These aluminum nose Mopars are quite rare and don't come out of the woodwork very often. This '64 Dodge 440 Super Stock car was on eBay last week and didn't meet the reserve. However, it sold for $59,500 in an auction this weekend. Not chump change for a car that basically needs a full resto. Hmmm, maybe the Mopar market isn't cooling down after all... More pics after the jump.
Continue reading "Aluminum Nose Max Wedge Project Car Sells For $59k " »
I met Joni Gray, Sr. Auto Editor for the LA Times, at NYIAS and she's cool. And I liked this article she just wrote, Ten Still-Attainable 1970s Muscle Cars, though I hesitate to call many of these cars "muscle cars." The list was selected by Phil Skinner, editor of Kelley Blue Book's Early Model Values Guide. Obviously, I've heard of KBB (value guide basically created to support dealerships) but had never heard of this classic car value guide--maybe cause it's $60!!!??? Hey, the NADA guide is free and, after comparing the prices listed for a few of these cars, it seems to be pretty close. Anyway, I still thought it was a pretty good list, so here goes:
1973-76 Chevrolet Nova SS
1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 fastback
1977-78 Pontiac Trans Am coupe
1970-71 Plymouth Duster 340 coupe
1971-73 De Tomaso Pantera coupe
1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass 442/W30 coupe
1975-76 Chevrolet Vega Cosworth ed
1973 Mercury Cougar XR7 convertible
1971-73 Datsun 240Z coupe
1977-79 Chevrolet Corvette T-top coupe
Sign me up for a Duster, a Pantera and maybe even the '79 442. Click through to Joni's article to read more about each car and see the pics, and then let us know what you link of the list.
While I was in Florida for last weekend’s Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach auction, I decided to check out Russo and Steele’s inaugural Hollywood collector car auction and then head up to Daytona Beach for the spring swap meet. Coincidentally, I found a Chevrolet-based Ferrari knock-off at each event.
First, at Russo and Steele, what the seller was calling the Camarossa, “a one of a kind hand built, steel exotic car” based on a 1986 Camaro. While the auction description went into lengthy detail about how the new body panels were applied, it simply appears the builder stuck most of them on over the top of the stock Camaro sheetmetal. Granted, the builder did indeed go the distance with the interior--including the gated five-speed shifter--and with an alleged 500hp small-block under the hood. But it appears his efforts to sell the car at Russo and Steele went for naught and his reserve sat a little too high.
Next, while cruising the car corral in the infield at Daytona Beach, I came across a fourth-gen Corvette-based “Testarossa.” The seller claimed it came from California, where it was assembled from a kit and a 1985 Corvette donor, which included the Tuned Port Injection small-block V-8, the four-speed automatic transmission and the removeable targa-style top. “Very fast car,” he said, before revealing his $25,000 asking price.
I really hope seeing these two cars in the span of two days was some sort of coincidence rather than an indication of an overall lack of taste and sophistication in that little corner of the country. You can see the rest of the pics after the jump.
Continue reading "The Many Pale Imitations of the Maranello Style" »
NADA recently published a study showing that collector car values have surged in recent years, increasing in value by an average of 36% between February 2004 and February 2008 (go here for a summary of the study). However, from what I've seen and heard over the past twelve to eighteen months, collector car values have started to fall. The values of the more desirable Mopar muscle cars, for example, have fallen off quite a bit since their market high roughly two years ago. I'll be publishing an interview with Dan Kruse of Dan Kruse Classics next week, and Dan said that he had noticed the same thing in his auctions held around the country. And I'm sure the current mortgage crisis and economic slowdown isn't helping.
Still, I don't necessarily think this is a bad thing. Some of the prices were getting kind of silly, and a lot of the real car enthusiasts were getting priced out by people who all of a sudden started seeing our old cars as "good investments." Now, there is nothing wrong with getting most or even all of your money back when you sell a car, but going into it expecting major appreciation just seems wrong somehow. What do you think?
