BMW’s 320i had a great run in the 1970s and ’80s. The Pick of the Day is one of the last of the breed, a 1983 BMW 320i, advertised for sale on ClassicCars.com by only its third owner.
“I am the third owner of this vehicle,” the seller reports. “I bought it in March 2017 with 61,450 original miles from the second owner in Texas. It was first bought in Virginia and garaged there for some time. From March 2017 until November 2019 this car was my daily driver. It has been a joy to drive.”
So why is it for sale?
“I now have another car that is my daily driver and can’t justify having two cars,” the seller adds. “I have really enjoyed this car and it is time to pass her on.”
The pass-on asking price is $7,800.
The seller reports that recent work includes replacing the clutch master and slave cylinder, vacuum hose, spark plugs, distributor cap, ignition coil, radiator and support mounts, reverse lamps, oil valve gasket, fuel pump, front lower control arms and bushings, as well as a brake-line flush, wheel alignment,
The seller nots that the dash cover adds doesn’t fit quite right, the left-rear speaker doesn’t work, there is some minor damage to the left-rear quarter panel, some rust in the rocker panels, and “small blemishes consistent with use and age.”
The car has a manual sunroof, cold air conditioning, and a deluxe tool kit.
“She starts up well and there are no engine knocks or rattles,” the seller adds.
The car has a 1.8-liter 4-cylinder engine, rated at 101 horsepower when new, and 5-speed manual transmission, and has been driven only 66,700 miles since new.
It was May 29, 1960, that Stirling Moss and Lotus took Formula 1 in a new direction, Group Lotus says as it celebrates the 60th anniversary of that victory.
“It was a classic David vs Goliath story,” said Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder Colin Chapman.
“On 29 May 1960, Sir Stirling Moss drove his Lotus for almost three hours of punishing racing, battling through the rain on the streets of Monte Carlo to win the Monaco Grand Prix. It was the first victory in a Formula 1 world championship race for Lotus,” Group Lotus said in its news release.
Moss at Monaco in 1960
“Exactly 60 years after it all began, Lotus is paying tribute to the beginning of its truly remarkable Formula 1 history, which has seen legendary drivers such as Mario Andretti, Jim Clark, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Graham Hill, Ronnie Peterson and Ayrton Senna all claim wins for the Norfolk-based outfit.”
As part of its celebration, Lotus offers a podcast featuring an interview with motorsports journalist Damien Smith about the significance of the race for Lotus and Moss. The 50-minute podcast is available at iTunes, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher and ShoutEngine.
“The 1960 Monaco Grand Prix weekend got off to a flying start with Moss setting new lap records in practice and qualifying, earning him a spot on the front row of the grid and giving Lotus its first ever pole position,” Lotus says in its news release.
“But this was to be no ordinary ‘lights to flag’ victory. With eight drivers not qualifying, only 16 cars made it to the track. Up the hill from the start, Moss was passed by Jo Bonnier in the rear-engined BRM, who led for 17 laps until his brakes began to fade and he surrendered the lead to Moss.
Acclamation after victory
Monaco, 1960
“A few laps later, the rain began to fall and Jack Brabham overtook Bonnier for second place as the drivers slowed to cope with the worsening conditions. The wet track became the leveler, forcing supreme concentration as the drivers battled to remain on the tarmac. Exemplary car control and driver input were critical in such treacherous conditions.
“On the 43rd lap, Brabham was hounding Moss for the lead but succumbed to gearbox problems. With the rain gradually easing, Moss began to pull away from the pack until he had to pit on the 60th lap with a loose plug lead, allowing Bonnier to regain the lead.
“The race was one of attrition. Pools of water remained across the track surface and Graham Hill collided with the commentators’ box. But it was in this tricky period of the race where Moss used his finesse and car control skills to catch Bonnier and continue to victory, finishing ahead of the dueling Bruce McLaren and Phil Hill. It was the first chapter of an epic story for Lotus.”
And the first of the marque’s 81 Grand Prix victories. Lotus won the Constructors’ Championship seven times and its drivers won six titles.
Victory lap
At Monaco in 1960, Moss was driving a Lotus Type 18 entered by Rob Walker, heir to the Johnnie Walker whisky company.
“The Lotus Type 18, which Lotus founder Colin Chapman believed was the marque’s first proper Formula 1 car, was perfectly suited to the tight, twisting streets of Monaco,” Group Lotus proclaims. “The lightweight aluminum-bodied racer was agile and dynamic, taking the field – including a trio of entrants from Ferrari – by storm.”
