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57 posts

Better than a moose head on the wall: Classic Car shelves

Filed under: Gadgets, Time Warp, Etc., Toys


Now you don't have to leave the lovely visage of your favorite ponycar languishing in the dark of the garage anymore. California Car Cover Company is offering shelves that pay homage to Shoebox Chevies, '59 Caddies, C3 Corvettes and '65 Mustangs, so you now have a boomeriffic place to stash various and sundry little bits that would otherwise clutter a more pedestrian shelf. Prices range from $19.99 to $79.99, far less than even a set of sparkplugs for the old clunker that's spent the last decade and a half leaking on your driveway, and we bet that it'll take less time to mount one of these to the wall than it will to get that old Quadrabog rebuilt and tuned.

[Source: CalCarCover]



Dubious pioneer: Russia's first stolen Maybach

Filed under: Etc., Safety, Maybach, Lifestyle




Picture this, you're stuffing your face full of gourmet food, giving your gullet a real workout, and you look up from your plate just in time to see your Maybach speed by. That last bite sticks in your throat, refusing to budge. Whoever absconded with your über-uglified super S-Class boots your driver out the door while rounding a corner. Now would not be a good time to recall that your €530,000 car is insured for a mere €300,000. Whoops. Vikotor Markov was enjoying a meal at the De Marco café when thieves swiped his Maybach 57. While introducing Mr. Chauffeur to Mr. Chlorfoorm is itself a dicey undertaking, Markov's 'Bach is the first to be swiped in Russia. The band of thugs that ambushed the driver and made off with the car is believed to be responsible for multiple luxury car thefts, including a passel of Bentleys. Perhaps it would have been wiser to just take the Metro.

[Source: Luxist]

Brabus builds its own Exelero, hits 205 mph at Nardo

Filed under: Aftermarket, Sedans/Saloons, Maybach, MINI, Brabus


Click on the images to view in high-speed and high-resolution

Remember the Maybach Exelero? The ultra-premium marque from Merceceds-Benz built it almost two years ago as a high-speed test vehicle based on its Maybach 57 luxury sedan, but unfortunately never offered production versions to the public. To the rescue comes Brabus, those whacky German tuners who give the go-fast treatment to everything produced by the three-pointed star, from the Smart ForTwo all the way up to this 730-hp limousine.

Like the Exelero, Brabus' monster is based on the Maybach 57 and was built in order to achieve the highest speeds attainable. To get there, Brabus tuned the Maybach's twin-turbo V12 to the same standard as the CLS-based Brabus Rocket speed record car: that means boosting power from 550 hp to 730, thanks to an increase in displacement from 5.5 liters to 6.3, coupled with a new crankshaft, pistons, cylinder heads... the works. The turbos were beefed up, and along with the intercoolers, a custom exhaust was installed and the ECU was reprogrammed.

The result is a top speed of 330.2 km/h (205.2 mph in American speak) achieved at the same Nardo test track in Italy where the Exelero was put through its places. A far cry from the 218.4 mph achieved by the Exelero, but not to shabby in its own right. And here you thought the S versions of the Maybach 57 and 62 were obscene enough....

Check out the images in the gallery below, and the press release after the jump.

[Source: Brabus]

Rusty car sells for over $850k

Filed under: Time Warp, Auction Action, Supercars, Bugatti


Click image for photo gallery of the Bugatti in Greenwich

Don't go quoting us on this, but this has got to be one of the most expensive barn finds we've ever seen. Christie's sold this 1938 Bugatti for a staggering $852,500 at the Greenwich Concours d'Elegance earlier this summer, more than twice the highest pre-sale estimate and close to the price of a new Bugatti.

The car was admitted to the Pebble Beach preservation class, and when its new owner gets it up to spec, it'll undoubtedly be the beauty it once was. The 1938 Type 57C you see here is actually a bit of an amalgamation of two Bugattis that were both owned by the same pre-war collector. The chassis itself belonged to a Type 57 Stelvio cabriolet with bodywork by Gangloff, a coachbuilder based in Colmar near the Bugatti factory in Molsheim in the French region of Alsace. In time for display at the French pavilion at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, the body was switched for that of the Type 57C Atalante (not to be confused with the more rare and iconic Atlantic).

Now of course there's value in classics, but as far as vintage motorcarriages go, this one's in pretty bad shape. Having sat in storage since 1962, the paint is chipped and faded, the chrome is rusty, the tires are history, the engine's grimy and the leather is worn out. A handyman's dream, let's call it. An $850k handyman's dream.

[Source: AutoWeek, Photos: Alex Nunez]

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