A 1939 Ford 91A V8 featured in the 1988 blockbuster Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is up for auction online.Although all the animated action is set in Los Angeles, the film was actually filmed at Elstree Studios just north of London, and the V8 was sourced from a local owner.
The car crossed the Atlantic during the 1960s and was fully restored in the 1980s, spending time on display in a museum. When director Robert Zemeckis was looking for suitable cars for street scenes set in 1947 Hollywood the V-8 was in tip-top condition and, according the sales blurb, it remains so today. The owner has endeavoured to keep the car as original as possible although the Ford ‘flathead’ V-8 has been uprated with an Edelbrock intake and larger aluminium radiator. A stack of paperwork and original Ford De Luxe instruction book are included in the sale on auction site Car & Classic. Bidding only reached 15k and failed to meet the reserve.
“This is a Ford with a very special backstory, playing a key part in a movie that many will remember for its unique blend of actors – both real and cartoon” says Car & Classic’s Dale Vinten. “Today the car not only holds that appeal to fans of Roger, Jessica and Bob Hoskins but it also is a very original pre-war Ford that benefits from subtle upgrades to enjoy and show for many years to come.”The five-day auction starts on August 19 and the famous V8 is expected to fetch £20,000-£30,000. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? won three Academy Awards but who will win this star car?
Took a trip to Beaulieu for the 2023 International Autojumble, which as you can see was very well attended by a very international cohort.
As usual Bonhams have an onsite auction and there is an Automart to compliment the Autojumble, above are the American vehicles up for sale.
My friend’s John and Meg had good traffic at their Model A stall.
The above is not an American vehicle but it’s so stunning I had to share. The car was built by Andy Saunders and it’s called “Deja” and it’s inspired by the French Art Deco school of coachbuilding. Amazing considering it’s based on a rusty old Riley!
Some other items spotted along the way. Ford Sales and Service sign, nice, £695 out of the budget! Also spotted a MAFCA badge, but at £75 not biting 🙂 Cans also being offered at a premium.
Once hoarded, the thoroughbred has since been shared at Pebble Beach
Legendary collector car auctions don’t all take place in Scottsdale or Monterey under bright lights in massive tents. In fact, one of the most memorable car auctions went down nearly 30 years ago on an old farm in East Orange, Vermont, once owned by an eccentric hoarder and littered with the remains of one of America’s earliest sports car builders. Now, nearly 30 years later, the star car of that auction, A.K. Miller’s 1916 Stutz Model 4C Bearcat, will come up for auction once again.
A flatlander from New Jersey who once flew autogyros for the U.S. Postal Service, Miller and his wife Imogene had moved to Vermont sometime in the late Forties. He became known in the area for salvaging nails from burned-down buildings; for the various outbuildings he built around the property, many of which had grown dilapidated over the years the Millers lived there; and for the ever-growing fleet of old Volkswagen Beetles that they’d drive into the ground, then discard under a tree on the property somewhere. Among Stutz collectors nationwide, he was known for having one or two of the cars but more for the Stutz parts that he’d sell, usually hand-fabricated. Rumors, however, told of a more sizable collection, though nobody seemed to know the true extent of it or why the Millers eyed everybody with suspicion.
Only after A.K. died in 1993 and Imogene died in 1996 did their story become a national sensation. The couple had no children – a local church even reportedly took up a collection to arrange for their burial – and avoided paying taxes, which explained their reluctance to trust any outsiders. As a result, the IRS tapped the local sheriff to prepare the estate for auction. In the course of doing so, he not only found a stack of bonds taped to the backside of a mirror, he also found $1 million in gold bullion hidden in the Millers’ wood pile, $75,000 in silver stashed around the property, and $900,000 in stock certificates.
