100% Sale Rate At Duke's - The Robert Ball Collection Auction

The Robert Ball Collection which had been exhibited in a ‘World of Wheels’ display at the Brading Experience on the Isle of Wight completely sold out in the Duke’s auction tent at Athelhampton House in Dorset, reports Richard Hudson-Evans.

The rarest item was a believed to be unique survivor of the French Mass marque, an ex-Patrick Collection 1905 Mass 8hp 2-Seater sold for a close to double top estimate £24,380.

A Tyneside-built Armstrong-Whitworth 18/22hp with Three-Quarter Landaulette by Maythorn of Biggleswade of 1910 vintage attracted a mid-estimate £34,500 from an Austrian buyer.

A very nicely presented 1911 Buick Model 39 4/5-Seater Tourer attracted a just over guide price £31,050 and an above estimate £26,250 was paid for a 1906 Delage Type F3 6 1/2hp 2-Seater Voiturette without mudguards.

A 1913 Mitchell Tourer for five, which had been owned by a Royal Flying Officer during WW1, also attracted the forecast £24,725 and a Swift 7hp Twin Cylinder Cyclecar from the same year made a better than expected £20,700.

The best performing postwar lot was a repainted 1952 Bristol 401 6-Cylinder Sports-Saloon with original leather and current MOT, which raised a £7138 more than top estimate £22,138.

A nicely restored 1964 Hillman Husky - first owned by Sir Winston Churchill, a lifesize waxwork figure of whom was included with the Estate car - did well here, too, selling for £11,500.

Apart from the Bristol, all 23 of the 4-wheeled vehicles, which fetched £387,492, had been museum-displayed for some time and required full mechanical re-commissioning before use.

Among the 2-wheelers, an older restored 1918 BSA Model K 557cc Motorcycle with Sidecar found £9200 and a very sharp 1968 Lambretta L1 150 Scooter £2415. A brace of Sinclair C5s made £249 apiece.

While a Baylis Thomas Duplex Excelsior Roadster Ordinary Penny Farthing raised £2530, a late Victorian Velocipede Tricycle £1265 and a late Victorian Bone Shaker £978.

Among some really bullish Automobilia valuations, a 1949 A7 Pathfinder pedal car flew to £2760 and a large three-part Shell enamel sign to £2070.

A Raleigh Bicycles enamel sign made £1955 and the same money was paid for a large enamel British Dominions sign.

A CAV vintage ‘Car Electrical Indicator’ found £1610, a set of Bentley cocktail sticks in Sterling Silver £529 and a Duckhams Adcoids engine oil thermometer/sign £506.

New Worcestershire classic car event inviting entries

Classic car fans have been encouraged to participate in a unique rally in Worcestershire next month.

The new event is open to a wide range of historic vehicles, such as tractors, motorbikes, bicycles and cars, while customised modern cars are also being welcomed.

Entrants will convene at Offenham''s recreation ground in Evesham Vale before 11:00 BST on June 12th before embarking on the rally, the Tewkesbury Admag reports.

Organiser Phil Gillman, who is a committee member at Offenham British Legion, explained that the day will help to promote the activities of the club.

"As with a lot of these clubs, Offenham''s is very much under used and we just want to show people what great facilities we have to offer," he told the news provider.

"This is the first one we have run and hopefully it will go on to become an annual event."

Meanwhile, this weekend''s Vintage Sports Car Festival at Oulton Park will feature a number of classic cars competing against each other, the Liverpool Echo reports.

Classic car rally generates £40,000 for charity

A group of classic cars embarked on a rally through Wiltshire last weekend in order to raise money for two good causes.

About 20 vintage vehicles set off from Wilton House on Saturday (May 15th), following a "meandering route" towards the Gurston Down hill climb, the Salisbury Journal reports.

The cars were then parked at Lainston House near Winchester to allow the drivers to refuel with a picnic lunch, before moving on to take part in a static display in Newbury.

Highclere Castle was the next port of call for the rally, where participants - including the Earl of Pembroke in a Datsun 240Z - enjoyed a hog roast to round off the day.

