Ferrari 330 Featured by Russo and Steele

1967 Ferrari 330 GTC
courtesy of Russo and Steele

Must be time to look at more collector cars. Russo and Steele has an auction coming up June 20-22nd at Newport Beach, California, and there will be some sweet cars crossing the block. And what better way to promote their first auction at Newport than with this fabulous 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC Coupe (VIN 9159).

According to Russo and Steele (and Wikipedia), the 330 GTC (grand touring coupe) was first shown to the public at the 1966 Geneva Salon. With bodywork by Pininfarina, I bet it turned a lot of heads. Probably still does. Of course, it’s more than a pretty face. Under that hood is, to quote Russo and Steele, “a Colombo-derived, four-liter V-12 engine with a trio of twin-choke Weber carburetors and a single overhead camshaft per cylinder bank delivering an impressive SAE-rated 345 bhp output.” Couple that with a five-speed manual transmission, four-wheel independent suspension, and four-wheel disc brakes. Not surprising then, that it could do 0-60 in under seven seconds and a quarter-mile in less than 15.

Ferrari built about 600 330 GTCs, so, like most Ferraris, this is a rare car. What makes it even more interesting is that this particular car was the one displayed by Ferrari at the 1966 Turin show. It’s spent time in South America and the US, and was sent to Modena for restoration some time in 1999 or 2000.

[SOURCE: http://www.russoandsteele.com/collector-car/1967-Ferrari-330-GTC/45342]

Rare Matching Numbers Duesenberg at Auction

The last original unrestored supercharged Model J 

Duesenberg Continental Touring Berline 

with coachwork by Rollston. 

(PRNewsFoto/Dragone Classic Motorcars)

While I haven’t got the budget for a collection of investment quality cars, I sure do love to look. And it sounds like an upcoming sale by Dragone Auctions has some cars worth looking at. The auction is being held at their premises in Westport, Connecticut on Friday, May 31, and according to Manny Dragone, “This year we are offering an incredible assortment of cars that have been stored away for decades.”

Among those cars is a supercharged 1934 Duesenberg J, number 514, originally the property of New York socialite Mrs. Henry Evans. It’s a Continental Touring Berline, with its body built by Rollston. Not only is it one of only 35 SJs built (Duesenbergs weren’t cheap, and this was during the Depression, hence the low numbers), it’s one of only five that were closed, rather than open. I’m assuming Mrs. Evans liked speed, as Duesenbergs were guaranteed to do 100 mph—each one was tested before leaving the factory.

It’s also a matching numbers car with only 49,000 miles on it, and has never been restored. Truly a unique automobile. Mrs. Evans paid $18,000 for it; in today’s money that would be just over $300,000. She took it to Europe and back several times on the Queen Mary, so despite its low mileage, it’s a well-travelled car. Dragone Auctions estimate it will sell for between $1.5 to $2 million dollars.

You can find out more about the Duesy, as well as the other cars, on the Dragone Auctions website. There’s also a good article on Duesenbergs on the ConceptCarz website.

[SOURCES: www.dragoneclassic.com/auctions, http://media.prnewswire.com/en/jsp/latest.jsp?resourceid=6828520&access=EH, www.dollartimes.com/calculators/inflation.htm]

Luxury Backhoe

I apologize for the infrequency of posts lately--I've been dealing with a bout of tendonitis, which limits the time I can spend on the computer. But I don't want to go a week without posting, so here's a Red Green video, explaining how you can recycle an old Cadillac into a backhoe. I know my husband would love a backhoe--wonder where I can come up with an old Caddy?

AAARGH! ANOTHER VIDEO DISAPPEARED. TRY LOOKING HERE FOR RED GREEN ON CARS.