The Aesthete's special selection

The Aesthete's Fleet.

Human ingenuity knows no bounds. This is particularly so when specials are concerned. Here is where the most unpromising and inflexible materials are fiddled with and rearranged into objects of wonder, well to the Aesthete's eye anyway. Others would simply see a waste of a perfectly good car or three. This list was based on a Farham-bodied Mk III Zodiac Estate with the rare Executive trim set and a floor change. Needless to say, it was gone in few hours. 

Bi-Spyderman sent me some lovely pictures of his Ford Victoria Coupe to lend some class to the blog so I am pleased to oblige. I will set up a special category for reader's cars if anyone cares to send me some more.

1955 Ford 10 Special. What to do if you could not afford a mid-engined Kieft or a Cooper? Why, get busy in the shed and make one. Rarely did this sort of enterprise turn out anything as easy on the eye as this, crudely hammered single curvature bodywork being the usual rule. An aircraft fuel tank might be involved here, along with a pile of 1950s tuning bits. I bet it sounds fantastic although the height of the engine suggests an interesting attitude on sharp bends.

For: You could buy it just for looking at.
Against: Not run for a while but no computers to worry about.
Investment potential: 3/10 Genuine 1950s race cars should fetch more than this.

1970 Bond Equipe. What is it with all the Bonds on Trademe? This convertible Equipe is more of a looker than the Coupe featured last week although, like many boutique production cars of the period,  a bit amateurish inside. Careful attention to the hood and tidying the dash details works wonders with these cars and assists them to live up to Trevor Fiore's wonderful styling proposal. However you approach it, this is a cheap and beguiling car.

For: You could make the special even more special.
Against: The vendor alerts us to some rust in the frame. Not uncommon with Vitesses either so easily fixed.
Investment potential: I will go out on a limb here and say 5/10.

1934 Austin Seven Special: It may seem as though I am repeating myself but I cannot help it if everyone is trying to sell their Bonds and Austin Seven specials at the some time. This one packs a small capacity Coventry Climax overhead cam engine similar to that found in the back of an Imp. It should be a screamer with the engine designed to power a fire pump so 7000 rpm not out of the question.

For: Thrills guaranteed.
Against: Your passengers may not be so thrilled.
Investment potential: 2/10 seeing as there is a glut.

1973 Jensen Interceptor MkIII. Alright, I know a Jensen is not a special in the strict sense of the term. They were built in respectable numbers and part of a long tradition of hefty hand built British cars propelled by large American engines. The fabulous form by Italian carroserie Touring was the equal of their earlier Aston Martin DB4 so why are they so cheap? Eye watering fuel consumption and rust doomed most of them so a nice one for 40K makes odd sense.

For: What else does all that for the money?
Against: Would you look ridiculous in a body shirt and a mustard yellow leather jacket? Not for you then.
Investment potential: 3/10 At half the price of an indifferent E-Type, I predict a rising market.

1967 Porsche 912. Rarely does the Aesthete see a listing on Trademe that produces a Tourettes-like outburst. Well I roared like an American sitcom laugh track when I read this one. Not only a dizzying price for a 911 that goes like a Volkswagen 411, but he wants to charge you $100 just to look at it! There must be a name for this peculiar behaviour but for now I suggest you just look from a distance until the vendor has calmed down.

For: Words fail me.
Against: Don't let him get between you and the door.
Investment potential: -6/10 unless you can wait another fifteen years for the market to catch up.

Not so far from here...

1967 Alfa Romeo 2600 Sprint GT. There is nothing remotely 'sprint' about this sad looking big Alfa with its faded paint, seized engine and rusty doors. Even so, restorable cars of this character for 6K must be running out, particular ones sitting in the open under trees.

The Aesthete's pleasures and sorrows of old car ownership

The Aesthete's Fleet

The pleasure came when I parked the Lancia beside the Laird of Excelsior's Peugeot 406 Coupe and a Saab 900 belonging the local stand-in for Top Gear's Richard Hammond. This image could be captioned 'Where the designers are', a nod to the  movie 'Where the Boys Are' that starred Dolores Hart and Yvette Mimeaux. Dolores joined a convent shortly afterwards so at least one of us probably needs to get right with God. The sorrow came when the Lancia's horn again gave voice loudly in the driveway between 11.45 and 12.10 last night. We were alerted by a txt from the neighbours...

