The 1967 model year was the debut year for the Plymouth Belvedere GTX, which most enthusiasts simply know as the Plymouth GTX. The GTX was always one of the top performers in the 1960s, but was also a refined muscle car, receiving the nickname “The Gentleman’s Muscle Car” in its early years. Unfortunately, the GTX was a late arrival to the muscle car area and only lasted five model years.
In its debut year, there were 12,115 models built, which makes it a rather rare car in itself. Options were not scarce for the 1967 GTX, as it had two engines available, a 425-horsepower, 426 cubic-inch V-8 Hemi or a 375-horsepower, 440 cubic-inch V-8. It also had two transmission options, a three-speed automatic and a four-speed manual.
In addition to the engine and transmission options, there was also coupe or convertible options available. One would assume that the convertible four-speed manual option with a Hemi would be a popular option combination, due to its raw power and ability to shift with the wind in you hair, but that’s not the case. Only seven of these convertible models with four-speeds and a Hemi engine rolled off of the assembly line in the 1967 model year.
That makes this one of the rarest vehicles on the planet, let alone one of the rarest muscle cars ever built. To boot, it is a natural rarity, as opposed to a planned one, like a special edition. It just so happened that dealers ordered so few of this option combination that the factory only produced a few.
If you want to own one of the most rare mass produced automobiles on the planet, now is your chance, as RK Motors Charlotte has just placed a convertible 1967 GTX with a Hemi and a four-speed up for auction on Ebay.
Now we know that it’s rare, but how has this vehicle held up over the course of the past 45 years?
Click past the jump to read our full review on this rare vehicle.
In the 1960s two of the big three, Chevrolet and Ford, each had their own secret weapons in the form of racecar drivers turned muscle car builders. Ford had the recently deceased Carroll Shelby modifying Mustangs for SCCA use and sale, whereas Chevy had the late Don Yenko modifying a wide array of their muscle cars, the most popular being the Camaro. Yenko also ran multiple Chevy dealerships where the bulk of his creations were sold.
In 1967 and 1968, Yenko was dropping 427 cubic-inch monsters from Corvettes into Camaro bodies and creating some of the most powerful Camaros of the era. One of Yenko’s crowning achievements came in 1969 when Yenko was tired of selling Camaros with limited warranties because of his modifications and convinced Chevy to add a 427-equipped Camaro to its special equipment ordering system, known as COPO.
This addition of the 427-equipped Camaro to COPO made it possible for Yenko to sell these cars with the GM-standard 5-year or 50,000-mile warranty. Yenko ordered a grand total of 198 of the Camaro 427s available from COPO. The total number of COPO Camaros produced and sold is unknown, but has been rumored as anywhere from 500 to 1,000.
With exception of the 427 jammed into the engine compartment, the Camaro 427s came from COPO with almost nothing identifying them as a special model; they even came with the old dog dish hubcaps on steel wheels. Yenko made sure to order his from COPO with 15-inch rally wheels, a front stabilizer bar, and a 140 mph speedometer. The rest of the customization was all Yenko’s doing.
Needless to say, these COPO-ordered 1969 Yenko Camaros are tough to come by, but Legendary Motorcar Company got its hands on one and had it up for auction on Ebay.
Click past the jump to read more about this COPO-ordered 1969 Yenko Camaro.
Technically, Ferrari debuted in 1929, but its official debut is recognized as 1947, the year that Ferrari began manufacturing street-legal vehicles. The 2007 model year marked the 60th anniversary of Ferrari’s street machine building life and the automaker wanted to make it a special one.
Instead of doing what many automakers do (see: Ford) by slapping “60th Anniversary” badges on every car that year, Ferrari chose to build 60 completely unique cars for the 2007 model year. To accomplish this, Ferrari took its existing 612 Scaglietti and modified it to create the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti Sessanta.
As we said, only 60 of these cars were ever built, so they are rather rare. Add in the fact that this bad boy was a whopping $424,480 in 2007 and you can tell that these cars were built for the true collector. If you are a true collector of Ferrari’s and would like to own one that very well may be the Ferrari to own in the next 20 to 30 years, this Sessanta is a safe bet.
