Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | September 2023
Photo – Bring a Trailer
The Light Car Company was founded by Gordon Murray and Chris Craft in England in 1991. They built one model, and it was an amazing one: the Rocket. Production started in 1991, and most had been built by the mid-1990s. This one was started in 1996 but ended up as one of 10 completed by the Craft’s between 2006 and 2009. So it’s titled as a 1996 but wasn’t actually completed until the 2000s.
If you’ve always wanted to drive an open-wheel race car on the street (and didn’t manage to snag this thing), then this is a pretty good alternative. It has tandem seating for two, and the 1.2-liter Yamaha inline-four is mounted out back. That engine also can rev to over 11,000 rpm! For the full F1 experience of course.
Jay Leno has one of these – and there aren’t that many in the U.S. The car was also featured in one of the Gran Turismo games, where it was a hoot to drive hard. Only 50 were built in total, and they’ve become much more expensive than they used to be. This one has plenty of time left to bid, which you can do so here.
Okay, so “1957” probably isn’t the year here. No year is listed on the auction page, but what it does tell you about years is surprising. Unlike many fiberglass specials of the 1950s, this one is rear-engined. And it is powered by the 1.3-liter flat-four of its donor 1957 Volkswagen Beetle.
Can we take a moment to really appreciate how great this wild paint scheme is? This is the automotive equivalent of a surfboard. The windshield frame is a real highlight. La Dawri was only around a short time: founded in Canada in 1956 before moving to California the following year. They offered fiberglass sports car bodies until 1963.
Still, in that time, they produced no less than seven or eight different models. This Sebring screams “1950s sports car” but looks completely unlike almost anything else you could get at the time. It’s like some sports car special you would’ve seen in the background of an Elvis movie. This is a car that would be a lot of fun at the right price – and draw a lot of attention wherever it goes. Check out the auction here.
Rauch & Lang merged with Baker Electric in 1915, with the latter brand eventually phased out. Rauch & Lang would continue to solider on with electric cars for about another 10 years. In 1917, they still looked like this. Which was like a rolling billboard that said “this car is an electric car.” Nowadays, they try to make them look different from gasoline-powered cars while looking largely the same. Not so 100 years ago.
There’s the obvious lack of a grille and radiator. And the interior is really what gives it away. The driver sits on a bench seat at the back of the… well, room. While they face the front windshield, they are also staring at their passengers, who are seated on swiveling chairs. Imagine driving this around with your small kids. Nightmare.
The car features 12 six-volt batteries and an electric motor. Top speed is school-zone-esque, and stiller is via a tiller. This is the type of big old electric car that bounds across stages at places like Pebble Beach. You can read more about it here.
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.
Simply, this car exemplifies great, classic, Italian styling. It is among the handsomest grand tourers of the era, with styling penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Ghia. The first Ghibli debuted at the 1966 Turin Motor Show with power from a 4.7-liter V8.
The SS variant arrived in 1969 with a 4.9-liter V8 rated at 330 horsepower. Convertibles also arrived in ’69. This coupe was originally a different color but was repainted blue in 2007. It also has a light beige interior and a modern stereo. It’s made to be used.
In all, 1,170 Ghibli coupes were produced through 1973. Just 425 of those were SS coupes powered by the 4.9-liter engine. This one has a few days left, and you can view more about it here.
Delahaye’s 135 debuted in the mid 1930s and would remain in production for almost another two decades until Delahaye ceased to exist, and after, you know, taking a pause for the war. The slightly upgraded 135M was released in 1936.
It featured a higher-compression version of the 135’s 3.6-liter inline-six, which on this car is fitted with three Solex carburetors. Output was about 115 horsepower. This car was purchased new by a Swiss banker who had it bodied in his native country by Graber, perhaps Switzerland’s best-known coachbuilder.
This is a post-war body, and it’s a little more restrained than something you may have seen in the late 1930s. It’s still pretty and indicative of the type of coachbuilt classic that would likely be found in a European collection. But! It’s in St. Louis after having been restored in Florida. Click here for more info.
Alfa Romeo resurrected the 8C nameplate for its return to North America. It was to be a halo car – one that sits atop all others in their model line. The 8C Competizione, the coupe version, was produced in limited numbers between 2007 and 2009. Just 500 were built.
