One of the highlights of the car show calendar in Michigan is the annual Orphans Car Show in Ypsilanti. Except for Chevrolet Corvairs, which were built at the nearby Willow Run assembly plant, the event is restricted to vehicles produced by automakers no longer in business.
Perhaps inspired by attending that show for many years, my trip through the docket on AutoHunter, the online auction platform driven by ClassicCars.com, features a trio of automotive orphans.
Vintage vehicles still owned by the original buyer are rare, and this 1976 Pontiac Firebird Formula 400 is one of them. Yes, it’s been driven more than 121,000 miles, but figuring that car’s age, that works out to fewer than 2,700 miles a year.
Except for the driver’s door, where some bodywork was done 20 years ago, the paint is original, as are the “Formula” decals. The driver’s seat has been reupholstered, while the seller reports the back seats have hardly been used.
The California-based car is propelled by its original 400cid V8 engine, linked to a 4-speed manual gearbox manipulated by a Hurst shifter. The engine exhales through angled pipes just below the rear quarter panels rather than beneath the rear bumper. The seller notes that the car’s original fuel tank and catalytic converter have been replaced.
The car came with an 8-track audio player, but that has been replaced with a digital system with a period-correct look. The car has factory air conditioning that needs to be recharged.
Not only is this a late-production 1988 Pontiac Fiero, but it reportedly has been driven less than 24,000 miles since it was brand new.
There were issues that caused General Motors to discontinue Pontiac’s mid-engine sports coupe, but they’d been fixed by the car’s final year, though the Fiero’s fate already had been decided. As was too typical of GM in that era, the car was finally correct, but production was ending nonetheless.
As GM was pulling the plug, a Fiero fan sent a letter to the editor of AutoWeek magazine, a poem that began “Fiero, Fiero, you left us too soon…” The poet was right, and so was the car, at last. R.I.P.
This Fiero has a 2.8-liter rear-mounted V6 engine, which was updated for the 1988 model year, and is linked to a 5-speed manual gearbox. The seller has owned the car for 5 years, during which the car was mounted on new alloy wheels (and is being sold with the original 15-inch factory wheels).
The car has air conditioning, power windows, a removable glass sunroof, dealer-installed luggage rack, and an AM/FM/cassette audio, though the seller notes that the sound quality from the front speakers is poor.
The AMX looked a lot like the AMC Javelin, American Motors’ answer to the Ford Mustang and Chevrolet Camaro, but it was built on a shortened chassis and powered by a 390cid V8, so it was more akin to a Shelby Cobra and a mere Mustang.
This AMX has won awards at AMC owners national events and, speaking of owners, has been owned by the same person for 30 years.
Its rebuilt 390 V8 is linked to a 4-speed manual transmission and has a limited-slip differential. It also has the “Go Pack” that includes front disc brakes, heavy-duty cooling, dual chrome exhaust, Torque Thrust wheels and racing stripes.
Other features include power steering, a tilt steering column and tan leather interior.
The car had been disassembled and put into storage by its original owner, but that work was done after the seller gained ownership and was done by the president of the national AMC owners club. The car originally was painted in Bittersweet orange but was restored in Matador red. It also came out of the factory with an automatic transmission, but that was replaced by the original owner.
Two-time Olympic skiing champion Aksel Lund Svindal holds a copy of the Truöl photo
It’s an image that has become iconic. In 1960, soon after the road through the Flexen Pass near the Austrian ski resort of Zürs had been cleared of building-deep snow, photographer Hans Truöl staged a photograph that had skier Egon Zimmermann flying through the air above a Porsche 356 B.
“The Jump: On taking a shortcut,” the photograph was labeled.
Decades later, and in conjunction with the 400th issue of Christophorus, the company magazine, Porsche has re-staged the stunt, this time featuring two-time Olympic skiing champion Aksel Lund Svindal flying above a vintage 356 as well as the new electric-powered Porsche Taycan.
The event is also featured in the September issue of the magazine 9:11.
