Under the Hood with Angelo Van Bogart - Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Recently, I was asked what the top 10 hottest cars were, and it got me thinking...what are the 10 "coldest" cars, as in, what cars' values are sinking the fastest, or just plain aren't moving?
My top 10 hottest cars are below, but I was wondering what you think are the top 10 "coldest" cars. I've given you one "coldest car" to start with:

Coldest cars list:
1. Clone cars: These were great driveable alternatives to real expensive muscle cars, but there's no way a clone should be worth anything close to the real thing. Values for clones were dangerously close to those of the cars they replicated, but not anymore. There's nothing wrong with a well-done clone car, but don't pay real money for what is basically a "fake" car.

2. Tell me what you think! Your answer could be here...

Hottest cars list:
1. Documented vintage race cars: Speed is always popular among car collectors, but throw in the element of a recorded history of a car, using published articles and photos, and an old car becomes a celebrity. And in the old-car world, celebrity equals dollars. Find a Ford Thunderbolt, and your own hobby celebrity status will increase.

2. Cars built into hot rods and customs before 1960: Building old-style hot rods is currently popular, but if a hot rod is the real thing, throw some zeros behind its value. If the car was built by a famous hot rod or custom car builder, and it appeared in a pre-1960 magazine after it was built, there’s no ceiling on value.

3. Factory concept cars: These factory dream cars have always been valuable, but ever since a GM Futurliner hit $4 million at auction, these cars have begun commanding the kind of respect normally given to 1930s Bugattis and Duesenbergs. Expect that to continue, especially since so few exist, especially in private hands. The Firebird pictured here is in the General Motors collection, and don’t expect it to ever leave.

4. Big-block muscle cars built before 1973: They say there’s no replacement for cubic inch displacement when it comes to power, and that’s also true for value. Mopars, like the Plymouth Road Runner pictured here, are particularly strong sellers right now.

5. 1953-'62 Corvettes: Everybody wants to feel like Todd and Buzz from “Route 66:” they want to cruise down two-lane Route 66, and there’s no better way than to do it in Todd and Buzz’ original ride: an early Corvette. It’s hard to beat these 1950s and ‘60s cars for looks and performance, and collectors already realize that. Expect values to go up from today’s peaks.

6. Muscle Ford Mustangs: Six-cylinder Mustangs are great, and always have been, but the value for high-performance V-8 models, especially Shelby, GT and Boss models are exponentially greater. As with all performance cars, those with their original engines and transmissions command a premium.

7. Volkswagen buses and transporters: There’s more to Volkswagen than Beetles, and VW collectors don’t just love their bugs, they dig their buses. The affection extends back to their hazy, smoke-filled youths, and now that their financial lives have cleared up, they’re willing to pay for those VW buses – through the nose.

8. Documented Shelby Cobras: Shelby Cobras have never been cheap, not even when they were “used” two- or four-year-old cars. And it’s not looking any better. Prices are quickly escalating, and those with well-known race history are seeing their values rise even faster. Right now, the values for early small-block Cobras are rising faster than their big-block counterparts, and financially, the are easier to get into, at least for now.

9. Wood-bodied cars built before 1952: Whether you grew up on an ocean beach or in the United States’ northwoods, woodies warm the heart. Surfers loved wood-bodied station wagons, and families loved hauling the kids and the family dog Spot. Now, those kids want to enjoy the warmth of wood by reliving those Christmas tree hunts and days riding the longboard, just like they used to. And they have the money to do it.

10. 1980s muscle cars: Finding parts (and the money) to keep expensive muscle cars from the 1960s and 1970s on the road is growing more difficult, and many people are looking to the 1980s for their muscle car fix. Parts for these New Wave muscle cars are readily available, even from dealerships, and the cars themselves are inexpensive, although that’s beginning to change. If you like 1980s muscle, get in now, while they are cheap.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007 9:19:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

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Thursday, November 01, 2007

A '72 Buick for $48,000?
Posted by Angelo

Yup, as I write this, bidders are battling it out for a 1972 Buick, and it's not a Gran Sport or even a LeSabre convertible -- it's a station wagon like ma used to drive!

The auction link came to me via friend Eric Killorin (it's item No. 200165774497). It took me a moment to figure out why this car is commanding so many dollars - it only has 266 miles on it! With that few spins of the odometer, it's a brand-new, NOS 1972 Buick.