Bond Equipe GT. Regular readers might recall the Herald-based Bond coupe that was recently on the list. Its upgraded successor was built on a Vitesse chassis with an attractive and modern fibreglass shell by Trevor Fiore, a British/Italian designer who also produced the completely mad Monteverdi Hai. This one is New Zealand-new and has fallen victim to an abandoned rebuild. I am not sure I would want to race one but it would be ideal as a quick road car with its 2.5 PI upgrade.

For: A cheap mini-exotic. If it was Italian, who knows what you would have to pay?
Against: Not much at that sort of money.
Investment potential: 4/10 if the work has been done competently.

1929 Austin Seven Special. The interface between car and motorcycle is again explored in this tough looking little special with various features only a keen student of the subject might appreciate. The aircraft style instruments and staggered seating layout suggests much more power than could be wrung out of a two main bearing Austin Seven motor but that is all part of the charm.

For: Someone who read Biggles books would get it immediately.
Against: Oily, noisy and dangerous. Hang on. Those are positives, aren't they?
Investment potential: 2/10. Commute in it. I dare you.

1971 Ford Zodiac. There was much awry with Ford's Mk IV but nothing that a big V8 and a wider set of wheels could not fix, a solution arrived at by hoons when the cars were almost new. This innocent looking example is a masterpiece of subtlety compared to those that were driven by disreputable types around Auckland in my youth and the modern injected V8 is a further incentive to forgo all good taste.

For: Whadareya?
Against: Have you noticed all the bogan shows on TV lately?
Investment potential: 3/10 but less if the legitimate owner gets out of jail and finds you.

1965 Van den Plas Princess.You are less likely to have your kneecaps shot off by the vendor of this VDP Princess who had his car at the recent Dunedin Autospectacular and seems like a decent chap. These are interesting cars with their Rolls Royce engineered power units delivering 175 horsepower, more or less. The ropy poly Austin underpinnings were barely up to it but most were driven at civic parade speeds anyway. I have always wondered how one would go around the track.

For: A Chief Borough Engineer sort of car.
Against: You would want to do things to it. Bad things.
Investment potential: 1/10. An ageing following and no one else understands them.

1971 Renault 17 TS. The sight of one of Renault's avant garde coupes was enough to get the junior Aesthete flipping through his 1971 World Cars Annual although the actual specifications were always a bit of a let down. Surely something with four separate hooded instruments on the dash should be as fast as the wind but even the sportiest of Renaults was some distance from a Lancia or Alfa. The novelty now offsets that deficit and this one looks like it could be saved, if only from the chump that currently owns it.

For: Dirty and sweet with a hint of cigarette smoke, like all early Renault Coupes.
Against: Men of a certain age will think you are easy.
Investment potential: 2/10 but you may struggle if there is anything broken or missing.

1967 Sunbeam Alpine GT. Rootes got ex-Raymond Loewy designer Kenneth Howes to draw their new sports car with work commencing as early as 1956. Not so under the thrall of the Italians as his peers in the industry, Howes drew a subtle dart shape that took Virgil Exner's 'forward look', mixed it with a dash of Thunderbird, and gave it wind up windows, a heater and decent seats. It should have outsold the competition but never rose to its full potential.

For: Civilised fun.
Against: I can see little wrong from here.
Investment potential: 3/10 and getting bids already.

Awaiting your instructions for shipment...

1955 Studebaker President Speedster. The Aesthete remains confused about classic Studebaker prices, finding them infinitely more appealing than Chevrolets and Fords with perhaps only a Lincoln Capri tinkling the bell harder than one of these. Lack of funds to restyle the Loewy design meant that the best looking ones came early in their production history and the chrome belt above the rear window of this pillarless coupe is heavenly. The quilted interior less so.

For: You could be seen anywhere in this.
Against: You could not fault the looks, surely?
Investment potential: 2/10 as the market dozes.