“Aksel Lund Svindal and the Porsche Taycan stand for the same values as Egon Zimmermann’s jump over the 356 did in 1960: Athleticism, courage, joie de vivre – and of course with the most innovative sports car of its time,” Lutz Meschke, deputy chairman of the executive board of Porsche AG, is quoted in the company’s news release. “All of this is more important than ever for making a difference in the face of global competition.”
A vintage 356 joins the recent photo shoot
“The new version,” Porsche adds in its news release, “symbolizes the mindset of the Stuttgart-based sports car manufacturer and indicates how Porsche interprets future viability — daring to try new things and boldly forging ahead, always trusting in itself to go that little bit further than others in order to discover the best solution.”
Added Lutz Meschke, himself a passionate skier: “The image of the jump is also a metaphor for the risks you have to take in order to survive as a business. The Porsche Jump is a powerful symbol of the determination with which we at Porsche pursue our dreams.”
Although the identity of the photographer taking the most recent skier-in-flight-over-cars shot was not included in the news release, Porsche did say the Porsche Museum will produce high-grade art prints of the images for sale later this year.
Like Svindal, Zimmermann was an Olympic downhill skiing champion, though he trained as a professional chef.
“I knew Egon personally and also feel connected to him because we both had competition number 7 when we won the Olympics,” Svindal is quoted. “It was my turn a mere 54 years later in 2018.”
“This is the story of a little girl who wished very hard and very long for a Corvette, and finally saw her wish come true. Unlike the fairy tales she heard as a baby, however, there was no fairy godmother to grant her wish. What she did have was a very determined mom— and a pile of aluminum cans.”
On September 15, mom and daughter were at the Corvette museum to take delivery of a new C8
The above is the lede paragraph of a story from the January/February 2006 issue of America’s Sports Car magazine, published by the National Corvette Museum,and it’s a story that bears retelling — and updating, which the museum has done in a recent newsletter.
Back in 1984, Brian Ginn and Cheryl Rowland were medics and part of the team in the Army Reserves’ 412th Medical Detachment medivac helicopter that was involved in an amid-air collision and plummeted 75 feet to the ground. Two people died. Cheryl was seriously injured, but would resume a normal life before her injuries again took their toll years later.
In the meantime, in 1991, a daughter was born, and named Jessica. The couple would divorce a year later. Cheryl worked at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, and found a college student, Rachel Wright, to serve as babysitter.
The Wrights were a family that drove Corvettes, and on a daily basis, Rachel would put Jessica into one of the family’s sports cars for the drive down a long gravel path to the mailbox.
“They had no idea the impression this was making on Jessica,” Cheryl said. “How many 2-year-old girls ask for a Corvette for their birthday?”
Mom and daughter back in 2004 when they bought their first Corvette, a second-hand 2001 model
Turning cans into cash for a car
So, for her third birthday, Jessica unwrapped a Corvette, albeit a small metal version that Cheryl had purchased for her.
“Later I noticed she wasn’t playing with it and (I) asked why,” Cheryl recalled. “She told me, ‘Mom, we can’t ride in it’.”
Cheryl’s response was to suggest that Jessica save her money by collecting aluminum cans to turn in at a recycling center, and to save her money to buy a real Corvette.
Perhaps as inspiration, Cheryl took Jessica, then age 4, to the newly opened National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky. A year later, they toured the nearby Corvette assembly plant. They built a Corvette model, collected die-cast Corvettes, and identified every Corvette they saw while driving.
Later, as Cheryl’s health declined, she decided not to wait too long to buy that real Corvette, and in 2004 Dan DaPonte at Bachman Chevrolet in Louisville helped her find a 2001 coupe she could afford. To pay for the car, Jessica contributed the money she’d saved from 10 years of can collecting.
Fast forward a few years… Jessica’s still driving that ’01 Corvette and Cheryl has a C6 of her ow. But on September 15, the 37th anniversary of the helicopter crash, they were back at the museum, this time to take delivery of a special-ordered 2021 mid-engine C8.
You likely have heard about the Stutz Bearcat, the Indianapolis-built car that dominated American motorsports in the early years of the 20th Century and which Erwin George “Cannon Ball” Baker drove coast to coast in a record-setting 11 days, 7 hours and 15 minutes in 1915.
