The Alfa Romeo T33 Stradale was the Alfa that should have been. Scaglione took the Auto Delta T33 racing car and made a masterpiece. Some what flawed but still amazing looking after 43 years. These car were built by Marazzi and were the most expensive cars of their day at $17,000.

18 Stradales were built and there are curentlly two of them in the USA.

Carlo Chiti designed the 2.o Liter V8 that featured a modified Spica mechanical fuel injection system. The motor featured 16 spark plugs and 4 coils to produce 230 bhp at 8800 rpm The car also featured a 6 speed Colotti racing gearbox. With 0-60 in 5.5 Sec some of today's econo boxes are faster but non as pretty. The styling while beautiful is not very practical as the large green house gets hot quickly. Stil the T33 Stradale is a masterpiece of Italian design.

For your classic car and fine art appraisal needs contact me at

http://www.fineartvalue.com

Cistailia 202 One of the worlds most Elegant Cars

The Cisitalia is I think one of the most elegant car designs of the 20th century. The Pinin Farina body lines looks as good today as they did in 1947. Our car in the photo is the actual car that was on display in 1951 at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC . The car was shown earlyer this month at the Radnor Hunt Concours. My friend Tre was there at the event helping me judge the cars.

Here is more on the Cisitalia 202 from Wikipedia

Ducio provided Pinin Farina with the chassis on which the Cisitalia's body was placed. The body was more or less handcrafted, with its aluminum panels shaped over wooden forms. Because of this time-consuming process, only 170 models were produced between 1947 and 1952. When first presented to the public at the Villa d'Este Gold Cup show in Como, Italy, and at the 1947 Paris Motor Show, the Cisitalia "202" GT was a resounding success. The two-seater Cisitalia "202" GT was an aesthetic and technical achievement that transformed postwar automobile body design. The extraordinary Pinin Farina design was honored by New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1951. In the MOMA's first exhibit on automotive design, called "Eight Automobiles", the Cisitalia was displayed with seven other cars (1930 Mercedes-Benz SS tourer, 1939 Bentley saloon with coachwork by James Young, 1939Talbot-Lago Figoni teardrop coupé, 1951 Willys Jeep, 1937 Cord 812 Custom BeverlySedan, 1948 MG TC, and the 1941 Lincoln Continental coupe). It is still part of the MoMA permanent collection ^[1].

Building on aerodynamic studies developed for racing cars, the Cisitalia offers one of the most accomplished examples of coachwork (the automobile's body) conceived as a single shell. The hood, body, fenders, and headlights are integral to the continuously flowing surface, rather than added on. Before the Cisitalia, the prevailing approach followed by automobile designers when defining a volume and shaping the shell of an automobile was to treat each part of the body as a separate, distinct element—a box to house the passengers, another for the motor, and headlights as appendages. In the Cisitalia, there are no sharp edges. Swellings and depressions maintain the overall flow and unity, creating a sense of speed.

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Cheap Maserati Birdcage

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/60s-70s-MASERATI-BIRDCAGE-STYLE-BODY-VW-CHASSIS-/330463929666?pt=US_Cars_Trucks&hash=item4cf12f6542#ht_500wt_1182

For your pleasure a cheap way to get a Maserati birdcage.

I think this is an Ambro body about 40 bodies were built. These Birdcage bodes were made in the US and used on a lot of sports racers back int he 60's. Some of the body panels were molded from Don Skogmo's T-61.One was a Bristol powered special and a DKW H mod were built. Very few have survived. I actually thought of buying this car but have way too many projects.

If it was some Italian special folks would be shelling out $30,000 to $40,000 for something like this. See it at Pebble Beach in a few years.

http://www.fineartvalue.com/

What Current Production Car Will Be Collectible in 30 years

We have had a raging discution here in the garage as to what car will be collectible 30 years from now. Cars today have some expensive computer controlled components that will be much harder to duplicate than lets say a set of points for a Dusenberg. Some canidates for collectible status in 30 years will be American muscle - the Camaro SS, Trans Am WS6, and current Shelby line of Mustangs (higher up the rung obviously the better). The current Charger and Challenger SRT8s should hold some interest, depending on how they have been treated.