And then there were the cars. Miller had hid away forty-seven different cars – Stutzes, mainly, but also some Franklins, a Locomobile, a Rolls-Royce, a Stanley, and some H.C.S.es, in addition to the aforementioned Beetles – as well as sheds worth of original Stutz parts on which he patterned the reproductions that he sold to other Stutz owners. Among the Stutzes were a few Blackhawks, a Bulldog, a couple DV32s, and multiple Bearcats, including the one that Miller appeared to prize the most, a 1916 Model 4C.
Stutz as a carmaker rose to prominence after a solid 11th-place finish in the inaugural Indianapolis 500, and Harry C. Stutz capitalized on that finish with a line of passenger cars that included, starting in 1912, a stripped-down roadster with its most powerful engine under the hood and hardly anything behind the cowl but a pair of seats and a gas tank. While it unquestionably built off the reputation of Stutz’s on-track racers, the Bearcat nevertheless came with fenders, headlamps, and a minimal monocle windshield and was thus intended for the street, competing against the likes of Mercer’s Raceabout. These days, the Bearcat is commonly referred to as an “American thoroughbred,” though some also describe it and similar cars as America’s first sports cars, the pre-war counterparts of the Chevrolet Corvette, Kaiser Darrin, and Woodill Wildfire
Exactly where Miller found his 1916 Bearcat, chassis number 3021, is unknown, but it was likely in his possession for 50 years or more by the time the IRS called on New York-based auction house Christie’s to handle the liquidation of Miller’s collection. Unlike many of Miller’s other cars, this one was complete, with a 50hp 390-cu.in. T-head four-cylinder and three-speed manual transaxle. Though one of the last of the Bearcats that Stutz made before it started to add bodywork to the roadsters, it also benefited from a number of improvements, including a factory electric starting system, as well as a set of factory optional wire wheels. Miller had even crudely repainted it red with black fenders. “It carries correct headlamps and taillamp, a correct MotoMeter and good diamond-tufted leather bucket sats. The car’s attractive and sporty appearance is further enhanced by period accessory Houk wire wheels,” the Christie’s description read. “Paint is of amateur quality and the car generally appears to be nearly road-ready but not of show quality.” Miller had placed its axles on cribs of wood blocks to keep its tires from getting flat spots; as Bonhams has more recently noted, the Bearcat appears to be the only car in his collection in which Miller was photographed.
This car was used by John Dillinger, Hommer Van Meter and John Hamilton to get away from Melvin Purvis and 17 other FBI agents that were sent to Little Bohemia, WI on April 22, 1934 to take John Dillinger, dead or alive, by President Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover. This was the largest crack down in all of FBI history and most famous incident, it was reported in newspapers all over the U.S. and in other countries.
When the gang had escaped, they had driven the car to St. Paul, Minnesota and had gotten into a running gun battle with police, exchanging gun fire for over 45 minutes. They finally got away, but this paid a toll on John Hamilton because he was shot during the gun battle and died in Chicago three days later from his wounds.
During this incident, two FBI agents and one CCC worker were killed and eight more people were wounded. After this incident, President Roosevelt was so upset that had Melvin Purvis and J. Edgar Hoover failed to capture Dillinger one more time, it would have been the end of the FBI as we know it today. This car is considered the rarest Dillinger car, there is no other like it.
Estate sales and country auctions typically offer bargains for anybody willing to step away from the limelights of headline-grabbing auctions dedicated to collector cars. Then again, Mopar’s wing cars seem like they’ll sell for noteworthy prices regardless of the venue, as we saw when an unrestored 1970 Plymouth Superbird sold for more than $200,000 over the weekend.
According to Terence N Teeter’s obituary, the NASCAR and Mopar fan who lived in West Alexandria, Ohio, “could and would work on just about anything,” but with a CNC business to run, he always had “a lot of incomplete projects around the old homestead.” Many of those projects were vintage Hemi V-8s – he had at least eight Red Rams, 331s, and other first-generation Hemis in various states of assembly – though he also had a disassembled 383-powered 1966 Dodge Charger undergoing restoration as well as the Superbird.
