Tag Archives: 1976

Inaltera GTP

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Inaltera-Cosworth GTP

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Online | July 14-22, 2020

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Jean Rondeau was a racing driver that drove open-wheel and saloon cars before moving on to sports racing prototypes in 1976 when he joined the Inaltera team. Inaltera was a wallpaper company, an industry whose natural extension is prototype sports cars to contest Le Mans.

This example, the first of three built, was the team’s test car. It is powered by a 3.0-liter Cosworth V8. Though it did not compete at Le Mans in 1976, it would enter the race the following year. It’s competition history includes:

  • 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans – 4th (3rd in Class), with Jean Rondeau and Jean Ragnotti

After that, Inaltera pulled out of motor racing. Rondeau ventured on, building similar cars under his own name. He would later become the only person to win Le Mans with a car bearing his own name.

This car went to Switzerland after the 1977 season along with the other two Inaltera chassis. The current owner acquired all three later that year and sold the other two, keeping this one. It is now offered with an estimate between $510,000-$625,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $440,902.

Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Auburn, Indiana | September 3-6, 2020

Photo Courtesy RM Sotheby’s

Robert G. Beaumont founded Sebring-Vanguard in Sebring, Florida, and set about producing a golf cart-inspired electric car that was street legal. The Bugeyed wedge was a design inspired by the times and featured a big safety bumper up front, side-hinged doors, and two seats.

Power is from an electric motor (the CitiCar retained much of the inspirational golf cart’s mechanical bits). Early cars had 2.5 horsepower, and the final run had a mighty six. In 1976, Sebring-Vanguard was the sixth-largest automotive manufacturer in the United States.

About 2,300 were produced between 1974 and 1977 when the design and production rights were sold to a company called Commuter Vehicles, who re-launched an updated version as the Comuta-Car in 1979. This one is all-original and will sell at no reserve. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $2,200.

Lola T296

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Lola T296

For Sale by Girardo & Co.

Photo – Girardo & Co.

Eric Broadley’s Lola Cars was a long-time race car manufacturer based out of the U.K. They built open-wheel and sports cars between 1958 and 2012. In the 1970s, one of their big focuses was prototype sports cars, which included fantastic-looking racers like this one.

The T290 series was introduced in 1972 and was produced for a few years in six different variants. In all, 108 examples of the series were built, including this T296, which was made for the 1976 season. It features an aluminum monocoque and was built to accept four-cylinder engines.

This was the first of eight T296 examples produced and was purchased new by Mader Racing Components. It’s competition history includes:

  • 1977 24 Hours of Le Mans – 52nd, DNF (with Georges Morand, Christian Blanc, and Frederic Alliot)
  • 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans – 40th, DNF (with Morand, Blanc, and Eric Vaugnat)
  • 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans – 48th, DNF (with Vaugnat, Daniel Laurent, and Jacques Boillat)

It’s competitive career ended after the 1980 season, but before the decade was out, the car was active again on the historic circuit. It featured a Ford-Cosworth engine in-period, but is now powered by a turbocharged 2.0-liter BMW M12 inline-four. This car a green card into almost any historic automotive event, and it can now be yours. Click here for more info.

Lamborghini Urraco

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Lamborghini Urraco P300

Offered by Bonhams | Bicester, U.K. | May 30, 2020

Photo – Bonhams

The Urraco was Lamborghini‘s foray into the word of V8-powered sportscars, an arena in which they do not currently compete. In fact, they only produced two other V8 sports cars: the Silhouette and the Jalpa.

The Urraco was produced between 1972 and 1979 and is powered by a mid-mounted V8 available in three different sizes. The P300 model was the top dog with its 247 horsepower, 3.0-liter V8. Styling was by Gandini at Bertone, the powerhouse of Italian 1970s sporty design.

Only 190 examples of the P300 were built, and the seller of this car rates it on a scale of 99/100, which seems generous for any mid-engined Italian sports car from the 1970s. It’s expected to bring between $74,000-$86,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $75,178.