But do you recall the Blakely Bearcat?
This Bearcat was a kit car and one of them, a 1973 Blakely Bearcat, is the Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com, where it is being advertised for sale by its private owner in Franklin, Tennessee.
Richard Paul “Dick” Blakely enrolled at Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana, to study mechanical engineering but, notes blakelyhistory.com, he proved to be so advanced in his knowledge of the field that the school helped him transfer to the University of Leeds in the UK.
It apparently was during his years in England, where Colin Chapman was building Lotus Sevens, that Blakely got the bug to build his own sports car. He returned to the US and worked at J.I. Case, earning patents for his work on construction machines, and then with Rockford Screw Products. It was in Rockford, Illinois, that Blakely debuted his first cars, a run of 15 Blakely Bantams, which were kit cars based on Ford Pinto components.
Next up by Blakely and his engineering partner Denny Myelle – they had earned praise for the Bantam from Road & Track magazine – was the Bearcat, a sports car with a tube-frame chassis, a cockpit that would fit two tall occupants, a trunk, locking doors and a convertible top.
Subsequent models would include the Bearcat S, Bernardi, Hawk, Ceres (a 3-wheeler), Baron and E-Class.
“In the early ‘70s, Blakely manufactured a kit designed to utilize the Ford Mustang (II) drivetrain and front suspension,” the seller notes in the Bearcat’s advertisement on ClassicCars.com. “This example is the Bearcat and uses the durable Ford 2.3L 4-cylinder, 4-speed (manual) transmission and rear end.
“Boasting the original purple metal flake body, ‘Blake’ was purchased and then embarked on a drivetrain and interior restoration to make him a dependable driver and a Cars and Coffee conversation piece.”
The seller said the car was mechanically refreshed in 2015 and afterward got new leather, carpet and sound system for its cockpit.
“Today, Blake is eager to start, quickly coming to life when the key is turned while making a very pleasant sports car gurgle,” the seller adds. “He is a true roadster with no top. The 2.3L delivers plenty of acceleration in this less-than 2,000 lb sports car.
“If you like getting attention in the car you drive, Blake is your car!.”
Blake is offered for $15,000.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
Featured on AutoHunter, the online auction platform driven by ClassicCars.com, is a preserved 1963 Studebaker Avanti that’s finished in Gold over a reupholstered red and ivory vinyl interior.
“The Avanti model launched into production in 1962 in Studebaker’s South Bend, Indiana assembly plant as a personal luxury car,” the auction house notes on the car’s listing. “A total production run of fewer than 6,000 units rolled off the assembly line over the subsequent years.”
This second-year example is reported to have a straight body with good gloss throughout with chrome front and rear bumpers, bright window molding and door handles and a large greenhouse.
The interior houses bucket seats with Avanti embroidery split by a center console, an ivory dash and wrapped steering wheel and air conditioning.
Under the forward-hinged hood sits a 289cid Jet-Thrust V8 topped with a chrome-finished air cleaner and mated to a rebuilt Borg Warner Power-Shift 3-speed automatic transmission.
The odometer shows 6,000 miles but the seller believes the true mileage to be around 106,000 miles.
This Avanti’s auction ends September 18 at 1:27 p.m. PDT.
Visit the car’s AutoHunter listing for more information and gallery of photos.
A new museum devoted to cars created by Carroll Shelby opens in mid-October in Irvine, California, when Ted and Rae Segerstrom welcome visitors to the Segerstrom Shelby Event Center and Museum.
The 41,000-square-foot facility was purchased by the Segerstroms in 2016 and renovations began in 2019. More than 80 vehicles will be on display.
“It has been a dream of ours since 2009 to create a place of celebration, education and preservation of Shelbys, and we are extremely excited to open the doors to the public and share the love and passion we have for Carroll Shelby, his cars, antique neon signs and gas pumps,” the couple is quoted in a news release.
“We first met Carroll in January 2004. We were fortunate to see Carroll at various events throughout the years and get to know this iconic man. We are thrilled to share our collection with his fans, performance car enthusiasts and younger generations who are yet to learn how Carroll shaped the history of the performance cars and automotive industries.”