The event generated about £40,000, which is being donated to Naomi House Children''s Hospice and the Newbury Spring Festival.

"It was a great event," Naomi House spokesman Sam Scott told the news provider.

"I think it was great to be doing something that combines people''s hobbies and passions with raising money for a really good cause."

A unique new toy car version of the Datsun 240Z, made entirely from platinum, was showcased at a jewellery store in Japan earlier this week.

Classic Mustang car stolen in Gillingham

The vehicle vanished from a car park in Gillingham

Police in Medway are searching for a classic car that was stolen while its owner was walking his dog.

The brown Ford Mustang was taken from the car park at Motney Hill, in Gillingham, between 1530 and 1600 BST on 11 May.
A Kent Police spokesman said the car was "extremely rare".
He added "The owner is obviously very keen to get it back as it was in pristine condition and of great sentimental value to him."

1940 BMW 328 Kamm Coupe with pictures and wallpapers

Its the latest news and picture from BMW 328 Kamm Coupe. The BMW 328 Kamm Coupé was finally handed over to BMW Classic in a brief ceremony in March 2010.The BMW 328 Kamm Coupé, named after the German aerodynamics pioneer Wunibald Kamm, disappeared without trace back in 1953. But now – 70 years after BMW’s famous Mille Miglia victory – BMW Classic has recreated this legendary racing car, once again illuminating an important milestone in both motor sport history and the development of vehicle aerodynamics. “We are very proud to be able to bring this car back into the public spotlight,” said Karl Baumer, Director of BMW Group Classic. “We’ve come up against some major technical challenges, had many discussions and racked up countless hours of research, but when you see the car for the first time you can sense the passion and expertise invested in the project by everyone involved – all those years ago and today.”

BMW was quick to appreciate the unique status of its Mille Miglia cars following the victory in 1940, and they were soon moved out of Munich into a rural hideaway to save them from potential destruction during the Second World War. The evacuation was successful, with all five surviving the hostilities essentially unscathed. However, in the upheaval of the immediate post-war period BMW lost track of the cars. With Allied soldiers scouring Germany for rare racing cars, it was hardly surprising that the three Mille Miglia Roadsters resurfaced in Russia, England and America. The winning Touring Coupé from 1940 was initially seized by the Americans before being whisked away by a senior BMW employee. However, it also found its way across the Atlantic when the employee decided to emigrate.

Only the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé remained in Germany, former BMW Director of Racing Ernst Loof having acquired the car for his personal use. By this time he had become a manufacturer in his own right, supplying speedy Veritas racing sports cars to customers in a resurgent post-war Germany.

However, he also laboured consistently under financial woes and a few years later he was forced to part company with the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé. Sadly, this automotive gem was not blessed with a long life under its new owner, succumbing to the scrap heap after an accident in the early 1950s.

There was certainly no denying the historical value of this very special car and, after BMW founded BMW Mobile Tradition in the mid-1990s to oversee an extended reappraisal of the company’s history, plans were put together to build a reproduction. But the resurrection project proved to be a tricky undertaking. All design drawings for the car seemed to have disappeared into thin air and there was hardly a rich supply of historical photos around either. It was only with the hands-on assistance of a private collector in Munich that the project team were able to gather together a much larger selection of photos showing the car from a wide variety of angles. Indeed, these even included a good number of shots detailing the car’s tubular frame construction.

Now it was time to tackle the exacting task of piecing together a likeness of the complete car from the available information. Computer specialists in the design department embraced the challenge. They started by scanning in the most detailed photos to use as a basis for a 3D geometry program. Then the few reliable constants, such as the wheel rim diameters, wheel offset, headlight size, door handles, wing nuts, indicators and BMW logos, were added until they appeared in the same position in every projection. Every image provided a fresh series of reference points for wheel arches, windows and other parts linked to the fixed constants. Gradually, the well of information deepened until the experts were able to produce a virtual solid model, in which every detail looked right in every view of the car. This was used to generate a program for a five-axis milling machine, which would cut an original-size model from a massive block of highly compacted foam.

