Here is the only unrestored '57 Jag XKSS

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/automobiles/collectibles/19RESTO.html?_r=1&ref=collectibles&oref=slogin

The car, which was displayed at the 1957 Chicago Motor Show, had been all but given up for lost. In fact, it was hiding in plain sight, still in a garage, still in Chicago and in the hands of the second owner who had bought it in 1960.
Sloppy handwriting had resulted in the misreading of the owner’s last name and sent searchers on wild goose chases over the years.

Jaguar XJR 15

Only 50 were made, each selling for $960,165.

Depreciation is a bitch though, the 4 that have been resold at auctions in the US haven't even been over $200,000.

While Jaguar never exported the XJR-15, at least three are known to have made their way to the US.

One was sold at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 2001 for $176,000.

Another was sold at Pebble Beach in 2003 for US$154,000

(which was, incidentally, alongside a Jaguar XJ220 which sold for US$157,500).

The most recent was sold at the Bonhams & Butterfields Auction in Carmel, CA in August 2004. It is reported to have been sold to a private collector for around US$175,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar_XJR-15

18 thousand miles since new... probably to and from the 1/4 mile, and lots of times down the track

1968 Shelby GT 500 KR, Nascar tunnel ram 427 side oiler. Only 900 miles on it since 1970... think investment. 13.5 to 1 compression, think 115 octane or better, expensive to get even 900 miles along.

With probably 6 or 7 miles per gallon on this dual quad gas pump, a 20 gallon tank, and around 8 bucks a gallon, I think it may be close to guess that they've only burned up about 1200 bucks in gas in 37 years. Thats 900 miles in 37 years = 24 miles a year = 4 gallons of fuel a year.

1 of 1 Hemi car

A Belvedere I stationwagon, ordered to use as a tow car for a drag racer. I noticed that guys who put together the list of rarest musclecars didn't mention it. Hmmm. http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/01/rarest-musclecars-hmmm.html#links

http://www.yearone.com/leader_ads/ronzello.html

Last years Barrett Jackson auction lists this result, but it may not be the station wagon.
979.1 1966 Plymouth Hemi Belvedere I , 2 Door Post $71,280.00
http://www.classiccar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4603


"The Hemi was available only in the GTX in 1967, unlike the previous year when it could theoretically be installed in any Belvedere. Some sources claim that the Hemi was available across the Belvedere line in 1967 as it was in '66. (One Hemi, in fact, was actually factory installed in a 1966 Coronet four-door sedan!)
A good number of 1966 buyers went for all-go-and-no-show, spending their hard earned cash on a Hemi engine installed in a lowly stripped-down two-door sedan body. To get the same engine in 1967, the buyer had to pay for the fancy GTX body. This situation left many "little guys" out in the cold, hemi wise. Thus, while 1510 Hemi-powered Belvederes were sold in 1966, only 125 were produced in 1967. The availability of the 440 took away some Hemi sales; the lack of a low-bucks body took the rest. This problem Plymouth would address with a vengeance in 1968. (Hint? "Beep-Beep!")
There was, in fact, one non-GTX Hemi-powered Plymouth available in 1967. Not many were seen because it was sold only to select drag racing teams. It featured lightweight front end components and a higher output hemi engine. Although designed strictly for off-street use, some of the cars did, according to some reports, did appear on the streets. "

http://www.allpar.com/history/plymouth/1967.html

1955 "Golden Zebra" Daimler with Zebra skin seats

So the guy running the company listens to his wifes ideas for an interior idea, and she says "Mink is too hot to sit on, use Zebra" and so the guy does that, plus gold plates the trim, and has the instrument panel made of ivory.... and voila the expense report hits the conference room able and he's fired.

He had been renowned for his "Docker Specials" at the annual Earl's Court Motor Show, and his position as the Chairman of the BSA group. The BSA Group seem to have ran the Daimler Benz company and traditional Daimler characteristics had long endeared the marque to the nobility, in pre-war years the company’s products were preferred by Britain’s Royal Family to those of rivals Rolls-Royce.

Created for the 1955 London Motor Show by Lady Norah Docker, wife of the company's chairman Sir Bernard Docker, and cost £12,000 - eight times the price of a Daimler Conquest saloon.

