Category: Classic Sportscar

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Classic Sportscar For Sale Porsche

Everyone has a favorite.

And this is mine. The Porsche 550 Spyder is the slipperiest little roadster I could ever want. One has recently come available – now i only need $1.6million. donations?

This particular example was piloted by American Zora Arkus-Duntov and Frenchman Auguste Veuillet to a class win in the infamous ’55 24 Hours of LeMans. For that race, this Spyder chassis #550-0048 averaged over 137kph fitted with a 1100cc motor. Smaller than the typical 1500cc 4-cam. This particular year’s 1100cc class was fairly heavily contested, with Coventry-Climax entries from Kieft, Lotus, and Cooper.
550-0048 also went on to take an overall win at the Swedish Grand Prix with Richard von Frankenberg at the wheel. An astonishing win, besting much more powerful cars including a Mercedes 300SL, Jags, and Maseratis. You can see why these early racing models earned Porsche the “Giant Killer” moniker.

Later, the car was campaigned in the ’56 Mille Miglia and was road tested by Road & Track. For these, it’s engine was upgraded to the 4-cam 1500cc. The car then fell out of the public eye, reappearing now on Kidston’s site. The Kidston listing for this car says she is supplied with 2 engines – is it both the LeMans class winning 1100 and the magnificent 4-cam?

This photo shows 550-0048 bearing racing number 49 in the wet conditions of the ’55 Le Mans. Could you ever want anything more beautiful for your garage?
Be sure to check out the informational pdf at Kidston for complete details on this example, including many more period photos of 550-0048 in action here.

Thanks to Octane for posting about this marvelous car.
Update: 550-0048 sold at Coys’ Légende et Passion auction in Monté Carlo on the 10th of May for an astounding £708,338. Congratulations to her new caretaker and I hope you get her on the track some time.

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Classic Sportscar Event Video

1964 South Bend Region SCCA Autocross

This is the great thing about the internet in general, and YouTube in particular. How else would you have seen this incredible home movie shot in Mishawaka, Indiana of the mall parking lot gymkhana? YouTube has it’s share of useless videos, but the service done by Wloring in preserving this absolute gem and sharing it with us makes up for a whole lot of the jack-assery on the site.

According to the uploader, the cars and some of the drivers are (probably) :

  • Austin-Healey Sprite (Jeanne Ruble)
  • MG-B (Jack Harrell?)
  • MG-TD (Ed Steltner?)
  • repeats of above.
  • Formcar Formula Vee Jim Bell
  • Formcar Formula Vee Bert Olson
  • Mustang (note white sidewalls!)
  • Arnolt Bristol (F. P. “Wedge” Rafferty?)
  • Corvair coupe (Ray Hayes?)
  • Ferrari? (Bob Tarwacki?)
  • Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gull Wing Coupe (Carl Crowel)
  • Porsche 356 Coupe (possibly Lloyd Loring)
  • MG-A
  • Austin-Healey 3000 (6 cyl)
  • VW Bug
  • Triumph TR-3 (F Production race car)
  • Porsche 356 Roadster (Bob Runeman)

And while we’ve learned that YouTube comments can be among the dumbest thing on the internet, the discussion about this particular video actually uncovered new information on the cars and drivers in this event. These are things that make the internet truly astounding — no matter how obscure the information, somebody out there knows something about it.

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Classic Sportscar Porsche Video

Porsche Takes a Controlling Interest in VW.

I’m an unapologetic Porschephile. So in celebration of Porsche taking control of over 50% of Volkswagen, here’s a lovely video I stumbled across on YouTube. By “stumbled on”, I mean “found during my regular several hours a week of combing through YouTube for historic motorsport video”.

This incredible film from 1948 shows the first 356 roadster test drive with Ferdinand Porsche alongside an MG TC.

Magic.

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Classic Sportscar

Early Honda S-Series

Honda S600 at speed

A few weeks ago Bring A Trailer featured a beautiful little Honda S800 racer. Today, the mighty Jalopnik pitted the very same Honda S800 against the the Lotus Europa in their regular “Project Car Hell” feature.

When I first saw the S800 a few weeks back, I dove a bit headfirst into researching the early S-series Hondas. I’d never really given early Japanese sportscars much thought, but reading about the high-revving chain-drive engine had me very curious. The first place I went was to check out a video the restoration of of Jay Leno’s SM600.

I also tracked down a youtube post that someone made of their engine being fired up for the first time in a long time as part of their restoration process. These engines are good for revs in excess of 11,000RPM. An astounding number! Seems more like a test-bed for their future motorcycle development than a standard road car engine. More than likely it was derived from their F1 engine of the time, as they’re the only automotive engines that I can think of that could maintain those kinds of revs at the time.

The engine sounds a bit cleaner on Jay’s – but then, what do you expect?

These are lovely little cars, with absolutely fascinating engines. And this Motor Trend article (from which I lifted the above photo) shows that they did indeed make a left-hand drive version..
Lovely.

Categories
Classic Sportscar

New Allard?

Did you know that you can buy a brand new Allard J2X? A company in Quebec is producing very authentic looking Allards. I’ve always been fond of the styling of the Allard. The rounded, almost hemispherical, grille is a beauty. I’ve always thought it to be the missing link between Hot Rods and Sports Cars.

This modern version, the Allard J2X MKII, is no beetlesque update; but a beautifully faithful tribute. The body has all the lovely lines you’d expect from the Allard nameplate. The chassis looks more modern – though I must admit I’ve never seen under the bodywork of a classic Allard. She’s powered by your choice of the General’s RamJet V8, the Hemi, or the Cadillac Northstar engine. A fitting selection, as Allard pioneered the lightweight English car with high horsepower American Iron when Shelby was still a kid. Carrol Shelby drove an Allard in the ’50s.

It sure looks like a lovely update. I am a bit disappointed that the wire wheels are 5-lugs and not the actual spinner-mount that they appear to be. But it’s a small concession to make for a brand spanking new Allard.

I haven’t seen many Allards in person, but I have a vague memory of seeing one at the Meadowbrook Concourse d’ Elegance in the early 90’s. She was elegant, bright red, and had a big blue ribbon on her windscreen. I haven’t seen another in the flesh until September 2007 at the VSCDA Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival (I’ll be there this year too). I grabbed a shot of this magnificent example on the 3rd day.

Allard at Road America

What do you think of the idea of modern licensed production of classic sportscars? I’m all for the re-creation and reproduction market myself. After all, it’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to afford an authentic Porsche 550, but I sure have a reproduction on my shopping list. For the curious, there’s a brief Allard history to be found here.