A restorer was then commissioned to stretch an original BMW chassis by 20 cm and build a steel space frame according to the templates provided by the photos. However, not long afterwards the project was put on ice. As part of the concept design process for the new BMW Museum an idea was floated of rebuilding the intricate Elektron space frame of the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé as a showpiece for the “Lightweight design” area of the museum. An exact copy of the original space frame was duly produced with the help of a specialist based near Munich. Aluminium was chosen as the material in place of the original Elektron, and the frame’s weight duly came very close to that of the original. Although this display frame was never intended to be used in an actual car, the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé idea remained on the table. In the end, it was a project initiated by the Meisterschule für Karosserie- und Fahrzeugbau Leipzig-Leisnig-Erlbach (master craftsmen’’s college for body and vehicle construction serving Leipzig, Leisnig and Erlbach) in partnership with the BMW plant in Leipzig that got the ball rolling.

The original plan was to cover the existing steel space frame with aluminium body panels to replicate the external appearance of the car at least. The Meisterschule produced moulds of the foam model in which the panels of the outer skin could be shaped. The finished body has since been on display at the Leipzig plant.

With the 70th anniversary of the Mille Miglia victory fast approaching, BMW Classic was determined to bring its plan to recreate the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé to fruition. However, highly skilled specialists were required to turn the collection of individual parts into a car that could actually be driven. With his excellent BMW 328 Touring Coupé and Mille Miglia Roadster restorations for the new BMW Museum still fresh in the mind, it was clear that René Große – based in Wusterwitz in the state of Brandenburg – would be the right man for the job.

Große used the foam model as the basis for a glass fibre-reinforced plastic mould. This was then shaped (with the help of additional wooden elements) into a strong casing which was split down the middle into two parts. The 25 mm-diameter tubes for the space frame – made from an aluminium alloy that allowed work-hardening – were then fitted into these two half-shells. Extreme precision was the order of the day here, as no corrections could subsequently be made to the outer skin. All this endeavour was aimed at ensuring that the frame would get close to the 30 kg weight of the original. For the outer skin, the team used pure aluminium body panels from a second set supplied by the Meisterschule. The newly made panels for the inside – for the inner front wings, bulkhead, double floor section of the body, dashboard and fuel tank, for example – then had to be integrated into the mould.

The body experts in René Große’s team called on all their skill and experience to fit the body to the space frame. An interesting detail of the construction were the 40-mm-wide aluminium strips which were welded to the frame at the outer edges of the metal skin. The outer skin was then edged inwards around these strips to a width of a few millimetres to achieve the visually intricate edges on the bonnet, windows, doors and wheel arches. This detail, like the design of the bonnet hinge and door hinges, had been patented by BMW. And that meant there were sketches available which enabled the team to render the new parts as close as possible to their original templates.

Other challenges included the technical tweaks which set the BMW 328 Kamm Coupé apart from its series-produced siblings, such as the set-back radiator, engine and transmission, modified rear axle and a host of other alterations requiring meticulous detailing.

Design Luxury Classic Holden Efijy Concept Car

Greats Luxury Modern Classic Design Holden Efijy Concept Car

With the flurry of new product introductions and concept vehicles being unveiled at the Detroit Auto Show this year, standing out from the crowd can take something special. I came across that something special in my first 30 minutes of walking the show floor: the Holden Efijy concept. Developed by a team of engineers and designers at Holden (a GM subsidiary in Australia), the Efijy rides on a Corvette chassis and is powered by a supercharged 6.0 liter V8. The design screams old school, but I don’t care — this beauty is a sight to behold.

Design Luxury Classic Holden Efijy Concept Car Auto Show

GM and Holden have already said that the Efijy would never see the light of day as a production vehicle, and that the effort was a “passionate side project” by Holden engineers who worked on the vehicle in their spare time. Despite the long list of concept vehicles unveiled in COBO Hall — from the Toyota FT-HS to the Chrysler Nassau and Ford Interceptor — I have to admit that the Efijy was my favorite concept of the show. Funny thing about having a passion for something: it tends to produce breathtaking vehicles like this one. Here’s hoping that the obvious talent of these Holden designers and engineers is put to good use with the new 2009 Chevy Camaro, which is being developed on a Holden-engineered RWD platform

Beautiful Design Classic Holden Efijy Concept Car

Australian International Motor Show, 13 October 2005 : A wild 21st Century hot rod reincarnating Australia ’s most famous car, the FJ Holden, was unveiled today at the Australian International Motor Show in Sydney.