According to its fender tag and its broadcast sheet, the B5 Blue Superbird came from the factory with a 390hp 440 Six-Barrel engine, Pistol Grip-shifted four-speed manual transmission, 3.54-geared Dana 60, heavy-duty suspension, bucket seats, white vinyl interior, and black vinyl top. Of the 1,935 Superbirds built, 308 came with the Six Barrel/four-speed combination. At some point it had lost its fender scoops and had its nosecone molded to the front fenders, but little seems known about the car prior to when Teeter, then 22 years old, bought it in 1981 with 27,000 miles on it. He got to put another 9,000 or so miles on the odometer before parking it to take the intake and heads off the 440.
Photos of the Superbird show much of the car intact but in need of some work. Aside from the disassembled engine, the front bucket seats have significant rips at the seams while the hood is missing much of its paint. “We believe we have everything,” the auction listing claimed.
Teeter, his wife Susan, and their son Ben all died within two weeks of each other from COVID complications in December 2021, leading to this weekend’s estate sale conducted by Kirby Lyons Auctioneers in Greenville, Ohio. While chatter among the wing car community made it seem like the Superbird could sell for well below market value, hope for a bargain seemed to vanish once bidders filled the Kirby Lyons facility. Bidding opened at $50,000 and quickly ramped up to $170,000. Disbelief among the crowd seemed to start around the $185,000 mark, with the car ultimately selling for $203,000.
Having exhausted the alphabet for their different models, and after flirting with model numbers for a few years, Ford in the USA began referring to their cars simply by the model year of the initial design, starting with the 1937 Ford.
They produced the car in a range of different body styles; sedan, coupe, convertible, station wagon, pick-up and so on and also in two different trim levels; Standard and DeLuxe. Although each year it had a styling refresh and a few tweaks to keep things new, the ‘37 stayed in production through to 1940 after which, you guessed it, came the 1941 Ford.
Power came from a choice of an entry level 136 cu.in (2.23-litre) flathead V8, which generated 60 hp – or a 221 cu.in (3.62-litre) flathead V8 delivering 85 hp.
By 1940, the coupe had gained sealed-beam headlamps fitted further outboard and given bigger bezels. The bonnet was given a high, flat top and in DeLuxe spec the front grille was widened out with additional louvres to reach the fenders.
The combination of the legendary 221 cu.in flathead V8 engine and a fabulous body shape has made Ford Coupes of the ‘37-’40 era the go-to base metal for automotive alchemists looking to fettle, tweak and hammer their way to the ultimate custom car or hot-rod.
The example we have with us today was painstakingly built to be competitive in vintage and classic endurance rallies such as the legendry Peking to Paris event but largely due to Covid never taking part. As such it represents the opportunity to acquire an “out of the box” endurance rally car ready to compete in the post Covid 2023 vintage and classic rally calendar.
The Vehicle
Built for the 1940 model year, this left-hand-drive Ford Coupe DeLuxe was imported to the UK and registered with the DVLA in December 2014.
Handed over to Royal Kustoms of Poole in Dorset, at a cost of over £100,000, the Coupe was eventually rebuilt, with a 296 cu.in (4.8-litre) flathead V8 and prepared for endurance rallying organised by ERA and HERO (https://www.endurorally.com/) in time for the 2020 season. Sadly, we all know what happened in 2020. Although the car has undergone shake-down runs totalling less than 3,000 miles, it has yet to turn a wheel in competition.
With plans changing, the owner decided to sell the car and returned it to Royal Kustoms in September for a full service and check over.
Royal Kustoms estimate that the build today, excluding base car purchase, would exceed £200,000.
Royal Kustoms are highly regarded for the quality and ingenuity of their race and rally preparation. This car has been obsessively over-engineered – outside, inside and underneath – to the most exacting standards of build quality and craftsmanship.
Should they wish to do so – the new owners will just need some paperwork for the car, then they’ll be all set to compete in the pre-war class for notable endurance rallies like the Alaska to Mexico Marathon at the end of September this year.
