Offered by Mecum | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 12-14, 2020
Photo – Bonhams
The Datsun Fairlady (or Sports) was a series of sports cars that preceded the “Z” line of cars that remains in production today. The series began in 1959 with the ultra-rare Sports 1000 and continued in rarefied form until the 1965 launch of the 1600 Roadster. This was when they started appearing in the United States.
In 1967, the 1600 was replaced with the 2000 Roadster, which was the pinnacle of this line of cars. It would eventually be dropped in favor of the 240Z in 1970. Power is from a 2.0-liter U20 inline-four generating 133 horsepower.
These are great little cars, and affordable too. I chose this one because I feel this is how they are supposed to look: with color-matched steel wheels wearing polished hubcaps. The tan soft top doesn’t hurt either. I feel like this one was transported here from a Yokohama back road from 50 years ago. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
It never even really occurred to me that sporting coupes were available on this relatively large chassis. But I guess since they could pull it off on Duesenbergs, so why not. The H6B is powered by a 6.6-liter inline-six good for 135 horsepower.
This car debuted at the Olympia Motor Show in 1926 carrying coupe bodywork from Hooper. It was a show winner at many early Concours events, and it was re-bodied later on with this Park Ward coupe body that was originally attached to a 6.5-Litre Bentley. It’s a great adaptation and is said to be similar to the original Hooper body. The pre-sale estimate is $450,000-$520,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Online | September 16-25, 2020
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Here is another coachbuilt example of something American you wouldn’t expect to have landed in the hands of an Italian design house. Ford and Ghia have partnered on quite a few show cars over the years, and Ford has actually had a stake in Ghia since 1970. But in the 1950s, Ghia was Chrysler’s turf. That all started to change about the time that this fastback Falcon appeared in 1964.
The car was built on a 1963 Ford Falcon Sprint chassis. It retained the Sprint’s 164-horsepower, 4.3-liter (260ci) V8. Ghia added the fastback body style that RM correctly notes as sort of predicting the upcoming Plymouth Barracuda.
It’s a neat-looking thing, but it somehow makes the relatively ho-hum Falcon appear just as ho-hum, yet even more of the period. I would have totally believed this was a factory body style if I didn’t already know it was a one-off. It’s expected to fetch $40,000-$75,000 (in other words, they have no idea what it’s worth). Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
We start near the end of August with Shannons where the Australia-only Statesman sold for $21,486. The top sale was this 1972 Porsche 911E coupe that brought $224,695… which seems like a lot. More results are available here.
Photo – Shannons
Mecum had a sort of Kissimmee bonus sale trying to make up for a bunch of canceled events (hey, you can do anything you want in Florida, pandemic or not). This 2018 Ford GT topped the charts at $935,000.
Photo – Mecum
The Nash Statesman (another Statesman, really?) we featured brought $19,800. Click here for complete results.
Finally, for August, was Dorotheum’s sale in Austria. The top sale here was this 1973 Dino 246 GTS for $521,053. We wrote up a few cars from this one, and the Austro-Adler led the way at $149,515.
Photo – Dorotheum
The Glas 1300 Cabriolet sold for $81,747, and the early BMW brought $23,843. The Tatra went for $20,436, and the Steyr-Fiat brought up the rear at $8,174. Click here for more results.
Another sale, this one in early September, that we featured quite a few lots from was RM’s Auburn sale. Three of those cars were among the top four highest sales: the Duesenberg ($632,500), the Kurtis 500B ($550,000), and the Epperly-Offy ($407,000), but the biggest money was reserved for this 1935 Auburn Eight Supercharged Speedster. It brought $770,000.
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The other Kurtis, the 500E, sold for $68,200, and the Murena GT went for $41,250, which, for its rarity, seems like a helluva deal. It was actually consigned to their Palm Beach sale, but the entire collection it came from got shifted to this sale instead.
$18,150 would’ve brought home a fairly original Franklin Airman sedan, while a check for $17,600 ended up being good enough for a 1922 Studebaker. The fact that I could’ve had this Chalmers for $10,725 is upsetting. The Moskvitch brought $5,225, and the CitiCar $2,200. Click here for final results.
To wrap up this rundown, we head down the street to Worldwide Auctioneers’ Auburn sale. The only car we featured from this one was the Faraday Future prototype, which appears to have been withdrawn. Womp womp. You can look at more from this sale here.
Offered by Mecum | Las Vegas, Nevada | November 12-14, 2020
Photo – Mecum
This is, potentially, the manliest passenger vehicle ever made. It helps that it started out as a military vehicle (in 1983!) that AM General started selling to civilians in 1992. Those were called “Am General Hummer”s. In 1999, General Motors purchased the Hummer name and launched the former Hummer model as the Hummer H1.
The original H1 lasted through 2004 (2006’s H1 Alpha was an updated version for one year only). Up until 2004, there were four engine/gearbox combos offered through the years. This wagon is powered by a 6.5-liter diesel V8 that made a wimpy 205 horsepower and a more significant 440 lb-ft of torque.
