February 18, 2008
Gavin Rhodes was surprised that his black 1959 Triumph TR3A won the Collectible Car of the Year contest on nytimes.com.
At a time when American muscle cars have become treasured icons and Italian sports cars are, well, Italian sports cars, Mr. Rhodes, 33, didn’t think his froggish little roadster stood a chance.
“I was up against a Ferrari,” he said, adding that the contest “really represented the whole spectrum of classic cars. Some people use them every day. Other people have several million-dollar cars that are trucked around from show to show. I was amazed.”
A total of 558 cars were entered in the contest, and 4,500 votes were cast by readers of nytimes.com for the 30 finalists, which had been chosen by the staff of the Automobiles section in November. As winner, Mr. Rhodes will receive $5,000 and a trophy; the other finalists will receive a prize package valued at $50 and passes to the New York International Auto Show in March.
The outcome of the competition revealed an automotive counterculture of sorts: the enduring affection for classic British sports cars, warts and all.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 1:18 PM | Permalink
February 6, 2008
One fine winter day 50 years ago, my father pulled into our driveway with a new Chevrolet, a ’58 Bel Air Impala Sport Coupe in Panama Yellow, according to The New York Times' Jerry Garrett.
At the time, the Impala was not yet a separate model in Chevy’s line, just a nameplate that designated its status as the top trim level for the popular Bel Air coupes and convertibles.
But Dad did not buy this car to signal his upward mobility or to be part of some Chevrolet plan to nudge buyers upmarket. No, he was smitten by the car’s handsome details — and the 283-cubic-inch Ram-Jet fuel-injected V-8 under the hood.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:25 AM | Permalink
February 4, 2008
In the contemporary landscape of architecture, someone like Richard Sammons doesn’t get lionized by the fledgling and impressionable (and constantly blogging) designerati. That might be because his firm, Fairfax & Sammons, which he owns with his wife, Anne Fairfax, specializes in traditional architecture.
So it doesn’t require a giant leap of the imagination to see how Mr. Sammons could be taken by the classic allure of a Morgan Plus 8, according to The New York Times.
Although he bought his car new in 2003, the elegant little roadster looks like something one would have found bumbling across the British lowlands 60 years ago, perhaps with a picnic basket in the trunk.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 12:27 PM | Permalink
December 17, 2007
AMONG automaker start-ups, the efforts of Powel Crosley Jr. followed a path taken many times by idealistic industrialists: creating a car for the masses, without much regard for whether the masses wanted one or not, according to the New York Times.
That single-mindedness, together with the practice of naming the car for its originator, often proved a one-way ticket to fiscal and automotive oblivion.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 9:55 AM | Permalink
November 29, 2007
IN his 35 years of restoring cars, Mark Miller has seen it all — the good, the bad and the unsightly.
Among the lessons he has learned while running Dream Car Restorations in Mesa, Ariz., this stands out: It can be shortsighted to try to rebuild a Detroit classic to an as-new gleam by using old body panels.
This alternative — building a car around a complete aftermarket body shell — is what many classic-car rebuilders are coming to regard as a new school of auto restoration, according to the New York Times.
“The final cost may or may not be lower, but the results are always vastly superior to old-school methods,” Miller said.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:14 AM | Permalink
November 26, 2007
Five years ago, amid a sharp rise in prices of vintage muscle cars, Carroll Shelby licensed his name to a Texas company to construct replicas of the 1967 Shelby GT500E used in the 2000 remake of the drive-in classic “Gone in 60 Seconds.”
Mr. Shelby, the racing legend who had built Shelby Mustangs and the Cobra sports car in the 1960s, correctly perceived an eager market for the movie car, known as Eleanor. The cars were to be built by Unique Performance in Farmers Branch, a Dallas suburb.
But this month, after a public dispute between Mr. Shelby and Unique Peformance, and following lawsuits against Unique from customers who say they put down large deposits but never received their cars, the story took a new twist, according to the New York Times.
Farmers Branch police and Texas state officials raided Unique and seized 61 cars in varying states of completion at five sites.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:13 AM | Permalink
November 2, 2007
Sunday marks the running of one of the most remarkable rallies in the world - the annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run in England.
Get this: The rally is open to cars built before 1905 and a total of 531 vehicles – 43 pre-1900 – will be making the 60-mile run. As such, it is by far the largest annual gathering of veteran cars in the world.
The run was first made in 1896 to celebrate the repeal of the Locomotives on the Highway Act, which allowed automobiles to increase their top speed from 4 mph to 14 mph! It was next run in 1927 and has been run every year since, except for a couple of years during and just after WWII.
This year, the run is celebrating American-made automobiles, and there are 142 American entries representing 37 manufacturers, including 41 Oldsmobiles and 29 Cadillacs, according to Jeff Carter, spokesman for Motion Works, which is organizing the run on behalf of the Royal Automobile Club.
Overall, the entries feature 140 different marques. Owners come from 24 countries, mostly from Britain but also from all over Europe as well as Canada, the United States and Mexico and as far afield as Australia, Hong Kong and South Africa.
The majority of the cars are gasoline driven, but three are electric and 19 are steam driven. The oldest car is an 1895 3-3/4 horsepower Peugeot and one of the youngest is a 1904 Peerless racer owned by John Price of Utah.
See my slightly expanded version of this story in the Sunday Providence Journal.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 7:25 AM | Permalink
September 17, 2007
THE dune buggy always seems like one of those all-American lifestyle gadgets that just arrived one day — like the surfboard, the skateboard and the snowmobile — more or less fully formed and ready to ride.
