Tag Archives: race cars

1995 Lola Champ Car

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1995 Lola-Cosworth T9500

Offered by Motostalgia | Indianapolis, Indiana | June 12, 2015

Photo - Motostalgia

Photo – Motostalgia

Lola was one of the main Indy Car/Champ Car chassis producers in the 1990s. This car was actually from the CART series – which, in this time period, was fantastic. American open wheel racing in the 90s was a really bright spot in racing history… well, at least through 1995.

The T9500 was Lola’s 1995 entry and this particular combo has a Cosworth XB V-8 – a turbocharged V-8, actually, making in excess of 750 horsepower. This car has Indy 500 history, including:

  • 1995 Indianapolis 500 – 31st, DNF (with Eddie Cheever)
  • 1996 Indianapolis 500 – 10th (with Scott Sharp)

This was actually an A.J. Foyt racing team car, which can’t hurt the value. It’s a pretty cool machine, although I’m not sure what you’d do with it (unless you’re some kind of daredevil that likes taking 750 horsepower open wheels cars to track days). Anyway, it should cost its next caretaker/pilot between $210,000-$250,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of this sale’s lineup.

Update: Sold $93,500.

1972 AAR Eagle

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1972 AAR Eagle 7200

Offered by Motostalgia | Indianapolis, Indiana | June 12, 2015

Photo - Motostalgia

Photo – Motostalgia

Dan Gurney’s All American Racers (AAR) built some amazing Indy cars an F1 racers back in the day. This STP-liveried Indy Car looks amazing – and it’s not just the paint job. It represents classic Indy style. To borrow the old cliché, It looks like it’s going 200 mph just sitting there.

The engine is a turbocharged 2.6-liter Drake-Offenhauser straight-four making 750 horsepower. That is more than today’s Indy Cars. This particular car notched three wins with Wally Dallenbach in 1973 and it’s Indy history includes:

  • 1973 Indy 500 – 16th (with Graham McRae)
  • 1974 Indy 500 – 13th, DNF (with Bill Simpson)
  • 1975 Indy 500 – DNQ (with George Follmer)
  • 1976 Indy 500 – 23rd (with Billy Scott)
  • 1977 Indy 500 – DNQ (with John Martin)
  • 1978 Indy 500 – DNQ (with John Martin)
  • 1979 Indy 500 – DNQ (with Billy Scott)

Interestingly, this was also the very car that Roger Mears made his Indy Car debut in, finishing 6th at California in 1978. In total, 29 of these 7200s were built. This one has been completely restored and has been on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum and the Riverside International Automotive Museum. It sold at an RM sale last August for $341,000 and is offered now with an estimate between $375,000-$435,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Maurer C87

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1987 Maurer-BMW C87

Offered by Bonhams | Francorchamps, Belgium | May 24, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Group C racing was awesome. Loads of major automobile manufacturers built ridiculous prototype sports racing cars – some of the fastest race cars ever built. They had huge engines with big turbos and they all looked like wedges with wheels. And lost among the Sauber-Mercedes, Jaguars and Porsches were some privateers cars, like this Maurer.

Walter Maurer was an artist known in the car world as being part of BMW’s “Art Cars” projects as well as a part-time racing driver. The car was designed by an ex-Sauber engineer and the body was built by Dornier Aerospace. Maurer’s ties to BMW landed him a sweet 2.0-liter turbocharged BMW straight-four that could produce 1,350 horsepower in qualifying trim. Maurer designed the paint scheme himself.

Maurer drove the car in competition with co-drivers Helmut Gall and Edgar Dören lending a hand during endurance events. This car did not compete in the World Sportscar Championship, and instead raced in Supercup, a German series that also used Group C cars. It’s best result was 10th in 1988 and a 12th place finish in 1989. It has been used recently and would be great to take vintage racing. It should sell for between $1,000,000-$1,300,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Bonhams’ Spa lineup.

Update: Not sold.

Lechner Sports Prototype

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1991 Lechner-BMW LSC1 Spyder

Offered by Bonhams | Francorchamps, Belgium | May 24, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Walter Lechner Racing is a racing team and a racing school based in Austria. They’ve competed in Porsche Supercup for over the past decade, but in the early 1990s they tried their hand at prototype sports car racing. They commissioned Reynard to build them a car. It was called the Lechner Spyder SC91. This is actually that car, but with newer bodywork and a different name.