Shelby autograph
?ed and Rae Segerstrom
The Segerstrom collection is reported to be the fourth largest of Shelby vehicles. Among those moving to the museum are three low production serial number Cobras, including 1002; the only two 1968 1/2 GT500KR convertibles in Meadowlark Yellow with black tops and interiors, 4-speed manual transmissions and air conditioning; a fully restored 1966 GT350 factory drag car; the only remaining 1968 1/2 GT500KR Hertz convertible; the 1969 GT500 in Jade Black and with a Drag Pack; and an early production 1999 Series I CSX5000.
A grand-opening gala is scheduled for October 14, with the doors opening to the public on a Thursday through Sunday basis from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. starting October 18, and with additional morning hours for school tour groups.
Ted Segerstrom is part of the fourth generation of a Southern California farming family that became involved in real estate development. He and Rae also have become involved with the Carrol Shelby Foundation and the Shriners Hospitals for Children.
Saratoga welcomes second wave of Porsches
The second installment of the Saratoga Automobile Museum’s exhibition of Porsches from the collection of Steven Harris has opened and runs through Spring 2022, according to the facility in upstate New York.
The first portion of the exhibit was termed “Rare Air” and included 16 air-cooled Porsches. This second installment is called “Porsche Rennsport” and includes 14 RS models, from a 1973 911 Carrera RS to a 2019 991.2 911 GT2 RS.
Also featured is photography of the cars by James Lipman.
Museums staging 007 exhibits
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles and the National Motor Museum in Beaulieu, England, each is doing special exhibitions in conjunction with the release of the new James Bond movie No Time To Die.
In LA, “Bond in Motion” opens September 25 and will include more than 30 cars, motorcycles, boats, submarines and helicopters, “the largest official gathering of vehicles from James Bond films in the U.S.,” the museum notes.
The exhibit at Beaulieu is “Bond in Motion — No Time to Die,” which opens October 15 and features cars, gadgets and costumes from the new film. Among the highlights will be a full-scale model of the folding-wing glider, suspended above the silver birch Aston Martin DB5. Also on display will be the DBS Superleggera driven in the film by the new agent, Nomi.
ACD Museum gets roof-repair grant
ACD roof leaks in at least 80 places | Museum photo
In 2018, the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum launched a $5 million capital campaign to address the needed preservation and rehabilitation of its historic building in northeast Indiana. That campaign reached its halfway mark with the recent announcement of a $500,000 grant from the federal Save America’s Treasures Preservation Fund, which gets its money not from taxes but from continental shelf oil leases. The ACD was eligible for the grant, administered by the National Park Service, because its building, former home to the Auburn Automobile Company, is a National Historic Landmark.
The museum said its roof leaks and new HVAC equipment is needed.
According to KPCNews.com, work on the roof will begin in March and run through September 2022. The local news outlet reported that museum staff has been using 80 buckets to catch water leaking into the building’s third floor.
“We actually have to arrange the cars and artifacts around the leaks,” museum leader Brandon Anderson is quoted.
Gilmore Garage Works offers training
Automotive paint application among the skills taught at Gilmore Garage Works
There’s more on the Gilmore Car Museum campus in Hickory Corners, Michigan, than red barns full of classic cars. There’s also a building that is home to the Gilmore Garage Works, an automotive education program for area high school students.
With backing from the Baum Family Foundation, the program offers free classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings beginning September 21 and this year will be led by John Chapman, a mechanical engineer who recently retired after 35 years at Eaton Corporation where he designed, validated and launched OEM engine parts.
“This educational program not only nurtures a passion for history and all things mechanical, but introduces these students to a unique environment that gives them guided, hands-on experiences in a fully-equipped shop setting, and introduces them to tools, techniques, and safety standards across subjects like restoration, repair, maintenance, engine building, welding, fabrication, electrical wiring, and paint and body,” the museum notes in its announcement.
“The experiences may motivate students to pursue further education, training, and a career in the skilled trades, or might provide a newfound confidence that ignites a lifelong passion as a DIYer in the collector car hobby.
