Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category
What you’re looking at here is one badass Chevy Camaro with bored out Chevy 468 engine and a Weiland blower popping out of the hood. This car started out as a 1969 Chevrolet Camaro SS X-11 before undergoing a full rotisserie restoration and rebuild about 10 years ago. No this car has got to be one of the meanest 69 Camaros on the streets. What makes this car even greater is the auction listing for it. I’ve never seen such rambling and ranting in an eBay auction. The guy goes on for a full paragraph about what a terrible company Moser parts is and how he’d never do business with them again. Apparently they sent him some parts that were broken and refused to replace them. Alright, that’s kind of low, but I don’t think I’d be bringing it when trying to sell a car. Also, the use of capitalization to convey emotion WORKS VERY WELL!
As Ferrari transitioned from the classic “Ferris Bueller” Ferraris into the “Don Johnson” Ferraris, there were some models stuck in between that are both classic and modern. Such is the 308 GTSi. From the front and side the styling on the 308 was very much modern Ferrari, but there are still some clear elements of the classic Ferrari design in the rear. These Ferraris had the 8 cylinder engine but were very “drivable” in a way that people who love to squeel tires and feel some G’s can appreciate. I think you’ll find that a lot of the more compact sports cars today from exotic manufacturers like Lotus have body types very similar to the 308, which says a lot for a 30-year-old car. The 1981 Ferrari 308 GTSi is on the auction block with a buy it now price set at a modest $28,000. I think these cars are right on the brink of becoming classic collectible Ferraris. Perhaps when the world pulls out of this economic depression we’ll see the turning point in these car prices.
Few words can explain this car. During the transition period between the 1960’s muscle cars and the 1970’s big luxury cars, there was the Chrysler Imperial. I think that name says it all. This car was meant to be so much more than just a luxury ride. It’s a majestic car that should be driving on a freshly rolled out red carpet, not dirty pavement. The Imperial only has two doors, but can we really call a car this massive a coupe? Even the hood ornament is unique on this car, with a bird spreading its wings in a circle that strangely reminds me of imagery from Nazi Germany. Perhaps Chrysler considered itself the Fourth Reich at the time. The 1974 Chrysler Imperial pictured above is a rare beauty that will probably sell for less than its retail price back in 1974. That’s kind of sad considering how high scrap metal prices have been in the past year, and there’s plenty of metal on this car. Be sure to check out the pictures of the original factory shag carpet. I’m pretty sure a species of bear went extinct due to the production of this car. How unfortunate.
The Cadillac Brougham Delegance is based off the Fleetwood model line. It’s no secret that I love these big cars from the 1970’s. They remind me of the movie Casino. Something about these cars just makes me want to keep a metal baseball bat in the back seat just in case I ever run into Joe Pesci or his brother in a remote corn field somewhere. In all seriousness, this was a weird time for cars. Nobody wanted the gas guzzling muscle cars of the previous decade, but everyone still wanted really big cars that really didn’t fit with the prevailing economic conditions of the time. It’s quite possible that all of America was on coke at the time and were acting irrationally. As The French Connection taught us, these big cars had a lot of places to hide “stuff”. These luxurious cars have retained almost no collectibility, which explains why the 1978 Cadillac Brougham Delegance pictured above is up for auction with a starting bid lower than what I paid for dinner last night.
It may be hard to believe, but Bentley was once the economy brand of Rolls Royce. Bentleys lacked some of the bells and whistles and were designed for the rich, as opposed to the filthy rich who got to drive Rolls Royces (or, more accurately, who got to ride in Rolls Royces driven by their butlers). Bentley really emerged as a quality luxury brand in its own right about a decade ago as the entertainment community started to embrace these luxury cars. Rappers were rapping about Bentleys, and movie stars were showing up at the Oscars in them. Bentley found its own niche by becoming the uber-luxury car that people would actually want to drive themselves as opposed to sitting in the back and shouting at some poor British man in a suit where to go. Bentley is now Rolls Royce - with performance. The 2000 Bentley Arnage pictured above is the perfect car for your security team with its black paint job, and its on the auction block starting at $30,000, a fraction of the original retail price.