F.C. Kerbeck, a dealer of luxury vehicles, is now offering you the opportunity to own one of these rare machines, as they have one up for sale in their showroom and on Ebay.
Click past the jump to read our full review on this vehicle.
RM Auctions’ in Monano has proved yet again that classic Ferrari models will never lose their value. A 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Scaglietti Spider was auctioned off for an staggering €5,040,000, or about $6.4 million, a record for this particular model. This was the first time in 30 years that this model was available for auction and it is one of the only two models ever built.
Next to this Ferrari, Monaco scored impressive sales of up to €33.5 million, about $43 million at the current exchange rates. The list of the most expensive models include: a 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ’Tuboscocca’ and a 1966 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder each fetching an impressive €2,520,000 (about $3.2 million), a 1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder sold for €1,008,000 ($1.3 million), the Ferrari F1-2000 Racing Car raced by Michael Schumacher on his way to the 2000 Driver’s Championship for €806,400 ($1 million), and the highly anticipated 1953 Timossi-Ferrari ’Arno XI’ Racing Hydroplane for €868,000 ($1.1 million).
"Monaco 2012 has been a fantastic success. With in excess of 33.5 million sold, this sale rates as one of Europe’s highest grossing collector car sales of all time and most certainly the highest grossing collector car auction in Europe this year. Once again, RM has proved itself to be the preeminent force in the collector car auction scene," says Max Girardo, Managing Director, RM Europe.
The Ghia L6.4 was just about as exclusive as you could get in the 1960s, as it was designed and built only for actors and other high rollers in Hollywood. The final of the 26 Ghia L6.4s ever built was built for one of the largest stars of that era, Dean Martin. Martin was not the only Rat Pack member to own a L6.4, as Frank Sinatra also owned one, as did other Rat Pack members.
Recently, one of the 26 Ghia L6.4s built, the one owned by Dean Martin, was put up for auction on eBay as Hyman Ltd. got its hands on Martin’s old L6.4. For a car of its age, the modern features are plentiful, but it still wasn’t enough for Dean Martin, as he shipped the car off to George Barris, “Hollywood’s King of the Kustomizers,” to have even more customizations performed on this already rare vehicle. This customization turned Martin’s L6.4 into a one-of-a-kind vehicle.
Click past the jump to read the full review on this vehicle and see how it has held up throughout the years.
In the 1950s, car racing was nowhere near what it has become today. The majority of the cars on road circuits were more about how good the driver was and how well the car was tuned. This meant that the majority of the cars were lightweight and only had between 200 and 250 horsepower. Having said that, there always has to be some sort of exception and the exception here is the 1953 Ferrari 375 MM Spider and RM Auctions has one set to go to auction on May 12th, 2012.
The Ferrari 375 MM Spider managed to completely dominate the World Sports Car Championship between 1954 and 1957, winning a total of 11 races and having seven more podium appearances (top 3 or 4 places). It also won two national championships in Argentina in 1954 and 1955.
In 1957, the car was retired following a crash. Post-retirement someone managed to get a hold of this storied racer, pulled out the Italian V-12 and dropped in a U.S.-built V-8 engine, which really seems pointless to us. After the V-8 muscle went into it, this once famed roadster just disappeared from automotive history.
In 1983, this American-powered Ferrari resurfaced and made its way back to home. In Italy, Count Zanon di Valsiurata repaired the image of this car by reinstalling its Italian power plant and restoring it to an acceptable condition.
How does this one-time powerhouse of the WSC and 1 of 15 Pininfarina examples ever built stand up to 2012 standards?
The Talbot line of racecars had quite a storied racing history, despite the fact that they were constantly out-powered by the likes of Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, and Alfa Romeo. Talbot always relied on its impeccable fuel mileage and extreme durability to conquest these giants of the race world in endurance racing, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
By far, Talbot’s biggest achievement was its 1-2 finish in the 1950 24Hours of Le Mans, using T26 Grand Sport and a Talbot-Lago Monopasto. The chassis that was originally scheduled to run in the 1950 24 Hours of Le Mans, chassis No. 110057, but hit a few snags and was not quite ready for the race. Following the victory, the driver of its replacement in the Le Mans purchased it and began its racing history.