“Just as important are the life skills these students learn from the work and from their mentors, such as communication, collaboration, pride and self-confidence. These skills will endure as the longer lasting benefits of this program.”
Michelotti World opens October 6
It seems fitting that it wouldn’t be difficult to confuse the names of Michelotti and Michelangelo, as both were outstanding Italian sculptors, albeit in very different times. From October 6 through January 9, MAUTO, the National Museum of Automobiles in Torino, Italy, will stage an exhibition it’s calling “Michelotti World.”
“Giovanni Michelotti is one of the most admired stylists in the world,” the museum notes. “His style is among the brightest of the 1950s-70s, with notable examples even during the years between the war. Some brands (including BMW) still consider his contribution indelible today.
“On the centenary of his birth, MAUTO sets up an important solo show dedicated to the designer from Turin. For the first time, a large portion of the Michelotti archive will be shown to the public. Sketches, technical drawings, shape plans, scale models will be visible at MAUTO, together with a selection of the most representative cars. These, together with paper documents, unpublished films and an evocative scenographic layout, will tell the professional and human story of the designer.”
Michelotti worked at Vignale, Bertone and Ghia and did vehicle designs for Cunningham and BMW, among many others. The exhibit is being staged with cooperation from Michelotti’s son, Edgardo, who provided access to the family archives.
Special events this weekend
“Stirling Moss, The Champion that Wasn’t” is the theme for the September 18 Demo Day at Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia. Cars taking part in the parking lot exercise session include a 1953 Jaguar C-type and 1956 D-type, 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing, 1956 Maserati 300S and 1958 Aston Martin DBR1.
The Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, hosts a cars and coffee cruise on September 18, beginning at 7 a.m.
The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum in northeast Indiana stages its third “Duesies & Movies” drive-in theater event of the season September 18, showing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
“Giugiaro — Designer of the Century” is the topic of presentations from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. September 18 at the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, where several Giugiaro-designed vehicles also will be on display.
The California Automobile Museum in Sacramento hosts its monthly Third Saturday car show on September 18.
1917 Fokker DR.I triplane debuts | Museum photo
It’s Foreign Auto Festival weekend September 18-19 at the Owls Head Transportation Museum in Maine, with events both days from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. In addition to the featured car club — the Down East Land Rover Club — the event will include the debut of the museum’s 1917 Fokker DR.I triplane and several biplane demonstrations.
Mark your calendar
The Seal Cove Auto Museum in Maine hosts a program at 6 p.m. on September 23 with author Jeff Mahl presenting “The Great Auto Race – New York to Paris 1908.”
The annual Saratoga Motorcar Auction at the Saratoga Automobile Museum in upstate New York is scheduled for September 24-25.
In conjunction with the new James Bond movie, No Time To Die, the Petersen Automotive Museum stages “the largest official gathering of vehicles from James Bond films in the U.S.,” with the exhibition opening September 25.
Paul Page and his book, Hello, I’m Paul Page. It’s Race Day in Indianapolis, will be at Autobooks-Aerobooks in Burbank, California, from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on September 25.
The Saratoga Automobile Museum in upstate New York hosts its Fall Auto Show on September 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the parking lot of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
With the SCCA Runoffs taking over the track, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum will have altered hours from September 30 through October 3, will close at 1 p.m. on September 30 and will be closed all day October 1 and 2.
CruiseFest on Fulton Avenue, an annual event that benefits the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento, is scheduled for October 2, from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Special features of the cruise this year are Save Mart’s 12-foot tall, 454cid Chevy V8-powered “mega-motorized shopping cart,” and the 7th of 14 officially licensed replica Batmobiles, this one owned by Bob Goldsand of Meadow View, California.
AutoFest 2021 is scheduled for October 3 at the Newport Car Museum in Rhode Island.
The Saratoga Automobile Museum in upstate New York hosts a private screening of No Time To Die at the Bow Tie Cinema theater at 7 p.m. on October 7.
The Saratoga Automobile Museum in upstate New York is the site October 9 for the 10th Vintage at Saratoga gathering of BMWs produced in the 20th Century.