Design Machine Power Holden Efijy Concept Car

EFIJY is a radical pillarless custom coupe boasting V8 Supercar power under the bonnet, Chevrolet Corvette underbody and state-of-the-art automotive technology throughout.

Beautiful Design Holden Efijy Concept Car in Beside

The ‘Soprano Purple’ paintwork highlights its curvaceous 5.2-metre body, reinterpreting the classic design cues of the iconic 1953 FJ Holden. It delivers retro, mumbo and gizmos in one glorious package.

Cute Design Holden Efijy Concept Car in Front

Obviously not intended for production, EFIJY has been a passionate side project for some Holden Design team members otherwise dedicated to creating the all-new 2006 Commodore.

Beautiful Modern Headlamps Holden Efijy Concept Car

Automotive excess pounds through a 480-kilowatt, supercharged six-litre V8 engine and air-adjustable shock absorbers through to a touch control LCD screen and fan-cooled LED headlamps.

Amazing Design Fantastic Headlamps Holden Efijy Concept Car

GM Holden Chairman and Managing Director, Denny Mooney, today said the EFIJY project was a bold statement on the creative talent available within Holden’s design ranks. Mr Mooney said the project was developed as a collaboration with suppliers which reduced impact on the company’s heavy work schedule and ensured the highest possible quality result for the showcar. “EFIJY is all about fun, emotion and imagination. It shows what a bunch of clever and talented design people can do when they are let loose to create something really wild,” Mr Mooney said. “This year was a fantastic opportunity for us to create something which highlights our designers’ ability and versatility. “EFIJY is sure to evoke different memories for everyone who sees it. People might focus on the FJ links, the glorious custom coupes of the 1930s or the great design flair of the 1950s.” Design philosophies Holden Chief Designer and EFIJY project leader Richard Ferlazzo, who sketched the first EFIJY designs in 1989 and is a long-time custom car fanatic, said the car existed purely for automotive entertainment. “Invariably, people smile when they see it for the first time. EFIJY is our accolade to the talented designers who cut loose with some fantastically flamboyant styling in the post-war 1940s and 1950s,” Ferlazzo said. “Ask the question, ‘what would these people have created using all the skill sets and technology we have now’, and EFIJY might be the all-Australian answer to that question. “EFIJY is also aimed at the legions of custom car and hot rod enthusiasts out there whose appetites aren’t generally met in the concept car arena. “Most importantly, itsends the message that the same people who have sensible day jobs designing entirely practical cars have the passion and inspiration to create something as outrageous as EFIJY. “We’re all car nuts together and the fact that EFIJY stands on our Sydney motorshow stand goes some way to legitimising this form of automotive design in the mainstream.” Exterior and interior highlights

Cute and Cool Modern Classic Holden Efijy Concept Car

The design team has cleverly incorporated FJ design cues into EFIJY’s radicalcustom coupe body, acknowledging the most important aspects of the iconic 1953 release. The famously familiar FJ grille looms larger than life, fronting a low, wide and handsome body extravagantly elongated and brimming with retro chic style

Design Modern Classic Holden Efijy Concept Car

The Corvette rolling chassis was lengthened to accommodate the EFIJY body, which is more than 700 millimetres longer than the FJ by which it was inspired. The Soprano Purple paint has multiple layers of translucent pigmented topcoats which creates the rich, deep effect. All brightwork on the vehicle is hand-made billet aluminium to maximise its authentic look, nowhere more evident than the stunning grill salute to FJ’s distinctive front.

Elegant Design interior Holden Efijy Concept Car

A proximity sensor opens the door automatically as the driver approaches, revealing deep cream leather twin tombstone-shaped seats equipped with integral belts.

