what is the rarest car you have come across

I own a 54 Swallow Doretti Roadster, about 280 total were built. I once came across a 1960 Triumph TRS, one of four built for LeMans with a special twin cam engine. It was found in a field in Yreka, Ca. and was bought by the owner of one of the big Triumph parts companies. He already owned one of the other so he ended up with 50% of the total number.

Cheers,
Kurt o.

 

Superior Coach says my 1963 Pontiac Bonneville Consort combination car (ambulance/hearse) is one of only 123 they built in that model year.

 

I met the guy who has this 1923 Jewett at a small show last fall, then got to see his amazing shop, with the blacksmith forge and whatnot.

 

a guy I know has this 1935 Lincoln model K in his barn now,



he said it was a one of 11 or 13 or something like that, pretty slick looking car !

 

There have beenn a couple references to Velie automobiles. If I remember correctly they were built by John Deere..Anyone ever see a Case or JD truck??????

 

Isoto Fraschini Racer 190 something....





1956 Ferrari 250 GT Boano Cabriolet
One of errr....Ummmm.... One!

 

When we were kids on the farm we destroyed a perfectly good 49 Packard convertable. I think less than 500 were made. Also a friend and I had an original 66 Hemi Belvedere II (sans the Hemi) also 500 made. I have a friend here in Texas with an original Joe Batton (sp?) Mercury. I have seen more one offs than I can remember, cars like Curtis Turners 56 Ford race car ect.

 

I had a real Rarity..a 1923 Palladium,made in Putney ( london England) it was the first car manufacturer to build a light car with four wheel brakes.It also had four speed gear box,Vee windsheild,all alloy body .There are 3 ( three) left.
The first pics showed the new body I built exactly the same as ther original.( which had been cut into a truck at some time.)
The bottom pic is my car when it was new , in England,outside Yorkminster Cathedral in 1923.That's an Australian Flag draped over the car on the back.
Palladium cars had a picture of helen of Troy on the radiator.According to mythology,Helen of Troy was the owner of the known quantities of palladium and as such was a target for others trying to obtain the stuff.hence the siege of Troy and the Trojan Horse.So palladium was a preciuos metal and the cars were as precious...1920's marketing for you!

 

A 1913 White. We actually painted everything except the main body tub for it. All the fenders, hood, running boards, etc...very cool car and belongs to a cool family as well. It was invited to the Amelia Island Concourse D'Elegance after we finished it.

 

we have had a few rare ones
i own a 1958 turner which is a british sports car. 1 0f 21 only 4 left
my dad has a 42 lincoln continental cabrolet. 1 0f 136 at it was purchased by phil wrigley (still has the chicag cubs press pass sticker in the window)
the coolest car was a factor alter wheel base aluminum fendered hood bumpers doors and decklid 426 hemi car
my uncle found it in a cave in kansas
also a mercer speedster that was owned buy a guy we did model a work for
tk

 

Not exactly, Willard Velie,the founder of the company was John Deeres Grandson,and he did work along side the Deere Family. An old Aunt of mine in New Zealand had one for decades.A 1926 model .

 

theres a real big following in the UK for Turners.
http://www.turnersportscars.co.uk/

 

Great thread.

Here are some of the cars i've found/bought in the past 25 years.

36 three window - sat in a garage since 1964 - now its in my garage.
32 three window,built in early 50's,flathead,3 deuces,39 trans,columbia rear,green with black & white interior - still trying to get it.
34 cabriolet - still trying to get it.
69 Judge Ram Air III, 4 speed,3.55 posi,Carousel red.
67 GTO 400 HO,4 speed,3.90 posi,RARE plum mist exterior,parchment interior
65 GTO 389 tri power,4 speed,3.90 posi,Tach & gauges,wood wheel,console.
71 GTO 455 HO, 4 speed
61 Ventura "bubble top" Super duty 389,4 speed,3.90 posi,Factory black exterior with tri tone blue interior !
71 Plymouth Road Runner 426 Hemi, Torque flight automatic - Factory Sox & Martin ex drag car !
70 Plymouth Superbird,440 4 barrel, Automatic,8 3/4 rear. White with black interior.