The Saratoga Automobile Museum in upstate New York hosts a Corvette car show from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. on October 13.
The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, resumes its annual “Night at the Museum” fundraiser on October 6 with a theme of “Cars and Country Music.” Troy Engle and Southern Skies will perform at the event that serves as the kickoff to “Fall Hershey.”
The Newport Car Museum stages its German Car Weekend on October 9-10 with five marque car clubs present and with discounted admission for people showing a key to a German vehicle.
Herzog Motorsports, the Missouri-based racing team that has won in a variety of events, from off-road racing in Baja to Jimmie Johnson’s transition to stock car racing, will be honored October 15-16 in a special event at the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California, hosts its 30th anniversary All British Motor Show from 8 a.m. until 2 p.m. on October 17.
School half term in the UK means special youth-oriented programs October 23-31 at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon, where Professor Pickle and Doctor Pumpkin will share the science of lights and mirrors.
The British Motor Museum at Gaydon stages the Great British Model Railway Show on October 30 and 31, featuring 30 scale-model railroad layouts in various gauges.
The Tunnels to Towers Foundation’s 9/11 Never Forget mobile exhibit will be at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, November 3-9.
The new Savoy Automobile Museum in Cartersville, Georgia, midway between Chattanooga and Atlanta, has announced December 8 as its opening day for visitors. The museum is on a 35-acre site and includes three buildings with 65,000-square-feet of display space and a cafe. It is part of the Georgia Museums Inc., which includes the Booth Western Art Museum, Bartow History Museum and Tellus Science Museum.
Does your local car museum have special events or exhibitions planned? Let us know. Email [email protected].
Among an impressive docket of rare Fords crossing the auction stage at Barrett-Jackson’s inaugural Houston auction September 16-18 is a Competition Series 2019 Ford GT Lightweight with only 8 miles on the odometer.
“The Ford GT became a racing champion in 1966 and then again 50 years later when it won its class at Le Mans,” Craig Jackson, Barrett-Jackson chairman, is quoted in the auction’s new release. “And thanks to the hit film Ford v Ferrari, the Ford GT has become a pop culture icon worldwide.”
This one-owner 2019 example is equipped with the 600A Lightweight Package that includes special graphics, 20-inch gloss exposed carbon-fiber wheels, titanium lug nuts, titanium exhaust, polycarbonate rear engine hatch, and an Alcantara-wrapped carbon-fiber steering wheel.
Powered by a 647-horsepower, 3.5-liter twin-turbo EcoBoost V6 engine linked to a 7-speed Getrag dual-clutch automatic transmission, the GT launched to 60 miles per hour in under 3 seconds and reaches a top speed of 216 miles per hour.
The car is finished in Shadow Black paint with carbon-fiber stripes and exposed carbon fiber trim over a carbon-fiber accented interior.
“The 2019 Ford GT Lightweight crossing our Houston block builds on that winning DNA and was developed for the serious track enthusiast,” Jackson noted. “This truly rare performance car will lead an epic docket of Ford-powered collectible vehicles at Barrett-Jackson, ranging from custom Mustangs to a trio of second-generation Ford GTs, all available at no reserve.”
2006 Mark II Ford GT
2005 Ford GT
2006 Ford GT
Included in the trio of second-generation Ford GTs is a black 2006 Mark II Ford GT that’s number 688 of 2,011 built for that year, a Torch Red 2005 GT with driven only 6,350 miles, and a 2006 GT that’s one of two finished in Speed Yellow with a factory stripe delete.
“When racing icon and native Texan Carroll Shelby put his imprint on Ford vehicles in the 1960s, he inspired generations of racers and designers,” added Barrett-Jackson president Steve Davis. “Those enthusiasts continue to honor that winning legacy by restoring and tailoring various Ford vehicles to their own tastes, and our Houston docket features many prime examples of that passion.”
1967 Ford Mustang Eleanor Tribute edition
Also on the docket are two officially licensed and certified “Eleanor” builds. Other Ford Mustangs offered include (with descriptions by Barrett-Jackson):
1968 Shelby GT500 – Beautifully restored and presented in the original color of Candy Apple Red with white rocker stripes and equipped with a 428cid Police Interceptor V8 engine and a Ford C6 3-speed automatic transmission.
