Category: Drive Time

When I originally set this exercise up for myself, I decided to pick only one car per category, the first four categories being “utility”, “performance”, “beach house” and “New Wife”.  (There were other categories, but not enough cars in each to make the choices interesting.)

The final category was entitled “pure indulgence”, and the choices boiled down to the Dino Ferrari or one of the Jag E-types:

After long and often painful contemplation, I first picked the Jag.

…and not too many people would disagree with that choice.  It’s beyond-words beautiful, and the 4.2-liter engine… ’nuff said.

Must say, though, that I’m not too enamored to have a convertible with black upholstery, living as I do in the Texas Oven.  So I went back and looked at the Dino:

It remains, in my opinion, the most beautiful Ferrari ever made:  curves that resemble a gorgeous woman lying on her side, that sweet little 2.4-liter engine purring / snarling right  behind your head… and this one is not in Ferrari Showoff Red, but in a discreet brushed silver, with tan upholstery.

But, but, but… I already had  a sports car — the fantastic Iso Grifo.  So maybe what I needed was something sumptuous:  a luxury car that I could drive around on long road trips.  Something like the 1956 Mercedes-Benz 300:

The 300 (W186 body) was designed to be able to drive all day on the highway at top speed without breaking, and it was (and still is) one of the most reliable cars ever made.  (For more info, read about it here.)

Heavy, stately, luxurious and dependable.  Sounds a little like me, come to think of it.

And a worthy choice, to accompany the four others.

While I stated in the Comments to the original post that New Wife only liked a few of the British sports cars available, my husband’s sense of responsibility wouldn’t allow it, simply because I’d soon get sick of phone calls telling me that the MG/Healey/Triumph had broken down again, and what was I going to do about it?  Clearly, we would need a more reliable alternative, so the 1969 Mercedes-Benz 280 SL pretty much picks itself.

Like me, New Wife prefers a stick shift, so here we go:

While Mercedes has made many good-looking sports cars over the decades (the 1950s 300 Gullwing and 1960s 190 SL come to mind), I still think that the 230/250/280 SL pagoda-tops were the prettiest  of them all, to this day, and it would be a perfect car for her.

If I were a Rich Phartte and thus able to visit this auction, I would already have purchased a beach house (because New Wife loves the sea more than I do), probably somewhere in Maine.  Accordingly, said beach house would have to have a car in residence, to be disconnected and left there during the winter.  It wouldn’t have to be much, its duties pretty much relegated to trips to the supermarket, into town or for short sight-seeing trips along the coast and so on.  Which makes my third choice simple:  the 1966 Austin Mini Moke.

Longtime Friend Knal N. Domp (from the old website) had one of these, and many’s the night we were to be found driving it around Johannesburg at breakneck speed during the late 1960s and early 70s.

And as for simplicity, try this:

Just so you know how badly I want one of these, it was nearly my #1 choice.

There are a couple of competitors — the Renault Jolly comes to mind:

…but I’d only get that one if the beach house was in the south of France.

1968 Iso Grifo GL Series I:

For those not familiar with this monster, here’s the background (from Sotheby’s):

The Iso Grifo was created by a powerhouse of Italian engineering talent, including former Ferrari chief engineer and “father of the GTO” Giotto Bizzarrini; designer Giorgetto Giugiaro; and revered coachbuilders Bertone. A muscular gran turismo, its Bertone-built coachwork surrounded an advanced chassis with de Dion rear axle and inboard brakes, a configuration that reduced the unsprung weight compared to a live rear axle. Power was provided by a Chevrolet 327 V-8 of the same specification used in contemporary Corvettes, endowing the Grifo with ample performance and fine reliability. The model remained in production into the early 1970s and saw a total run of 413 examples in all configurations.

Excuse me, but “engineered by Bizarrini, designed by Giugiaro and built by Bertone”  just about checks all my boxes.  Also, “Chevrolet 327 V-8”  means I could get its oil changed at the local Chevy dealer for $50 instead of paying two grand to have the same thing done by Ferrari on one of their engines.

And it’s beautiful.  Good grief, I would get a tingle just from seeing it parked in my garage when I went out in the morning — even if I wasn’t going to drive it.

Finally, note that the interior is wonderfully devoid of all the modern electronic shit that confuses, clutters and just subtracts from the MTBF (mean time between failures).  And a stick shift… performance, simplicity and elegance all in one package

I promised to reveal my top 5 choices, following on from Saturday’s Auction Time post.  Here’s #1, the 1993 Land Rover NAS Defender 110:

I don’t know if I’d ever need to go off-road for any reason, but it’s nice to know that if I did, I’d have one of the best-ever vehicles for the task (with a proper 4-wheel drive, not that “all-wheel” nonsense) at my disposal.  (Maybe I’ve been influenced by Doc Russia’s Doom Wagon — here and here — just a little.)

Also, Mr. Free Market has one of these LWB 110s, and when I was Over There we put many  mile on it, en route to the various shooting ranges.  Apart from the kidney-shattering ride, I loved the experience — and it sure was nice to be able to throw muddy boots and such into the back without any misgivings about damage or dirt to the interior.

So yeah, that’s my #1 choice.  Its only serious competitor (in the utility vehicle category, that is) was the FJ Company’s (smaller) Toyota FJ43:

…which would be my backup pick should the Landy’s price get bid out to the stratosphere.

The rest of my choices will follow over the next four days.

There are times when I’m glad I’m not a Rich Bastard (a.k.a. Powerball winner) because I just know that after I’d bought a decent house, traveled a bit, bought a few guns (stop laughing) and settled down, I would undoubtedly get drawn into the world of car auctions.

So here’s this weekend’s “just suppose” game, assuming that your circumstances are as above.

You have several (hundreds of?) thousands of dollars that are burning a hole in yer wallet, and one day you come across this fiendish event.

Wait awhile to browse this page, while I outline what we’re going to be talking about today.

One of the things I like about events of this nature is the variety of stuff to be auctioned, because it takes away the usual “Which Ferrari would I pick?” question.  Here, you could indulge your taste not just for the exotic, but for the historic, eclectic, or even weird, e.g.:

And so, Gentle Readers, the only question to be asked is this:

In order of preference, which five cars or motorcycles would you bid on?

Remember, money is no object — we’re talking about scratching a lifelong itch, or checking off an item on Ye Olde Bucquette Lyste.  So go ahead and make your selections, and assume that all are in roadworthy condition and could be driven home, if need be.  You could decide on five supercars;  one supercar, two vintage and a weird car;  three saloon cars, a supercar and a one-of-a-kind car;  or a campervan, two sports cars and two motorcycles — whatever, the five choices are all yours.

(Note:  if you click on a car to read about it, you have to use the “Back” ( <– ) button to return to the main page.)

Starting on Monday, I’ll be revealing my five choices one at a time, one per day, with reasons.