At Radnor this year, there was more than just one Chrysler Town and Country. While I was taken aback by the handsome red sedan we featured previously, it was hard to ignore the Dove Gray example parked right next to it. This one is also a 1947 model, but restored in 2005. The combination of the gray paint and red interior, along with a red top, looked incredible on the field under the tree. The wood trim had a shine that no other wood-paneled car at the Concours was capable of matching that day. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1947 Chrysler Town and Country Convertible at the 2013 Radnor Hunt Concours→
1953 Ferrari 340/375MM Berlinetta Competizione at Amelia Island
Right at the entrance to the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance, last year, was an RM Auctions booth with this majestic 1953 Ferrari 340/375MM Berlinetta Competizione on display. It was a sort of tangible promotion for the auction they would be running in Lake Como, Italy later in the year, and what a way to draw attention! As a well-decorated classic racing car, this Ferrari 340/375MM Berlinetta Competizione just screamed top-dollar, and it wound up selling for around $13 million (9,856,000 Euros).
Many may wonder what makes this car $13 million worth of “special.” Just remember that cars have become like fine art at this point, and historical significance plays a huge role in these astronomical values. Most notably this car, chassis number 0320AM, helped to propel Ferrari to victory in the 1953 Manufacturer’s Championship. While it only took first place at the 12 Hours of Pescara, this 340/375MM managed to accrue many solid finishes that helped Ferrari earn valuable points. In particular, it placed 6th in the infamous Carrera Panamericana, and the car set a record over a stage of the race that has yet to be broken — averaging 138mph over 223 miles on public roads (yes there was pedestrian traffic during many races back then). Now just imagine trying that in even a fast modern car, let alone one with 1950s era technology, like this Ferrari.
Drive’s Chris Harris pits the new Chevrolet C7 Corvette against the Porsche 911 (991) Carrera S. The Corvette and the 911 have had quite a heated rivalry in the US over the years, but now you can almost buy two Corvettes for the Price of one 911 with all the options you’d want. So the question at this point is, are they even rivals anymore?
In this video from the The Smoking Tire, Matt Farah does a brilliant comparison between the Lamborghini Countach and the current Lamborghini Aventador Roadster. It is interesting to see how a now timeless classic compares to the latest and greatest V12 Supercar.
This 1914 American Underslung 642 Roadster was my own personal pick for “best in show” at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey California. It just had that “wow” factor that took my breath away when I first saw it that day, and I still think it was one of the most beautiful cars on the field.
You might be asking yourself, right about now, “what the hell is an Underslung?” Incidentally, that was the same question I found myself asking that day. You see, these concours events are always a learning experience for me, as a member of the “millennial” generation. This is a car that was built when not my grandmother, but my great grandmother was just ten years old. Any memories of an Underslung, or any American automobile for that matter, are three generations back from me. Let’s think about that for a second, and consider just how special this Underslung is that it is still drop people’s jaws a century after it was created.
While Day 1 of the New Hope Classic Car Show was wrapping up, Nick and I were taking pictures of cars that were no longer surrounded by undesirable clutter. While he ran off to photograph a Ford Thunderbird, I saw this sleek black land yacht sitting out in the back of the lot, unnoticed. I certainly didn’t like how no one wanted to look at it, so I started taking pictures. This is a 1965 Oldsmobile Jetstar I, the final year of the model, which was a sportier version of the Olds 88 at the time. They were made for just two years, and I haven’t seen one since this point. In this sleek black paintjob, this big Olds packs a 425ci big block Oldsmobile V8 punch and a four-speed manual transmission, all wrapped up in a well-optioned interior for the era. Only 6,552 were sold for the 1965 model year, making this a fairly rare example of what Olds was selling in the 1960s. The fenders looked nice and straight, and the lines made the car look a bit smaller than it actually was from my perspective. Enjoy the photos.
The Lamborghini 350GT is known by many as the first car to be sold bearing the Lamborghini name back in the Sixties. However, it wasn’t the first car the company built. That honor goes to the sleek green shape seen here. This is the Lamborghini 350GTV, a prototype that eventually became the basis for the 350GT. This car is the origin and the first use of the vaunted Lamborghini V12 engine that would later go on to power most of the lineup until today. The bodywork also contributed to the 350GT. It was featured at Pebble Beach this year in honor of Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary. I can honestly say that it doesn’t look too similar to any other Lambo I’ve seen, save for maybe the 350GT. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading Presenting, the Lamborghini 350GTV→
This is the mythical “replacement for displacement” that muscle car folks always talk about, a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo 7 that has milked 900hp out of just a 2.0L four-banger. It does with 50psi of boost from a massive turbocharger, and my oh my, will it give the driver a right old kick up the rear.
What’s more, this car is located in Panama, not a country most people would think of first when a 900hp Evo is mentioned. The Drive Network team made it down there again to shoot more awesome films for their Tuned series, hosted by Matt Farah.
Great video, great car and a surprisingly great place. Enjoy the video.
Motor Trend’s Jonny Lieberman instigates some in-fighting between members of the VW Group: Audi’s RS7 takes on Porsche’s Panamera Turbo. Both are all wheel drive, four door sedans, and both have turbocharged V8 engines. The similarities are numerous, but in the end, the differences do show.
PS: I absolutely love the Porsche’s purple paint job, which Johnny says he hates more than a few times throughout the video. It is a provocative color, and one that lends itself well to the relatively “sleeper” Turbo model.
Those of you who have been following the site for a while should know by now that I’m a sucker for the Cord L-29. It’s an ahead-of-its-time, FWD luxury car that looks expensive and has a late-Twenties look that is timeless in my opinion. Of course, I always love seeing them at Concours events, and at the St. Michael’s Concours last September, I saw another great-looking example, this time courtesy of the Hershey Museum, who brought theirs out to the Chesapeake Bay that weekend. This one had its roof up for most of the show but the black-and-gray paintjob made the car look like a proper late-Twenties time capsule. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading Cord L-29 at St Michael’s Concours d’Elegance→
This is a heartwarming video in the spirit of the holidays. The owner of Fstoppers.com surprises his dad with his ultimate dream car, a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro, on Christmas morning.
This past August, I was busy taking pictures with Nick at the New Hope Car Show, an event which, although not billed as a Concours, has cars that would certainly look at home in one. Day One, August 10, is reserved for American cars. This year, during the awards, we were taking detail shots when my eardrums on both sides of my head got a big jolt. I turned around, and there was this rather ordinary-looking 1957 Ford two-door sedan sitting in traffic idling behind me. However, the dog-dish hubcaps and rather loud shade of red spoke to something sinister–if there’s one thing I learned over my years, it was that this Ford, with its fetching red paint and rumbling exhaust, was hiding something wicked under the hood. After a quick chat with the owner, I was delighted to hear that this ’57 was packing some serious punch–in fact, this thing was running a supercharged 292 cubic inch V8 with 300 brake horsepower–a huge sum at that time, and even though I wasn’t sure if it was original, I certainly enjoyed the soundtrack and the straightness of the bodywork. I had not seen a ’57 Ford as clean as this one until that point, and I haven’t seen one as good cosmetically since then. Enjoy the photos. Continue reading 1957 Ford at the New Hope Car Show→
Mind Over Motor 