Classic Cars

Supercar Blonde has made it a habit of giving us the tour on some of the most epic cars and concepts ever created. Lately, this included quite a few legendary classics, and the one Supercar Blonde is showing us this time is arguably the ultimate – a Mercedes 300 SLR of which only two were made. And she even managed to get behind the wheel and drive it.

The idea of a new car that looks like a classic is not a new one, as many carmakers and design studios have been romanticizing it for a long time. However, it became most obvious around the early 2000s, with cars like the muscle car trio – the Mustang, Camaro, Challenger, and cars like the Mini Cooper and Fiat 500, only to name a few. That said, while many of these concepts went into production, others did not. Such is the case with the 2002 Mazda Cosmo 21, which took the Miata NB and turned it into a faithful representation of the first Mazda to use a Wankel (rotary) engine.

When it comes to high-performance sports cars, Alpine is rarely the first brand to come to mind. Nowadays, the brand is has been revived and the Alpine A110 is a faithful reboot to the original 1961 A110. What many don’t know, however, is that the original A110 is actually an evolution of an older model – the much less known A108.

The IAA Mobility 2021 is currently happening in Munich, as opposed to its usual location – Frankfurt. The auto show started on September 7th and will go on until September 12th. As always, established, start-up, and resurrected car companies have given us their latest and greatest products. You will see the best from the past and present, as well as where carmakers are heading. Expect a lot of ultra-rare, bespoke, and classic vehicles too, as high-end dealerships have brought out a significant amount of their inventory. Here are the most important highlights of the show.

If you are into automotive design, Frank Stephenson should be a familiar name. The name is responsible for the design of some of the best high-performance cars of our time. Among them are the Ferrari F430, Maserati MC12, McLaren P1, and 720S, to name a few. He is adamant that every car brand should have a distinctive design, and this couldn’t be truer for a company like Aston Martin that prides itself on its design. Because of this, the veteran designer is giving us his three favorite Aston Martin designs and explains he thinks they are the best.

The Ferrari Testarossa needs no introduction. It is a classic Ferrari that commands attention even today. Ferrari built around 10,000 examples of the Testarossa in its 12-year life cycle that lasted from 1984 to 1996. If you are a fan of the car and have always wanted to own one, well, here’s your chance to do so.

A 1990 example has come up for sale on CollectingCars and it can be yours if you act fast. The highest bid for this Testarossa at the time of writing this article is $63,000.

Without a doubt, many of us romanticize the idea of driving around in a classic Muscle car. However, there are a couple of problems. The first one is that all the best ones cost a fortune. So unless you can spend about $500,000 on a Yenko Camaro or a 454 Chevelle SS, you can forget about owning one. Of course, many of the “lesser” but still worthy variants are left to rot somewhere, which is where this 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle comes in.

A ’69 Mercury Cougar XR7 Super Cobra has come up for auction at Barrett Jackson. The Cougar was MotorTrends’s 1967 Car of the Year. It shares its underpinnings with the Ford Mustang, however, the two cars feature a different wheelbase and sheet metal. The Cougar was Ford’s answer to a car that slotted in between the Mustang and the Thunderbird.

The Toyota Land Cruiser 40 is, arguably, the brand’s most iconic off-road vehicle. It was produced from 1960 to 1984 (1968-2001 in Brazil). Although production of spare parts was discontinued, that’s about to change. On August 1st, Toyota Gazoo Racing announced that production of spare parts for the classic 4X4 will once again commence, which would allow owners of the vehicle to extend its life cycle.

Electrification might be doing a lot for modern cars, but it’s also breathing new life into older cars. Case in point: this 1971 Citroen DS. Tuning firm Electrogenic has removed the old 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine and replaced it with an all-electric powertrain and battery pack. The new powertrain delivers 120 horsepower and 173 pound-feet of torque. The juice comes from a 48.6 kWh battery that delivers a range of around 140 miles but Electrogenic does offer a range extender that can boost that range to more than 200 miles.

