Classic Cars

The Bentley 8 Liter came to life during uncertain times. One year before its debut, the Wall Street Crash of 1929 hit and come 1930, its effects were still rippling through the world economy. That’s why Bentley assembled just 100 units of the 8 Liter in a two-year span, between 1930 and 1932.

Porsche unveiled a handful of previous unseen concept cars back in November 2020, showing us that it considered a road-legal version of the 919 race car, a van, or a 904 revival based on the Volkswagen XL Sport.

The German company unveiled no fewer than 15 concepts, but the 550one isn’t one of them. A two-seater about the size of the Boxster, the 550one was just unveiled online by its creator, Walter de Silva, some 12 years after it was built. As the name suggests, it’s a tribute to the iconic Porsche 550 of the 1950s.

California-based Singer is known for doing impressive restoration work to classic Porsche 911s, but what it’s revealed today essentially takes the company to an all-new level. The 964-gen 911 you see here isn’t a 911 Safari, not by any means. It’s actually what Singer calls “The ACS.” If you’re not familiar with the name, ACS stands for All-Terrain Competition Study, and as you can see, Singer has turned this 911 into an ultimate off-road rally weapon.

The majority of cars in production in 2020 still feature internal combustion engines, but this may change in 20 years. Classic cars may still be allowed to use their gas and diesel engines, but the amount of time you will be allowed to drive them on public roads may be strictly regulated.

Retrofitting such cars with electric motors will be difficult and expensive and at least one carmaker is looking for a solution. Porsche things that synthetic fuel may solve this problem and keep valuable classics on the road.

Ferrari has numerous models from the mid-20th century that are worth dying for. One of them is the Ferrari 330 series that the automaker produced from 1963 to 1968. First came the 330 America, then the 330 GT 2+2 that replaced it within a year and 50 examples later, and finally came with 330 GTC and 330 GTS models in 1966. The body style of the 330 GTC was designed by Pininfarina and it looked more like its predecessor, the 275 GTB, than the 330 GT 2+2.

This tasteful model is one of the approximately 600 built examples, and it recently arrived at the Bring-a-Trailer auctions. The auction is live for one more week, and at the time of writing this article, it already has a bid of half-a-million dollars.

Although commonly known as the Daytona, this two-seater GT from Ferrari is known as the 365 GTB/4 officially. It came as a successor to the 275 GTB/4 and was introduced at the Paris Auto Show in 1968. The Daytona moniker, interestingly, was given by the media to commemorate the Prancing Horse’s top-three finish in February 1967. Anyway, a ‘Daytona’ example from the early 70s is listed on Bring-a-Trailer’s website, and it is drawing a lot of attention. This model is one of the 1,284 Berinetta coupes built for the U.S.-market between 1968 and 1973. The bid for the car is nearing half-a-million dollars already at the time of writing this article, which shows what a collectible it is. Interested?

The automotive industry had many ups and downs since the automobile became popular in the 1900s. The first major downturn happened in the late 1920s when The Great Depression hit the world. In the United States, the economic depression put many luxury carmakers out of business. In Europe, however, some low-output companies survived, although they eventually went bankrupt after World War II. One such carmaker is Voisin, which was founded by aviation pioneer Gabriel Voisin. This French company produced only a handful of automobiles in the 1920 and 1930s, with the most iconic being the C25 Aerodyne.

The Mazda Miata MX-5 may be the world’s finest example when it comes to lightweight and affordable sports cars, but it wasn’t the first nameplate to introduce this idea. When Mazda was rolling out the first-gen MX-5 in 1989, Toyota was already selling the MR2 for five years. The nameplate was discontinued back in 2007, but it’s still a cool car to have, especially since it features a mid-mounted engine. If you’re a fan of the MR2, this mint-condition model from 1986 might tickle your fancy.

The Dodge Charger was Chrysler Corporation’s more luxurious response to the Mustang, billed as a mid-size fastback coupe similar in size and shape to the AMC Marlin. It was based on the Coronet but shared none of its visuals and spawned a number of super quick versions that tortured just about any early Mustangs.