Now, don't get me wrong, I love "long roofs," and even Buicks. Heck, I've had a few Skylarks from the late 1960s and really appreciate Buick performance. But $48K is a lot of dough for a knicknack. This car is so nice, there's no way you'd want to see the odometer take one more spin. It's just too good to add miles to, and when do you see a 266-mile Buick?

Is the car worth $48K? I would never have say yes before this auction. But when are you going to see another one? And even if it doesn't fall into a collector's hands, at $48K, someone's getting a brand new car for the price of a well-equipped SUV.

What do you think of this kind of money for a 1972 Buick station wagon? Should the price guides reflect this value?

And if you like that Buick's mileage, check out this 128-mile 1972 Oldsmobile Toronado!
http://www.auctionzip.com/cgi-bin/auctionview.cgi?lid=347759

Thursday, November 01, 2007 7:48:12 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Comments [6]

Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Where to be at Hershey
Posted by Angelo

After a two-year hiatus, I’m looking forward to walking the newly remodeled fields of the Antique Automobile Club of America Eastern Fall Meet at Hershey. When I’m not combing the grounds for Cadillac parts, I’ll be looking forward to meeting readers at our spaces in the Orange Field (spaces 24-28) and the Green Field (spaces 1-2). I hope to see many great car parts for our Swap Meet Showdown contest and hear great tales of car part conquest. Several contributing authors to Old Cars Weekly will also be meeting at the Old Cars Weekly spaces at Hershey, so if your timing is right, you may get to meet one of your favorite authors.

But there’s more to Hershey than walking through acres of parts and cars for sale and taking in the Saturday-only car show. There’s also The Hershey Auction at the Giant Center by Kruse International, which will be held Oct. 11-13 to benefit the AACA Museum. A new RM Auctions sale at The Hershey Lodge and Convention Center on Oct. 11-12 will offer an additional opportunity to check out great cars, and in a dry setting if the weather at Hershey follows its regular wet pattern.

If you’re still looking for more action at Hershey, you’ll be happy to learn the Blackhawk Exposition Sale has returned to Hershey. Rob Williams will be setting up some of the collection’s finest automobiles in the Great American Hall of the Hershey Lodge. Many of the hobby’s most important figures gather around the spectacular cars of the Blackhawk Collection to socialize and gaze on beautiful metal, and to contemplate the prospective purchase of one of these fine cars. This display will be open evenings Oct. 11-13. You can bet I’ll try to attend all of these great events at Hershey, and if I’m lucky, I’ll do it with a Cadillac part in one hand and a Hershey bar in the other!

Tuesday, October 02, 2007 9:27:41 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [4]

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Stop the drilling!
Posted by Angelo

While at the Barrington concours in Barrington, Ill., last weekend, I encountered several examples of a feature that drives me absolutely nuts: club award badges drilled into the firewalls and cowls of vehicles.

The cars being drilled into aren’t just daily drivers – they’re pristine show cars that have been judged among their peers as top-flight examples of their kind. Often times, they are also very valuable cars, in both the historic and financial sense. For the quality of their restorations, cars and their owners have been rewarded with a tiny badge, which is great. But permanently affixing them to the body of a car is not the way to preserve that car for history.

I’m not going to mention the specific club badges I have seen through the years affixed in this manner, because many well-respected clubs are “guilty” of producing these badges.
In earning these badges, the club is rewarding the owner for bringing the car back to its original configuration. All of the wires must be of the correct type, the interior fabrics must be of the original style and the appearance must be as it was in the period the car was built. But adding one of these badges, which were not created in the time period the car was built, is adding a non-original feature. So, by judging a car as being so correct, isn’t it hypocritical to add an item that detracts from the car’s correctness? If it were a non-club badge permanently drilled into the car or even bolted on, wouldn’t the car be docked points for this feature?

I’m not fortunate enough to own a high-point car, but even I have an issue with drilling parts into my daily car or even modifying its appearance or mechanical function in even a temporary way. When I see it on a Classic car or other high-point car, it blows my mind.
Am I overreacting? I don’t think so. What do you think?