 

Never heard of that one, unless you are referring to Stanguellini. Here's a link to one someone put on ebay recently.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...STRK:MEWA:IT&viewitem=&item=170133617286&rd=1

PS: Back to the rare car thing, I forgot about the S&S Hearse. It's one of six known out of around 130 made.

 

Almost forgot.

I know a strange guy in my area that has a back yard FULL of 50's & 60's corvettes including but not limited to:
53, 56, 59,63,64,65,67,69 !

plus some rare Italian race car that ran Lemans back in the early 60's.

 

to glass cars from the 1960's
ELVA and DEVIN
still have them

 

ya i contacted them and recieved alot of info on the car
i bought it from a hamber in texas
it was raced at laguna seca and sears point back in the day
now its being transformed to street duty but with all the racing stuff still on it
1140lbs 175 hp at the wheels...... and a wife with a lead foot
tk

 

Stuff I've found:

1942 Hudson Traveller coupe. Not sure the production (my book has no breakdown for body styles), but I bought it and brought it home.

1960 Chrysler New Yorker wagon - 1300 or so made, supposedly 12 known to exist, I found two.
1958 DeSoto Firedome convertible - 505 built, bought it, sold it to a man from Sweden.
1958 Dodge Coronet convertible - not sure how many made (here again no body style breakdowns), but it was a Spring Special with some oddball trim parts. Owned it about 2 weeks.
1953 Buick Skylark. Yup, the fancy one they sold 1600 of. Wrecked, upside down, front frame torched off, buyer is working on finding a way to get it transported to the west coast that way so it can go to Australia.
'53 Willys Aero - a 2dr hardtop - every other one I see for sale is a post sedan. They didn't make a lot of them, either.
'40 Buick Roadmaster coupe - one of 3600 made. Not super rare, but after 67 years they don't grow on trees.
1950 Ford Woodie wagon. Again not rare compared to stuff they made 5 of, but the only one I've ever seen. Paid $300 for it and sold it for $1500.


Friend has a '26 Chrysler truck, a "dealer service car" - someone had one at Carslile and thought he had the only one in existance. Apparently there's two. He also has a nice original '24 Stude roadster; a '40 Buick Special convertible; and just got a '42 Stude Commander sedan. That last one's not that rare, but it is a '42. He also has a '29 Essex roadster put away. An early VW kit car, I forget the name of the body but some of the features on it seem to indicate it's a super-early one - maybe a prototype. He even picked up a couple of one-cylinder 1919 Harley basket cases to build a bike from. And of course we just dragged a '34 Ford cabriolet out of an old farm dump. He usually manages to find the really good stuff.

He's also trying to get a decent '61 Chrysler NY'er wagon. They made even fewer wagons that year, 900 I think.

We looked at a '35 Graham 2dr this spring, but no one had any spare cash to save it and it went to scrap. It was bad, frame was shot, but there was enough of a body a guy could have built a rod with it. Only one I've ever seen.

I was in a guy's collection the other day and saw a '46 Diamond T pickup, and a '61 DeSoto 2dr hardtop. He has a lot of rare stuff, but he's one of those guys who's keeping it around for someday. Trouble is he has enough cars he could restore one a week for the next 30 years and still have cars left. Someone was telling the other day I guess he had a Superbird and let it rot into the mud until it was so bad about all you could do was find a Roadrunner and graft the Superbird stuff onto it.

One yard I used to go to regular once had a '47? Chrysler Town & Country woodie convertible on it's side behind the garage. There's been a '57 Hudson 2dr hardtop up there for a long time, too - like 325 made.

My dad had a '70 Gran Prix, which is pretty uncommon now as it is - but his was one of the 327 cars made with a manual trans. Wish he hadn't sold it. It was a lot of fun to drive. Like a 3.55 posi rear and just the 400 4bbl, but 100 was no problem with it at all.

The problem with rare stuff is sometimes, the guys who want those rare cars and are willing to pay for them, are more rare than the cars themselves.