After being usurped by the Impala as Chevrolet’s flagship model line in the 1950’s, the Bel Air became sort of a lesser version of the Impala into the early to mid 1960’s. The 1964 Chevrolet Bel Air shown above would probably confuse many people into thinking it’s a second generation Impala rather than a Bel Air. Lowriders and LA hip hop artists might even consider pimping one of these rides out and rapping about it. These cars lack the collector value of either the 1950’s Bel Airs or the 1960’s Impalas, but who cares? The look really cool, and when you’re driving down the street, isn’t that really what matters the most?
For me, the golden era of the Rolls Royce came in the 1970’s. That may not have been when these cars were at their finest, but it was a time when everyone in the world recognized the luxury of the Rolls Royce brand. You couldn’t even say that name without thinking of Robin Leach and his tales of extravagant wealth. It’s still amazing to me that these cars retained so little of their retail price over the years. The 1979 Rolls Royce Silver Shadow pictured above is one of the last Silver Shadows ever made. It was taken care of with the utmost care in sunny southern California. It’s now on the block for $20,000, a small fraction of it’s retail price back in 1979. If bought as an investment, it’s about even par with Enron. At only 73,000, this car has averaged about 2,500 miles a year. Someday, people are going to realize how classy and elegant these cars were and their going to see some real demand.
This is a truly unique car that I found while browsing the eBay listings. It’s not just any 2002 Porsche 911 GT2. No, this car was driven by Jeff Zwarts on the infamous Pikes Peak course and is one of the fastest two-wheel drive cars ever to complete that track. This is not the type of car you could build on your own or have built at your local car shop. This was assembled by a team of some of the finest automobile engineers in the world. Working with the fabulous Porsche 911 GT2 as their base vehicle, they made a car that could climb the curvy and unpaved roads of Pikes Peak in record time. If you like fast driving on twisting roads, this is just the type of car for you. Best of all, it seems to be street legal! You won’t be able to find a Ferrari or Lamborghini or anything else that can do what this car can do on the gravel and dirt tracks.
I came across this truck for sale on eBay, and I just have to share it with everyone. This is what a show truck looks like. Almost everything on the exterior has been changed in some way, including the installation of those scissor-style Lamborghini doors. The base vehicle for this show truck is a 2007 Chevrolet Avalanche with E85 capabilities. The paint job alone on this truck probably cost more than the average car you see out on the street. It has gold and blue flake that sparkles when reflecting light. There are too many added-options and mods to list here. Some would say it’s crazy to do all this to a truck, and I would probably agree with them. Such is the world of show cars and trucks, where it’s easy to dump $100,000 on vehicle mods on top of the retail price and still only have a resale price of $40,000 or $50,000. The only people making a profit in show cars are the people getting paid to do all the modifications and the companies that make all the parts and equipment. Still, this isn’t about building a car and making money, it’s about creating something that will turn heads and makes people say “wow”.
Perhaps no car exemplifies 1960’s American more than the 1965 Ford Mustang convertible. This was a pony car, not a muscle car, and therefore was not designed to menace senior citizens on the highway. This was a fun cruising car aimed at young people who couldn’t afford much larger and robust convertibles that weighed 3 tons and seemed as big as a school bus. The early Mustangs were just easy-going cars that looked great. They quickly became the official party car for young people in that decade. In the years that followed, Ford would try to keep pace with the muscle car era by offering all sorts of performance options on the Mustang, but it’s still the 1964 1/2 and 1965 Mustangs that people keep coming back to when they want that classic car that’s fun to drive and prefers to stay off the trailer. To this day, young people still consider these classic Mustangs as a possibility for their first or perhaps second car purchase. They truly are forever cool.