But the dune buggy did have an inventor and can trace its roots back to its Adam, an elemental machine called Old Red. And this year brings an anniversary of perhaps the most important moment in its history, according to the New York Times.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 9:40 AM | Permalink
August 20, 2007
Gooding & Co. sold an 1884 De Dion, Bouton & Trépardoux of France for $3.52 million, way up from the $1.5 million the auction house has estimated for the sale.
Tim Moore, who lives near Cambridge, England, was absent, saying he could not bear to be present when his beloved 123-year-old car is sold.
Last February in Paris, Christie’s sold a nonrunning 1890 De Dion for $929,773.
See a weekend New York Times story about the history of this fabulous car.
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 11:11 AM | Permalink
August 6, 2007
In an era in which gasoline-powered automobiles were noisy, smelly, greasy and problematic to start, electric cars, like Jay Leno’s restored 1909 Baker Electric Coupe, represented a form of women’s liberation, according to the New York Times. (Includes a charming photo of Leno sitting in the car.)
“These were women’s shopping cars,” said Mr. Leno, who is a serious hands-on collector of autos and motorcycles dating from the 1800s to the present. “There was no gas or oil, no fire, no explosions — you just sort of got in and you went.
There were thousands of these in New York, from about 1905 to 1915. There were charging stations all over town, so ladies could recharge their cars while they were in the stores.”
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth at 3:58 PM | Permalink
July 12, 2007
A steam-powered car, billed as the oldest car in the world that still runs, will be sold in a Pebble Beach, Calif., auction on August 19, according to CNNMoney.com
The car was built in France in 1884, about a year before Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz of Germany built their first experimental gasoline-powered cars. (The two were working independently of one another.) Henry Ford finished his first garage-built car 12 years after this one.
The four-wheeled De Dion-Bouton et Trepardoux, nicknamed "La Marquise," was originally built for the French Count De Dion, one of the founders of the company. The car has had only two other owners since, according to auction house Gooding & Company, which is handling the sale.
Posted by at 9:32 AM | Permalink
June 20, 2007
The first Trabant, the rattletrap car that b ecame perhaps the most enduring symbol of the former East Germany, rolled off the assembly line in Zwickau in the fall of 1957.
To celebrate the car’s 50th anniversary, about 2,000 Trabant owners converged onm the old industrial town last week on a grassy field next to an airstrip, determined, for a weekend at least, to put the Berlin Wall up again, according to a report in the New York Times.
Posted by at 11:07 AM | Permalink
June 4, 2007
A 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante coupé that had been sitting untrouched in a garage outside New York City for 45 years sold yesterday for $852,500 (including Christie's 10 percent buyer's premium) at a Christie's auction at the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance in Greenwich, Conn.
The price was way over the auction house's estimate of $300,000 to $400,000 but as auctioneer Hugh Edmeades told me afterwards, there is no way to really value a car this rare and in such orginal condition. "They find their own level," he said.
The bidding for the car ended in a bullfight between noted restorer Wayne Carini of F40 Motor Sports in Portland, Conn., who was bidding on behalf of Connecticut contractor Joe Capasso and an unidentified telephone bidder.
As the levels went higher, the two bidders did everything they could to knock the other out. Sometimes they came back immediately with a price, sometimes they mulled and then delivered a steep increase in an attempt to deliver a killing blow. At times the crowd gasped and applauded following long gaps and sudden hits; at other times you could have heard a pin drop. Certainly Edmeades did not need to work the kind of auctioneer's magic he had used earlier to push the bidding higher.
But what am I doing - giving away a fabulous story that will appear in Wednesday's projoCARS section? Be sure to read it as one of the issues I will be addressing is the restoring vs conserving and preserving argument that this sale highlighted. Plus details of some of the other beauties that were sold and some of the flavor of this tony and amusing event.
Posted by at 10:36 AM | Permalink
In any field, there are certain books that are essential. Some are handy references, others provide the perspective of history and still others are simply good reads, according to the New York Times.
Here is the NYT's selection of books that will make a fine foundation for an automotive library. All are widely available either new or used.
Posted by at 10:27 AM | Permalink
June 1, 2007
Fashion magnate and car collector Ralph Lauren has paid $22 million for a 1931 Bugatti Type 41, known as the Royale, according to Art & Auction. If so, the price would be the most ever paid for an automobile.
Not surprising. The "King of Cars," as designer Ettore Bugatti called it, has consistently broken records. Indeed, only six were ever built between 1929 and 1933 and they cost $45,000 in 1931! The previous record for an automobile was $17 million, also for a Royale.
Remember the fabulous 1938 Delage D8-120 Aerosport Coupe that won Best of Show in the Newport Concours d'Elegance on Monday? The Royale comes out of that same era of French super luxury cars that includes such marques as Bugatti, Delage, Delahaye, Hotchkiss and Talbot-Lago.
But even amongst that august company, the luxurious and powerful Royale stands out. It was massive - 21 feet long and weighing 3-1/2 tons with an enormous engine that created 300 horsepower. No expense was spared on any aspect, inside or out.
Meanwhile, in a related story, I will be going down to Greenwich, Conn., this Sunday to the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance and the auction of a 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante coupé.
This car is extraordinary in that it has not moved from its garage space — it is now sandwiched between a old Farmall tractor and a 1949 Jaguar Mark V sedan — in a New York City suburb for 45 years, according to The New York Times. Christie’s estimates the car will sell for $300,000 to $400,000.
We shall see. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!
Posted by at 4:30 PM | Permalink