In Ferrari world the CS, Scuds, FXX, and other Ferraris/Lambos should do well as well as the new Alfa 8C. I would imagine that the Carrera GT, SLR, SLS, and Bugattis are going to hold their own, but dont think they are going to join the ranks of the 250 GTO or 250 Testa Rossa. The 360s and 430s are just going to be too common unfortunately while I can see a day where a solid 308/328 could trade for more than either of them. (I admit my own bias in that statement)

The extremely low production cars (Panoz, Koenigsegg, Noble, etc...) could really go either way. I see this due to limited support over years if the companies manage to survive Gov regulations and to the limited supplies of even parts cars. One indicator of high maintence costs keeping cars out of the restoration cycle is the Porsche 928. This has kept prices of these GT cars low for years and almost 30 years on no one is spending big bucks to restore one. In 1983 it was the fastest car sold in the USA.

Recent Monterey Auctions- Got to Move the Metal

Some high prices paid for quality cars but mid line offerings were down acrossed the board.

$3.25M was the final bid on the McLaren F1, plus the 10% commission on top for a total of $3.575M. Not the highest price ever paid for an F1 road car, but a very strong result. Certainly a bit higher than I was expecting given all the other cars that had lower than expected numbers. This car is like the Ferrari GTO of 1963 a Lamans winner but also streetable, maybe the last of the breed.

The 250 SWB was hammered at $5.55M and then the 10% commission and an additional 2.5% in Import Duties if it is staying in the USA. Besides being 1 of 20, the description says that the restoration was completed by the factory and that it is Classiche Certified. Again a really great car and it got top money.

As you can see in the following numbers lots of stuff under estimate. Look for more metal to be sold as owners start to liquidate their collections due to health issues. This has been seen with price declines in the middle of the market for the last 3 years

O'Quinn cars from Saturday:

Lot 331 - 1933 Chrysler CL Imperial Dual Windshield Sport Phaeton - $310,000
(est $225,000-$300,000)

Lot 333 - 1937 Rolls-Royce Phantom III Sedanca deVille - $190,000
(est $150,000-$200,000)

Lot 336 - 1933 Auburn Twelve Custom Phaeton Sedan - $185,000
(est $250,000-$300,000)

Lot 341 - 1933 Duesenberg SJ Riviera Phaeton - $1,300,000
(est $1,100,000-$1,400,000)

Lot 354 - 1932 Rolls-Royce Phantom II Henley Roadster - $500,000
(est $500,000-$750,000)

Lot 356 - 1930 Stutz Model M Supercharged Coupe - $600,000
(est $500,000-$700,000)

Lot 358 - 1913 Rolls-Royce 40/50 HP Silver Ghost Open Tourer - $800,000 No Sale
(est $1,000,000-$1,500,000)

Lot 359 - 1938 Talbot-Lago T150-C Lago Speciale Teardrop Coupe - $4,200,000
(est $3,500,000-$4,500,000)

Lot 364 - 1911 Mercedes 38/70 HP Seven-Passenger Touring - $450,000
(est $500,000-$600,000)

Lot 368 - 1928 Hispano-Suiza H6C Convertible Sedan - ?
(est $350,000-$450,000)

Lot 369 - 1937 Studebaker "Extremeliner" Woodie Custom - $125,000
(est $175,000-$250,000)

Lot 371 - 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540K Special Cabriolet - $830,000
(est $1,100,000-$1,300,000)

Lot 372 - 1933 Pierce-Arrow Twelve Convertible Sedan - $275,000
(est $300,000-$400,000)

Photo is of an Alfa Romeo TZ2 from the 100 years of Alfa Romeo meet.

Howdy

This is the bloggy part of my TV show The Car Critics. I will be shooting 18 shows soon featuring celebrity guests and talking about car design and the quest for beauty.

A little bit about me. I am a classic car and fine art appraiser. My web site is

http://www.fineartvalue.com/

I have been judge and motorcycle co chair of the Radnor Hunt Con cour for many years. I have also worked for the National Gallery of Art as a consultant.

I look forward to meeting and talking to you about what I feel is a neglected subject that holds the fate of industries and nations