Tuesday, September 25, 2007 10:39:52 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [4]

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Muscle car resto shop spotted
Posted by Angelo

While attending the Russo & Steele Monterey sale and Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, I found this neat little building in Seaside, Calif., just a few blocks from my hotel. The business is clearly a muscle car enterprise, and it had several project cars tightly packed around the building. The business’ location is within a mile of the ocean, and judging by the surface rust on the tops of many of the cars, the vehicles have spent a lot of time near the coast, too.

Most obvious is the 1968 4-4-2 in the street and the 1970 Cutlass S in the driveway. It’s a bit harder to see the somewhat stripped 1969 Olds to the left of the ’70 Cutlass, and there was another 1970-’72 Olds Cutlass or 4-4-2 next to the ’69 that was likewise disassembled.

In front of the building was a first-gen Firebird, along with a second-gen ‘Bird and a 1967-’72 Nova SS, and alongside the building was an early Charger and Buick GS. Also note the 1969 Chevelle behind the Charger and GS and the suspicious absence of a Ford Motor Co. muscle car. However, the old Ford truck out front may prove the proprietor isn’t prejudice against products of the “blue oval.”

Tuesday, September 11, 2007 8:23:07 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Monday, September 10, 2007

Orange walls on the Duesenberg Special?!
Posted by Angelo

Check out these pics of Harry Yeaggy’s Duesenberg from the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club Reunion, held over Labor Day weekend.

Yeaggy’s car won the “Lombardi Trophy” of car shows – “Best of Show” at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance – but he did it with black walls. Following Pebble Beach, Yeaggy installed these orange-wall Firestones made specifically for this car and debuted the orange-tired car at Auburn. The car is now extremely close to how it appeared when Ab Jenkins raced it in the 1930s to numerous long-standing speed records.

As a note, this car was formerly known as the "Mormon Meteor." In its “Mormon Meteor” configuration, it carried all of the modifications performed to make it streetable by Ab Jenkins following the speed trials on the salt flats. Yeaggy recently restored the car to its original configuration, under which it set those speed records, so it is now proper to call the car the “Duesenberg Special” again.

The top two pics show the car at Auburn, Ind., during the ACD Club Reunion. The middle photo shows the car in an original Herb Newport drawing hanging in the ACD Museum in Auburn.

Monday, September 10, 2007 9:46:51 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

What's worth more: 1957 or '58 Eldorados?
Posted by Angelo

A reader asked that, because 1958 Cadillac Eldorado production numbers are lower than those for 1957 Eldo models, are 1958s worth more than 1957 Eldorados? Here's what I think:

For a long time, 1958 Cadillacs were the “black sheep” of 1950s Cadillacs, because many people found them to be very heavy-looking in a time when cars were getting lighter and more airy. Tack on the extra chrome and other trim of 1958 Cadillacs (mainly Series 60 and 62 models), and 1958 Cadillacs looked as heavy as the Queen Mary herself when parked next to more lithe Chrysler and Ford products from the same year. As a result of this prevailing negative attitude towards 1958s, those fans of 1958 Cadillacs formed their own chapter to the Cadillac LaSalle Club many years ago.

Today, of course, 1958s have become cherished collectibles for their part in the excess that was GM styling in the late 1950s. As far as comparing the 1958s to 1957s, it’s a close call, but the 1957s still seem to have the edge for their slightly cleaner styling. Either way, Eldo convertibles seem to be back on their way up the price ladder and both are equally appreciated.

What do you think?

Wednesday, September 05, 2007 4:07:44 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

A new Shelby GT California Special?
Posted by Angelo

While in Monterey, Calif., for Pebble Beach, I saw a TV commercial for a special-edition Mustang Shelby GT California Special. According to the ad, only 200 were built exclusively for the northern California market.

The car pictured was black with silver stripes. Carroll Shelby was mentioned, but I am not sure to what extent he was involved with the creation of these cars. The cars have 319 horsepower and a unique gauge cluster.

This was the first I heard of these cars. Does anyone else know more?
Here’s the site mentioned on the ad for more info: www.YourCaliforniaFord.com.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007 4:21:38 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

Comments [1]

Aston Martin DBS debuts at Pebble Beach
Posted by Angelo

At Pebble Beach, home of the world’s most elite car show (and, apparently, an expensive round of 18 holes), Aston Martin debuted its latest hole in one. There, the company presented its new super car, the DBS, which will replace the Vanquish that ended production in July. Vanquish sales totaled 2,600 super cars.