After decades apart, Ford and Carroll Shelby reunited in the early 2000s, and one of the first projects of the reconstituted partnership was a 21st century Cobra. The Shelby Cobra concept debuted at the 2004 Detroit auto show, and is now owned by Chris Theodore, one of the designers who worked on it.
The car, Chris Theodore, and automotive appraiser Donald Osborne recently rolled into Jay Leno’s Garage to tell the story of the last Cobra.
The concept was a product of the retro craze that swept the auto
industry in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The styling was meant as a take on
the original Shelby Cobra,
which married Ford V8 engines with AC Ace chassis. While the reborn Cobra never
went into production, Ford subsequently launched versions of the GT and Mustang
with styling inspired by their 1960s predecessors.
Unlike most concept cars, this Cobra is fully driveable. Behind the massive oval air intake sits a 6.4-liter V10, an engine that, like the car itself, never made it to production. Other components were sourced from the Ford GT that the company had engineered at the time. Shelby likely didn’t have much engineering input, but he gave the project his stamp of approval, and drove the concept ahead of its auto show debut.
Designers didn’t want to do a carbon copy of the original Cobra, hence the concept’s blocky exterior surfaces, Theodore said. To this day, people mistake this 16-year-old design for a new car, he added.
The concept modernized the look of the original Cobra
Theodore, who was Ford’s vice
president of advanced products when the Cobra concept was built, purchased the
car at auction in 2017 for $825,000, but Osborne said the car is worth $1.5
million in its current condition. As a one-off concept, the Cobra isn’t
registered for street use. If that could be done, the car could be worth up to
$3 million, Osborne said.
If the Cobra had gone into production, it would have sold for around $99,000, Theodore noted. Ford ultimately shelved the concept, leaving the replica industry to handle demand for new Cobras.
Stay tuned through the end of this 5-minute video to see Jay drive the car on Southern California, right after they make clear not legal for the street.
This article was originally published by Motor Authority, an editorial partner of ClassicCars.com.
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum has set July 7 as its re-opening date under the Indiana governor’s guidelines and will extend its “From the Vault” exhibition of vehicles through mid-July. A new exhibit will be introduced August 1 and will run through June 20, 2021, the museum said.
But the Vault display isn’t going away. It only will be reduced in size as some of the cars return to storage while others emerge to join what likely will be a display of nearly a dozen vehicles through the rest of the year.
The museum’s executive director, Betsy Smith, also announced she will be leaving her position on July 3.
In the meantime, the museum offers three craft activities for families to do at home. The activities — building a Marmon Wasp, the Rubber Band Experiment, and Vrroom-noculars — are presented in how-to videos.
Mercedes offers special children’s activities
Mercedes museum offers special activities for children as part of its re-opening | Museum photo
The Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany, launches a new series of activities designed for children age 3 and older starting May 29.
“The long weeks of restrictions have meant that children and young people have also been particularly affected by the lack of shared experiences,” said museum head Monja Budke. “We are therefore delighted to be able to offer them a colorful and attractive program as of the coming Whit weekend.”
The new program is being done in line with new hygiene suggestions. For example, the children will keep the colored pencils they use for some activities and surfaces and other materials will be disinfected on a regular basis.
Children age 5 and older can make their own jewelry pendants or personalized steering wheels. Those age 7 and older can create a G-Class off-road vehicle from paper. Another activity is building a model 4-stroke engine from a kit.
Miles Through Time re-opens May 30
Museum opening in its new location | Museum photo
After a “soft” re-opening this past weekend, the Miles Through Time Automotive Museum in Clarkesville, Georgia, plans its grand re-opening from 11 a.m. until 6 p.m. May 30.
Plans call for a cruise-in car show at the museum’s new location, the Old Clarkesville Mill. For details, including the new social-distance parking plan for the car show, visit the museum’s website.
Italian museum re-opens May 30
The Museo Nazionale dell’Automobile di Torino re-opens to visitors on May 30.
Mustang scavenger hunt goes global
While closed because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Mustang Owner’s Museum in Concord, North Carolina, staged an online scavenger hunt and has awarded prizes to Mustang owners in the United States, Canada, England, Brazil and New Zealand.
Corvette track sets its schedule
With plans to re-open June 1, the National Corvette Museum Motorsports Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky, has announced a schedule of upcoming events for June, including track days, racing schools, Corvette Experiences and SCCA Regional points events.
In addition, each Tuesday beginning at 5 p.m. through September will feature “Trek at the Track,” a free program open to walkers, joggers, bicyclists and inline skaters.