The Aesthete loses his mind

The Aesthete's Fleet

The Aesthete is subsiding into nervous exhaustion. Eerie sounds of grinding and hammering can be heard at all hours of day and night. A feverish degree of OCD is necessary to complete any sort of restoration and attention is now focused on welding up parts of the car that no-one will ever see.  Somehow, these still cause acute anxiety in the owner as 'he knows they are there.' Someone needs to give a name to this tragic condition. 

1961 Chevrolet Impala SS Coupe. No madly gurning monstrosity but the first step back to tastefulness captured in the next Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Toronado. What are known as 'bubble top' cars possess slim pillared roofs with front and rear glass extending up into the roof surface. What our American friends call 'hood' and 'trunk' are of more or less equal length giving a forward leaning look. George Jetson would feel right at home behind the wheel and I imagine that electronic pinging sound instead of the heavy thump of a big V8.

For: The Aesthete finds himself in general alignment with fans of these 'in between' models.
Against: Behind the handsome looks it is business as usual in Detroit.
Investment potential: 1/10 only because there are relatively few about.

1965 Ford Zodiac Mk III. What could be said about the Impala could also apply to this Zodiac with its  four door coupe roof line achieved by taller front and rear screens with fully glazed sides and chromed pillars. This transformed the stolid looks of the standard Zephyr and the Aesthete is sometimes caught, head cocked at an enquiring angle, in rapture at the visual harmony of this simple effect. Is it worth paying a 10K premium over a lesser Z car? Probably.

For: An elegant bodgie. But get rid of all the extras.
Against: Not exactly a thrilling driving experience.
Investment potential: 2/10. These cars will reach a peak soon although I wish I had laid a couple aside when they were 5K.

1981 Austin Princess R. Seeking to capitalise on the snooty cachet of the old Vanden Plas Princess with a big chrome R on the boot lid was a cheap marketing ploy at best,  let down by the incidence of embarrassing roadside suspension collapses and the general air of desperation that clung to these cars. Even so, a good example in black is enough to remind you that they looked like they had come from a different planet, as evinced by the alien played by Rowan Atkinson on Not the Nine O'clock News tediously explaining that on his world the Austin Allegro had an oval steering wheel, not a square one.

For: I imagine hipsters and their wan looking girlfriends smiling indulgently over this.
Against: Okay to look at but then you might have to drive it.
Investment potential: If irony was convertible into money, 10/10

1967 Riley Kestrel. The wasted legacy of the galumphing BMC combine can be seen in this Riley variant of their highly popular front wheel drive small car. While no Fiat, they were nimble, comfortable and sharply clothed in one of Pininfarina's best shapes, vestigial fins and all. Both this and the two equally nice MGs of the same general type have been for sale on Trademe forever, suggesting that their manifest charms are lost on most of us.

For: I would paint a white stripe down the middle and have it on Minilite wheels. Grwwwll.
Against: Nothing. Really, someone please buy it.
Investment potential: 1/10. Clearly no way to riches.

1989 Ford Granada Ghia. What is this bedizened lump, I hear you ask. Just another misunderstood big car from Ford of Europe but probably the best one they had made up to that point. The German designed Granada was a big hatchback in the Rover SDI mould but they were rare in New Zealand due to the ready availability of Falcons. In dark blue with black leather, these were a bit of a knockout but the dull grey and cloth does this one few favours. Look past that and you have something interesting for 2K.

For: Far, far better than it looks.
Against: I told you I had lost my mind.
Investment potential: None but what is there to lose?

Zut allors!

1953 Panhard Dyna Junior.  The ideal combination of motorcycle and road car is condensed here into two air cooled cylinders and styling only Mme Panhard could have loved. The primitivist looks might have come from a cubist painter instructed to design a car while not looking at the paper, so far from the mainstream of automotive aesthetics does this reside. Needless to say it is perfect from its button nose to its reverse hung doors. And what on earth does that big lever marked Dyna do on the dash?

For: The Aesthete is writhing with desire. It is not a pretty sight.
Against: Rien du tout.
Investment potential: 3/10. All other potential buyers are already having their affairs managed so probably not great.