09 billion was spent on intake, fuel and exhaust systems.
A further 36 percent was split evenly between suspension, brake, steering, internal engine, cooling and drivetrain parts.
Classic car owners turned most to specialty retailers when looking for parts, as those businesses accounted for 44 percent of all sales last year. More than 30 percent of that was online.
That was followed by automotive chains, which accounted for 15 percent of classic parts business.
In that sense, the classic car market went against the current. More than 60 percent of all parts purchased last year were bought from a physical outlet.
“The in-store experience continues to shine as nearly two thirds of dollars are spent in brick-and-mortar channels,” the report said. “While online hasn’t taken over the industry, the digital world continues to be an important platform for consumers to research and purchase parts.”
Overall, aftermarket part sales totaled $43 billion last year, making it one of the best years since the Great Recession.
“With a robust global economy, reduced tax and regulatory burdens, a weaker U.S. dollar, and a tightening labor market, the United States enjoyed and continues to enjoy a thriving economic environment,” the report said.
For the first time in its history, H&H Classics Summer Sale at Britain’s National Motorcycle Museum topped the £1 million plateau with total sales of £1.2 million($1.57 million), the company reported Friday.
The event drew more than 1,000 people, 550 bidders and 290 motorcycles. Those motorcycles reached a sell-through rate of 81 percent.
1955 Vincent Black Knight and sidecar
“We were delighted to be able to offer the best of British with five magnificent Vincents on offer as well as a vast range of collectable classic motorcycles,” Mark Bryan, head of the company’s motorcycle sales department, was quoted in the post-auction news release.
“This was a ‘must do’ sale if you are currently bike-hunting or simply wanted to have a great day out to look at the sheer breadth and depth of what is on offer at this landmark for H&H sale.”
The five Vincents to which Bryan referred were from the 1947-1955 era. A 1955 Black Knight Series D with sidecar sold for £51,750 ($67,798), a 1947 HRD Rapide Series B sold for £40,250 (nearly $53,000), 1949 Rapide Series C brought £39,100 ($51,225), a 1951 Comet Series C went for £25,300 ($33,145), and a 1951 Comet Series C went to a new owner for £15,525 (more than $20,300).
1951 Comet Series C
H&H Classics has another auction scheduled at the museum on November 2.