While the motorsports facility opens June 1, the National Corvette Museum, located just across the interstate highway from the track, doesn’t re-open until June 8.
On May 28, Nissan staged a presentation entitled, “Nissan unveils transformation plan to prioritize sustainable growth and profitability.” But just when you were ready to yawn in boredom, it also shared on its YouTube channel a one-minute video, “Nissan Next: From A to Z” that included its next Z sports car.
Well, at least it included its next Z sports car in silhouette, along with all the other vehicles shown in shaded profile view.
The key is that there actually will be a next and new Z, and if you squint at the image, you can see that its silhouette apparently was inspired by the original 240Z.
As the business website cnet.com put it, “Today is a good day for Nissan Z fans, and really sports car fans in general. Today, Nissan let the world know the Z has a future within the automaker’s lineup.”
By the way, it is being widely reported that the new version will be the badged as the 400Z — that’s 400 as in the horsepower rating — and is designed to show Toyota what the Supra could have, should have been.
Meanwhile, Nissan’s “transformation plan” presentation set out the company’s 4-year plan to achieve sustainable growth, financial stability and profitability by the end of fiscal-year 2023. The scalable plan, involving cost-rationalization and business optimization, will shift the company’s strategy from its past focus on inflated expansion.”
“We will now concentrate on our core competencies and enhancing the quality of our business, while maintaining financial discipline and focusing on net revenue per unit to achieve profitability,” said chief executive Makoto Uchida. “This coincides with the restoration of a culture defined by ‘Nissan-ness’ for a new era.”
Part of the plan is to focus on sales in Japan, China and North America and the introduction of 12 new vehicles in the next 18 months.
“Nissan must deliver value for customers around the world,” Uchida added. “To do this, we must make breakthroughs in the products, technologies and markets where we are competitive. This is Nissan’s DNA.
“In this new era, Nissan remains people-focused, to deliver technologies for all people and to continue addressing challenges as only Nissan can.”
The Porsche 911 Targa with its integral roll bar was as much a product of necessity as creativity. Safety advocates in the 1960s were targeting convertibles as inherently dangerous at the same time that Porsche was planning to produce its new 911 with a drop top.
The imaginative solution was… viola!… a built-in roll bar shaped to enhance the styling of the 911, allowing the roof panel to be removed while providing rollover protection for the occupants. As an added bonus, the bar provided increased structural rigidity without adding much weight.
“The
Targa concept was the starting signal for a totally different kind of Porsche
driving experience and would be featured not only in all future 911
generations, but also subsequently in other cars, such as the 914 or the
Carrera GT,” Porsche says in a news release.
The 911 Targa was named for the Targa Floria road race in Italy, where Porsche had been notably successful. While Porsche patented the concept, the word “targa” became shorthand for an integral roll bar.
Porsche celebrates the development of the 911 Targa, which debuted in September 1965 at the International Motor Show in Frankfurt, as the German automaker introduces the targa concept for its latest 911 model, the 992.
Panel trucks have been around for over a century, and they are relatives in many ways to the sport utility vehicles that have become so abundant on modern roadways.
The idea behind the panel was to provide secure cargo-carrying capacity with a fully enclosed body. Ford was an early pioneer in the movement, and one such panel truck even at 81 years old is still putting in work.
While some panel trucks served as ambulances or even hearses, this Ford has spent the past six years as a road-going advertisement for a construction company. It’s a nicely kept example that went through a complete and professional restoration, according to the ad, and the workmanship in the body shows as “laser straight.” The truck would be ideal for pulling a trailer carrying a collector car while doubling as a business ad.
The asking price is $24,900, which would provide the next
owner with the opportunity to customize the truck with a new company logo.
Some of the key items that were addressed as part of the restoration, the seller says, as well as a few things that set this ’39 apart from others, include a rare dual-wheel configuration in back. Double delivery doors give full and convenient access to items stored in the cargo area, and a period-correct flathead V8 gives this truck the motivation it needs to move cargo in style. A 4-speed manual gearbox puts the power – all 85 horses of it – to the road.
This truck has a people-hauling capacity of just two on
leatherette front seats, but the utility of the large cargo area offers
abundant options for other cargo. Plus,
it’s a truck that won’t blend in with most delivery vans, and it would make a
fun conversation piece with vendors or other business partners.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
James Bond’s Aston Martin DB5, dubbed “the most-famous car in the world” after its appearance in the 1964 film Goldfinger, springs back to life as Aston Martin creates a limited run of DB5 Goldfinger Continuation cars.
