The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering always draws out many of the best vintage racing cars on the planet—so it only makes sense that Bonham’s auction at the event will follow suit. From Duesenbergs to McLarens, there are too many amazing sports and racing cars coming across that magnificent auction block to list them all. I do want to point out a few personal favorites. Some of these may not be the cars that command the high-end bids. They are just some that made me smile as I perused the auction catalog.

1953 Bandini 750 Sport Siluro

1970 Alfa Romeo GTA 1300

1965 Shelby Cobra 289 – I far prefer it’s curves to the 427

1964 Cheetah GT Coupe

1959 Autobianchi Bianchina Transformable

1955 Austin-Healey 100 BN1. I can’t believe that adjustable racing windscreen didn’t get more widely adopted.

1951 Allard J2

1934 Riley 12/4 Special

Ex-Howe, Ex-Nuvolari 1931 Bugatti Type 51 2-Seater Grand Prix Racer

This image of all 6 Cobra Daytona Coupes that Goodwood tweeted today is indescribable. So instead of reading anything I would write about how amazing it is, just scroll up and look at it some more.

Darren wrote in trying to track down this fiberglass-bodied, Ford Flathead V8-powered special that his father build when Darren was a child. Anyone know anything about this beauty? Let’s hear about it in the comments.

Update: Locke wrote in with a tantalizing clue. “An Australian by the name of Nat Buchanan made fiberglass bodies to put on MGs, TR2s, Healeys, etc. One of the bodies was based on the Aston Martin DB3S & that’s what your photo is. A flathead wasn’t a typical engine choice for an MG in Australia, but it was fairly common in the U.S., so I would guess that this was a U.S. built car—assuming the frame is an MG. This was 1957.”

The first Ford Shelby Cobra 260 print ad – 1963.

via Griftomatic.

With all the excitement surrounding the new Ford GT that was unveiled this week, I think it’s a better idea to just enjoy these laps of the 1965 Ford GT40 Roadster Prototype that sold at last year’s RM Monterey auction as she takes in the sights at Willow Springs.

Thanks for pointing this our way, Ryan!

Marvelous 20 minute film of Team Shelby’s racing exploits. Even if this film was just the Willow Springs chalk talk with Peter Brock it would be worth the watch. That it’s interspersed with sequences of Dan Gurney or Ken Miles illustrating his lecture on the track makes it mandatory viewing. You might just learn a touch of racecraft that’s just as true today as it was 50 years ago. Of course that first-generation GT40 and a spinning and drifting 289 Cobra aren’t hard to look at either.

Thanks for sending this one in, Craig!

This photo of Jim Clark in a Model-T Sprint Car almost breaks my brain. It only makes sense for Jimmy in the context of the celebrations surrounding the Indianapolis 500.

This photo was included in a Ford press release for the race and their 495 horsepower V8 that would power the Lotus-Ford in the race. What better way to showcase Ford’s history with the 500 and demonstrate 48 years of automotive engineering maturity than to contrast these two racing machines—each at the pinnacle of technology for their time. Magnificent.

More at Auto Gift Garage.

At least I didn’t have as bad a day as these guys did a few years ago.

Props to Rick Ostman for posting this image to the Vintage Road Racing Archive Facebook group.

It may not be safe but I’m going say that shirt and tie in pit lane is definitely a fashion “do”.

New Yorkers like to think of themselves as having seen it all. I can’t help but imagine though that this Ford GT40 driving down First Ave in 1967 turned more than a few heads.