This chassis was raced competitively between 1991 and 1999 under a variety of different names with revised bodywork as it went. The chassis is from ’91, hence the model year listed, but the bodywork (and name) it currently carries come from later on in the decade. It was originally fitted with a 3.5-liter Judd V-10 but now wears a 4.0-liter BMW V-8. Some highlights for this car include:

  • 1991 Interserie Siegerland – 2nd (with Walter Lechner as Lechner Spyder SC91)
  • 1991 Interserie Zeltweg II – 2nd (with Lechner)
  • 1992 Interserie Zolder – 2nd (with Lechner)
  • 1993 Interserie Siegerland – 2nd (with Lechner as Reynard Spyder)
  • 1993 Interserie Donington – 1st (with Lechner)
  • 1993 Interserie Zeltweg – 2nd (with Lechner)
  • 1994 Interserie Zeltweg – 1st (with Lechner)
  • 1994 Interserie Division I Championship (Lechner as driver, using this car for one race)
  • 1997 Interserie Spa – 2nd (with Josef Neuhauser as Reynard-Judd Can-Am)
  • 1997 Interserie A1-Ring (with Neuhauser)
  • 1997 Interserie Hungaroring (with Neuhauser)
  • 1997 Interserie Division I Championship (with Neuhauser)
  • 1998 Interserie Most – 1st (with Neuhauser as Horag-Reynard-Judd Can-Am)
  • 1998 Interserie A1-Ring – 1st (with Neuhauser)
  • 1998 Interserie Hungaroring – 1st (with Neuhauser)
  • 1998 Interserie Division I Championship (with Neuhauser)
  • 1999 Interserie Most – 3rd (with Neuhauser)

Good Lord! That’s a lot of podium finishes, not to mention an extended racing life for a type of car that normally doesn’t stay that competitive for that many years. At any rate, this thing has been raced privately and is ready to run. You can buy it for between $130,000-$200,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $119,038.

Lightweight Mustang Prototype

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2012 Ford Mustang Boss 302R Lightweight

Offered by Mecum | Indianapolis, Indiana | May 12-17, 2015

Photo - Mecum

Photo – Mecum

We love one-offs and prototypes here at ClassicCarWeekly.net. This is a one-off prototype race car built by Ford. But let’s zoom way out. The Mustang Boss 302 was re-introduced for the 2012 model year (and was built through 2013). The 302R was the race car variant that Ford campaigned in Grand Am’s GS class. There was also the hard-core Mustang Boss 302 Laguna Seca Edition road car that fell somewhere in between.

The 302R was a good race car, but it was heavy. So Ford attempted to homologate a lightweight version that would let teams play with weight distribution. But Grand Am nixed the idea because the 302R was competitive as is. So only one lightweight race car was built – this one.

It uses a race variant of the road car 302’s 444 horsepower 5.0-liter V-8 (even though the car started life as an plucked-off-the-line Boss 302, like all 302Rs). This car was never raced. Instead, it was sent to a Ford dealer in Illinois. It appears to have been kept in the family and is now being offered for sale with an estimate between $125,000-$175,000. Click here for more info and here for more from Mecum in Indy.

Update: Sold $130,000.

Watson Indy Roadster

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1960 Watson-Offenhauser Indianapolis Roadster

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Fort Worth, Texas | May 2, 2015

Photo - RM Sotheby's

Photo – RM Sotheby’s

A.J. Watson and Fred Offenhauser are two legendary names associated with the Indianapolis 500 – names that, to Indy faithful, are right there with Foyt and Unser. Watson built his first car (for himself) in 1947. In 1955 he modified a Kurtis KK500C which ended up winning the 500. In 1956, Watson built his first Indy Roadster from scratch. He would go on to build only 22 more.

This car was built in 1960 and was run for a few years thereafter. Its competition history includes:

  • 1960 Indianapolis 500 – 30th, DNF (with Len Sutton)
  • 1960 Milwaukee 200 – 1st (with Sutton)
  • 1961 Indianapolis 500 – 19th, DNF (with Sutton)
  • 1961 Milwaukee 200 – 2nd (with Sutton)
  • 1962 Indianapolis 500 – 31st, DNF (with Allen Crowe)

The ’62 500 was the final race for this car (because it was crashed), which didn’t fare too well there. It is powered by a 4.2-liter Offenhauser straight-four. The car was discovered in the early 1980s and was restored thereafter to its 1961 Indy livery. It has been back to Indy since (driven by Sutton in some warm up laps) and was displayed at the NHRA museum.

Watson Roadsters are very rare – even more so in private hands. This one should bring between $700,000-$800,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $577,500.