Just 25 of the iconic DB5 coupes will be built, the company says, all in Birch Silver like the original 007 car, and also festooned with working replicas of the spy gadgets that so excited movie audiences of the 1960s.
An aluminum DB5 body under construction
According to Aston Martin, the James Bond equipment includes:
Exterior: • Rear smokescreen delivery system. • Rear simulated oil-slick delivery system. • Revolving number plates front and rear (triple plates). • Simulated twin front machine guns. • Bullet-resistant rear shield. • Battering rams front and rear. • Simulated tire slasher. • Removable passenger seat roof panel (optional equipment).
Interior: • Simulated radar-screen tracker map. • Telephone in driver’s door. • Gear knob actuator button. • Armrest and center console-mounted switchgear. • Under-seat hidden weapons/storage tray. • Remote control for gadget activation.
Some of those gadgets will be
illegal in many places in the US and around the world, with police most-likely
frowning on such antics as creating smoke screens or firing fake machine guns
in traffic. But still, Bond fans should
get plenty of kicks showing them off in the driveway.
“Each of the 25 new cars is being built to the highest possible quality using a blend of Sir David Brown-era old world craftsmanship,” Aston Martin said in a news release, “with the sympathetic application of modern engineering advancements and performance enhancements, alongside the integration of cutting-edge gadgets developed in association with Chris Corbould OBE, the special-effects supervisor who has worked on more than a dozen Bond films.”
Aston Martin recently began production of the Continuation cars
The DB5 Goldfinger series is part of Aston Martin’s Continuation program that began with the DB4 GT Continuation in 2017, with limited-edition cars hand-built at the premium automaker’s factory in Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire.
Most of the DB5 Goldfinger cars have been sold pre-production, with a price tag of around $3.4 million. First deliveries are scheduled for later this year.
There was no
word in the news release about one of the most-famous of 007 gadgets, the
passenger ejection seat that sent bad guys soaring through the roof. After the recent management turmoil within
the company, that might have been an unwelcome addition.
It was back in 1970 that General Motors opened its British proving grounds, Millbrook, in Bedfordshire, where the facility was dedicated to the testing and development of Vauxhall and Bedford vehicles. Now owned by Spectris, the Millbrook Providing Grounds is celebrating its 50th anniversary, albeit on a lower-key, pandemic basis so far.
Spectris, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange, is a supplier of precision instrumentation and controls. The company was founded as Fairey Aviation in 1915.
Then…… and now
Millbrook became part of Group Lotus, itself part of GM, in 1988 and at the time the facilities were made available to other brands and suppliers. In 2015, Millbrook added winter vehicle and tire-testing facilities in northern Finland and in 2015 became part of Spectris.
In 2018, Spectris acquired Detroit-based electric-vehicle driveline test system Revolutionary Engineering, and opened a new Millbrook Revolutionary Engineering site in California. In 2019, it acquired the Leyland Technical Center in Lancashire and opened the UK’s largest propulsion systems testing, validation and certification facility, and a battery-testing program. It also added an Autonomous Village for the testing of connected and autonomous vehicles.
Facility originally was used for testing and development of Vauxhall cars and Bedford trucks
“Millbrook’s vision is to be a leading global provider of independent and impartial test services and test systems to the markets that it serves,” Spectrus said in its anniversary news release.
“It works with customers in the automotive, transport, tire, petrochemical and defense industries and provides them with a broad range of test services to support the development of new vehicles.”
Added Alex Burns, Millbrook president: “This anniversary is a great opportunity to reflect on the extraordinary pace of development of automotive technologies and to recognize the investment that the industry is making to promote cleaner and safer transport in the future.”
Silverstone Auctions staged its first “live online” collector car auction and reports a sell-through rate of 89 percent with £4.64 million (nearly $5.69 million) in overall sales.
Topping the auction were a 1962 Jaguar D-type short-nose re-creation that sold for £390,500 ($478,525) and a 1984 Peugeot 205 T16 Group B that brought £306,000 ($374,980; Silverstone reports hammer prices that do not include sales commission).
Peugeot Group B rally car sells for $374,890
Nick Whale, Silverstone Auctions Managing Director commented: “We can’t quite believe it! For our first live online sale, the results have been truly outstanding.”
A 1961 Mk2 Jaguar 3.8 with manual transmission driven only 20,400 miles since new sold for £93,500 ($114,577), which was double its pre-auction estimated value.
Jay Kay, front man for the rock band Jamiroquai, consigned several cars to the auction, including a 1987 BMW M3 E30 Competition that sold for £92,950 ($115,128).
