Ugly But Brilliant

On the subject of great cars just needing a rebuild, Reader Gerald F suggests the 1972 Lotus Europa Special, which he describes as his “lottery” car:

 

Universally panned for its “truck” back, the Europa’s owners could be forgiven their secret little smile, because as ungainly as it looked, the Europa’s weight distribution was almost perfect and it could out-corner absolutely anything it raced against.  Even by today’s lofty standards, the Europa was an outstanding example of the Colin Chapman era of performance — its dinky little Lotus-Ford 1600cc four-banger got it up to over 120mph quickly enough — and over a twisty road, it would leave everything else with only a view of its ugly backside.

And they came in a ton of spiffy colors…

 

 

Thank you, Reader Gerald, because now I want one too.

More Rebuilds

Continuing the thread from a couple weeks back, I saw this pic:

Ford Super Deluxe Woody (1948)

…and immediately wanted one, provided that it had modern suspension, wiring and brakes — i.e. so it would run about as well as a modern car.

This made me look through my rather extensive album of car pics to see which others would qualify (short answer:  most of them), but here are my absolute winners:

Alvis Speed 25 (1939)

BMW 328 (1938)

Hudson Deluxe Eight (1935)

“Jaguar” SS 100 (1937)

I think I’d first have to have wider tires on all of them, but as for styling… whoa.

If you want to show me which your favorites would be, send me an email (with or without pics) and I’ll post the best ones.

Not Even Close

Go ahead and ask me again why I prefer the old over the new.

Or you can watch this video, where two youngins discover in turn the joys of yesteryear, where the old doesn’t have any of the modern geegaws, bells, whistles and safety features, but is still — after well over forty years — the better experience.

You can thank me later.

Re-Release

It is not often that I disagree with Longtime Friend and Bandmate Knob, but I did so quite recently.

From his penthouse in Monaco, he sent me this pic of the new Maserati MC20, with the comment:  “Beautiful”, and on that point I agree, sort of:

…I mean, other than that it looks like pretty much every supercar made since 2005.  And as Knob pointed out, the entire 2022 run has sold out already.

Which of course left me to ponder the following:  instead of playing against Ferrari et al. in the supercar market, why shouldn’t Maserati play in a less-crowded, but numerically much larger pool of motorists?

I speak here of the small roadster segment, dominated as it is by Mazda’s Miata:

But at $35,000 most wealthy folks would (and do) turn up their surgically-corrected noses at this, as a “commoner’s car”.

Maserati has played in this market segment before, with its (lamentably) discontinued GT MC model ($160,000) — discontinued in favor of the new MC20, it should be said.

But to me, this simply creates an opportunity for them.  Why not use one of their older cars as a model, and re-create it with modern engineering and production?  And if so, which one?

Loyal Readers will know exactly where I’m going with this argument, as I’m going to suggest the exquisite, but never-produced, Maserati GT150 Spider:

I say “never produced”, but they did make ONE (the one pictured above), and it recently sold for $3 million to some Austrian guy.  (Story here.)

I think that the Fantucci-designed 150GT is the most beautiful roadster ever made (with all due respect to the Ferrari 275 GTS/4, as suggested by Reader Paul G), and if Mazza were to re-release it with a 2.0- or 2.5-liter engine as the 200/250GT, at a price of (say) $150,000, they wouldn’t be able to keep up with the demand, as long as they stayed as close as possible to its original appearance.

I’m tilting at windmills, of course, and no doubt people will say it’s impossible, I’m an idiot for even suggesting it, and so on.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

But it would be glorious.