From 17/2:

Older sports tourers are seriously cool in our opinion, and especially these older Maserati GTs. This particular one for sale on ebay Germany needs completion and is unfortunately missing a few bits and pieces. It is a Maserati 3500 GTi (2a serie), an aluminium-bodied, fuel-injected 2+2 coupe designed by Carrozzeria Touring. About 500 were made.

The 3500 was the first mass-produced car for Maserati, just over 2200 cars were produced, and some of Italy’s top coachbuilders like Vignale, Allemano, Frua, Bertone, Boneschi and Moretti designed bodies on the 3500′s chassis but none achieved the classic lines of the Touring design. Compared to the GT version, the GTi had a lower roofline, longer nose, shallower front grille, revised front indicators, the front foglights were removed, redesigned rear light clusters. The letter ‘I’ was added to the ‘Maserati 3500 GT’ chrome script above the rear number plate and a Trident badge was added with the word ‘Iniezione’ written on it. 

When we first saw a picture of this car we thought this was a body off restoration, but when you look at the B-pillar below, it becomes a bit doubtful. Nice leather interior though. The car has had one owner, and was first registered in Switzerland. Unfortunaltey there are no pics available of the dashboard. 

The engine in these cars is a competition six cylinder engine from the Tipo 350S sports racer modified for road use. The seller says the engine runs good. The engine would only have  just over 10k km on the clock. The gearbox is a ZF 5-speed box compared to a 4-speed in the earlier cars. Borrani knock-offs were an option on these cars and they look really good with them. We would try and source some.

As we said, a few bits are missing and the seller claims they have been stolen. Basically, what you can’t see has been nicked: front and rear windscreen and rubbers, bumpers, rear light, door handles, side ventilation grills, front grill with Trident symbol. As we said, the car is available from ebay in Germany out of Bensheim between Frankfurt and Heidelberg, and the seller wants cash on collection. Click on the pics to go through to the ebay auction page. Nice project for someone who can source the missing pieces. Similar cars are for sale on anamera.com for between 60k and 80k euros.

The car was at some stage shipped from Argentina to Italy. The original founder of Cisitalia, Piero Dusio decided to set up shop in Argentina in 1951 and built a few thousand Cisitalia Coupé and Spider versions. The Cisitalia Abarth was a souped up version and is quite rare. Carlo Abarth used to run the Cisitalia racing team back when Dusio was still running his factory in Italy. The body was designed by Allemano.

This originally red car needs a bit of work for sure but does seem to be complete.  Most parts seem to be original. We like the big dials on the original dashboard. The louvered bootlid covers the 850cc engine of the Fiat 600 it is based on. It is being rebuilt at the moment. The car is for sale here on Subito. A couple of nice racers in the garage.  Oh … and the steering wheel needs to go of course! We would source a nice Nardi one.

A bit of Google-ing later we found some more information. It was designed for the IAA 91. It took second spot at the Eurosign Design Awards. The car featured as a showcar at the 1993 Frankfurt and 1994 Geneva car shows. The intention was to make quite a few of these cars, but only one got made. It is based on the 1989 Ferrari 328 mechanicals. There are no doors and if you want to avoid a mouthful of flies, you better put on a helmet. Those helmets fit rather snug into the interior as can be seen below.

Althought we’re not the biggest fans of the ‘platypus’ front of the car, it’s ‘derriere’ and interior can still pass as a more recent design. Can you imagine the commotion when this car just came out against contemporaries such as the Countach and Testarossa? Quite a culture shock that must have been …  

The car is all nice and light in aluminium over a tubular frame chassis and weighs just over a tonne. The 270bhp coming from the engine propels you in 6 seconds to 60mph. Topspeed is 278km/h. It is not for sale out of Italy but out of Belgium actually. MecanicImport is selling the car for its owner who would like EUR110000 for it. The car caused a stir last year on some automotive blogs as it was being auctioned on ebay. It didn’t get a single bid unfortunately.  

From 12/1:

For sale in the area around Calais in the north of France is this 1973 Fiat 124 Abarth that needs completing. This is an extraordinary opportunity for someone to acquire one of the homologation versions of these rally icons of the 1970s. We are very tempted ourselves to buy the car and we can see this car gone in no time.

The car has been primed and can be painted in the new owner’s favourite Stradale colour. We think the red suits the car best. Other options would be white or azure blue. Most Stradale cars were delivered to customers in white, followed by red. We’d like to know more about the engine. Standard these cars came with a 1800cc Lampredi twincam. If there aren’t already twin carburettors fitted, we would immediately source some and get a custom exhaust made to get the most out of the engine, and we don’t mean just performance-wise. The burble coming out of these engines is pretty amazing. Don’t forget to take out the middle box of course …

Above and below pictures of the red Stradale owned by our friend Ross Alkureishi of Classic Cars magazine are used as example illustrations only.

The French owner has had this coupé for sale for quite a while now actually. He hasn’t got the time nor funds anymore to restore the car to its former glory. We must admit that the interior picture looks pretty scary at first sight and would make us think twice about taking on this car. The car does seem to be complete though apart from the right front side ventilation grille. To have the front bumper to fit the distinct shark nose is definitely a bit of a bonus.

The mechanics are based on the Fiat 2300, the 6-cylinder engine is a tuned version capable of over 200km/h and has a twin carburettor setup. The car comes with Borrani wire wheels and a nice Nardi wooden steering wheel. It also has a leather interior and was fitted with electric windows. A picture of what the car should look like is shown below.

