Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | March 2024
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Here’s one of very few classic Ferraris we haven’t been able to feature in the last… 13 years! And there’s a good reason for that: there aren’t many of them. The 365 line of cars replaced the 330 line as well as the 500 Superfast. The 365 California was the first in the line, and it was the direct replacement for the Superfast. The later 365 GT 2+2 would replace the 330 GT 2+2 and be much more common.
The California rode on the 500 Superfast chassis and wore bodywork by Pininfarina. Power was from an enlarged version of the 330 GT’s V12 that now displaced 4.4 liters and made 320 horsepower. Just 14 were produced.
This one was sold new in California and has been with its current owner since 2006. They do not change hands often, and when they do they command a premium. The estimate here is $4,000,000-$4,500,000. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023
Photo – Bonhams
This car is proof that, if you watch long enough, just about everything will come up for sale. Ferrari‘s “P”-line of sports prototype race cars are among the most valuable and sought after vehicles in the world. Only four 412Ps were built, and two of those were actually converted from P3s.
This car, chassis number 0854, is one of two factory-built 412Ps. But not much left on it is from the factory. The car was purchased by David Piper in 1968, and the original aluminum body had seen a few years of hard racing duty at that point. And instead of repair it, he replaced the body with a fiberglass one. Which was then destroyed in a fire in 1969. It was then rebuilt again, and this time as a spyder, before it was actually restored to how it looked when new. This was done by the current owner, famed Ferrari guy Jim Glickenhaus.
With these old racing cars, it’s sort of like the “idea” of them. Eventually every part will be replaced, but as long as you can link the chain back to when it was new, then you’ve got the real deal.
The engine is a 4.0-liter V12 that makes somewhere around 420 horsepower. The period racing history for this chassis includes:
1967 1000km Spa – 3rd (with Richard Attwood and Lucien Bianchi)
1967 24 Hours of Le Mans – 23rd (with Attwood and Piers Courage)
All of this is good and well, but there is still one more important detail (it’s not the price, which most cannot afford anyway and will be well into the eight figures). It’s this: this car has license plates. The late 1960s is when the end came for sports prototypes to also be made street legal. By the 1970s, the cars were too extreme. This is pretty extreme, but you can still take it to the grocery store. Click here for more info.
If only Porsche went in order with their model name/numbering scheme. That would make the 911 the follow up to this, the 910. Imagine what a street-legal follow up to this car would’ve looked like. Instead, they are entirely unrelated.
The 910 was an evolution of the earlier 906 and for some reason slotted in between the 906 and 907 in terms of P-car prototype racers. The 910 was produced in 1966 and 1967. Just 27 were built, and this one was never raced under the Porsche works factory banner. It was used as an R&D car before being sold into private hands and later raced, including at the:
1973 24 Hours of Daytona – 38th, DNF (with Ed Abate and Bill Cuddy)
It is powered by a 2.0-liter flat-six that made around 200 horsepower. At one point during its life it had a 2.2-liter flat-eight installed that made closer to 300 horsepower. That engine, which is extremely rare and valuable on its own, is included in this sale. This car was recently repainted and was previously used on European tours (so there’s a hope of getting it road registered). You can read more about it here.
Offered by Mecum | Kissimmee, Florida | January 4-15, 2022
Photo – Mecum
Maserati’s first Ghibli debuted at the 1966 Turin Motor Show. It was a sleek grand tourer with styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Ghia. Production lasted from 1967 through 1973 when it was kind of replaced by the Khamsin.
Coupes and Spyders were offered with two different engine choices. Initial cars, including this one, were powered by 4.7-liter V8 that was rated at 306 horsepower. This particular car was upgraded to SS specification when it was restored, so it now has the more desirable 4.9-liter powerplant.
There were 1,175 Ghibli coupes produced. This red-over-tan Maserati grand tourer has been with the same owner since just 2014, and it’s now selling at no reserve. Click here for more info.
Offered by Dorotheum | Vosendorf, Austria | July 2, 2022
1954 Tempo Viking Bus
Photo – Dorotheum
Tempo-Werke (officially Vidal & Sohn Tempo-Werke GmbH) was a Hamburg-based company that got their start in 1924. The company was purchased by Daimler-Benz in 1971, and the marque was phased out after 1977.
The Viking was introduced in 1950 to replace previous three-wheeled light trucks. A pickup and van were offered, with power from a 452cc two-stroke twin making about 20 horsepower. They featured a front-engine, front-wheel-drive layout. Top speed was about 40 mph.
This passenger van variant has three rows of seats and has been restored to a condition probably better than when it was new. This Viking is estimated at $19,000-$27,000. Click here for more info.
Update: Sold $17,168.
1967 Barkas B 1000 Kasten
Photo – Dorotheum
VEB Barkas-Werke was an East German manufacturer of vans that existed from 1958 until 1991. And they made essentially one product during that time: the B 1000 (they also produced engines for Trabant). In over 30 years, they somehow managed to only make about 176,000 of these.
But they are kind of iconic in that the front-engine, front-wheel drive van is the vehicle of choice for baddies on the “wrong side” of the Berlin Wall. The engine is a 1.0-liter two-stroke inline-three that made about 41 horsepower.
An unlikely full-restoration candidate, this van has had just such a thing. It carries an estimate of $15,000-$23,000. Good luck finding a better one. Click here for more info.
Update: Sold $17,168.
1956 Goggomobil TL-300 Transporter
Photo – Dorotheum
About 2,000 Transporter models were built by Goggomobil, or Glas, the company that produced the Goggomobil. These were built at the request of the German postal service, and they very much do like look a mail van.