Beautiful Design interior Holden Efijy Concept Car

The drop-down, touch control LCD screen and an instrument cluster glowing with the number ‘53’– another FJ gesture – are set in the body-coloured metal dash and pulsate with a radiogram retro orange glow.

Automotic Transmission Design Holden Efijy Concept Car

There are pearlescent, Bakelite-look push button controls for the electronic automatic transmission and the hard curved floor is finished in figured maple timber veneer with aluminium inserts.

Modern Design Suspension Holden Efijy Concept Car

EFIJY’s prowling appearance can be accentuated by the air-adjustable suspension. At the touch an LCD screen, At a touch of the LCD screen, EFIJY can hunker down to just 27 millimetres from the ground or rise to a more practical drive height.

Modern System Featuring Hard Drive Audio and Video Holden Efijy Concept Car

Like any great showcar, EFIJY is stocked with a cutting edge entertainment system featuring hard drive audio and video storage driven through a major amplifier and speaker setup.

Modern System Featuring Hard Drive Audio Holden Efijy Concept Car

The 6.0-litre LS2 V8 engine has been supercharged and modified by Ron Harrop, well known throughout the Australian automotive and motorsport industry and an ex-FJ Holden racer.

Increadible Machine Power Holden Efijy Concept Car

Driven by a Roots-type supercharger, the engine delivers peak power of 480kW (645 horsepower) at 6400rpm and peak torque of 775Nm (560 foot-pound) at 4200rpm. Such performance figures are equal to the stated output from 2005 Series V8 Supercars, and almost 11 times greater than the 45kW (60 horsepower) offered in the 1953 FJ Holden.

Design speed automatic transmission Machine Power Holden Efijy Concept Car

EFIJY’s engine is mated to a rear-mounted four-speed automatic transmission featuring push button electronic control. Limited slip differential has been fitted for obvious reasons.

Curbside Classic Outtake: Mack B77

Did this old Mack ever bring a smile to my face when it pulled up next to me in traffic at a light. Macks of this vintage were my favorite trucks during my east coast years, as they predominated the truckscape back in the day. This B77 has the bigger radiator. The more common and classic B61 had the more delicate curved radiator that would have looked right at home on a classic car (see below). But my smile got even bigger when the light changed to green and he took of in his utterly un-muffled, un-sanitized hard working Mack, belching the kind of black cloud that used to be ubiquitous in the good old days. Did you know Mack trucks could shoot flames too?

As a teen, I had a brief stint as a gardener’s helper for a former truck driver, who was a little worse for wear having abused his body for decades with bennies and and rough-riding noisy Macks like this one. He told me that under the right conditions, at night you could see flames coming out of a hard working Mack exhaust. Right.

A few years later, hitchhiking through mountainous western Pennsylvania at night on the Turnpike, I saw it: one or more old Macks laboring up the steep winding freeway at maybe twenty five or thirty, and a beautiful orange flame about a foot or two long sitting at the top of their exhaust stack, burning off the excess hydrocarbons that otherwise would have been seen as an extra-black smoke cloud. A catalytic converter without a catalyst.

Selling in the Motor City: RM Auctions hawks muscle cars, classic sheetmetal--and even a boat at Detroit event

Cash-and-Carry Caddy: This 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible sold for a hammer price of $75,000 Saturday at the RM auction in

