Saturday 27 March 2010

Joseph Stalins Parade Car For Sale in Finland


Ex-dictator Joseph Stalins Zil 110 Parade car has recently appeared for sale in Finland on JamesList.

It is claimed that Stalin was given a Packard Super Eight by Franklin D Rossevelt during the war, the car impressed him so much that Zil were instructed to manufacture their own version, being the 110. This particular model served as his parade car from 1950 until his death in '53. Having covered only 792 miles the car was meticulously restored to its original specifications in 2001.

Friday 19 March 2010

Ferdinand ‘Ferry’ Porsche’s prototype 3.0 Carrera comes up for sale

Unlike the ‘spurious’ origins of the 3.0 RSR for sale of James Hunt provenance, which made headlines here and elsewhere, an opportunity to acquire a Porsche with unquestionable intrigue and history in concourse condition, is a rare thing indeed - even for the seasoned ‘car stalker’ at Jelenek.

Available at Jan Luehn, this 3.0 Carrera in dark metallic green may look like a standard, albeit impeccable, 1976 production 911, but it is something of an anomaly - an insider’s glimpse at what became the 3.0 Carrera and the 911 SC.

Ferdinand ‘Ferry’ Porsche, son of Porsche’s founder and father of Ferdinand ‘Butzi’ Porsche (who penned the now legendary curves of the first 911) was given this car as a taster of a new generation of normally-aspirated 911s that would exceed the 3 litre barrier by the Weissach factory on his 65th birthday in 1974. Having recently stepped-down from the board to take an Honorary Chairmanship of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche KG, Stuttgart, Ferry used this prototype which took its engine, not from the production 911 ‘G Series’ 2.7 litre engine of the day, but from the race-ready Carrera 3.0 RSR, some two years before the general launch of a production 3.0 Carrera – a model which shared its boxer block with the 930 turbo, launched in 1975.


This unique car is said to have many other ‘pre-production and race parts’ but is hardy enough to have been used by Ferry as his daily driver for nearly two years. As a ‘one-off’ and one of only a handful of cars available as being owned by the Porsche family, its successor Ferry’s proto’ 911 (930) Turbo (in the same colour combination) resides on display at the new Porsche Museum at Stuttgart. A talking-point 911 available at €175,000 (around the same price as a 997 ‘Sport Classic’) – this is air-cooled heritage without the cod-retro.

Friday 5 March 2010

Porsche 918 Spyder Hybrid


At this weeks Geneva motor show Porsche demonstrated its commitment to hybrid technology with the 918 Spyder concept, a car that boasts an outlandish spec. The two-seater uses a plug-in hybrid system comprised of two electric motors coupled to a 3.4-liter V-8 racing engine. As a parallel hybrid, the car can run on pure electricity, petrol, or a combination of the two.

Wednesday 3 March 2010

Barn Find Maserati Khamsim


Called in to assess the estate of a wealthy business man in Suffolk, Lacy Scott and Knights valuer was asked on leaving whether he would mind having a quick look at the old cars in the barn. The contents including a virtually unused Silver Maserati Quattroporte III, a De Tomaso Longchamp and a brace of Bentleys go under the hammer on March 13th