Fully fettled and ready to go, the car starts, goes and stops as you would hope. The handling and balance are impressive, as is the power on tap from the stroked and bored, 4.8-litre ‘Flathead’ V8 offering around 170 bhp and excellent amounts of torque.
And it goes about its business to a barking, thunderous, roaring soundtrack of Wagnerian proportions that will have people diving for cover at 200 yards.
No expense has been spared, no corners cut, no compromises tolerated.
Every structural, mechanical, electrical or cosmetic component is the best that it could be.
The car has spent most of its life in the dry Southern States of America was sourced in New Mexico and brought to the UK in 2014.
The body, panels and wings are original as is most of the chrome work. That’s where it started now brace yourself.
Here’s the spec sheet…..
Chassis
Original 1940 Ford Chassis converted with a custom centre section to accommodate 5-speed gearbox.
Fully step boxed the entire length of the chassis rails with added strength gussets.
Rear chassis crossmember converted to take 1939 pickup Parallel leaf-spring kit with custom rear crossmember.
Hydraulic bump stop brackets fitted onto chassis.
All chassis areas with either roll cage or suspension hoops fitted have crush tubes fitted into the chassis.
Front and rear tow hitches installed.
Suspension and Steering
Front: Original style transverse spring front suspension with custom-made front spring with new spring shackles fitted with poly bushes.
Royal Kustoms designed and made front shock hoops with removable strut brace.
Fox front shocks custom made and setup for exact weight of car. Fox adjustable hydraulic bump stops.
Front suspension wishbone has additional reinforcement.
Front anti-roll fitted.
Rear: 1939 Parallel leaf-spring kit fitted.
Fox rear shocks custom-made and setup for exact weight of car, fully adjustable for height.
Fox fully adjustable hydraulic bump stops.
Royal Kustoms top A-arm made with hi-acute off-road Land Rover centre ball joint.
Steering: Fully adjustable electric power steering unit connect to a GM525 heavy duty quick steering manual steering box via Borguson steering U/Js with added tilt adjustment.
Fully refurbished spindles with new kingpins fitted.
Drivetrain
Ford Tremec T5Z Motorsport 5-speed transmission.
MDL dual-friction clutch disc and diaphragm clutch plate.
Wilwood external hydraulic clutch slave cylinder.
Mustang racing mechanical clutch release bearing.
Custom-made propshaft fully balanced with heavy duty U/Js fitted.
Ford heavy duty 9” rear axle assembly with Strange heavy duty half-shafts and 3.55 crown and pinion. Custom-made by Hauser racing.
Brakes
Lincoln Bendix 12” Front drum brakes with re-lined road/race shoes and added air scoops on backing.
Ford 11” Bendix self-adjusting rear drum brakes with road/race linings.
Wilwood adjustable pedal box running Wilwood front and rear master cylinders.
Remote brake servo installed onto front brakes only, running a vacuum hold tank.
Brake proportioning valve and residual valves fitted. Braided flexy lines installed, front and rear.
Hard brake lines are Kniefer with a stainless outer spiral sleeving fitted through out.
Engine
296 cubic inch Ford ‘Flathead’ V8.
Ex-military block. Fully ported and polished. Heavy duty main caps. Engine block converted for oil filter system.
New Scat 4 ¼ inch stroke forged crank shaft.
Scat H-beam rods with 2.0 inch bearing size for modern rod bearings.
Ross Racing 3 5/16” forged pistons with Molly rings.
Custom Cam shaft with adjustable lifters, Isky racing springs correctly weighted, 1.6 Manley stainless intake and exhaust valves, 1 piece valve guides.
Mellings oil pump with baffled oil pan.
Edelbrock 75cc finned ally heads. Cosmetic head gaskets installed. ARP head bolts and complete stainless bolt set.
Twin Facet Red Top electric fuel pumps. Twin Malpassi Competition fuel filter/regulators.
Sytec large metal pre-filter element fuel filter. Sytec anti drain back valves.
Cohline 2240 100% ethanol fuel lines fitted.
