Offered by Bonhams | Knokke-Heist, Belgium | October 8, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
The Sebring replaced the 3500 GT as Maserati‘s 2+2 coupe in 1962, after debuting at that year’s Geneva International Motor Show. It featured muscular but sophisticated styling penned by Giovanni Michelotti at Vignale. Just 593 were produced, and all but one were coupes.
Of those, 350 or so were Series I cars, which were built until 1965. Most of those were powered by a fuel-injected 3.5-liter inline-six that was rated at 232 horsepower in 1963. Both 3.7- and 4.0-liter units would be offered later in the model’s run.
A restoration on this example was performed between 2018 and 2020. No estimate is yet available, but you can read more about it here.
Offered by Bonhams | Goodwood, U.K. | July 14, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
This prototype was designed in-house at AC and looks like a combination of the AC 428, an Intermeccanica, and maybe a little Jensen-Healey. It never went into production, but was used by AC’s general manager for a few years before being sold to its first owner in 1968.
In 2006, the car made its way to Florida and was restored. Power is from a 4.7-liter Ford V8. It’s pretty crazy that this could’ve been the successor to the Ace, but AC was too busy keeping Shelby full of chassis to really put effort behind it.
Not to mention that this Italian-looking body was built in England about five years before Italy started putting bodies like this on its cars. It was recently for sale at a dealer for $950,000 now now has an auction estimate of $570,000-$700,000. So yeah, dealer listed prices are B.S. Especially for classic cars. Read more about this one here.
Imagine a bunch of coachbuilt Chevrolet Cruzes running around. Only in Italy would a small city car spawn various different coachbuilt examples. The Fiat 600 was produced (in its Italian run) from 1955 through 1969.
The standard body style was a two-door sedan. It was built under license in other countries, and even as a small MPV called the Multipla. The 600D went on sale in 1962 and featured a 767cc inline-twin that made 32 horsepower.
This Vignale-bodied coupe looks nothing like a standard 600D, but it does retain the rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout. It’s covered less than 600 miles since being restored. It is unclear how many Vignale coupes like this were built, but Vignale did build other styles on the 600 platform. The estimate here is $17,000-$21,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Ascot Racecourse, U.K. | May 21, 2022
Photo – Historics Auctioneers
The Consul was Ford of Britain’s family car when it went on sale in 1951 as the base model in the Zephyr range. A sedan, a two-door wagon, and a convertible were offered. The second generation ended production in 1962.
In 1961, Ford launched the Consul Classic, which overlapped the second-gen Consul production and that of the Cortina. The Classic was available as a four-door sedan, a two-door sedan, or as a two-door Capri coupe, which is what we have here. The big factory engine option on the Capri was 1.5-liter four, however this car has been hot-rodded with a 2.0-liter Pinto inline-four, a five-speed manual gearbox, and Minilite-style wheels.
It looks good, especially in green. This car was one of the styling highpoints for Ford of Britain. Only 19,421 Consul Capris were produced in two and a half years. This one has a pre-sale estimate of $20,000-$24,000. Click here for more info.
1963 Abarth-Simca 1300 GT Coupe by Sibona & Basano
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Le Castellet, France | November 19, 2021
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Abarth used cars from many different manufacturers as base cars for their wild creations. In this case, the base car is a Simca 1000, which was a small, rear-engined sedan produced by the French marque between 1961 and 1978.
Confusingly, there were Simca-Abarth variants of the 1000, which were really just hot sedans. What we have here is an Abarth-Simca. It’s a GT car that Simca wanted Abarth to build that they could take racing.
It’s got a Simca 1000 floor pan, an Abarth-tuned 1.3-liter twin-cam inline-four, and a Simca 1000 four-speed manual gearbox. The cars were eventually homologated for FIA competition, and they were successful in European road racing events.
This car was sold new in Italy, where it was campaigned successfully. From there, it has kind of a complicated ownership history, and frankly it’s too late in the day for me to make much sense of it. You can read more about it here and see more from this sale here. The pre-sale estimate is $405,000-$500,000.
Offered by Bonhams | Newport, Rhode Island | October 1, 2021
Photo – Bonhams
Max Balchowsky opened a shop in Hollywood in the late 1940s and soon found himself modifying European cars with big American V8s. In the early 1950s he was on track in SCCA events. In the mid-to-late ’50s, he built two Old Yeller race cars that were mostly junkyard specials. Disney told him to change the name, so all following cars were called “Ol’ Yaller”s.