With an expected sale price in the $268,000 range, according to a company spokesman, the new DBS’ debut on some of the world’s most valuable real estate was wholly appropriate.

Production of the DBS will begin in November and will be the first Aston Martin to make extensive use of lightweight carbon fiber. Apparently concerned with weight, Aston Martin designers even battled the pounds down to the DBS’ lightweight cabin carpet, thereby maximizing the car’s performance abilities.

Ironically, the car will feature a new electronic starting device made of glass touted as “heavy,” a reaction to customer complaints that the supercar used a traditional key, evidently a faux pas in the world of super-expensive, super-stylish automobiles.

That key will turn over a 6.0L, 500-hp V-12 backed by a six-speed transmission. Halting duties are provided by quadruple carbon-ceramic brakes.

All of these attributes are enough to hook the new DBS in supercar territory, but in the world of thick wallets and matching egos, a car has to have beauty on the outside, too. And this isn’t a player that wears plaid to the course.

“We deliver with our engines what our bodies promise,” said the spokesman.
It’s a weighty promise. Fortunately, the design of the DBS closely resembles its popular Vanquish predecessor. The traditional Aston Martin grille remains up front and the tail lamps aren’t too different in shape from the Vanquish. Between are voluptuous curves, also very similar to those of the Vanquish.

“This is a beautiful car. If you don’t see it, you don’t deserve it,” the company rep said. But even if you do deserve it, you’d better have a Master’s Cup win in your past.

Tuesday, September 04, 2007 4:17:30 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Check out this garage!
Posted by Angelo

A regular reader of "Under The Hood" sent me this great info about his Corvette collection. I hoped to fit it in Old Cars Weekly, but we ran out of room. I couldn't let a great treat like this go to waste, so check out what reader Michael Brown had to say about his love of Corvettes. And be sure to check out the link to his site showing his incredible collection!

Michael wrote:
If you love Corvettes, that says it all. You just love Corvettes.
There’s no explaining it further, and frankly, there’s no need to.

With so many great choices in Corvette’s six generations (so far), it was
hard to narrow down a theme for a collection I started more than two
decades ago. But I did. My goal throughout was to assemble a
"mini-history" of America’s only true sports car.

The first Corvette I ever saw in person was the ‘63 split window. It hit
showroom floors during the fall of my junior year in high school. Hugo,
Oklahoma, would never be the same for me after that car came to town. Oh,
I’d fallen in love with pictures of 'Vettes long before that and had
watched "Route 66" on TV. But seeing that ‘63 changed everything for me.

It would be 22 long years after that before I would have one of my own,
but a ‘63 split window became the cornerstone of my collection...and it
still is. My son was 10 when I bought it and now he’s in his early 30s
and has a 4-year old who thinks Papa’s Corvette collection is pretty
cool. I'm pleased to say my son is doing his part to carry Corvette love
forward. Other cars followed on an irregular basis, and each one was
welcomed into the fold. Though they have sometimes been crowded, none
has ever spent a night outside a garage after I acquired it.

Finally, I was able to build the garage last year for the collection I’d
wanted to construct for a long time. My first ever visit to the National
Corvette Museum in Bowling Green during construction (well worth the
trip from anywhere!), and it gave me the inspiration for my collection’s garage
and website slogan: "The Best Little Corvette Museum West of Bowling
Green." Check out www.hookedonvettes.com.

Agreed, I’m not very objective. Some may think it’s far from the second
best, but that’s OK. I’ll admit a complete lack of objectivity. Still,
it’s a fair representation of Corvette history with at least one car
from each of the six generations of Corvette, heavily loaded in the C1
and C2 generations. And out of only 10 'Vettes, all silver, black or a
combination of the two exterior colors, you’ll find four milestone
anniversary cars, two fuelies, a big block ‘67, a couple of Z06s,
coupes, convertibles, a T-top, a glass top, a Pace Car, bookends for a
whole generation (C2) and a six-cylinder "putt-putt" ‘54. And, oh yeah,
three of my four high school years are represented. Grow up?!! What’s
the fun in that?

This Baby Boomer plans to leave the world the same way he
entered: kicking and screaming. But hopefully, not for a long time.
After all, when GM adds another generation of Vettes, I’m going to need
to be around to figure out how to add on to the garage!

Michael Brown
Arlington, Texas

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 4:11:19 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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