1968 Shelby GT500
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 428 SCJ – A matching-numbers Mustang finished in Champagne Gold and powered by a 428ci V8 engine with a 3-speed automatic transmission. Come with an Elite Marti Report documenting it as the only car with its set of options.
1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1 428 SCJ
1967 Ford Mustang Custom Coupe – A one-off custom that underwent a professional restoration and Pro-Touring build with modern technology added throughout.
1967 Mustang Custom Coupe
1965 ford Mustang GT K-Code – A true GT and a true K-code factory high-performance model, this 1965 Mustang was the recipient of a full, correct restoration accounts for less than one percent of the Mustang production from 1965 to 1967.
(Editor’s note: During the month of September, we’re publishing a series of articles about selling a collector car. Today, Darin Roberge, president of Motorwerks Marketing, shares his top tips for taking great photographs of your collector vehicles.)
Photos can make or break a sale. It’s that simple, especially in today’s often long-distance, online collector car marketplace environment.
Over the last several years, the team at Motorwerks has worked with a huge number of collector car sellers to create print and digital advertisements, more than two dozen auction catalogs, and tens of thousands of ads on online marketplaces. Through all of this, I frequently hear the same series of complaints when things don’t go as planned:
“I have an excellent car. It’s documented, vetted and should bring all the money. Why didn’t it sell/why isn’t my phone ringing?”
Nine times out of ten, the reason is clear — the pictures are horrible.
Sure, photos serve an informative purpose in classified ads, auction catalogs, etc., but the best, most successful auction houses, retailers, and online markets know that they also create mental ownership. Quality images that are aesthetically pleasing elicit emotion and put buyers in a position where they see value.
How inclined are you to assume a car is well taken care of and well-maintained if it’s surrounded by two inches of rock salt or wet gravel and a bunch of nasty, brown snow? If I see this kind of image in an ad, I immediately shake my head and pass it by.
But what if you aren’t a professional photographer? Is all hope lost? Of course not. Obviously, there will always be a difference between the photos produced by a pro with years of experience and expensive equipment and those shot by a seller with a smartphone, but you can take great images if you follow some simple guidelines:
Make sure your vehicle looks as nice as possible
Unless you are trying for that “barn find” look, spider webs, dried-up flies and random hunks of biological debris are not going to increase the value of your collector car.
Simply put, wash your car. This means making sure the paint is as shiny as you can get it, your interior is at minimum loosely detailed and your engine bay doesn’t look like the aftermath of some kind of offshore environmental disaster.
Be aware of your surroundings
One of the most overlooked elements in taking a quality picture is the background.
Visually complex backgrounds, like walls of vines, or rows of trees, look nice, but they tend to cast shadows and reflections. The same can be said for grass. Grass reflects a lot, and it eats into the shape of your tires. Stick to pavement or hard-packed dirt.
What if your car is a concours winner? By all means, include photos of your car on the concours lawn if applicable, but don’t use these as your main images, especially because it’s difficult to keep pictures like that clear of distracting background items like people and signs.
Also make sure your pictures are also free of anything else that may be deemed distracting or undesirable. Unless it demonstrates prominence, avoid including people in your photos.
The car, the whole car, and nothing but the car
For whatever reason, sellers of collector and specialty cars seem to have real difficulty getting entire cars into single shots. I’m all about detail pictures, I’m talking about the ads that have 14 pictures, and none managing to get the car in the frame from bumper to bumper. For the sake of argument, I’m only speaking to exterior shots; as with engine and interior shots, this is not required.
Here are the dirty half dozen photo angles (as we refer to them at Motorwerks) that every car ad should always have:
Front ¾
Straight on nose shot
Straight on profile (driver side)
Straight on profile (passenger side)
Straight on rear
Rear ¾
Another commonly overlooked item on this token is the space surrounding the car. Make sure you leave some. Always give your car a decent amount of room to breathe in pictures and send high-resolution pictures that can be cropped if required to create that border-to-border type hero shot you are ultimately trying to accomplish.