Different levels were offered. We’ve featured a TL-250 Transporter and a TL-400. This is an early model and is a TL-300, meaning it is powered by a 298cc two-stroke inline-twin. Output was rated at 15 horsepower.
Of the 3,667 Transporters produced, only about 100 are known to exist, a quarter of those thought to be roadworthy. The estimate is $63,000-$84,000. Click here for more.
Offered by Historics Auctioneers | Weybridge, U.K. | November 27, 2021
Photo – Historics Auctioneers
Okay, so this car is not from 1967. Formosa has only been building cars for a few years, and this one was built around a 1967 Triumph Herald. That means that the chassis is from 1967, but the body and interior are fresh. This isn’t a replica of anything specific, but is more in the fashion of 1950s/60s sports specials which was: applying a sporty body to a less sporty chassis.
Power is from a 2.0-liter inline-six, which is not a Herald motor, but is likely from a Triumph Vitesse. If so, it was a 95-horsepower engine when new. The body is fiberglass, and the interior is 1950s-sports-racer spartan.
There are more than one of these floating around. This right-hand-drive example carries a pre-sale estimate of $28,000-$34,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Le Castellet, France | November 19, 2021
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
Ralph Moody was a NASCAR driver who ran 47 races in four seasons between 1956 and 1962. In ’56, he won four races driving for Ford and their chief mechanic, John Holman. When Ford pulled out of NASCAR in 1957, the two teamed up and bought Ford’s former Charlotte workshop, forming Holman-Moody. By the mid-1960s, they were the American racing powerhouse, with cars they built dominating NASCAR.
They also dabbled in sports car racing, entering Sebring in 1962 with a Ford Falcon. They wanted to compete in Can-Am, so the Honker II was built for that purpose. It’s powered by a 6.2-liter V8 with Gurney-Weslake cylinder heads. Paul Newman put up the cash to have the car campaigned in the 1967 Can-Am season with Mario Andretti behind the wheel. In five races, the best result it managed was an 8th position.
Newman later used the car in the film Winning. It sat in the Holman-Moody workshop until the mid-1980s, when the company had it restored in its original Passino Purple. The car sold at a Gooding auction in 2013 for $200,000. I’d think the price has gone up significantly since then. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Monterey, California | August 13, 2021
Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s
ASA was an Italian automobile manufacturer that existed between 1961 and 1969. Their 1000 GT model was produced between 1964 and 1967 and features a chassis designed by Giotto Bizzarrini, Colombo V12-derived four-cylinder engines, and styling by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone. A winning combination, it sounded like.
Many of the cars funneled into the U.S. through Luigi Chinetti, but American customers didn’t know what an ASA was, so not many were sold. Less than 100 1000 GTs were built, with some sources quoting numbers closer to 75. Only 17 of those were Spiders.
Power is from a 1.0-liter inline-four that was rated at 91 horsepower. Not a bad figure for the displacement and the era, but it was still paltry when compared to a period big-block Corvette, which cost less. Today, however, these are more well regarded. This example is expected to sell for between $160,000-$180,000. Click here for more info and here for more form this sale.
Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 13, 2021
Photo – Bonhams
The Ford GT40 is one of the coolest cars of all time, but it also has kind of a convoluted history. The first cars, the Mk I, were produced in England. The Mk II cars were built in California by Holman-Moody and featured a huge 7.0-liter V8. The Mk III was a road car only.
Then there was the Mk IV. It developed out of Ford’s J-car program, which saw the use of lightweight bonded aluminum honeycomb panels. They beefed the chassis up a bit when they officially made it into the Mk IV and added a heavy NASCAR-style roll cage. It featured the 7.0-liter V8 from the Mk II, which made about 485 horsepower in this car. The Mk IV was built in the U.S. by Kar Kraft, the same company that assembled Boss 429 Mustangs.
The body was redesigned to be longer, with a long low tail that made the car slippery through the air. At Le Mans in 1967, the Mk IV hit 212 mph on the Mulsanne Straight. Ford used the Mk IV in only two races: the 1967 12 Hours of Sebring and the ’67 running of Le Mans. It won both.
Serial numbers for the Mk IV all started with J. There were 10 complete cars built in period, with this, J9, being the second-to-last. Two additional chassis were constructed, and they were later turned into complete cars down the road. J9 was at one point bodied as an open-cockpit Can-Am car in the spirit of a Chapparal. It was tested by Mario Andretti in period.
Ford eventually sold the car for $1 to ex-Shelby American team mechanics, who retained it in its Can-Am glory – stored away – until 2012. At that point, it was restored with a Mk IV body and sold to its current owner. It’s useful in historic events and is estimated to sell for between $3,000,000-$3,500,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
Offered by BH Auction | Osaka, Japan | December 20, 2020
Photo – BH Auction
A few weeks ago we featured Honda’s first sports car (and second-ever automobile), the Honda S500. Well, the S500 was replaced in 1964 by this, the S600. The car launched as a roadster, much like the S500 before it, and in early 1965, the coupe variant was introduced.
Power is from a 606cc inline-four that still featured Keihin motorcycle carburetors (four of them). The water-cooled, DOHC unit powered the rear wheels via chain drive and produced 57 horsepower from the factory. Top speed was about 90 mph.
The S600 was produced until 1966 when it was replaced by the S800, which was also available in coupe and roadster form. Only 1,800 S600 coupes were built in two model years, making it much rarer than the convertible (of which over 11,000 were built).
This car is listed as a 1967, and it is apparently one of just eight built after S600 production officially wrapped in 1966. There’s got to be more to that story, but I don’t have it. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.
