Red Ribbon Trophy - Racing In France

by Mike -

The Dix Mille Tours (Ten Thousand Laps) is a series of historic races at the Paul Ricard circuit in France held on October 13 this year.

Iso Grifo A3/C, chassis No. 0222

One of these races, the Trofeo Nastro Rosso (Red Ribbon Trophy), included an Iso Grifo A3/C and a Bizzarrini GT 5300. This race is for all Italian GT and sports race cars built up to 1966.

Other cars in this race were two Maserati 300S, several Ferraris (250 GT and 275 GTB) and an Alfa Romeo Giulietta SZ.

Bizzarrini GT 5300

Ferrari 275 GTB on the left and Bizzarrini GT 5300 on the right

Maserati 300S

Ferrari 275 GTB/4

The Iso Grifo A3/C driven by Alberto Francioni and Fredy Barth won both races even though it started from the back of the pack. This is the same Iso Grifo A3/C (chassis No. 0222) that won its class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1965. This must be one terrific car - still winning after all these years.

Read more at Ultimatecarpage.com, these photos are from Ultimatecarpage.com.

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1966 ASA 1000 GT Spider

by Mike -

This is a terrific car that you do not see very often.

Ferrari designed this little gem and sold the manufacturing rights to Autocostruzioni Societa per Azioni (ASA).

ASA hired Giotto Bizzarrini to test drive the car and work out the final technical details, which he did.

The engine has 1032 cc displacement and is based on the Ferrari 250 GT engine, with a 4-speed transmission. It produces 97 hp.

The body style is by Bertone. The coupe was introduced at the Turin Auto Show in 1961 and the Spider was introduced in 1963.

It is estimated that 118 ASA 1000 GTs were made with only 17 Spiders in the total.

This car delivers a Ferrari like experience without the expense of owning and maintaining a V12 Ferrari. Well, it also will not go as fast as a Ferrari.

This car was at the Carmel-by-the-Sea Concours On The Avenue in August 2011.

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Classic Cars At The Millenáris Velodrom in Budapest, Hungary

by Mike -

My Car Quest reader Gábor Vida has sent in some classic car photos from an event where he lives in Hungary. Gábor was the winner of the My Car Quest Best Car Photo Contest recently.

Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France

Gábor writes,

The event was a classic car, motorcycle and bicycle meeting in Budapest, Hungary. The Millenáris Velodrom is an oval track that is more than 100 years old used for bicycle races, near the heart of the city.

Fairthorpe Electron Minor

Austin Healey 3000 MK3

Marcos 1800 GT

All the bikes, bicycles, and the cars not heavier than 1000 kgs  (2200 lbs) used the track for several laps. They were grouped by age, and categories, e.g., motorcycles before WWI, post WWII British roadsters, etc...

Bugatti Type 44

Triumph TR6

It was a very special feeling to hear and smell these old cars, not only to watch them. It was a little, Hungarian Goodwood Revival - the visitors who dressed for the cars had cheeper entry fees.

Jaguar XK140

The green Iso Rivolta arrived late in the afternoon, and it didn't run around, I think it was too late, and the car is too heavy.

Iso Rivolta GT

Here are more photos, from Gábor, vintage bikes, and photos by László Katona.

Gábor Vida is an artist, so you may see some of these photos show up as drawings on his web site.

Hungary looks like a great place for car and motorcycle lovers. And I have never seen a Fairthorpe Electron Minor before, nor have I heard of this car.

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Ferrari 275 GTB NART Spider

by Mike -

The Ferrari 275 GTB/4 (4-cam) is one of the best sports cars of all time. So, imagine how much greater it would be if it were also a convertible?

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That is exactly what Luigi Chinetti was thinking when he asked Enzo Ferrari to make a spider version of the 275GTB/4. Chinetti was the first Ferrari dealer in the US, the founder of the North American Race Team (NART) and a great race driver himself.

This request led to ten 275 GTB/4 Spiders being made for NART in 1967 and 1968 by the coach builder Scaglietti. All were sold in the US by Chinetti.

This elegant green 1968 275 GTB/4 shown here is a replica NART Spider made by the same artist who did the work on the original ten when employed by Scaglietti.

It is owned by my friend Phil White, above, and was on display at the Danville Concours d'Elegance recently. I like to see a Ferrari that is not Ferrari red and this green looks great!

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Yet Even More Pictures From The Best Car Picture Contest

by Mike -

Here are three other pictures submitted by Gabor Vida for the My Car Quest Best Car Picture Contest. The winners were announced here.