Electrical system
Complete new custom-made wiring loom fitted with reset trip-able fuses and heavy-duty relays converted to 12 volts.
120 amp alternator. Varley Red Top Racing gel pack battery. 12-volt power sockets installed under hood, inside car and also fitted in boot. Master cut-off key connected onto neg side of battery.
16” high CFM electric fan running with twin auto fan controllers set at different operating temps, also with a fan override switch and a river crossing switch.
New Classic instruments – fully electric gauge cluster.
O2 Lambda sensor and gauge fitted for AFR ratios. On-the-fly switchable fuel and ignition systems.
New electric wiper motor fitted with wash wipes.
Nav systems (GPS and wheel speed sensors) doubled up.
Ignition coils doubled up.
Body and Roll-Cage
Full restoration of body shell.
Original front sheet metal work. Custom-made hood with louvres and side panels. Custom-made floor with drop down boot area and removable trans cover panels enabling transmission removal from the inside if required.
Custom-made seat framework with lockable under-seat drawers.
Custom-made fuel tank framework with removable ally bulk heads and panel work.
Front and rear fenders reworked for higher tyre clearance and to place tyres in the centre of the fender openings.
The 2011 auction of Lee Roy Hartung’s collection included a number of items that attracted a good deal of attention, like the four matching sets of Tucker manufacturer license plates, a rare Edwards roadster and a bizarre Spohn-bodied 1950 Veritas. The sheer size of the collection, however, meant that plenty of curiosities went under the radar, including a unique 1937 Lincoln Zephyr modified with twin grilles that will cross the block again next month with a pre-auction estimate as high as four to five times what it previously sold for.
If the highly acclaimed first-generation Lincoln Zephyr had a weak point, it was the V-12 engine that went under its hood. Sharing many design elements with the Ford flathead V-8, the 75-degree H-series V-12 had a narrow design that kept its displacement down and its water passages small as well as the flathead’s exhaust passages that ran through the block and water jackets, which often led to overheating. Illinois-based inventor Willard L. Morrison couldn’t do much about the engine design, but he nevertheless believed he could improve the Zephyr’s cooling by adding a second grille to the car’s front end.
Morrison claimed in his design patent for the twin-grille Lincoln (D111840) that the modification helped to streamline the car, aided driver visibility, and gave the car a more powerful appearance, but given his background in air-conditioning systems and in designing accessory Winterfront grilles, it’s plain to see his primary intent behind adding the second grille was to add cooling capacity. Indeed, behind the grilles he mounted a split radiator and overflow tank setup designed to take advantage of the additional forward ventilation.
(We’ll note here that a second grille is not an unprecedented modification, but to the best of our knowledge, it had only been implemented when adding a second parallel drivetrain, as was the case with the Konings-modified Ford Model AAs that Netherlands-based Smeets ordered. Morrison likely was not aware of the Konings twin-grille AAs when he built his twin-grille Zephyr.)
Morrison took out another couple of patents on the idea: one for a twin-grille Packard and another that explicitly states the twin-grille design was for admitting more air to the radiator. He also had an idea car built a few years prior out of a 1933 Ford to test out some of his other patents, but the Zephyr appears to be just one of two twin-grille cars he built (another, based on a 1940 Ford convertible and built for a friend’s daughter, appeared to have headlamps mounted at the top of each grille). It was rather well-finished, too, with custom trim that extended back along either side of the twin-grille unit, “Custom Twin” hubcaps, a “Custom Twin” filler panel between the grilles, and a single hood for both grilles.
The world of vintage American cars is full of rare, unique and highly sought-after vehicles. Over the years, many classic American cars have become valuable collectibles and investments, fetching millions of dollars at auctions around the world. Here are 10 of the most valuable vintage American cars of all time:
These cars are not just valuable for their rarity, but also for their historical significance, design and performance. They represent the best of American automotive engineering and have become icons of American culture.