Different body styles of the civilian Hummer/H1 were sold, and this wagon version is the best-looking for those of you who like to drive through brick walls. These are big. They are spacious. They are slow. And they are just so damned cool. Not inexpensive to own or drive, they will continue to turn heads everywhere they go for as long as those of us are still around who remember what big-boy, big-money SUVs looked like before the year 2000 (yeah, this may be an ’04… but this is a 90s truck). Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Online | September 16-25, 2020
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
The second-generation Chevrolet Camaro was in production for an eternity: 11 years between 1970 and 1981. Even by 1976, it was kind of long-in-the-tooth. And it was weak. The most powerful ’76 Camaro had the same 165 horsepower, 5.7-liter V8 that this car has. It was a long way from the ZL-1 (from only seven years earlier!).
One way to spice things up would be to let an Italian coachbuilder get their hands on one. In this case, it was Pietro Frua, who debuted his take on the Camaro at the 1976 Turin Motor Show with this car. It was later shown at 1977’s New York show, where the company displaying it said they were going to offer conversions of standard Camaros to look like Frua’s. They were going to call them the “Europo Hurst.”
It is unclear if any were actually made. I think this is actually an okay-looking car, and it’s definitely something different compared to what else was on sale in 1976. It is expected to bring between $80,000-$120,000 when it sells at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Bonhams | Bicester, U.K. | September 20, 2020
Photo – Bonhams
The Comet was a model of heavy truck produced by Leyland Trucks over a series of generations between 1947 and 2015. That’s quite the nameplate heritage. They were produced in every conceivable truck variant: flatbeds, box trucks, tankers, and more.
The third generation Comet was available between 1958 and 1963. During this run, the Super Comet was introduced, which was of an even heavier-duty variety. This particular truck is finished in a bright yellow National Benzole livery. This very truck was used to produce a toy version, which is kind of cool.
The 6.2-liter diesel inline-six makes 110 horsepower. The truck has been offered by Bonhams before, and it’s now back with an estimate of $13,000-$20,000. That’s a lot of vehicle for the money. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Bonhams | Cheserex, Switzerland | September 20, 2020
Photo – Bonhams
I remember when the 458 Italia launched, and I remember seeing one shortly thereafter at a gas station near Cannes where some girl got out of the passenger side. She slammed the door into a concrete pillar, and the driver just laughed. A different world.
Somehow, Ferrari is already two generations down the road from the 458. The 488 GTB and the F8 Tributo are both fairly derivative of this design, as the F430 was to the 360, and the F355 was to the 348 back in the ’90s. In that regard, the 458 has aged kind of well. It’s not as garish as the later cars. And as all of the models just listed have done, the 458 was littered with special editions, including the 2013-2015 Speciale, which was akin to the F430 Scuderia or the 360 Challenge Stradale.
Differences from the base car include forged wheels, a larger rear spoiler, finned side sills, and re-designed bumpers. The 4.5-liter V8 also got a power bump to 597 horsepower. This example is essentially brand new and is registered in Switzerland. This Bonhams sale has become a supercar highlights sale, but there are no “confiscated dictator” collections this year (sad face). This is like “supercar-lite” when compared to the three Veyrons already announced. The price for this Blu Mirabeau car is estimated at $440,000-$550,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
For Sale by Dragone Classic Motorcars | Orange, Connecticut
Photo – Dragone Classic Motorcars
This is a car with quite a few names. I’ll start at the beginning, and you can draw your own conclusions as to what it should be called (I just went with what the dealership selling the car calls it). The Ghia and Chrysler connection of the 1950s is well documented. Chrysler spent a lot of money designing fanciful show cars in the ’50s, with styling done by Ghia (well, styling by Exner, execution by Ghia).
Ghia showed a prototype dubbed “Gilda” in 1955. Then there was Dart concept was styled by Exner in 1956, and a second version called the Diablo also appeared in ’56. Then, in 1957, Ghia showed another evolution, called the Superdart. It was reportedly created for Chrysler, but there doesn’t appear to be any Chrysler badging on this car.
Power is from a 400 horsepower Hemi V8, and the car rides on a Chrysler 300C chassis. It debuted at the 1957 Turin Motor Show and later ended up in the U.S., where it was purchased by Dual Motors, who showed the car as a Dual-Ghia prototype. Most of the internet seems to just call this car a 1958 Dual-Ghia Prototype. Which is what it was last shown as. But it’s not what it was called originally.
A private owner purchased it shortly after Dual-Ghia’s 1958 New York show appearance and actually put nearly 40,000 miles on it over nearly two decades. It’s said to be original and unrestored. Be it a Chrysler, a Ghia, or a Dual-Ghia, it remains as a fantastic piece of ’50s styling excellence. It’s for sale in Connecticut with no price listed. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Bicester, U.K. | September 20, 2020
Photo – Bonhams
I credited Bonhams on the above photo, but I doubt they want to be associated with such terrible photography. This little blue blob was produced by Cico S.A. of France to take advantage of France’s sans permis laws enacted in the 1970s in response to the fuel crisis.
Basically, they were small, sub-50cc cars that could be driven without registration or a license. They had to hold two people and not have a top speed in excess of 45 kph. You just had to be 14 in order to drive it on the road.
These go by different names. Bonhams lists this as a “Matic 50” and elsewhere you’ll find it called an LCS. Power is from a 49.9cc (just under the law) two-stroke single from Motobecane that makes 3.2 horsepower. They were produced between 1971 and 1983, and the top speed was right at the legal max: just under 28 mph. This one is estimated to sell for between $1,300-$3,900, and if the reserve is even the lower end of that estimate, it will be a stretch for this car to sell. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
