Wow, even back then a Lotus Europa's natural habitat was stalled out on a trailer:
Wow, even back then a Lotus Europa's natural habitat was stalled out on a trailer:
In reply to Indy - Guy :
I saw the picture before I read your comment. Before I saw what you wrote, my thought was *exactly* the same!
A lot to unpack here. Especially that some of these cars would cost about the same today, and others would be way more.
Also amazing the see how many French cars used to be sold in the states. Not a ton, but obviously more than today.
In reply to Indy - Guy :
I would bet they were even more apt to be "Free Range Europas" back then. While there were more British Car Specialists back in the 80's, I have gotten the impression keeping a car like that running is a lot easier today in the internet age than it was then. This is going by comments from my local Triumph club members - many of whom have owned their cars since those times.
I used to hang with the Lotus Club of Eastern Ontario in the mid 90s, pre-Elise. The joke at the time was that nobody had any functional cars. The president had a JPS Europa that hadn't been on the road in 5 years.
They made fun of my soulless Japanese copy, I'd offer to carry spare parts, we all had a good time.
I've been on the lookout for the last couple of years and have been saving the photos of copies I came across, so here's a few of those.
First, several from the early 2000's:
Jumping to 2008...
...remember back when there were Mitsu Eclipses all over the place?
And Supras would be sprinkled around the Camrys, just a regular (albeit even expensive back then) used car...
Here's one from 1984 with a Lotus that isn't trailered,
but the whole affair needs to end for the owner!
The big thick Old Car Books pop up with more frequency than the regular regional Auto Traders,
here's an early one from 1988:
404 area code, dang it was in my local!
Values for Grand Nationals are crazy to the moon, and it seems so many of them were mothballed never driven with low mileage, here's one with under 4,000 miles and all you gotta do is take over the payments.
Several full pages from that edition:
Wow, what a selection! Thanks for sharing.
I'm going to call on that 'Cuda. You never know LOL.
Working night shift and a gas station gave us free soft drinks and coffee so we would stop in. I found my 911 in there in 2000.
Such god memories.
Thanks for all these pictures!
I had a few of those old books from the 80s. Need to see if they are still around.
Several cars I had never seen before. Now after seeing it for the first time I have a strange list for a 1979 AMC AMX.
Here it was the Want Ad Digest that we would daydream through for everything from cars to backhoes. Thanks for posting
DrBoost said:I'm going to call on that 'Cuda. You never know LOL.
Joe Dirt bought it and he ain't gonna sell!
:
Recently pulled out a 1979 copy of R&T to re-visit the story with the Healey Fiesta...
...and of course scanned the classifieds, some neat stuff as expected:
Collector cars like this can be easily found online today, like for example CSX2461 sold at auction in 2010 by Russo & Steele for $649,000.
But it looks like CSX2325 has been being used as intended and has much better pictures!
A big list from Thorobred Motorcars:
Since the Ferraris like the Cobras are so valuable they are very well documented too and with a little sleuthing you can find out a bit more of the individual car, for example here's 0319AL ~
http://www.barchetta.cc/english/all.ferraris/detail/0319al.375ameria.htm
:
Yet more fun with R&T - I really enjoyed this guys blogpost all about responding to an ad in the back pages.
Short excerpt:
"In October of 1978, I was 24 years old, living at home with my parents, and was all of two months into my job as an apprentice mechanic at Autosport, a Volvo/Honda/Alfa Romeo dealership in Somerville, NJ. I had become fast friends with a parts counterperson named Don Krech, whom I met when I started working there in August. Don and I were the same age, and shared similar interests in cars and music.
One day that month, the November issue of Road & Track magazine, to which I subscribed, arrived in the mail. I noticed an ad in MARKET PLACE, their classified ad section.
I brought the magazine to work and showed it to Don. The ad had neither a phone number nor street address (only a PO Box), yet we almost immediately decided to make the 8-hour one-way drive together, on the presumption that we would figure it out when we got there. Our plan was to depart late that Friday in order to arrive in Moscow VT early on Saturday morning."
To me it's all irrelevant. I bought these auto traders at every opportunity in that period. I was a student then. I couldn't afford the muscle cars then either. $2400 - $240,000 - $2.4 million. It's all just an arbitrary number if you don't have the scratch. :-)
A 401 CJ said:To me it's all irrelevant. I bought these auto traders at every opportunity in that period. I was a student then. I couldn't afford the muscle cars then either. $2400 - $240,000 - $2.4 million. It's all just an arbitrary number if you don't have the scratch. :-)
I can totally relate and agree in large part --- though it is somewhat painful for me to see stuff that was longtime undervalued now shoot up stratospherically. I kick myself for missing out on an old Alfa GTV back when they were actually within easy reach, I had more than several opportunities where I actually had the money in hand but declined to buy for one reason or another.
I love this post. When I was kid we didn't have auto traders where I lived. Every summer we would go to Clearwater Florida to see my grandmother. The first thing I would beg to do was go to the store and get the auto trader. I would buy every different one; auto, truck, boats, even air planes. I'd pour over every page. My kid does this now with the truck paper and auction time. Any time we take a trip he wants to stop at the truck stops so we can see if they have them.
1977 classified. These were lining shelves when I move to my place a couple of years ago. A nice treat to find
Oh wow!
That's an awesome classified page, so many Porsche and a high concentration of Rolls Royce, but I'd have to be ringin' up 668-9943 for details on the R-10 with bad gearbox, might could get it for $175?
'67 R-10 build thread by MarshHoltRacing:
.
Also,
was reminded of Torch Man and Salad Woman from an old Chevy filmstrip:
The narrator cracks me up in the beginning as he angrily counts the foreign cars,
getting angrier and angrier sounding with each number
1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10 !!!!!
LOL
When I was 16, all I knew was I had $1200 and a copy of the Bargain Mart and circled every car under $1500.
Asked my dad if I could go test drive a "Deuce and a Half" for $1200. He just laughed and said no. I didn't get it.
GoodGoddamighty & HolyfugginHell!
I thought the Magnus 900 was a fluke due to celebrity bump, but this incredible specimen edged even higher with 2k more to end at a hammer price of $57,000.
https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-saab-900-spg-7/
Wow.
Jawdropping.
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