 

fiat 128 i was translating my brothers words on a car he recently restored for a client . he didnt know what he was working on its aluminium body .single seater and runs a fiat 128 motor and won le mans in its class in 196o something.

 

When I was a kid in SoCal the neighbor completely rebuilt a 28 Boatail Auborne in his garage, I was always there. Then when i was in my teens a friend of my dads drove up in a 57 Fossil-Vega very rare even then. When I was seventeen my cousin took me down Hwy 101 in his 27 Ford Woody. Yes I am an old guy from the day and I've been hooked on old cars ever since those days. Rags

 

rags enjoying youre post can you dig up some photos of these cars dave

 

Here's a pretty rare one.

A friend of mine bought this 1963 Pontiac factory-built super stocker in '64, just after GM pulled out of racing. The NHRA required at least 50 to be built to qualify as a "real" car for SS racing but the GM racing ban came while the limited run of these very special cars was going on, so all 50 were never built. Perhaps about half that number were finished and delivered to factory-picked racers. My pal bought this one from the fellow who got it directly from GM (can't recall his name - but not a nationally-known racer).

Anyway, the car had aluminum fenders, hood, trunklid, and bumpers. Frame was "swiss-cheesed" with lightening holes. Side windows were plexiglass. It came with a 405 HP 389 with three deuces. Tranny was a manual three speed (Just to allow driving it around. It was assumed either a manual 4-speed or B&M style stick-hydro would be installed by the owner).

Unfortunately, since the car wasn't accepted by the NHRA as a "stocker", my buddy was forced to race it in B/Gas (or maybe B/Altered, I can't recall). In any case, it was far from competitive there and never had a prayer of winning a race. He put in a B&M, but never got it to work right, and ended up parking the thing.

This was a huge car and at the time was little more than a headache to have around. He kept it until the early/mid seventies, then sold it for somewhere around $3K. Last I saw, they were selling at auction for nearly 100 times that price (!).

 

I bought a 39 Chevy from a guy that had a 36 Talbot roadster sitting in his garage. I wish that I could have got some photos of it. I think that it could have been bought cheap at the time. I stopped in years later to see if he still had it but he had sold it.

 

I ran accross a 1928? U Car. I think the guy said they later changed the company name to Plymouth.

 

God I love those things

 

I had a friend into rare mopars. He had a bunch of musclecars mostly. The only couple that would be HAMB friendly would probably be the

1962 Dodge 330 Wagon with a 343hp dual 4 brl 383.

1963 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertable with a Stage 1 Max wedge and pushputton auto!

He had a fuel injected chrysler from the late 50's, but it had been converted to two 4 brls. It still had some of the fuelie stuff though. Apparently they didn't work right. It was a 58 or 59 I think.

He also had a 1959 Dodge D500-1 that I reallllllly wanted. Its supposed to be pretty rare. Black with a red interior. It was mean looking.

He had a lot of 1 of 1 stuff.

 

When I was working in a panel shop last year I did week end work at an 'exclusive' restoration shop. There were some common cars, three Aston Martin DB's, a DB3 and a DB2, Bugatti Type52, some early Australian race cars (Home grown one off's) and one and only early Formula one car built by the great man Sir Jack Brabham himself. The only car to ever win the Grand Prix Championship driven by the guy that also designed and built it, twice!
There are pics on the net, if I find them I'll post some.

 

I used to do alot of trading with a local salvage yard and had my eye on a particular car that I wanted..one of the cars I traded was a 54 Chrysler New Yorker Town and Country stationwagon that was wrecked in the front..Later Cars and Parts magazine did one of their traveling articles on junkyard finds, they were at that salvage yard and pointed out my old wagon as being particuarly rare, I knew it was, but wanted the straight running 63 ChevyII convertable more..I'm trying to talk a guy out of his Buick Skylark convertable right now...I drive a 59 Edsel Ranger 2DHT E400 with AC....

 

my friends 28 franklin with a air cooled six

 

A restorer I know recently sold a '25ish Gray coupe. Supposedly the last Gray coupe in existance. Probably weren't more than a couple hundred built in the first place.

My personal rare car is parts of a '32 Ford roadster pickup, with production somewhere around 500.