Unfortunately, this 1950 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport had none of the success that its replacement had, as it had a long string of did-not-finish results stretching from 1951 through 1953. The curse of 110057 came to a head when Guy Mairesse was tragically killed in it when he crashed this T26 during testing at Coupe de Paris at Montlhèry.
After that tragedy, its owner at the time, Georges Grignard, parked it in its transporter and laid little more than an eye on it for four years until a savvy T26 enthusiasts, and its current owner, caught wind that one was sitting unused at Grignard’s house. The purchase almost never happened, as it was reported that Grignard wanted an unreasonably high price for this crashed racer, but apparently the two eventually came to terms.
If you have ever wanted to own a piece of Le Mans history, this is the time, as RM Auctions is offering chassis 110057 up for auction on May 12, 2012. Despite its cursed past, this is a rare model that is sure to fetch a premium and will only continue to go up in value.
In 1965, the Aston Martin DB5 was on its way out of showrooms and the new DB6 was being shown off at the London Motor Show. Between these two events lies the shortest-lasting production model convertible ever produced by Aston: the 1966 Aston Martin Volante.
The Volante was based off of the 37 remaining unused 1965 DB5s, but donned the more luxurious amenities of the DB6. When this model debuted, it was nicknamed the “Short Chassis” in an effort to help distinguish it from the longer DB6. As a result of the name, many people mistook that as meaning it was actually a shortened version of the DB5, which it is not.
Despite its awesome performance for the era, sharp looks, and popularity, the Volante was only an interim car. It was used just to bridge the gap between the time that the DB5 left and the DB6 hit showrooms. This means that production ceased as soon as the 37 unused DB5 chassis were converted.
Coming across a rare Aston Martin like this happens just about as often as you have a chance of seeing a Sasquatch or the Loch Ness Monster. Okay, maybe it’s a little more likely than seeing those, but you get our point. Well, get your wallet and passport ready, as RM Auctions is just about to auction off one of the 37 1966 Aston Martin ’Short Chassis’ Volante units on May 12th, 2012 in Monaco.
So how does this classic Brit motorcar look, feel, and drive?
Click past the jump to read our review and find out.
The Ferrari 250 GT lineup was a direct spawn of the 250 racers from the 1950s. In 1954, the first of the 250 GTs, the 250 Europa GT, came into existence, bearing a 217-horsepower V-12 engine and a long racing bloodline. The 259 GT line was neither a long-lived nor mass produced product, as it only lasted one decade and a fairly limited production number.
In 1962, Ferrari released a new version of the 250 GT, which was dubbed the 250 GT Lusso, “Lusso” meaning “Luxury.” The 250 GT/L is one of the more rare Ferraris in the world today, as only 350 models were ever built and the number of surviving models is not readily available.
If you have ever wanted to own one of these particularly rare machines, now is the time to act, as RM Auctions is offering a 1964 Ferrari 250 GT/L Berlinetta up for sale in Monaco on May 11th and 12th, 2012. Not only is this an extremely rare model, but it was the 4th from the last one ever manufactured.
You may be wondering how well this 48-year-old Ferrari is holding up to the test of time.
Every car buff simply loves beautifully restored cars, and that’s a very simple fact. One version of car restoration that is starting to gain a lot of traction recently is performance restoration. This is not just making the car look new, but also bringing its performance specifications to a point that the engineers at the time could have only dreamed about.
This puts custom car builders, like S&S Motorsports in Sarasota, FL, directly in the spotlight. Not only does S&S do extreme restoration projects on older GMs and Fords, but they also build these aging legends into mechanical monsters.
One of these monsters hit Ebay recently, in the form of the 1969 Chevrolet Corvette “Bomber `Vette” by S&S Motorsports. From a distance, this Corvette looks like it is yet another impeccably restored `69 Corvette, but up close it is easy to tell this is anything but just another `Vette. Add in a quick peak under the hood and your suspicions will be confirmed; this is an absolutely intense piece of 43-year-old muscle.
You might be wondering exactly what this bad boy is packing under that sleek-looking, reverse-opening hood…
Click past the jump to read our full review and have a look at what S&S has done this time.