Hagemann-Sutton Special

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1959 Hagemann-Sutton Special

For sale at Fantasy Junction | Emeryville, California

Photo - Fantasy Junction

Photo – Fantasy Junction

Ah, the great American road-racing specials of the 1950s – the golden era of American road racing. The Hagemann-Sutton Special was one such car. It was built by Jack Hagemann in California at the request of a racer named Wally Taylor who was unable to secure a brand new Scarab.

Hagemann started building the car, but Taylor couldn’t afford to complete it. So he had and a chassis and engine. It wasn’t until 1978 that he would acquire a body – one built in the 1950s by Jack Sutton. It was originally fitted to a customized Talbot-Lago. In the 1980s, the chassis, body, and engine combination found their way to another racer, Butch Gilbert, who restored the car in 2005.

The original 283 Chevy V-8 was bored and stroked to 5.4-liters. It’s a great car to take vintage racing and to the Monterey Historics in particular. It is for sale for $650,000. Click here for more info.

Audi Quattro A1

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1982 Audi Quattro A1 Group B Rally Car

Offered by Bonhams | Chichester, England | March 21, 2015

Photo - Bonhams

Photo – Bonhams

Nobody did rally cars in the 1980s quite like Audi. They brought 4WD to the sport and revolutionized it. Their cars were boxy, powerful, and scary fast. The Quattro was a production car that was also sold as the Audi Coupe and they were introduced in 1980. The rally variant debuted that year as well.

This car was an Audi factory rally car that competed in Group 4 and Group B rally – the most famous (and awesome) period of rallying in history. It is powered by a turbocharged 2.1-liter straight-five making 300 horsepower in race trim.

Initially, it was built as a Group 5 rally car and it finished 2nd in the 1982 Monte Carlo rally with Hannu Mikkola at the wheel. He would go on to win the World Driver’s Championship that year. In 1983, Audi converted the car to the Group B spec you see here. It spent the next 12 years or so in Finland on the rally circuit and in a museum.

The current owner acquired it in 1995 and had it thoroughly gone over. It’s a pretty awesome example of the most intense years of rallying. You can buy it for between $370,000-$430,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this example.

Update: Sold $368,210.

Lotus 59

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1970 Lotus 59

Offered by Coys | London, U.K. | March 10, 2015

Photo - Coys

Photo – Coys

The Lotus 59 was a successful Formula 2 racing car built by Lotus for the 1969 and 1970 seasons (although it was replaced mid-1970). The 59 chassis was actually used in Formula 3 as well as Formula B and Formula Ford in addition to F2. The only thing that changed on the car between the series was the engine.

This is an ex-Team Lotus car that competed in the European Formula 3 championship. It was a pay-to-drive ride for up-and-coming drivers looking to make an impression and attract a chance in a Formula One car. This car was raced by Bev Bond and was the winning car at the 1970 Oulton Park British Empire Trophy race.

Later, this car would be used in the Ron Howard movie Rush, where it stared as James Hunt’s F3 car. As an F3 car, this car would be powered by a 1.0-liter Cosworth straight-four making about 100-110 horsepower. You can read more here and see more from Coys here.

Update: Not sold.

March-Cosworth 85C

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1985 March-Cosworth 85C

Offered by Gooding & Company | Amelia Island, Florida | March 13, 2015

Photo - Gooding & Company

Photo – Gooding & Company

We’ve actually featured a March 86C before, the 1986 Indy 500-winning car. This is the previous year’s model, the 85C. This car was campaigned by Penske Racing.

This March chassis is powered by a turbocharged 2.6-liter Cosworth DFX V-8 making 700 horsepower at a screaming 10,900 RPM. While this was primarily Al Unser’s ride for the ’85 season, it was also driven by Danny Sullivan and Rick Mears. It’s major competition history includes:

  • 1985 Indianapolis 500 – 4th (with Al Unser)
  • 1985 Milwaukee – 3rd (with Rick Mears)
  • 1985 Meadowlands U.S. Grand Prix – 3rd (with Unser)
  • 1985 Cleveland Grand Prix – 3rd (with Unser)
  • 1985 Michigan 500 – 2nd (with Unser)
  • 1985 Pocono 500 – 3rd (with Unser)
  • 1985 Laguna Seca 300k – 2nd (with Unser)

So what if the car never won? It finished in the top five in all but two of the races it competed in and ran 12 of that season’s 14 races. The car was last used around 2000 when it was driven in a historic event at California Speedway. It’s pretty cool, plus it has that awesome Penske/Pennziol paint scheme. It can be yours for between $200,000-$250,000. Click here for more info and here for the rest of Gooding & Company’s lineup.

Update: Sold $231,000.