Classic Cars

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.

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.

The Aston Martin DB6 doesn’t get the love it deserves. In some ways, that’s because it succeeded the Aston Martin DB5, considered as the most iconic Aston Martin model ever made. When you’re a model that’s following a model as legendary as the DB5, expectations can be unreasonably high.

The DB6 was a great Aston Martin; it just wasn’t the DB5. Still, the DB6’s collectible status has increased over the years, in part because of how rare they are. Only 1,788 units were built over a five-year stretch, and of those 1,788 units, one unit is now available through British classic car restorer Bell Sport & Classic.

This particular model is a DB6 Volante, the drop-top version of the standard DB6. It’s more than 12 times rarer — only 140 units were ever made — than the standard coupe DB6, and while it has undergone several restorations in its lifetime, it remains in top-quality condition. Bell Sport & Classic didn’t reveal a price tag for this DB6 Volante, but prepare to spend six figures for a chance to bring home one of the rarest Aston Martin models in history.

Volvo and sportiness didn’t exactly go hand in hand 50 years ago, although one car with nippy ambitions stood out from the Swedish carmaker’s lineup. That car was the P1800, which came to change Volvo’s fortunes in the sports car arena after the resoundingly unsuccessful, fiberglass-bodied P1900. Volvo churned out 39,414 P1800s between 1961 and 1972, in three derivatives: P1800 S, 1800 S - S stood for Sverige or Sweden, and 1800 E - E stood for einspritzung, which means fuel injection in German.

These days, you can get a P1800 for as much as €49,500 (around $58,000) on used car websites such as Classic Driver.

One of the rarest sports cars in history is up for auction at Bonhams: the 1969 M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16. Only three models were ever made, and all three units are still around, though the location of one unit (chassis number: AB/2) is unknown.

Meanwhile, one of the three units can be yours, provided, of course, that you have deep pockets to pay for it. Bonhams estimates that this example of the M-505 Adams Brothers Probe 16 (chassis number: AB/3) will fetch anywhere from $150,000 to $250,000.

The Mustang Shelby GT saga started in 1965 with the GT350, a sportier, lightweight version of the ’Stang. But Ford and Carroll Shelby took things up a notch in 1967, when he introduced the GT500, a not-so-light but significantly more powerful version of the Mustang. The GT500 remained in production as the range-topping Mustang until 1969, but unsold 1969 models were given 1970 identification numbers. With just 380 units rebadged for 1970, this fastback is hard to find, and low-mileage, well-maintained examples are extremely rare. If you’re looking for one, the folks over at Mecum Auctions are offering an example with just 57,000 miles on the odometer at the Kissimmee Summer Special in late August.

The Chrysler Airflow was supposed to be Chrysler’s forward-thinking hit that would re-write the book on automotive styling and, in the process, teach people that an aerodynamic car is the way to go. Only it didn’t. All that the Airflow did do was to buck the trend and almost tanked Chrysler. With its steel body and fountain-esque grille, it shocked customers rather than appeal to them but now, 86 years since its release, it’s universally accepted that the Airflow is among the very first mass-produced aerodynamic cars in the world.

One way to make sure that a car is rare is to check if it was built simply as a way for an automaker to race that certain model on the tracks or the rally stages. This applies to BMW’s E9 CSL, the winged warrior that dominated the European touring car racing scene for the better part of a decade taking wins against the likes of Ford, Mercedes-Benz, and Jaguar in the process. The road-going version is just as flamboyant and, as this latest BaT auction proves, incredibly desirable.

When talking about muscle cars, we usually think about icons like the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Dodge Challenger, and Pontiac GTO. These are some of the cars that gained popularity in the 1960s and became part of the muscle car wars that lasted until the early 1970s. However, this short era that stretched from 1964 to 1971 actually spawned tens of performance-oriented cars in America. Also, the following decades gave us a few nameplates that tried to recapture the golden years. Some were successful, and some were not, while others were actually awesome but didn’t get the attention they deserved. This list is about the latter, the forgotten muscle cars that deserve more credit.

The 1930s saw some of the greatest cars ever built come to life. In the U.S., we had the Cadillac 16, the Buick Roadmaster, the Ford Model A, the Lincoln Model K, and the Chrysler Airflow. In Europe, BMW introduced the 328, while Mercedes-Benz rolled out the luxurious and sleek 500K.

Then there was the Tatra T87, an innovative car designed in Czechoslovakia that doesn’t get the attention it deserves. Jay Leno says it’s "the greatest car no one has ever heard of" and he’s trying to fix that by featuring the T87 in a new episode of his famous video series.

Healthy and safety guides tell you that a car missing a full-width windshield should not be driven on public roads yet here we are, looking at a gorgeous open-top Datsun from the late ’60s that, courtesy of the SR20DET inline-four is so fast it literally blows your cap off.

And then there’s the soundtrack and the fact that you’re never fully in the car because the doors are low enough so that most of your upper body is exposed to the elements. Grassroots Garage gets a taste of this automotive guillotine.

Cars have been divided into affordable and expensive ever since the early days of the automobile. As Ford began to streamline production for the Model T, which made it affordable to the average Joe, automakers like Rolls-Royce were producing luxurious and expensive cars.

Companies like Bugatti, Duesenberg, and Cadillac soon joined this endeavor to produce the best car in the world, which would also be the most expensive car in the world. As years went by, many of them also became very valuable. Rare cars become collectibles, and collectible status comes with a high price tag. Which are the rarest and most expensive cars on the market right now? Find out in the article below.

First used on cars as antifreeze by Chrysler Motor Parts, Mopar became a brand of its own in 1937. But more importantly, Mopar became a term for any vehicle built by the old Chrysler Corporation and rose to popularity in the 1960s, right before the muscle car wars emerged. Dodge Challenger, Plymouth Barracudas, Chrysler 300s? They were all Mopars back in the day, when what we now know as FCA was fighting for high-performance supremacy with Ford and General Motors. Chrysler built loads of iconic vehicles over the years, so here’s our top 10 list of the most memorable Mopars.