The year was 1966 when Dodge finally joined the fastback muscle car party with the Charger. It was based on the B-body platform and was previewed in an ad that ran during that year’s Rose Bowl which talked about the new "Leader of the Dodge Rebellion."

The original Charger was a more refined coupe sitting just under the personal luxury category dominated by Ford’s T-Bird. That’s why performance wasn’t paramount from the get-go although the 426 Hemi engine was duly available. Also, Dodge quickly put the Charger on the track in the Nascar series, the car winning the 1966 NASCAR Grand National championship with driver David Pearson.

The 356. That’s the car that started the long-lasting Porsche sportscar saga in Gmünd, Austria, under the close supervision of Ferry Porsche and Karl Rabe. Later on, production of the 356 was eventually moved to Stuttgart, but all in all, the lightweight sportscar was assembled between 1948 and 1965 in five variants: 356/2, 356, 356A, 356B, and 356C.

The car you’re about to meet can be found in Australia, where it has been enchanting its owners since 1965. It’s a 1964 Porsche 356 painted in Signal Red, rocking a 1.6-liter, four-cylinder (air-cooled, of course) boxer engine.

One of the first American carmakers, Oldsmobile was founded all the way back in 1897. It built the world’s first mass-produced car in 1902 and went under General Motors ownership in 1908. As a division of GM it slotted above Chevy and Pontiac, but below Buick and Cadillac. The brand was shutdown in 2004, but it remains famous for its groundbreaking technology and designs. Oldsmobile introduced more than 20 industry-first technologies, including the first production fully automatic transmission. It’s called the Hydra Matic and it was introduced for the 1940 model year.

Superformance is known to create some classic builds that are priced like crazy, but the company has gone generous with one of their builds – the 1962 MKII Shelby 289 Slab Side. Superformance has donated the car to Petersen Automotive Museum for its upcoming digital gala that’s set to take place on September 26. The car is officially licensed by Shelby and built aesthetically and dimensionally correct to the original289 Cobras of the early 1960s. The only difference here is that the Superformance builds have modern-day mods complementing the classic styling. Isn’t that a win-win situation?

A vintage car recently hit the Bring-a-Trailer auctions and it looks fantastic. The Lincoln Model L touring car is nearly a century old, but seems to be in a pristine condition. The car was acquired by the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Foundation in 1974 from Florida and has been kept in its museum ever since and is taken out only during annual parades. The car is now 96 years old and is nothing more than a collectible, but it has still managed to draw 17 bids at the time of writing.

Classic cars have always had a significant portion of the car scene. Whether we talk about vintage cars from the 1920s and 1930s, muscle cars from the 1960s, or European and Asian young-timers that have just achieved classic status, every category has their own dedicated community. And while the 1930s Mercedes-Benz 770-K is out of reach for most people, the 10 classics below will not get any cheaper. As some of them have already started appreciating in value, 2020 might be your last chance to get one of these at a reasonable price.

At the 1981 Chicago Auto Show, Ford unveiled a rather unusual concept called the Montana Lobo. It seemed too radical for its time and felt as though it was taken straight out of a sci-fi movie. It broke all the perceptions associated with a rugged off-roader like the Bronco. The company came up with this unusual concept to get in the flow with the growing popularity of smaller pickup trucks and SUVs. Although it didn’t make it to production and none of the ideas or design elements were incorporated in the future models, the Bronco Montana Lobo goes down in the history books as one of the most interesting concepts Ford has ever built.

Jaguar is offering a few cool performance-oriented models nowadays, but it’s also building limited-series continuation cars. As of 2020, the Jaguar Classic workshop rolled out three continuation series for the iconic XK SS, E-Type Lightweight, and the Le Mans-winning D-Type.

But Jaguar Classic is now also offering a continuation series of its inline-six XK engine in a 3.8-liter format. The XK mill was first introduced back in 1949, but it remained in production for more than four decades, until 1992. However, the 3.8-liter variant was short-lived. First used in the XK 150 in 1958, it was discontinued in 1968, when it was replaced by a larger, 4.2-liter version. This continuation engine is the perfect choice if you’re restoring an old Jaguar, but it’s decidedly expensive.