Thanks to a number of your emails requesting a reprint, The Chicane Shop is stocked back up in Yamura Motors shirts in every size. We’ve even added size small for the first time. The shirt fabric is a slightly lighter, brighter blue this time around; a bit more wintery, a bit more of an early 60′s color.
Available in The Chicane Shop. Woohoo!
Stefan wrote in to tell me about his latest wonderful automotive art project. Each day leading up to December 24th, he’s releasing a different postcard-sized pencil and watercolor sketch. If I know Stefan’s stuff, they’re bound to all be fantastic. But then he does us all one better—he’s selling the original piece each day through his new Etsy store for a paltry £24. The images above are the releases for December 1 and 2—each with their respective racing number. Fun!
Hey Stefan, if you do one, set aside the Porsche 550 one for me, eh? 
Check Stefan Marjoram’s sketch blog for the fresh calendar item daily, and try to be the first to that Etsy shop each day.
How is it possible to look at this stunning 1949 De Luca Fiat-Lancia Sport Special and not fall in love? It’s an Italian representation of a hot-rodding zeitgeist that was taking hold worldwide in at the end of the 1940s.
This bare utility is one of the things I so love about early barchettas. The interior could not be more sparse. The exposed backsides of the door skins attest to the lightness that was built into this special for (by?) Senore De Luca, “the wolf of Calabrese” (note the amazing wolf head mascot). I’ve had no luck in finding De Luca’s racing history, but sellers Cristiano Luzzago say the car has period appearances at the Circuito di Posillipo (probably the ’49 running of the GP Napoli though I find no matching car in their entry list) and Grio delle Calabrie.
I adore everything about it—the Stance, the utilitarian design, the minimal embellishment. I have no real reason for this, but the leaf-spring front end is something I’m kind of obsessed with lately. I think it’s something to do with the backyard shed and garage engineered use of the leaf-spring front suspension in everything from the T-Bucket to the Cooper 500s. I just see those leaves poking out where we’re used to seeing A-arms, and my head spins. That’s what this Fiat frame meets Lancia Ardea drivetrain really is when we get down to it: The early Italian version of the later hated Garagistas.
Let’s face it, if this didn’t have the words “Fiat-Lancia” attached to it, you might think it was a garage-built Southern California custom with a Ford V8 under the hood. In many ways, it is. And I love this little street rod for it.
More photos and details on Cristaino Luzzago’s inventory page.
For Sale
My 212 Ferrari… In perfect tune and in showroom condition
Top Speed… 130 mph • 0 to 60…7.5 sec. • 0 to 100 mph…16sec. • Perfectly behaved in city traffic (getting 20 mpg) • Road tested in Nov. ’52 issue of Road and Track • Price…$7,800.
Write or phone Phil Hill, 5670 Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 28, HEmpstead 3165
I always assumed that an open-wheeled racer would be leagues easier to maintain than a closed-wheel car. After all, there’s little or no bodywork to deal with: You can more immediately locate and diagnose a problem, you don’t have to spend additional maintenance hours removing body panels, and you don’t have to distort your arms in impossibly ornate ways to reach around things.
It’s all just there.
This 1975 Datsun 280Z currently available on eBay, though, makes me wonder if it’s all just in the setup. This looks just about as accessible as it can be. I don’t know if it conforms to any particular vintage regulations, but this looks almost as easy to work on as a Formula Ford of the same vintage.
Buy it Now at $45K, bidding is open until Sept. 22.
Hard to imagine something better than this for your garage automotive studio wall.
Coys is offering this Jay Burridge sculpture as part of their upcoming Nurburgring auction on 13th August 2011. Look closer though, this isn’t just a sculpture inspired by Ayrton Senna’s MP4/6. It’s made OF one of Ayrton’s MP4/6s.
McLaren Formula cars are not in collectors’ hands—like the early Ferrari formula cars, each is dismantled for post-race analysis and reused or destroyed. This bodywork, though was given to Jay by Ron Dennis as the source material for the sculpture and even shows signs of wear from race use. There are peeling sponsor stickers, there are nicks and scratches from a weekend’s race.
The unfortunate timing of the completion of the sculpture, however, forced it into storage. Props to Burridge and Ron Dennis for not selling the sculpture in the wake of Senna’s death. Instead the sculpture seems to have been displayed at a corporate event, then hidden away—reemerging in ’04 for a Senna tribute at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Coys estimates it will bring €35,000 – €45,000. More at their lot details page.
Race history at the Targa Florio? Check. Le Mans? Yup. Tour de France? Uh-huh. Monza 1000KM? You bet.
Say any one of these things about any single example of a car and you’ll have my attention. Say all of them about a single car and you’ll have a lot of people’s attention. When the car you’re talking about is an exquisite 1964 Alfa TZ Coupé, you’ll have everyone’s attention.