Gabor won first place with a beautiful picture of a Jaguar XK140. He is an artist who loves to draw cars, check out his web site here.

1971 Ferrari 365 GTB/4

The location below looks enticing but Gabor did not say where this photo was taken.

2007 Fiat 500 1.3 MultiJet

2006 BMW Z4

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Bizzarrini, Ferrari and Iso Rivolta GT Racing Video

by Mike -

This video (2:17 long) shows a Bizzarrini racing with many Ferraris. There is also a white Iso Rivolta GT (at 1:35) in there as well at the Spa Classic in 2011. My apologies for the advertisement, it only last a few seconds.



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Car Collector Clichés And Contradictions

by Mike -

The following are some common, and irritating, classic car clichés that are repeated by collector car luminaries over and over.

Clichés always have a ring of truth to them but there are some inconsistencies and contradictions in these five clichés.

1) It is original only once.

This is a truism but time takes it toll on all things and original cars eventually turn into original cars in bad condition. If they are properly cared for and stored properly they can remain in good condition for many many years. But eventually they will deteriorate to the point of well, bad condition.

2) Do not restore an original car - this always follows number 1.

At what point does this philosophy no longer make sense? The great paintings hanging in the museums of Europe are periodically restored as are the old buildings. If they are not then they would eventually fall into an unrecoverable state. The period between restorations may be a a long time but it is still done.

Cars also will reach a point where they will deteriorate to a point of non-functionality. Will this philosophy toward classic cars change then?

3) It is being driven and used like it was meant to be.

Eventually this will wear out the car - maybe 50 years from now but these cars will deteriorate to the point that they can only be placed in a museum and looked at by future generations. Especially race cars that are driven and used like they were meant to be. Some will also be destroyed in the process.

It can be driven and used like it was meant to be only for so long, especially if it is to be kept original at all costs.

The car that is being driven and used like it was meant to be will never win a best in show at a Pebble Beach like event.

4) Every nut and bolt has been removed and this car has been restored to a condition that is better than when it left the factory new.

We praise these cars because they are better than new and beautiful to look at. It takes a restoration like this to win a major award at a Concours d'Elegance. Yet this is inconsistent with clichés 1 and 2 above. And if this car is then driven and used like it was meant to be it will deteriorate rapidly so that it will never win a Concours.

5) The car is over restored.

This is a bad thing but it is the only way to win best in show at a Concours d'Elegance like Pebble Beach. We worship these winners but then at other moments we criticize the over restored car and we criticize the trailer queen that does not get driven and "used like it was meant to be". But it is the trailer queen that wins best in show.

If these Pebble Beach winning cars were used like they were meant to be then they would not win Pebble Beach.

Which of the two cars pictured in this post is more valuable? The red one is a 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4 that is all original with only 11,500 miles but still looks to be in great condition. I wrote about this car here.

This silver car is a 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy Long Nose that is also all original with around 60,000 miles and is in bad condition. I wrote about this car here.

This is not exactly a perfect comparison from a model point of view but it is reasonably close. One is an alloy body and the other is a 4-cam, the 4-cam will command a higher price with everything else being equal.

What do you think? I would love to hear some comments.

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1966 Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy Long Nose - Preserved

by Mike -

This car was at the Gooding auction in Monterey in August. The estimate was $900,000 - $1,300,000 and the car sold for $1,540,000!

Gooding's description:

"Desirable Alloy-Bodied 275 GTB

Believed to Have Less than 60,000 Miles from New
Marvelous, Untouched Condition
Beautifully Preserved Paint, Interior and Engine Bay
Long-Term Ownership
Prime Candidate for Preservation Display
Documented by Ferrari Historian Marcel Massini
One of the Most Exciting 275 GTB Discoveries in Years"

What they call "Marvelous, Untouched Condition" I call very bad shape.

Here is a close up of the "Beautifully Preserved Paint".

There are two questions that come to my mind:

1) Will the new owner restore this car?

2) Restored or not will this prove to be a good investment?

The price guides show the following values for this car:

Hagerty Price Guide (No. 15, May-Aug 2011)

Condition 4: (they do not have a condition 5 in the book) - $850,000

Sports Car Market (mid-year 2011)

Low: $837,500

These price estimates are very close - I wonder if the new owner knows something that the price guide folks don't know since the actual price paid is nearly twice the price guide numbers. The price paid is higher than the Condition 1 price!

I just thought of a third question:

3) Is an unrestored, original car that is in very rough condition worth more than a car that has been restored correctly?

I wrote about other Ferraris at the Monterey auctions here.

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