The steering wheel in a 1960 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz convertible is surprisingly thin. It's oversized and humongously circular--but still startlingly narrow considering it directs a very barge-like Caddy. Oh, and the seats are fairly comfortable. And the odometer has rolled over precisely 34,844 miles.
Not that the Internet bidder who paid the hammer price of $75,000 for the classic would know all of this. But we did. Because we got an up-close look at the Caddy and sat in it, minutes after it sold at RM Auctions' classic car sale Saturday in Novi, Mich. And we weren't the only ones to check out this piece of iconic sheetmetal. Resplendent in white paint and chrome with the imposing bullet grille and monster fins in rear, the car sat on the show floor before and after crossing the block at the cavernous convention hall.
That kind of democratic setting is to be expected at an event in the blue-collar Motor City, where the crowd of car fans was mostly clad in jeans, sweatshirts and Detroit Tigers caps. Like a baseball game, many of the car enthusiasts munched hot dogs and sipped draft beer while the machine-gun-mouthed auctioneers barked out the bidding in rapid-fire staccato.
The Biarritz was one of the spotlight cars at the sale, but plenty of other classics sold for more attainable prices. A 1970 Chevrolet Camaro SS dressed in bright orange paint with white stripes sold for about $24,000 (the hammer price, not including other fees). With a 396 underhood paired with a four-speed, it seemed like a good buy. A 1962 Cadillac Eldorado convertible coupe--a bit like Don Draper's car on Mad Men only with white paint, had less than 50,000 miles on the clock and all of the service records; it went for $37,000. That was also the price of a Boss 302 Mustang that thundered to the stage in black and yellow livery.
It wasn't all Detroit iron: a bright red 1991 Ferrari Testarossa sold for $68,000, gaveling just before another bidder could slip in a last-second try for $69,000. Earlier, a 1969 Porsche 911 T coupe went for $29,000 wearing caramel-colored paint. The sale wasn't even limited to cars: a 1947 Garwood wooden pleasure boat that looked straight out of a Ralph Lauren ad sold for $7,300 and came with a trailer to tow it to your favorite body of water.
Vintage cars from the gangster era were also represented, and a 1937 Chevrolet Coupe Street Rod painted a gorgeous shade of maroon with a five-window configuration and 350 motor, went for $28,500.

Greg Migliore

This 1970 Chevelle SS waits in the wings before it failed to sell on the auction block.

Still, plenty didn't sell during our time at the auction, and the bidding was closed before the reserve was reached on a number of impressive cars. A 1970 Chevy Chevelle SS with a 454 LS6 saw bidding stall at about $70,000 while the muscle car idled off to the side of the stage—ironically, the driver couldn't seem to get the car in gear. A menacing 1969 Dodge Charger R/T, orange and black with a 440 big-block engine and a product of Chrysler's Hamtramck, Mich., plant on the other side of town, had it's bidding closed at $43,000. Just restored in 2008, it was still in the for-sale lot when we departed Saturday afternoon--even though it was so powerful the hood quaked when it was started. Another of the highlight cars, a 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray 427 coupe had bidding closed at $75,000, despite the auctioneer imploring “the restoration of this is spectacular,” to the crowd. Cars that didn't sell during bidding were available later to anyone who wanted to submit a bid.
Perhaps that's to be expected in economically depressed Michigan, but the failed sales didn't dampen the spirit of the crowd on the wet spring day. One lady approached us unsolicited and recounted the tale of her husband's 1958 Impala--it was his car when they started dating--and she was particularly enthralled with a black convertible model like his Chevy that sat nearby, still for sale after not hitting the asking price on the block. The big, Bow-Tie-badged car must have wielded some magic; the couple has been married more than 50 years.

Greg Migliore

This 1969 Dodge Charger R/T waits its turn to head to the block. The car quaked under the power of the 440 V8 when it was started.

RM drew a sizable crowd for its annual spring auction in Michigan. The seats near the stage were almost all full, and plenty more people lingered around the cars throughout the building. More than 300 cars were expected to be offered. We worked our way to the front, and felt up much of the sheetmetal as it headed toward the stage (the checkered flag on the side of that '58 Impala is one of the best insignias on on any car, ever). We were able to feel the fabrics of the interior on several models and grab the chrome, push-button doorhandles from another era that feel more satisfying than any keyless entry option on the market today.
It's also a bit of a circus. Auctions are loud and semi-organized--no one stops you no matter how curious your behavior. We were right in front of the stage at one point, on the red carpet with one of the bid-spotters spastically pointing, gesturing and yelling for more bids right next to us. Wearing two ginormous gold rings, he awarded one bid to a guy causally noshing on a vanilla ice cream cone standing to our left (ultimately, he didn't get the car).
The auction continues through until 4 p.m. Sunday, and one of the highlights is expected to be a 1964 AMC Rambler once owned by former AMC chairman and Michigan Gov. George Romney. Come back to autoweek.com for complete results next week.

Greenspan's Classic Car Show