Mother nature should be considered
As a rule of thumb, shoot with the sun behind you. The idea is to avoid glare and heavy shadowing. Your best bet is to shoot when the sun is most balanced and least extreme. This means that the ideal times are in the morning before the sun reaches its peak and late in the day when the sun begins to make its exit. Think between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and then again between approximately 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. Of course, this depends on the time of year and where you live or work, but these are good basic guidelines to work from.
Quality is king
This one is easy. Don’t shoot low-resolution photos — period. A grainy stretched-out photo that is void of any discernible details helps nobody.
You never want to try and present a collector car in a photo that’s less than 1500 pixels wide and less than 1.5 MB in total size. Many online listing services at this point won’t even accept images smaller than this, so take the time and make sure you aren’t compressing your photos or using a camera that isn’t up to snuff.
Special note for Apple users: Beware of emailing the pictures you take with your Apple devices from your Apple devices. Apple email applications, for whatever reason, compress absolutely everything, especially if you try and paste it into the body of an email. Try and find another way to send if you are an Apple person (I suggest Dropbox, Gmail, WeTransfer or one of Apple’s third-party applications).
Get low
You want to create photos that are versatile, yet at the same time, make your car look awesome. This is accomplished by shooting from the ground up with your wheels pointed in an aesthetically pleasing direction.
Pseudo street-level angles, especially on your front ¾, rear, ¾, profile and nose shots just all-around look so much better. Not only does it look way better than some half-crooked shot taken facing downward from the center of your chest, but they are also dramatically more usable from an advertising standpoint.
Take the time and concentrate on how the angles of your photos will be perceived. It really does matter.
Mecum Auctions reports an 86 percent sell-through rate and sales of $36.8 million from its recent Dallas Collector Car Auction, with 946 vehicles sold at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.
The top sale was $660,000 for a 2019 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ that had been driven only 3,150 miles (sales price include buyer’s fee).
Three Fords were among the top-10 sales — a 1970 Mustang Boss 429 going for $357,500, a 1968 GT500CR Mustang 900C bringing $335,500, and a replica 1966 GT40, one of six RCR replicas built for use in the Ford v Ferrari movie, selling for $203,500.
The ’68 GT500CR was consigned from the Triple B Collection, which sent 20 vehicles to the sale, where they sold for a collective $1.16 million. Another such grouping, 21 cars from Rick Williams Collection, sold for a combined $920,700, Mecum reported.
2019 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ tops sales at Dallas
Seems fitting, doesn’t it, that the revival of the California Spyder would take place at the Goodwood Revival gathering taking place this weekend in the UK. British-based GTO Engineering says it will reveal the third model in its Revival series, the California Spyder Revival, on its stand September 17.
However, it also provided these photos of the car in advance:
“Originally designed by Pininfarina and magnificently completed by Scaglietti, the California Spyder is without a doubt one of the best collaborations to ever leave the gates of Maranello,” GTO Engineering said in its pre-show news release. “A total of 106 California Spyders were produced by Ferrari in SWB and LWB guise, making it one of the rarest models to be made.
“Today, the original vehicles that remain are invariably only found in the highest level of specialist collections, rarely seen on the open road or unchanged from their original factory specifications.
In contrast, the California Spyder Revival byGTO Engineeringcan be customized, whether that be upgraded engines, gearboxes or interior and exterior colour options.”
GTO Engineering will offer its Spyder Revival cars with 3.0-, 3.5- or 4.0-liter engines mated to 4- or 5-speed manual transmissions.
It adds that each car will be hand-built, “a process that takes over 1,500-man hours.”
The revival cars are based on the 1960 Ferrari version, GTO Engineering noted. It previously has done revival versions of the 250 SWB and the 250 Testa Rossa.
Pricing of the GTO Engineering California Spyder Revival models range from £750,000 to £850,000 ($1.0375 million to $1.176 million), “depending on donor vehicle, final specification, local taxes and shipping,” the company added. Deliveries are scheduled to begin at the end of 2021.