This car, number nine, was the final such special built. It features a custom tubular steel space frame and a 6.6-liter Buick V8 rated at 310 horsepower. It was apparently raced by Ronnie Bucknum at some point, and was later crashed.
It was subsequently restored to its original spec. One of the Ol’ Yallers appeared in the Elvis movie Viva Las Vegas (which has some pretty excellent 1950s car spotting scenes). These really never change hands – and this one is being offered out of the Petersen Museum collection. It is expected to fetch $150,000-$250,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
NSU started out as a knitting machine manufacturer in 1873 and was acquired by Volkswagen in 1969. The company was then merged with Auto Union, which would later just become Audi.
The Prinz first went on sale in 1957 as a homely two-door sedan with a rear-mounted inline-twin. They were not powerful. They were slow. But they were meant as a “people’s car.” John Glenn famously drove one while his fellow astronauts had Corvettes. In 1958, NSU introduced the Sport Prinz, which was, as the name implies, a sporty version of the Prinz. It was powered by a, in this case, 598cc inline-twin.
The 598cc engine was only available from 1962 until the end of Sport Prinz production in 1968. In all, 20,831 were produced. This one remained with its original owner in Saint-Tropez until 2011, and it’s now expected to sell for between $12,000-$18,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Milan, Italy | June 15, 2021
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
I’ve been wanting to feature one of these for years, but I’ve been holding out for the perfect color. I’m still looking for that last bit, but I thought it was time, regardless. Silver looks good here. At least it’s not red. The 250 GT/L (or Lusso, for “luxury”) was the last hurrah for Ferrari’s 250 line, which dated back to 1952. The Lusso was sold between 1962 and 1964.
The body is by Scaglietti, and it’s aggressive, beautiful, and really just the best classic Ferrari shape. It’s the best “classic” Ferrari coupe there is, period. Power is from a 3.0-liter Colombo V12 making approximately 240 horsepower. Top speed was 150 mph.
This is the 65th of 350 produced, and it’s got Ferrari Classiche certification. The restoration was completed 11 years ago. I was once walking through London near Lord’s Cricket Ground and I heard a distant rumble. I stopped. I turned. And a marron Lusso buzzed past. It was amazing. These are incredible cars, and the price reflects it: the estimate here is $1,985,000-$2,550,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Ascot Racecourse, U.K. | April 17, 2021
Photo – Historics Auctioneers
Facel SA was a French company that started as a component manufacturer that turned toward coachbuilding and eventually automobile production. Their first cars went on sale in 1954, and the company ended up bankrupt in 1964. The Facel II was their last gasp.
It’s a two-door, four-seat grand tourer that went on sale in 1962. It’s powered by a 6.3-liter (383) Chrysler V8 good for 355 horsepower. Top speed was 135 mph when equipped with an automatic transmission like this one. The cars were quick in their day – faster than a Gullwing, a DB4, and a 250 GT.
Only about 180 were produced through the end of the road in 1964. This one was on the London Motor Show stand and spent 25 years in storage before being restored in 2017. It is now expected to sell for between $360,000-$430,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
The Jet Age was about more than just planes. Jet-inspired styling was all over cars of the era. Different companies even teased jet-powered cars. But none of those companies moved the needle more than Chrysler did with their Turbine Car.
The body was designed by Ghia, and the car was meant to be a public-road test program to study, I guess, the real-world viability of this whacky concept. Kind of like how autonomous Volvos are running over people in Arizona in today’s world.
Power is from a Chrysler-designed turbine engine that weighed 410 pounds and made 130 horsepower at 36,000 rpm (!) and 425 lb-ft of torque. The car could do 120 mph – and it could run on just about any fuel aside from leaded gasoline, including diesel and cooking oil.
They built 55 of these between 1963 and 1964. 50 of those were lent to the general public on three-month leases that wrapped up in 1966. Much like GM did with their EV1, Chrysler had 45 of the cars destroyed at the end of the program. Nine cars ended up being saved, all of which still exist. Only two are in private hands, with this being one of them.
These are cars that don’t change hands often. This one went from Chrysler to the Harrah collection, stopped at Tom Monaghan’s collection, and then to the current collection in the 1980s. It is operational but hasn’t been used much. This is a rare chance to get a car that is impossible. Impossible that it was built. Impossible that it works. And impossible to find. Click here for more info.
