At any given car show or cars & coffee event you’re bound to encounter a handful of colorful little British roadsters. Read more
Just prior to the turn of the century, BMW assembled a design team that would tackle a formidable task – creating a production roadster that would pay homage to the iconic BMW 507 of the late 1950s. Read more
Have you ever driven a car that made you feel underdressed for the occasion? Read more
In 1971, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 215. Read more
Many, many times I’ve heard folks of the elder generation express a genuine concern for the gradual decline of the automotive hobby, Read more
Last month we at Chicago Car Club purchased our first Miata, a ‘92 “Black & Tan” with just 6800 miles on the clock. Read more
While so many of the cars that we purchase are scattered about the United States, which can be a bit nerve-racking as a buyer, every so often we’re lucky enough to come across gems right here in our backyard. Read more
I love buying classic cars. It is both my profession and my hobby, and is undoubtedly what I do best. The scenario surrounding each and every purchase is completely different from the next, and never the same as the last. I’ve bought and sold it all; everything from barn finds to yard art to concours-quality collection pieces. Don’t get me wrong, I too fancy a nicely polished classic with a fresh set of shiny tires, but the reality is that nothing hits me in the sweet spot quite like a car dressed in years and years of accumulated dust. The thicker the coat of dust, the better. Many people will argue that dusty cars are dangerous territory, claiming that dust masks major faults and blemishes that would otherwise be glaring. In some respects, they’d be right. But I’ve grown to look at it differently. A dust-covered car can only look better, while a car that’s nicely presented looks as good as it ever will. A shiny turd is still a turd. If you want to find a real diamond in the rough, you have to look in the rough. Read more
With a coachbuilding resume dating all the way back to 1919, Zagato has designed and produced many of the most striking and sought-after vehicles the world has ever seen. Ugo Zagato, as pictured above, established his coachbuilding business in Milan, Italy with the intent of applying sophisticated construction techniques from the aeronautical sector to automobiles. Read more
The classic car community has pivoted a bit in recent years; fully-restored cars were once the ones-to-have, now the respective values of these restored examples are being surpassed by “barn finds” and “survivor” examples that, while maybe not seemingly as nice at first glance, carry their value in the form of originality. While we’ve seen a number of “barn finds” fetch large sums of money at auction in recent years, there’s perhaps no better example of a car’s “survivor” nature feeding its value than the Aquamarine Blue ‘57 Porsche Speedster that sold at Auction America’s Hilton Head sale in late 2016. Fully restored Speedsters are trading hands in the $300k – $500k range; meanwhile, this completely original example, which needed some attention, having sat stationary in a Chicago storage unit for the last forty years, fetched $605,000, nearly triple the pre-auction estimate. But why? There’s a particular charm to unrestored “survivor” cars; whether due to nostalgia for a far-gone era or just the excitement of recognizing a car’s full potential underneath a thick layer of dust, the time-capsule feeling evoked by unrestored cars is something special. The woo of that intangible charm is a key component in what drives the value of many classic cars.