This actually looks more “mass production like” than I would have imagined.
If it’s good enough for Jimmy…
Categories
Forgotten Gullwing
This isn’t for the squeamish. I’ve long been fascinated by the Cuban people’s ability to keep the cars of the 1950s on the road without a steady influx of parts. The ingenuity and determination of Cuban mechanics and their ability to cobble together bits and pieces or wholly create spares that keep those old Dodges and Chevys rolling through sheer force of will is just artistry. Why then, couldn’t one or two devote that masterful ability to this Gullwing? Instead it looks to have been abandoned and cannibalized over her years hiding under a banana tree. It’s heartbreaking.
This car is also featured in Degler Studio’s 2015 Carros de Cuba calendar. If you can bring yourself to look at this for a whole month, you’re stronger than me.
More photos and information at This European Life.
Categories
Some Assembly Required
I’ve been trying to find out the origin of this remarkable image of a disassembled and lovingly presented Ferrari 250 GTO. I did find a poster of the image, with associated labeling of the various magical pieces. But I prefer to imagine that this is a catalog page and, if I could only find the phone number, I’d be able to order up these aluminum seats and an Colombo Type 125 engine.
What I’m sure of is this: every time I’ve taken on a vintage project, most of the effort is in keeping the rusty pieces and kinky wires organized. I end up months later holding a small piece of metal in my hand, marked baggie label rubbed away, consulting my disassembly photos trying to figure out where it came from. It’s stressful and frustrating.
When I see an image like this, with everything neatly laid out and ready to put together in a clean and orderly package, it makes me want to dive right in. That’s it’s a GTO only reinforces that longing.
Update! Dan Radowicz wrote in with the story behind the poster:
“It was a poster we released as a PR tool to promote our restoration shop – The Griswold Company, located in Berkeley, CA. We were also the local Alfa, Ferrari, and Aston Martin dealers. The GTO was one of our projects.”
Thanks for clearing that up Dan! But I think I’ll just going to go right on pretending I can phone in a catalog order anyway. 🙂
Categories
Happy Holidays
Don’t let the winter get you down—let’s bring this back. I think this could make a comeback as a winter hillclimb with uphill skiing. Fire up the Porsche 356 and grab your skiis.
This Ferrari 250 SWB and Maserati A6G 2000 are only a fraction of a 60 car strong barn find that will all cross the Artcurial auction block in February at Retromobile in Paris.
Just when I think there’s never going to be another big barn find, up pops another. Surely this must be the last generation of forgotten barns full of vintage sportscars. Once the entire world is internet literate, anyone will realize what an amazingly valuable pile of steel is in the shed, right? I hope I’m wrong about this. I’m not going to discover a new tomb of ancient relics, or an unknown comet in a corner of the universe, but I might stumble on an old racecar forgotten in a neighbor’s warehouse.
This one was one hell of a find from a very discerning collector:
The cars
- Amilcar C6 berline
- Amilcar CGS
- Ariès coach
- Auto Union cabriolet
- Avions Voisin C15
- Avions Voisin limousine C15
- Avions Voisin C7 par Gallé
- Ballot 8 Cyl limousine
- Barré torpédo
- Berliet coupé chauffeur
- Berliet Type VIGB 10HP Taxi Landaulet
- Bugatti 57 Ventoux
- Citroën Trèfle
- Delage D6
- Delage D8 coach
- Delahaye 135 cabriolet Faget Varnet
- Delahaye 135 coach Chapron
- Delahaye 235 coach Chapron
- Delahaye 235 coach Chapron
- Delahaye 235 coupé Chapron
- Delahaye Type 43 coupé chauffeur
- Delahaye GFA 148 L
- Delahaye Type 43 camionnette
- Delaunay Belleville limousine VL8
- Facel Vega Excellence
- Ferrari 250 GT California SWB
- Ferrari 308 GTS i
- Ferrari 400
- Ferrari Mondial 3.2L cabriolet
- Hispano Suiza H6B cabriolet Millon-Guiet
- Hotchkiss cabriolet
- Innocenti S cabriolet
- Jaguar type S 3.4 L
- La Buire 12 A
- Lagonda LG45 cabriolet
- Lancia Thema 8.32
- Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 plateau
- Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 torpédo par Grumman
- Lorraine-Dietrich torpédo
- Maserati A6G 2000 berlinetta Grand Sport Frua
- Mathis cabriolet
- Mathis FOH
- Packard cabriolet Super Eight
- Panhard-Levassor Dynamic berline X77
- Panhard-Levassor Dynamic coupé X76
- Panhard-Levassor limousine X72
- Porsche 356 SC ex-Sonauto
- Renault AX torpédo
- Renault Vivastella cabriolet
- Sandford cyclecar 3 roues
- Singer Cabriolet
- Talbot Lago 11/6 cabriolet
- Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet
- Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet
- Talbot Lago Cadette 11
- Talbot Lago coach
- Talbot Lago T26 coach
- Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé Saoutchik
- Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé Saoutchik
- Talbot Lago T26 cabriolet Saoutchik ex-Roi Farouk
Classic Driver has the complete story.
After 100 years of sitting idle, Duncan Pittaway and his team have breathed life into this former Landspeed Record Fiat S76. More than 100 years after the two S76s were built by Fiat to take the flying mile and flying kilometer records away from the Blitzen Benz, this fearsome hellbreathing dragon has spun up her four valve-per-cylinder, multi-spark, overhead cam 28½ Litre (!) engine and it. Is. Staggering. Without exhausts fitted, this view of the combustion chambers spitting the remains of burning fuel straight into the camera lens makes me feel like Gandalf staring down a Balrog in Moria.
Modern engines are absolutely pushing envelopes. The sophistication of engineering and artistry that powers contemporary racing machines is very, very impressive. But none of them have the Earth shattering brutality of this 104-year-old Fiat. Terrifying. And Gorgeous.
Hat tip to Stefan Marjoram on this one. More to come in the new year, it seems. I can’t wait for more of the Beast of Turin.
At a “Buy it Now” price of $795, these might be most expensive 3-inch pinback badges on the market. If, however, I had a car that ran in the Watkins Glen International Grand Prix in 1954, 1955, or 1956, I’d be mighty tempted.
Check out the eBay auction for details.
Maybe I should reproduce these. Smaller though.
Categories
I’m Only 37 Years Late for this 911R
This ad for a Porsche 911R for sale in the October 1977 is one of those astonishing pieces of text that you have to read several times before it quite hits you. Daniel Cole sent this in after he uncovered the clipping during a Porsche Club of America history project he’s working on.
$12,500 in 1977 is $51,235.34 in 2014 dollars. I don’t know the last time that the ex-Siffert 1967 Porsche 911R #1899 005R changed hands, but I’m guessing it was a touch more than $50 Grand.. More than 10x that I’d imagine—maybe 20. Maybe I should phone up the current owner The Collier Collection’s Revs Institute and make an offer.
Thanks for sending this in Daniel!
It’s official. I need to make a lot more money.
A week ago, I thought my life was fairly complete, but then I saw this slot car table from Slot Mods. Now when I want to hide something, I usually pick some nondescript, boring piece of the background for my secret to blend in with. The folks at Slot Mods think slightly differently. When they set out to create a slot car track loosely based on La Sarthe, they decided the most inconspicuous place to stash it was in this Gulf-liveried Porsche 917 fiberglass shell. Amazing. This is the same group of mad geniuses bringing you Neiman-Marcus’s $300K slot car table. Now how am I supposed to decide between them?
More shots at SlotMods.com