The car is for sale here out of France and the seller wants EUR30000 which seems quite a lot. The Spider we talked about above sold for less than GBP15000 a couple of years ago and was in MUCH better condition. It would be very nice to see the Coupe on the road again though.  

The seller is no stranger for retro car forum enthousiasts as a lot of people probably have seen or heard his twin-engined Alfasud. We can only think he is selling the Beta to make way for some other project he is working on.  

The Beta has been stripped and seam-welded, and had a rollcage fitted. Then a foam-filled fuel tank was put in the front and the engine was moved onto a tubular frame at the back closed off with a steel lift-up rear.

The engine installed is an Alfa 3-litre V6 and delivers around 200bhp. We recall the seller planning to install a turboed 3-litre Alfa engine but might have been too difficult to source. The car is now obviously rear wheel drive and the suspension has a full coilover spring setup.

The Lancia is fully prepared for racing with all equipment like headsets etc in place. We know of the car racing its “sister”, the Alfa Bimotore at Santa Pod last year, but are not sure whether the car has seen any other motorsport action.  The car is for sale on ebay UK with a starting bid of GBP10000 out of Blackburn in the north of England.

With thanks to Michael Ward and Auto-Italia magazine for permission to use of the pictures. 

Update 3/1:  The owner has put the car here on ebay UK for GBP139000 or best offer.

Update 30/10:  The red Spider at RMauctions sold for GBP181500. A bit below our expectations

From 29/10:

With the credit crunch starting to bite left, right and center, more classic cars are coming onto the market. And the people with the money seem to be increasingly looking at blue chip classics as an investment alternative. Some pretty unique cars are changing hands at the moment. Two weeks ago, a 1955 Lancia Aurelia B24 Spider America sold for GBP247,500 at auction and quite amazingly today another 1954 B24 Spider America is going under the hammer at RM Auctions in Central London with an in our opinion very conservative estimate.

The Spider didn’t always have such a following though. When they first came out, they were too expensive and pretty uncomfortable. Only 240 were made. Lancia decided to restyle them a bit with a better driving position, more normal windscreen, door handles and straight bumpers. They called it the B24 Convertible. There are a few more of these, just over twice as many as the dramatic looking Spider. The Aurelia was also the first car in the world to have a V6 engine.

We saw this Convertible for sale at DTR Sports Cars in London. It has been restored in 2002 to a very high standard. It is painted that unique Lancia Blue. It features that gorgeous Pininfarina line from the doors on that was later on repeated on a couple of Ferraris. The front radiator is as striking “in the flesh” as it is in the pictures.

It is considerably less expensive than the Spider. Still not exactly a snip, but at nearly half the price, this car is seriously undervalued. It is for sale here in the UK for GBP150000.

Disclaimer: This car is for sale at the garage where we take one of our cars for regular services. We know the owner in this case.

We have found another Alfa GTA for sale, but this one is not a replica. This is a real Autodelta car that has been used for the Italian Hillclimb Championship between 1969 and 1975. It is a proper racer and it looks amazing. The price tag is accordingly.

We still like these cars more on the GTAm wheels but these four spoke golden Campagnolos come a close second. The side exhaust pipe is a great feature. We’d like to see more of the interior. It is also fitted with plexiglas all round. 

Quite unbelievably these cars were standard fitted with a 1300cc engine. Racing versions deliver about 180bhp. Great thing is the car only weighs around 740kg. 450 GTA Juniors were produced. We’re waiting for further spec on this particular car.

If you can’t wait for more details, the car is available for sale through GPS Classics out of Italy. The seller wants EUR100,000EUR130000 for the car.

The first one is probably the most modified one. It has vents integrated into the rear wings and is missing some trim on the distinguished front. Also the split bumper is not original. It features added rear lights to make it look a bit more Ferrari-esque. We would ditch the wheels and the decals. The interior looks pretty good though. The price is negotiable. It can be found here on Subito out of Modica.

The second one is the red one below and carries a price tag of about EUR15000. It is complete and comes with a nice set of turbine alloy wheels. It is offered out of Milan. Two years ago a Moretti Sportiva with a sloped front sold in the UK for about GBP18000, and it wasn’t in perfect condition at all.

One of our favourites though is the red one below. It has been restored inside-out. It comes with a targa roof which we have never before seen on a Moretti 850, but wich the seller claims is original. It has chromed wheel arches and features different trim between the headlights. It has a nice cream leather interior and a set of knock-off wire wheels. As with all these cars on offer, the stance seems a bit high. It can be had for EUR19000 out of Mirano.

Our favourite one though has to be the one below. It’s painted in a nice silver and combined with the red interior it looks a bit more expensive and upmarket from the cars above. We quite like the wheels but there is plenty of nice Cromodoras or Campagnola wheels that would suit the car. The mid-console would need a bit of sorting out. We also like the price the most on this one. It is for sale on Subito for EUR10000 out of Rome. Book a one way easyJet flight maybe …

It is the only photo available, but this little Abarth by Allemano looks phenomenal. Allemano designed a few versions of the Fiat 750, and this is one of them. The most famous Fiat Abarth based on the Fiat 750 is of course the Record Monza or “Double Bouble” by Zagato. 

The front looks a bit like a smoothened Fiat 600 while the rear definitely has the Fiat 850 Coupe lines although that car only appeared mid 60s. The car is based on a Seat 750.

The seller claims the car is solid underneath with a good interior. The engine has been replaced at some stage and it has also had a respray. It is for sale here out of Italy for EUR25000. We would like to know more about this car, if you have more info please email submit@classiccarhunter.com.