The Spider was even rarer. Only about 329 were built between 2008 and 2010 (even Alfa is not super forthcoming about the exact number, it seems). It shared the coupe’s Ferrari/Maserati 4.7-liter V8 that made 444 horsepower. Styling was done in-house at Alfa Romeo, and the result is stunning. Both the coupe and spider are fantastic-looking cars.
This particular Spider is one of not-all-that-many that were destined for the U.S. It no-sale’d on BaT earlier this year at $289,000. With 10 days left on the auction as of this writing, bidding this time around is already at $260,000. So we’ll see if it surpasses March’s bidding, and if so, if it’s enough to find a new home. Click here for more info.
James Scripps Booth was the heir to a publishing fortune, and he hyphenated his last name when he founded the Scripps-Booth Cyclecar Company. A little bit earlier, he also built Detroit’s first V8 engine, before turning to light cyclecars.
More traditional (but still small) cars followed the 1914 tandem-seat Rocket. By the end of 1917, Scripps-Booth had been taken over by Chevrolet, and General Motors would fold the brand after 1922. The 1917-1919 roadster-only Model G was similar to the well-selling 1915-1916 Model C, except that the fuel tank had been relocated to the rear of the car (among a few other small differences). It was a three seater, with a tiny jump seat facing the front passenger seat.
Power was provided by a 22.5-horsepower inline-four. Alongside the G, the company sold the Model D, which was powered by Detroit’s second-ever production V8 engine. The car here hasn’t been started in a few years, but is interesting and will probably be a good deal. Click here for more info.
Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | November 2022
Photo – Bring a Trailer Auctions
Imagine this thing in your rearview mirror on a race track. Pretty scary. Now imagine it sneaking up behind you on the highway. Either is possible: it’s got a license plate mounted out back.
Let’s start at the beginning: the first T70 debuted in the mid-1960s as an open-top sports racing prototype. The Mk II Spyder came later and preceded the Mk 3 coupe. A slightly revised Mk.3B debuted in 1969 and featured front-hinged doors instead of the gullwing doors of the regular Mk 3.
Some of the Mk.3Bs were actually converted to road cars by Sbarro, who would soon after produce a run of replicas. That’s where things start getting confusing. This car was converted to road spec by Sbarro prior to their production of replicas, apparently. Funnily enough, there is another car with this same chassis number floating around (RM sold it in Paris 2014). That auction catalog initially advertised it as a Lola Mk.3B and laid out the early history of this yellow car. Then, shortly before the auction, they added a line that said “After further research it has come to light that this Lola T70 was built by Sbarro; it is very unlikely that this car was ever raced by Chuck Parsons” – which negated the entire history of their car they had written after it.
This car was reconstructed by Lola guru Mac McClendon in the 2010s. It’s powered by a 5.7-liter Chevrolet V8. The comments on the Bring a Trailer auction seem to be full of reading comprehension issues. Yeah, this car has had pretty much everything on it rebuilt or replaced (as has pretty much every race car of this era), but as someone wise said over there “a continuous history as being a particular car is what makes it original… more than the parts currently on the car.” Not to mention, if Mac McClendon says it’s the real deal… who are you to argue.
The other great bit of wisdom from a BaT commenter on thinking about cars like this: “The idea of the car is what matters; each replacement part occupies the same space as the original, and so to our mind the car is original even if none of the component parts are — the car has occupied the same space since 1969, and therefore remains the original car.”
Think about what this represents from 1969. It’s right there with a Miura or McLaren M6GT in terms of late 1960s supercars. It might not be as pretty as a Miura, but it’s more purposeful, and probably faster.
Bidding ends in a few days. You can read more about it here.
Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | November 2022
Photo – Bring a Trailer Auctions
Mosler produced the Consulier GTP in the 1980s (it was also known as the Mosler Intruder and Raptor, which were actually around through the 1990s). A new prototype called the MT900 debuted in 2001. It was quite different and modern looking. It never really entered production, but the racing variant was on the track shortly thereafter.
From 2003 through 2010, the MT900S was offered in a limited-production form. Think of it as a competitor to the Saleen S7. A Photon variant would be produced in that time frame as well. The MT900S was available with a few different Corvette-sourced engines. This particular one, which has never been registered with a private owner, is powered by a twin-turbocharged 7.0-liter LS7 V8 that is said to make about 750 horsepower.
This is a real-deal homegrown American supercar. They didn’t build many of them, and they don’t come up for sale often. The bidding on this one ends shortly. Click here for more info.
