Tag Archives: 1960

Vespa 400

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1960 Vespa 400

For Sale at Hyman Ltd | St. Louis, Missouri

Vespa is the world famous scooter manufacturer that produces the classic design that has been popular among so many different groups of people since it went on sale in the late 1940s. They have been featured in many films over the years, but perhaps most famously in Roman Holiday with Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn. Sales took off after that and when I think “Vespa” I think someone roaring around the streets on a scooter outside the Colosseum in Rome.

Vespa is owned (and has been since its inception) by Piaggio, the Italian motorcycle conglomerate. In the late 1950s, Piaggio designed a small car and licensed the design to ACMA in France, who built the car as the Vespa 400. ACMA was independent of Piaggio, yet they were still badged as Vespas, which was a Piaggio trademark. While Vespa scooters are Italian, this Vespa car is French. Weird. In any case, ACMA put the car into production in 1957 but they closed up in 1962, a year after Vespa 400 production wrapped.

About 34,000 of these cars were built and this is as nice of one as you’re likely to find. It’s tiny but two people can fit inside. It has a folding fabric top and is powered by a 393cc straight-twin making 20 horsepower. It’s a two-stroke engine mounted in the rear, driving the rear wheels. See that weird looking thing on the front where the grille would normally be? That’s a sliding tray containing the battery.

This is a U.S. market car (it has a 3-speed transmission, other markets got 4-speeds). It will do 50 mph and can be yours for $31,500. For more information, click here.

Update: Sold, Mecum, Kansas City, December 2012, $22,500.

Chrysler 300F

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1960 Chrysler 300F Convertible

Offered by RM Auctions | North Palm Beach, Florida | December 1, 2012

The 1960 300F again used the 6.8-liter V8. It produced 375 horsepower. A special run of “short ram” cars (15 were built) made 400 horsepower and used the transmission from the Facel-Vega. Production numbers rose for this model, which had a sort of intermediate styling between the 1959 and 1961 models – 1,217 were built, 969 were coupes and 248 were convertibles. Estimate: $175,000-$225,000. More info can be found here.

Update: Sold $170,500.

1960 Dodge Phoenix

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1960 Dodge Dart Phoenix Police Package

Offered by Auctions America | Carlisle, Pennsylvania | October 4-5, 2012

The Dodge Phoenix was not a stand alone model (at least not in the United States). It was a two-year only trim option on the Dart, which, upon its introduction, was not the compact car that most people remember. The Dart was an all-new model for 1960. It was a short-wheelbase (compared with the Polara), entry-level, full-sized Dodge. It undercut the Polara in price – but it’s still a pretty big car.

The Phoenix trim line was tops, above the entry-level Seneca and mid-range Pioneer. This car was spec’d as a Police Package car, even though it was ordered by a 20-year-old hot rodder in Pennsylvania. What the Police Package came with was a high-performance 383 V8 (6.3 liters), a 4.10:1 gear ratio and a heavy-duty three-speed Borg-Warner manual transmission.

The owner replaced the transmission with a four-speed Chevy unit immediately after taking delivery. It isn’t listed what transmission is in the car currently, but, according to the lot description, this was the only high-performance Dart built with a manual transmission – surely it would be more valuable with the three-speed.

Virgil Exner’s finned styling would disappear from the Dart after 1961 – and the car would never look this good again (okay, the muscle-car variant wasn’t so bad). But the Dart became a smaller and more compact, less stylish car with ever new iteration. You don’t see Mopars like this too often – yet there are three 1960 Dart Phoenix’s in this sale alone. And all have rare options.

You can read more about this car at Auctions America’s website here. Or check out the other two and the rest of the auction lineup, here.

Update: Not sold.

Porsche RS60

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1960 Porsche RS60

Offered by Gooding & Company | Monterey, California | August, 18, 2012

The Porsche 718 (or RSK) was introduced in 1957 as a further developed racing version of the 550 Spyder. In 1960, due to FIA rule changes, Porsche had to refine the 718 and the RS60 was born. The RS60 was a one-year only racing model, as it was lightly changed for 1961 to become the RS61.