The Gullwing Alfa Romeo

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Alfa Romeo Giulia 2000 GT Veloce Gullwing Coupe

Offered by Aguttes | Lyon, France | November 10, 2018

Photo – Aguttes

The original 4-door Alfa Romeo Giulia went on sale in 1962 and spawned the Series 105/115 Coupes that followed in 1963. There were quite a few variants of the 2-door Giulia. This car began life as a 2000 GT Veloce, a model offered between 1971 and 1976.

Such cars were powered by a 2.0-liter Twin Cam straight-four that made 130 horsepower. They’re great-looking cars, as were most Alfa 2-doors from this era. One thing they didn’t offer from the factory though: gullwing doors.

Some enterprising German decided to build such a car, because, why not? After all, Mercedes-Benz did it 20 years before, so how hard could it be? The car was fully restored and finished in brown. The new doors look seamless – as if this was how the car was born. It’s funky. We love it. It’s a unique one-off creation that is expected to bring between $55,000-$90,000 at auction. Click here for more from Aguttes.

Update: Sold $121,467.

Alitalia Stratos

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Lancia Stratos Group IV

Offered by Bonhams | Paris, France | February 9, 2017

Photo – Bonhams

Okay, so maybe it’s not an actual Lancia works rally car sporting the most famous of rally car liveries, but it is a racing Stratos that has competition history that just so happens to sport that very same green and white Alitalia livery.

The Stratos was the first purpose-built rally car from a major manufacturer. Yes, at one time, Lancia was a major manufacturer (they are lucky to still be around right now, as the current top brass at Fiat seems to have completely forgotten that they exist). In order to race the Stratos, Lancia had to build road-going versions, which it did – about 400 in total. It was a supercar in its day, powered by the feisty 2.4-liter V-6 from the Ferrari Dino. Depending on engine tune, it can put out between 190 and 320 horsepower.

It might not seem like a lot, but the mid-engined, rear-wheel drive layout of this featherweight car makes it an absolute handful. I mean, the guys you see in old videos jumping these things over little humps on mountain roads are – and there’s no graceful way to say this – batshit crazy. At its limit (and on dirt or snow no less), this has to be one of the most difficult cars to drive that has ever been built.

This three-owner car has known race history back to 1993, so its unclear if it was built as a competition car from new, or converted from one of the homologated road cars. Either way, the owner picked the right paint job. It should sell for between $370,000-$480,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Bonhams.

Update: Not sold.

A Ferrari Rally Car

Posted on by
Reply

1976 Ferrari 308 GTB Group B by Michelotto

Offered by Bonhams | Francorchamps, Belgium | May 18, 2014

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

When one thinks of Ferrari race cars, they think of Formula 1 or sports cars. Hardly anyone pictures rally cars. And yet, that’s what we have here. Not only a Ferrari rally car, but a Ferrari 308 rally car – one of the cheapest Ferraris money can buy today.

But this car ain’t cheap. Let’s start with a little history… the FIA brought about Group B rally in 1983. Michelotto built and campaigned Ferrari race cars and they jumped at the chance race in Group B. But Ferrari didn’t want to build 25 homologation specials in order to take it racing. So Michelotto took standard road-going cars and turned them into rally cars. No specials needed if the road car is quick enough to be made into a racer. The engine is a 2.9-liter V-8 making 288 horsepower.

This is a 1976 Ferrari (the 308 was fiber glass until 1977, when it became steel) that Michelotto converted to rally status in 1983. They only built four of them and this is the first and most successful of those four, having won the Spanish rally championship and coming in as “Vice-Champion” in Italy (which makes it sound like a proponent of gambling and drugs). The other three cars all had more powerful engines.

You can pick up a road-going 308 for about $35,000. If you want a Michelotto Group B 308, be prepared to shell out between $760,000-$1,000,000. Yikes! Click here for more info and here for the rest of Bonhams’ Spa sale lineup.

Update: Sold $835,136.