“Chassis number 5899 GT was the ninth example of Ferrari’s vaunted 250 LM, and according to Ferrari historian Marcel Massini, it was completed by the factory on June 3, 1964. As was the case with the vast majority of 250 LMs, it was finished in Rossa Cina and fitted with Panno Blu seats. Six weeks later, it was sold by the factory, destined for Switzerland’s most storied racing team, Scuderia Filipinetti.”

With a birth story like that, it would be enough. But unfortunately 5899’s career with Scuderia Filipinetti was short lived with Ludovico Scarfiotti and Nino Vaccarella each taking victories in her only two events with the team, the 1964 Sierre-Montana Crans Hill Climb and the XV Coppa Inter-Europa at Monza. The car went on to further victories with Ecurie Basilisk.

Following a crash, the car entered a dark period and was modified heavily. In what must rank up there in the history of cobbled together racers, her chassis was chopped and shortened to fit a Porsche 906(!) body. Yet, somehow this unholy union between rivals suited 5899 as it went on to become a successful hillclimber.

A restoration began in 1977 and somehow her current state is gorgeous. Would you believe this machine was once a Porsche bodied FrankenFerrari?

This beautiful 250 LM will cross the block at RM Auctions Arizona auction next Friday. While her past may be colorful, it seems to be well documented, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she achieves the $9,500,000 – $12,500,000 estimate.

More information on RM Auction’s lot detail page. There’s a photo there of 5899 wearing the 906 fiberglass there.. and while I truly admire the mechanics that kept her alive and running in those years, I just didn’t have it in me to display it here.

Update: Sold on the low end of the estimate for $9,625,000

This Ferrari 250 SWB and Maserati A6G 2000 are only a fraction of a 60 car strong barn find that will all cross the Artcurial auction block in February at Retromobile in Paris.

Just when I think there’s never going to be another big barn find, up pops another. Surely this must be the last generation of forgotten barns full of vintage sportscars. Once the entire world is internet literate, anyone will realize what an amazingly valuable pile of steel is in the shed, right? I hope I’m wrong about this. I’m not going to discover a new tomb of ancient relics, or an unknown comet in a corner of the universe, but I might stumble on an old racecar forgotten in a neighbor’s warehouse.

This one was one hell of a find from a very discerning collector:

The cars
Amilcar C6 berline
Amilcar CGS
Ariès coach
Auto Union cabriolet
Avions Voisin C15
Avions Voisin limousine C15
Avions Voisin C7 par Gallé
Ballot 8 Cyl limousine
Barré torpédo
Berliet coupé chauffeur
Berliet Type VIGB 10HP Taxi Landaulet
Bugatti 57 Ventoux
Citroën Trèfle
Delage D6
Delage D8 coach
Delahaye 135 cabriolet Faget Varnet
Delahaye 135 coach Chapron
Delahaye 235 coach Chapron
Delahaye 235 coach Chapron
Delahaye 235 coupé Chapron
Delahaye Type 43 coupé chauffeur
Delahaye GFA 148 L
Delahaye Type 43 camionnette
Delaunay Belleville limousine VL8
Facel Vega Excellence
Ferrari 250 GT California SWB
Ferrari 308 GTS i
Ferrari 400
Ferrari Mondial 3.2L cabriolet
Hispano Suiza H6B cabriolet Millon-Guiet
Hotchkiss cabriolet
Innocenti S cabriolet
Jaguar type S 3.4 L
La Buire 12 A
Lagonda LG45 cabriolet
Lancia Thema 8.32
Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 plateau
Lorraine Dietrich B3/6 torpédo par Grumman
Lorraine-Dietrich torpédo
Maserati A6G 2000 berlinetta Grand Sport Frua
Mathis cabriolet
Mathis FOH
Packard cabriolet Super Eight
Panhard-Levassor Dynamic berline X77
Panhard-Levassor Dynamic coupé X76
Panhard-Levassor limousine X72
Porsche 356 SC ex-Sonauto
Renault AX torpédo
Renault Vivastella cabriolet
Sandford cyclecar 3 roues
Singer Cabriolet
Talbot Lago 11/6 cabriolet
Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet
Talbot Lago Baby cabriolet
Talbot Lago Cadette 11
Talbot Lago coach
Talbot Lago T26 coach
Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport coupé Saoutchik
Talbot Lago T26 Record coupé Saoutchik
Talbot Lago T26 cabriolet Saoutchik ex-Roi Farouk

Classic Driver has the complete story.