Sir Bernard and Lady Docker took it to Monaco in April 1956 for the wedding of Prince Rainier and actress Grace Kelly, but only weeks later they were sacked from Daimler's board for squandering company cash.

http://www.practicalclassics.co.uk/auctionlot/by-id/751982696/

http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=LotDetails&iSaleItemNo=3416992&iSaleNo=14267&sServer=http://images1.bonhams.com/&sPath=2006-11/16/7357745-1-1.jpg#

http://www.autoexpress.co.uk/news/autoexpressnews/203881/king_of_bling_up_for_grabs.html

A factory four door Hemi Dodge? One of 5 made, never heard of them before.

This may be the world's rarest 426-Hemi car.
Approximately 11,000 cars were made with the 426 Hemi. All of those cars were 2 door cars, except for 5 cars.

That's 10,995 street racers and 5 four doors... hmmm.

One went to Canada, one for export. Of 3 sold in the US, one is in the Ocala Florida museum of Big Daddy Don Garlits, and this one went for.... $660,000.

Definitely a sleeper. What in the world else would this be used for?

ANSWER: Thanks to http://www.classiccar.com/garage/blog/index.php?/archives/154-1966-Hemi-Coronet-Four-Door.html Ted's Garage, posted by Todd Jensen, who did more homework than I did.... and links to a Mopar Muscle article which said that the FBI ordered two for towing and field service (really? a freaking hemi? Whoa. Think they have kept up with muscle cars and now have Vipers?) but the FBI didn't like the maintenance factor and sold them off to civilians, hence the one getting into the Big Daddy Don Garlits Museum in Ocala Fla.

Lee Marvin's Shelby convertible, that he gave to his gardener.

74 mile '70 Hemi Cuda, $500,000

A 62 yr old bought it, took off some factory stuff carefully for storage, installed race parts.... went racing for the rest of the year. Died that winter. His widow died a few years later and the son sold off the car for $3500 in 1977.

The buyer reinstalled the original parts, owned the car for 16 years, and only drove it for pushed it around for just 5280 ft.
Just one mile in 16 years.
330 ft a year on aveage.

My granny's chicken's fly farther than that with a good tail wind.

So it passed through some collectors hands for investment purposes, and in 2005 is purchased with 61 miles. This last owner tuned it up for proper operation, and auctioned it off for $500,000. It's the lowest mileage 70 Hemicuda in existance, and likely it'll never be driven over 100 miles. Sad, that's car abuse. To never drive it... might as well buy a house for investment purposes. It's never going anywhere either.

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/carlist/cardetails.asp?In_AuctionID=221&In_LotNumber=1262

If I read right, a 71 hemi convertable sold for $2.2 million. $1.7 million more for being a convertable.

The Rumble seat Mustang you've never seen or learned of, except here

I've posted on these before,
http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/12/parade-mustang-with-rumble-seat-1-of-4.html#links

Suprised the hell out of me, one went up for auction at Barrett Jackson and they didn't promote it... wow, missed chance there to spread the word. I'll be looking through the magazines to see how many were at the auction and noticed this rarity

http://www.barrett-jackson.com/carlist/cardetails.asp?In_AuctionID=221&In_LotNumber=428.1


Went for 48 thou.

"This particular package was a joint effort by Ford and Autocraft of Dearborn, MI. The option was not shown on the build sheet or Ford window sticker because the conversion was done after assembly. It was a "Blossom-Time" sales promotion offered only during April 1969 to certain Michigan dealers. Documented by 2 different magazine articles, it is still un-certain exactly how many were done. This one is believed to be the only one in "Meadowlark Yellow". This one was built April 16, 1969 and delivered to Jack Dykstra Ford in Lansing, MI."

I like prototypes... hell, I just dig cars

1961 Mako Shark most of these pics are from a russian site http://autowp.ru/
1962 XP 755 Mako Shark

1962 XP 755 Mako Shark 1965 Mako Shark
1969 Manta Ray

1973 Astrovette 1956 SR-2 Corvette
http://www.tamsoldracecarsite.net is a great site and was my source for this SR-2, the precursor to the SS Corvette

Once, men were allowed to be men... crazy daredevil, 4 motor, 4 wheel drive, rocket powered nuts.

http://www.almar.easynet.be/turbonique.htm has a really good article, and good photos.
http://vales.com/MTM2/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=12159&ARCHIVE for the best color pics and description of how powerfully enticing this was, it went on go carts (215 mph), cars, boats, etc... strap on 1000 HP, or the full boogie 1500 HP if you clang with big brass notes when you shuffle along.