Really interesting early racer that sold at Bonham’s Quail auction in 2022 for US$50,400 inc. premium
1925 Ford ‘Rajo Special’ Single Seater Engine no. 1704776
149ci OHV Inline 4-Cyilnder Engine 2 Winfield Model SR Carburetors Est 50bhp at 3,000rpm 3-Speed Manual Transmission Leaf Spring Suspension Rear Mechanical Drum Brakes
*Offered from the Austin Automobile Collection *Exciting and thrilling early American racecar *Desirable overhead-valve conversion and double Winfield carburetors *Striking and period-appropriate livery
EARLY AMERICAN RACERS
The line dividing early race cars from their road-going relatives was often a blurry one. Grand Prix racers were frequently little more than high-end production sports cars shorn of their headlights, while club-level machines were almost without exception based upon typical day-to-day cars. None was more typical than the Model T, and no single model was better catered-to by a burgeoning speed industry than the little Flivver.
Cut-down roadsters and runabouts were the order of the day, though the most serious of amateur and mid-level professional American racers would often go so far as to fabricate entirely new single-seat bodies to fit atop modified chassis. Underneath their customized bodies, early homebrewed race cars employed a variety of ingenious tuning techniques, among the most impressive of which were overhead valve conversions, often with crossflow heads, big, tuned manifolds, and doubled-up carburation.
THE MOTORCAR OFFERED
This 1925 Rajo-Ford Special, to use its full, proper name, employs all these tricks in the pursuit of speed. Sitting improbably low over period Houk quick-release wire wheels, the car’s narrow bodywork conforms closely to its most critical components; namely the driver and the Rajo OHV crossflow cylinder head-equipped engine at their command.
Quite exotic and rare pieces of historic speed equipment in any form, Rajo OHV conversions were known to nearly double factory Ford Model T horsepower figures (to just shy of 40). The example fitted here is particularly special for its crossflow configuration, in which intake and exhaust valves are situated perpendicular to the axis of the crankshaft, allowing for drastically improved engine breathing, and netting equally enhanced throttle response, higher revving, and greater power output.
Dual Winfield race carbs ride like jewelry atop an impressively vertical intake manifold and help lead the driver’s eye toward a period moto-meter radiator temp gauge. Inside the slender, cigar-shaped bodywork and mounted to a wooden dashboard are a rare era-correct Motorola mechanical tachometer and controls for an aviation magneto, while gear changing is now achieved through a lever sprouting up between the driver’s legs.
Lever-action shock absorbers have been added to assist standard Ford transverse leaf springs front and rear, and should bring tangible improvements to the car’s ride and road holding. Viewed at any angle, the Rajo-Ford Special exudes lean athleticism and fitness for purpose, from narrow nose to bobbed boattail, possessing an elegance of line and engineering equal to the finest purebred sports machines of the time.
Perhaps more than any other vehicle, the Ford Model T’s ubiquity and versatility meant that its owners put it to a wide variety of uses. For collectors, that means it’s still entirely possible to either restore one to the exact same specifications as a million other restored Model Ts out there or, alternatively, to find some historically accurate way to stand out from those million other restored Model Ts.
The seller of this 1914 Ford Model T listed on Hemmings.com chose the latter by re-creating one of the first motorized ambulances employed by the hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. We’re sure there’s a story behind that very specific decision, and we can also appreciate the research that went into the ambulances and the effort that went into applying that research to a Model T that, based on the photos alone, would likely do well in points judging at an MTFCA gathering. From the seller’s description:
This 1914 Model T-Touring was built as a historically accurate replica of the two ambulances used by Yale New Haven Hospital in 1914. It has the original 1914 frame, period-correct headlights, cowl lights, tail lights and running boards. The fenders are from a 1915 T. The car was painted around 2016 and shows in great condition. Since restoration, it has always been kept in climate controlled storage. Under the hood is the later 2.9L inline 4-cylinder engine equipped with a 6 volt generator and electric starter. Making roughly 20HP this is a great touring car and runs like a sewing machine.
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