At a “Buy it Now” price of $795, these might be most expensive 3-inch pinback badges on the market. If, however, I had a car that ran in the Watkins Glen International Grand Prix in 1954, 1955, or 1956, I’d be mighty tempted.

Check out the eBay auction for details.

Maybe I should reproduce these. Smaller though.

Neiman Marcus’ Christmas catalog is famous for their over-the-top gift ideas. My favorite from last year was the custom falconry equipment. This year though, I’m actually tempted to put together a crowdfunding campaign for this custom slot car set by Slot Mods. Even better, David Hobbs will attend your opening party.

I can imagine no better evening than sitting around this remarkable slot car table with David Hobbs calling the action. Only $300K. At that price, we can’t afford not to get it.

Who’s in?

More information (and video!)—but sadly no “add to cart” button—at NeimanMarcus.com

Thanks for the tip, Paul!

We’re giving another go at crowdfunding a new t-shirt. This time it’s a recreation of a Tyrrell shirt that Jackie Stewart was photographed in. I’ve never seen another example and for all I know the team might have just made them for Jackie. We need to correct this problem.

By now, you probably know how these crowdfunding campaigns work. Essentially you can reserve your shirt, but you will only be charged for the shirt if we sell 15 of them. Otherwise, the print run never happens and your card is never charged. We only have 10 days for this one, so if you’re interested in supporting Team Tyrrell as they were in the early 70’s, now is your chance.

Head on over to the catalog page and order yours today.

This is much, much newer than the typical fare here on The Chicane, but I think I include it here for good reason. This machine has already proven itself to be one of the great collectable sportscars of the modern era and examples will doubtless be drawing top dollar at auctions for decades to come. This distinction, however, is not without a curse all its own. This car was masterfully constructed by McLaren in 1995. In the 19 years since, this poor neglected piece of perfect has driven a scant 1,000 miles. That’s just over 50 miles a year.

What’s the point?

When this McLaren F1 crosses the block at Gooding & Co’s Pebble Beach auction next month, there’s a very good chance that it will achieve the estimated hammer price of $12,000,000 – $14,000,000. If you’re the one to take her home, do yourself a favor and drive it a little, wouldja?

More information at Gooding’s Lot Detail page.

The Monday after Monterrey weekend, you’ll be bombarded by these photos and the accompanying headlines from the media regarding how much this Ferrari 250 GTO will sell for at Bonham’s Quail Auction. For just a minute, lets ignore the investment grade of this hotly desired piece of kinetic sculpture. Lets ignore the sound business rationale that might drive this purchase—and will certainly drive the journalists that write about it post-sale. Let’s simply pause for a moment before that frenzy begins and just appreciate this gorgeous GTO for what it is: an incredible example of a beautiful racing car.

Let’s just cross our fingers and hope her new caretaker gets her out of the vault and onto the track occasionally.

More information at Bonham’s lot detail page.

You don’t often see Toyota 2000GTs come up for sale. Certainly the most hotly coveted Japanese sportscar, it is also one of the few that, in my opinion, holds the stage with any late 60’s sportscar regardless of country of origin. This example on offer from Symbolic Motors in La Jolla California, is the very first left-hand-drive model to leave the factory. Whether this bit of build history makes her more valuable than the other 39 American market examples believed to still exist, I don’t know. What I do know is that I would have like to have picked this car up when it was advertised in AutoWeek magazine for $27,000 in February of 1987.