http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2006/04/the_real_acme.html

I won't even repost the madness here.... I can't possibly do justice to the sheer machoness of strapping a 1000 hp 760 ft lbs rocket to the rear axle of a dragster and hitting the "fun" button. Trust me, Coop, and iowahawk... read it all, soak it in. Our fathers and grandfathers were effing madmen with motors and we should just drop to one knee in homage the the giants who once walked the USA, racing for the shits and grins of it all.

thanks to http://positiveapeindex.blogspot.com/2006/04/real-acme.html for reminding me about this, and I'll have more on this from my archived books and magazines someday.

http://www.the-rocketman.com/turbonique1.html has 5 photo galleries of bikes, boats, cars, and go karts that had used these.

In August 2007 CarDomain found an original Cougar with a Turbonique still strapped on: http://blog.cardomain.com/blog/2007/08/turbonique.html

For a good long write up: http://garagemagazine.com/archive-the-real-acme/

Rarest carb I can thnk of

I have never seen one in person, just this one magazine story on rare carbs. Never made it into production, I believe.

The most expensive Corvettes, five lightweight Grand Sport race cars

In 1962 Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov came up with a lightweight version of the C2. Concerned about Ford and what they were doing with the Shelby Cobra, GM planned 100 Grand Sport Corvettes. The plans never came about and only five were built.

They were driven by historic drivers such as Roger Penske, A. J. Foyt, Jim Hall, and Dick Guldstrand among others. The Grand Sports, however, had many issues; the aero package made for a very frightful driving experience to say the least. Delmo Johnson said it was "the only car I ever drove that would lift the front wheels off the ground in all four gears." Dick Thompson was the only driver to drive the Grand Sport to victory. He won a Sports Car Club of America race at Watkins Glen. Today all five that were ever built survives, car 001-005, all held by private owners.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_C2

http://www.grandsportregistry.com/63_history.htm

The most expensive Corvettes. Two to Three million

Only 2 known ZL-1 Corvettes. Aluminum 427 engines. When tested by magazine types, one ripped off a 10.89 sec at 132 mph on 9 inch slicks.

http://www.autofacts.ca/classics/FAPC/ZL1Corvette.htm for all the info. The yellow one was seized in a drug bust for cocaine use.

A good history of the white one. Drag raced for about 2 years, then sold.
http://corvettes-musclecars.com/cgi-bin/emAlbum.cgi?c=show_thumbs;p=1969%20Corvette%20ZL-1%20427-430HP

http://www.corvettelegends.com/zl1.htm A brief and good history of the ZL 1 Corvette

The most expensive Corvettes. One to one and a half million

1967, L88, 427 four barrel, aluminum heads. 18 remain.



The L88 with 12.5 to 1 compression, hi-lift cam, 850 CFM 4 barrel carb and aluminum heads was under-rated at only 430 HP. L88s actually have been dyno-tested at 560 HP. How could GM do this without it being called false advertisement? Easy -- the publicized rating of the L88 actually was its true horsepower. Chevrolet just neglected to point out that this horsepower rating was at approximately 1000 RPM under the peak performance RPM of the L88.

The most expensive Corvettes.

Both the 1957 SS and the 1958 Mitchell are at http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2006/11/only-time-super-sport-was-ever-applied.html#links

The most expensive Corvettes. Over a million a piece

1953, 3rd built. $1.08 mil. This was a test mule for GM, things like 14 hour cold room shake testing, and 5000 mile Belgian block test.

Side bar: John Wayne bought #51, Corvettes #004-006 are the first Corvettes sold, delivered to executives of the DuPont Company.

http://www.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/vettehis/index.htm

The first Corvettes were actually "rolled" off the assembly line. Chevrolet was not prepared for grounding to a fiberglass body; the cars would not start.

The only thing really new on the 1953 Corvette was the fiberglass body. Everything else was directly off the Chevrolet parts shelf. Because of this, the first Corvette was essentially a regular 1952 Chevrolet that looked like a million dollars!

Of the 314 Corvettes hand built in 1953 only 183 were sold because of "average" performance at such a high price, $3513 the Jaguar Xk120 sold for $3345, $168 less than the Corvette.

The rarest and most expensive Corvettes, ZL-1's

The only time Super Sport was ever applied to a corvette, thanks to Zora Arkus Duntov

The Bill Mitchell and Zora Duntov vettes. Unique beasts

Only 2 ZL-1 Corvettes were made