Tag: rare

Video: Rare Isdera Imperator 108i flexes its considerable muscles

Filed under: Motorsports, Classics, Coupe, Performance, Videos, Mercedes-Benz, Racing

Isdera Imperator 108i

The Isdera Imperator 108i is a remarkably rare supercar from the late 80s and early 90s. Born of a Mercedes-Benz concept car, it’s powered by a range of AMG-developed V8s, with five to six liters of displacement, depending on the engine. The example shown here, lapping the legendary Spa-Francorchamps circuit, features the most potent 6.0-liter V8 available. And rather than just being driven about on a perfectly clean racing line, it’s freaking power sliding!

Yes, there’s something eternally childlike about a wedge-shaped supercar from our formative years being flung about a Belgian racetrack. Adding to the appeal is the Imperator’s stumpy, periscopic rear mirror, sticking out of the roof. Even after being out of production for 20 years, this is still a wild, wild car and we’d happily snap up the opportunity pilot one of the 36 Isderas that were built. Take a look below for the full video from Spa.

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Rare Isdera Imperator 108i flexes its considerable muscles originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 05 Aug 2013 16:59:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Father’s ultra-rare Ferrari to leave family for a good cause

Filed under: Classics, Convertible, Performance, Videos, Ferrari, Luxury

1967 275 GTB/4*S N.A.R.T. Spyder - video screencap - front three-quarter view, top down

It isn’t every day that the rarest of Ferrari models change hands. In fact, you can count your fingers to get the number of 275 GTB/4*S N.A.R.T. Spyders that ever existed. The 1967 Ferrari you see here is one of those ten Spyders, and it has stayed in the same family since it was bought new.

The car was bought through Luigi Chinetti, Ferrari’s US importer at the time, by the late Eddie Smith Sr., a Ferrari collector and businessman from North Carolina. Smith kept it – and kept driving it – until the day he died six years ago. Since then, this remarkable machine has been collecting dust. Smith’s son, Eddie Smith Jr., spent some time with Petrolicious to give a history of the car and explain why he and his family are going to do the one thing his father never could: sell it. The catch? All of the money it earns on the auction block will be donated to charity.

“It’ll be a bittersweet thing, because we know the fact that all the money is going to charities that he would approve of,” Smith Jr. said about his father, and it “will really make him smile, because he loved to give back.”

Look for the car at this year’s RM Auction in Monterey next month, where it should net millions of dollars before it gets a new owner. In the meantime, be sure to watch the video below. (And if it doesn’t yank at your heartstrings, please check your pulse or watch more Petrolicious videos.)

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Father’s ultra-rare Ferrari to leave family for a good cause originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 24 Jul 2013 14:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Rare four-cylinder ’57 Ferrari Testa Rossa expected to top $4 million at auction

Filed under: Classics, Auctions, Ferrari

1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider

1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider – Click above for high-res image gallery

Wait a second, a Ferrari 500 with a four-cylinder engine? Come on, Autoblog – check your facts. Don’t we mean a Fiat 500? Maybe that special-edition Abarth 695 Tributo Ferrari? Nope. What we have here is a genuine four-cylinder Ferrari. And a highly coveted one at that.

The Ferrari 500 TRC (that’s Testa Rossa Type-C) Spider was one of the last models Maranello ever built with an inline-four, the engine originally designed by Aurelio Lampredi for Formula Two, but later adapted for sports racing prototypes after the engineer’s departure. Derived from the Monza, this was the first Ferrari to bear the Testa Rossa name for its red valve headers. And though the styling is similar, it’s even rarer than the 250 Testa Rossa that followed: only 19 of these cars were built, all during just one year or production, making this rarer than the more powerful 12-cylinder 250 TR and 250 GTO that rake in the big bucks at auction.

This particular example – chassis number 0670 MDTR – was the sixth made, ordered by a customer in Sicily who entered it in numerous races around the world in its heyday. While other 500 TRC Spiders went on to claim class victories at Le Mans and the Targa Florio, this one took its class win at the Monte Pellegrino Hillclimb in Palermo – the same locale where we drove the Ferrari California on its launch several decades later.

The car stands as the latest consignment to RM Auctions’ docket for the upcoming Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, where it is expected to fetch €2,600,000 to €3,300,000 (equivalent to $3.6M to $4.6M at current rates). There it will stand alongside such notables recently covered on these pages as the collection of Bertone concept cars, the Talbot and Bugatti art-deco classics and the pair historic Zagato-bodied Kamm-tailed Alfa Romeos in what’s shaping up to be an historic event in its own right. Follow the jump for more details on the 500 TRC and take a closer look in the high-res image gallery.

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Rare four-cylinder ’57 Ferrari Testa Rossa expected to top $4 million at auction originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 17 May 2011 19:25:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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eBay Find of the Day: 1995 BMW M3 CSL Lightweight is ultra rare, ultra tasty

Filed under: Classics, Coupe, Performance, Auctions, BMW, Racing

1995 BMW M3 CSL Lightweight

1995 BMW M3 CLS Lightweight – Click above for high-res image gallery

We know we already ran an eBay Find of the Day, but since you couldn’t actually drive that one, we thought it only fair to bring you another. File this one under “D” for “Don’t see that every day.” For a Buy It Now price of $49,000, you can lay your loving mitts on a genuine 1995 BMW M3 CSL Lightweight. According to the seller, the vehicle has never been raced or abused, and the photos make the factory-built racer look like a slice of cherry pie. There are a scant 36,619 miles on the clock, and the ad makes it clear that this particular example needs nothing but a driver behind the wheel. A driver with a flush bank account, that is.

If you’re wondering why we’ve gone all drooling ape over this car, you should probably know that this is one of the rarer M3 models out there. The seller notes that there were just 100 of these particular racers imported to the States, each with weight-adding bits like the spare tire sent to the dumpster in an attempt to keep weight as low as possible. Reports vary as to exactly how many pounds BMW managed to shed from the standard car, but estimates say that the models hit the scales at around 200-300 lbs less than their regular counterparts. Throw in even stiff springs and a host of go-fast parts that were user-installable for a little extra track dominance and you’ve got the beast you see above.

Did we mention this sucker is street legal? Head over to eBay Motors for a closer look. Thanks for the tip, Sid!

Gallery: 1995 BMW M3 CSL Lightweight

[Source: eBay Motors]

eBay Find of the Day: 1995 BMW M3 CSL Lightweight is ultra rare, ultra tasty originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 22 Oct 2010 15:31:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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