Something I’ve never really noticed, that I think this color accentuates, is those little access doors for the battery and filter. Can you imagine these little strictly utilitarian exterior panels being produced today?

I’d be wary to restore this one. It might be one of very few “driver” 2000GTs on the planet. The vast majority that I’ve seen tend to fall into the over-restored trailer queen variety. This example looks like you wouldn’t feel guilty about tearing up the coast for an early morning ride. We often value patina only when there’s a specific race history with the car, saying things like, “that’s the paint that Fangio touched” or some other specific sentiment placed on the original bits. But this is different, it’s more like the beauty of a broken-in leather jacket being better than a new one. There’s value in these things even when they’re not museum pieces.

She’s much prettier in red than I would have thought. You can blame my general distaste for red cars (a color best reserved for Italian machines), but it might also be my great appreciation for their stunning racing livery. More information at Symbolic’s inventory page.

I suppose it’s possible that out there somewhere is a Maserati A6GCS roller sitting in the back of the race workshop just waiting for an appropriate lump of iron to be dropped in. Maybe there’s an empty frame and fiberglass body from a properly established sports and racing aftermarket maker out there in need of some proper racing grunt: a Bocar, a Devin, or the like. Or perhaps, as the seller suggests, you don’t want to risk your numbers matching engine should you decide to race or rally your already restored or preserved A6GCS. If you have one of these situations, jump on this.

This engine though… I wish more vintage sportcar enthusiasts thought a bit more like vintage hot rod enthusiasts and could see this beautiful engine not as final piece to a project, but as a beginning of a new one. I’ll grant you, a $160,000 Maserati engine is a very different thing from a $500 Hemi FirePower slowly rusting in a junk yard (or even a $15,000 professionally prepped example). But part of what made racing so amazing in the 1950s and 60s was that spirit of experimentation and tinkering away at home brewed racing specials.

Look at this engine. Doesn’t it make you want to start pulling steel tubes out of the pile and start laying out lengths on the garage floor into the vague shape of frame rails? … To grab a stick of chalk and start sketching body silhouettes on the workshop wall? It worked for Frank Kurtis and Max Balchowsky. There’s more in this engine than the history and the legacy of the Maserati brothers. There is also the twinkling of promise for what it can be.

More information at Fantasy Junction’s inventory detail page. Gorgeous stuff.

Bonhams upcoming December auction featuring the Dick Skipwworth Ecorie Ecosse Collection has no shortage of amazing racing cars included (and one Hell of a nice transporter too), and even though this Cooper-Monaco won’t draw in the top dollar bids the way that the D-Type or C-Type will, it might be my favorite of the bunch. The rear-engined Type 57 is surely one of the most beautiful sports-racing cars to come out of Cooper Car’s garages, if not the whole of the UK racing community. Those elegant curves wrapped around that miraculous little 2 1/2 liter Coventry Climax twin cam just make me smile.

Cooper delivered the cars to purchasers as a kit, and if I were to choose any single example I think I’d be most inclined to trust the one built by this legendary team. It won’t surprise you to learn that this little beauty has a magnificent race history with events on both sides of the Atlantic. Formula Libre events at Watkins, Riverside, and Laguna Seca (with Jack Brabham in the wheel for Laguna) wonderfully complement her European history at Goodwood, Oulton Park, Aintree, and LeMans. Arguably her best years, however, came when the car was entrusted to Ecurie Ecosse driver Jimmy Stewarts scrappy kid brother Jackie. He took to the machine wonderfully and racked up a series of victories right out the gate. Can you imagine owning a car that has been driven by both Jack Brabham and Jackie Stewart (and Roy Salvadori! And more!)?

Bonhams is offering this car alongside many of her Ecurie Ecosse stablemates at their December auction. I sincerely hope that a very well heeled buyer comes along and nabs them all. They really do deserve to remain together, don’t you think?

More information on Bonhams’ lot detail page.