There’s no question that the TZ is a striking machine. One of only 112 made, any Tubulare Zagato is a rare beast. One of the very few early Audodelta prepped machines (those made before the wider homologation production) and with well documented race history. Hell, it’s damn near unique.
This Alfa-Romeo TZ #750006 is crossing the block this weekend as part of RM’s Ville d’Este auction. And it says something about the caliber of machine that they’re presenting this weekend that the TZ isn’t even one of their featured lots. But if you look a bit beyond the sea of vintage Ferraris on offer (a 275GTB, a Scaglietti 500 TRC Spider, a 375MM Berlinetta) you’ll come to lot 126.
Restored to her 1964 LeMans livery by Piet Roelofs Engineering, she looks aggressive, mean even. Despite the relatively light 150 horsepower that the 1.5liter DOHC straight 4 was pulling, Giampiero Biscaldi and Giancarlo Sala managed 15th overall in the 24 Hours (10th in GT). In a field of Ferrari 330s and GTOs and Porsche 904s, that’s a wonderful result that Scuderia St. Ambroeus must have been pleased with (with her sister car finishing 13th for the team).
A truly stunning example of a remarkable car and a masterpiece of design for Zagato—I do so miss that flat-back era of design. I’d say there’s little doubt she’ll reach her estimate of €475.000-€575.000.
More at RM’s catalog. Previously.
Update: Well, the TZ sure met it’s reserve alright, selling for €627,200.
John Surtees owned this car for 20 years, and I’m sure it provided plenty of smiles after his retirement (of sorts) from the track. But it isn’t the first Porsche 356 that has spent time in the Surtees stable. His first was a Super 90. He wrote of it in his Supercars I Have Known:
“My father knew the Aldingtons at AFN, the Porsche agents, so I ended up with a 356 Super 90 that had been used as a demonstrator and had hardly any miles on the clock, It was a marvellous little car, but you had to be very wide awake to drive it, In those days we didn’t have such a variety of tyres, so we couldn’t change the handling characteristics of a car: today, people say cars of that period handle well and are fun after trying them on modern radial-ply tyres. You have to remember that our tyres were much more primitive.”
It seems Surtees changed his opinion of the bathtub Porker in the years between these two experiences. Of course, perhaps the tires have something to do with it. Then again, perhaps there’s also an ocean of difference between a Super 90 and a Carrera 2. I’ve never driven either, but would love to know first-hand… invitations will be accepted 
This car on offer (chassis YKE250A) is 1 of only 437 Carrera 2 variants produced. Which makes it a gem already, with the ownership history of the only Formula 1 AND motorcycle world champion, it’s quite a rare beast indeed. The car was restored in ’98 by Team Surtees themselves, which sweetens the deal in my eyes, with mechanical help from 4-cam maestro Robert Garretson (with parts supplied directly from Porsche).
Some look at the Carrera 2 and see nothing but a plain-jane 356 plus the added headache of 4-cam maintenance. There’s something I find alluring, however, about the non-descript supercar. A bit of a wolf in—well, not a sheep—maybe a wolf in less-intimidating-wolf’s clothing aspect that feels right to me. Capable. Not flashy.
Today the car is available from the Coys showroom sales department. More info on their inventory details page.
Amilcar de Carvalho Fernandes’ beautiful poster of muscle cars from ’60—’74 is perfectly executed. Seeing the images close-up is what really sells it for me. Often these ‘lineup’ posters leave me lacking a bit, but the quality of the illustrations is so high that it feels so much better than other posters I’ve seen that use the same basic layout. Available from Amilcar de Carvalho Fernandes’ site. Looks like €20 well spent to me.
Those Mopar stripes get me every time.
via Ralf Becker
John Lennon didn’t pass his driving test until 1965, by which time The Beatles were already an international sensation. Reportedly, luxury and sporting dealers were literally lining up in front of Lennon’s house with examples of their models for his inspection. Maserati’s, Astons and Jags littered the road outside his Kenwood estate hoping to earn his business. After a stroll outside the gate, he chose this Ferrari 330GT 2+2 in an arresting shade of blue. That very car, the example pictured above, is coming available as part of Bonham’s Collectors’ Motor Cars, Motorcycles and Automobilia auction on February 5 in Paris.
Bonhams says, “The 330 GT had been completed at the factory to right hand drive specification and finished in Azzuro (light metallic blue) paint, with blue interior, as noted on the Factory records. Its specification is noted as having included matched blue carpets, light grey headlining, a Webasto sunroof and overdrive. The finished car was delivered to British Ferrari agents Maranello Concessionaires Ltd. of Egham on order number 192.”
Lennon only owned the car for a few months, before adopting his well-known Rolls Royce limousine with the psychedelic paint scheme.
Estimated to sell for €120,000 – 170,000, but only time will tell. More info on Bonham’s lot detail page.
