VM180 Zagato

Posted on October 26, 2021 by classiccarweekly

2001 TMI VM180 Zagato

Offered by Bingo/BH Auction | Online | October 25-31, 2021

Guess the base car. If you said “2000-2007 Toyota MR2,” you are correct. This generation of the MR2 isn’t as beloved as earlier versions, but it was popular among the The Fast and the Furious crowd in the early 2000s. It even went Super GT racing.

In 2001, a Zagato-bodied version of the MR2 was shown at the Tokyo Motor Show. It featured the same mid-mounted 1.8-liter inline-four as the standard MR2, but was tuned slightly to make 155 horsepower (up from 138). The styling was by Zagato and is obviously much different than the standard car. It’s got some funky lighting front and rear in addition to some other, uh, not-so-subtle tweaks.

Only 100 were built. They were only sold in Japan through the Toyota Vista dealer network. And the cars were actually branded under the Toyota Modelista International brand, or TMI. It’s a weird one, and not one that pops up often. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Honda S600 Coupe

Posted on December 14, 2020 by classiccarweekly

1967 Honda S600 Coupe

Offered by BH Auction | Osaka, Japan | December 20, 2020

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.

Update: Sold $33,029.

December 2019 Auction Highlights

Posted on January 19, 2020 by classiccarweekly

Not a lot of action in December, but Mecum did wrap up a sale in Kansas City that saw this 2005 Ford GT sell for $247,500. Gotta love it when the consignor of this car couldn’t be bothered to provide halfway decent photos (these are extremely pixelated). Hopefully, the car fared better during that ownership than the pictures show.

The Graham Series 97 we featured sold for $22,550. More results can be found here.

Bonhams’ Bond Street sale saw the Alfa Romeo we featured fail to sell, though the 550 GTZ Barchetta brought $769,393. The overall top sale was $3,167,224 for this 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT Lightweight. Complete results can be found here.

Into 2020 we go with Mecum’s Kissimmee sale. No surprises here that the top sale was the Bullitt Mustang for $3,740,000. The Duesenberg we featured from this sale sold for $522,500. Not too far behind that was the Dodge Charger Daytona that sold for $346,500. I think we have to award Most Interesting to the 1968 Challenger 2 land-speed record streamliner that sold for $561,000.

The Chrysler Prowler we featured sold for $27,500. The L88 Corvette did not sell. Complete results can be found here.

BH Auction had its first sale of 2020 in January, and the Lotus 88B we featured is still available. The top sale was this 1987 Ferrari F187 that sold for $1,717,578. More results are available here.

Finally, we have Bonhams in Scottsdale, where the top reported sale was a Ferrari we featured a while back, a 1951 212 Inter Cabriolet for $1,930,000. Leading the way among our feature cars was the 1901 Winton at $142,800. This 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24S Spider America brought $810,000 and is awarded Most Interesting, mostly because it’s beautiful in this color.

The other Winton brought $140,000, and the Boyer and a previously-featured Kurtis failed to sell. More results from this sale can be viewed here.

Lotus 88B

Posted on December 18, 2019 by classiccarweekly

1981 Lotus 88B

Offered by BH Auction | Tokyo, Japan | January 12, 2020

Back when you were allowed to be innovative when designing racing cars, Formula One went through an era where ground effects were all the rage. It started in the late 1960s and peaked in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Things were getting pretty wild, and eventually, F1 cracked down, banning moveable aerodynamic devices.

Colin Chapman’s Lotus first started the wave, and they sort of ended it with this car, which was designed for the 1981 season. It features a twin-chassis layout that allows the standard chassis to hunker down at speed, while the second chassis works on mechanical grip. The other F1 teams were not amused and protested this car at every event. It practiced at the first two events, and later at the British Grand Prix (in 88B form), but it never raced.

Finished in John Player livery, the cars were used by drivers Nigel Mansell and Elio de Angelis in practice. Only two examples were built, and they’re powered by Ford-Cosworth 3.0-liter V8s. It is eligible for pretty much any historic F1 event and is being offered from a private Japanese collection. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.