Changes over the 718 included a larger cockpit area and windshield, as mandated by the FIA. The engine in this car is a 1.5-liter flat-4 making 150 horsepower. It cost $9,000 in 1960 and is one of 14 non-works RS60s built.

This car ran in sports car races across the U.S. during its day, never suffering an accident and passed through the hands of a few owners/collectors until it was “sympathetically” restored (I guess that could mean anything, but I take it to mean “as needed”) sometime after 1999. It has seen track time during the Monterey Historics and the Rennsport Reunion.

The pre-sale estimate is $2,250,000-$3,000,000 – which is a lot of money for a car that begs the question: “Is it going forward or backward?” For the complete lot description, click here. And for more from Gooding & Co in Monterey, click here.

Update: Sold $3,465,000.

MBM SP-100

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1960 MBM SP-100

Offered by Oldtimer Galerie International | Zurich, Switzerland | June 10, 2012

Peter Monteverdi was a Swiss car salesman turned race car driver turned auto constructor. Okay, maybe not necessarily in that order. He ran the Swiss Ferrari franchise at one point as well as a race team that attempted to break into Formula One with the team’s owner as it’s driver. He attempted one championship race with the MBM (Monteverdi Basle Motoren) team but withdrew after destroying the car in a practice accident.

Then he turned his attention to sports cars and specials for the road race circuit. The MBM Tourismo (chronicled elsewhere on this site) was a very rare road car with approximately two built. The car you see here, the SP-100, is likely the only one of its kind. It was built for the race team Ecurie Baloise HOBA.

It features a 100 horsepower 1.1-liter straight-four from O.S.C.A. One hundred ponies might not seem like all that much, but this car only weighs 425 kg, so it likely goes pretty quick. It also looks quite sporty, with a pontoon-fendered Testa Rossa look to the front of it. It has been owned by the same owner since 1978 and was restored over a nine year period ending in 1991.

Peter Monteverdi went on to build cars under his own name in 1967. Cars like the Monteverdi High Speed are not seen often – but they are seen more often than anything bearing the MBM logo. This is a very rare opportunity. The estimate is listed as “on request,” which is annoying, but it is what it is. The only Monteverdi I can recall for sale was a Hai 450 SS, which was listed for over $1 million. This won’t bring quite that much.

For more information and pictures, click here. For more on this sale, click here.

Henney Kilowatt

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1960 Henney Kilowatt

Offered by Mecum Auctions, Houston, Texas, April 13-14, 2012

If you saw this and thought “that looks like a Renault,” well you’d be correct because in the mid-1950s the National Union Electric Company and the Henney Motor Company decided to retool a Renault Dauphine as an electric car for the U.S. market. Henney was primarily a coachbuilder (which makes it somewhat ironic that they outsourced the styling of this car).

According to the catalog description, this is a 1957. However, from what I know/have read elsewhere (thank you, Hemmings), the Kilowatt was produced in 1959 and 1960 only (although there may have been a few sold as 1961 models). Only 47 cars were ever sold and most of those went to electric companies. Very few made it into the hands of the general public (they cost about $3,600 at the time while the average new car price was $2,600) and only a handful are known to exist today.

The car is capable of 60 mph and could go 60 miles on a charge. If you’re an electric car enthusiast or collector, this is a must have. It is considered by some as the first “modern” electric car. Sure, there were many electric car manufacturers back in the 1910s and 1920s but they were severely limited in range and performance and livability. This kind of changed that. Yes, we’ve moved forward – but not by too terribly much, unfortunately.

No pre-sale estimate was given but I’d guesstimate it somewhere around $50,000. Click here for the catalog description and here for more from Mecum in Houston.

Update: Sold, $35,000.