Outside of the new powertrain, most of the Citroen DS remains untouched. The design remains the same, though the owner of this specific model went with the hydro-pneumatic suspension to improve ride quality. The tailpipes have also been removed while the boot lid now has a subtle “DS EV Electronique” emblem. If you’re interested, Electrogenic will upgrade your classic DS to

If you went to your regional weekend car show, what would be the most popular mid-size muscle car you’d see there? You might probably answer, Chevelle, and there’s a reason for it. The Chevelle was one of Chevrolet’s most popular vehicles, and it was one of the best-selling cars of all time. To this day, it is still a model sought after by collectors & hot rodders.

The Impala is one of the most popular sedans to have rolled out of Chevrolet’s factory. The sedan went on to live across ten generations, spanning over six decades, if you discount for a few years in between when the nameplate was inactive. Chevy tweaked the Impala heavily in its initial years. The fact that it was in its third generation in its third year of production is a testament to that.

But, the fourth-gen Impala, launched in 1965, took the success to the next level. It set an all-time industry annual sales record of more than one million units in the U.S. This makes it one of the most popular models of the car and highly sought-after today despite being available in plenty in the pre-worshipped market.

A period-correct 1967 Impala has come up for sale that looks exquisite and well-maintained. But, it comes at a steep price of $55,000. Does this interest you?

There are cars out there that beg to be used as platforms. If you’ve watched Jay Leno’s Garage on YouTube, you’ll know he has plenty of weird and cool stuff that he likes to showcase in detail. This time, he’s showing us a 1967 Citroen 2CV, but not just any 2CV. This one has a custom fiberglass body and it’s a convertible.

The 1990s were a great period when it comes to cars. The Lamborghini Diablo, Honda NSX, Porsche 911 (993), Ferrari F355, and many others spawned in this period. Those, however, are just a few of the many examples. It seems that in the 1990s everyone was hell-bent on making a performance car worthy of immortalization in the automotive archives. The De Tomaso Guara is one of those cars that didn’t manage to achieve the iconic status it aimed at. Nevertheless, there’s a lot to like about it, and we are going to share everything we know.

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.

Since the invention of the car, many countries have given birth to different carmakers, some more iconic than others. The most iconic cars have always come from some of the most recognized carmakers from the US, Europe, and Asia. With that being said, there are other cars that deserve attention, such as the GSM Flamingo. The Flamingo is a compact sports car with a fiberglass body and the second model of the South African company Glass Motor Works.

FoMoCo has made a habit out of sharing special details about the Mustang pony car during what the carmaker calls Mustang Week. This year, the Blue Oval released for the first time a series of notes about the Mustang and how it came to existence.

There’s just something about a classic Porsche that really gets your blood pumping. It’s either the sleek, sexy design that Porsche has continue to nail over the years, the outright performance delivered in a way that only Porsche can, or just the fact that you’re looking right a true piece of automotive history. This is why Porsche Classic – Porsche’s official restoration arm – exists: to make sure those classic cars continue to live well beyond their original “expiration date. They do downright amazing work, as you can see from this 1967 911 S Targa that looks near perfect post-restoration after sitting for four decades. If that doesn’t do it for you, the aluminum-bodied 356 Cabriolet just might. If you’re itching to see more of Porsche Classic’s expertise, then we’ve got some good news for you.

When you think about Hybrid cars, you probably think about the Toyota Prius, the Hyundai Ioniq, or maybe even the Acura MDX Sport Hybrid, depending on your taste. Some might even credit the Toyota Prius for jumpstarting the hybrid movement, and I guess it kind of did, but the truth is that it wasn’t anywhere near being the first hybrid and once you learn about this 1916 Owen Magnetic Hybrid, you’re going to realize that we really haven’t come all that far in the last 100 years.

Italy is the purveyor of the modern supercar and home to some of the world’s most famous and lusted after cars. We all love and know our Ferraris, Lamborghinis, or Maseratis but Italy is also about Alfa Romeo, Fiat, and Lancia, all of which have been behind some truly iconic cars as well as some that should’ve broken through but, instead, have remained stuck in the doldrums of automotive history - even recent history. Here’s a list of some less well-know Italian sports cars.