Classics By The Beach – May 2015

It’s the first Sunday in May and that means Classics By The Beach. For me, it was a significant Classics, too, because it’ll most likely be my last Classics I’ll visit for some time. Circumstances are changing and it’ll involve a move away from Hobart. More on that in another post, later on.

For now, though, I’ve got some cars for you to look at.

It’s not often a Ferrari Dino gets outshone at Classics, but I think we can say it happened today. The car of the month for May 2015 is one of the red ones across the way. It’s very, very rare and makes for a great story.

The car off to the left is an AC Ace. Don’t feel bad if you’re not familiar with them. I wasn’t either.

You’re probably familiar with the AC Cobra, however.

The big V8 engined Cobra was conceived by Carroll Shelby and an original AC Cobra is still the stuff of automotive dreams for many. Replicas are everywhere. Actually, I’d love to know how many replicas exist for each of the 998 original Cobras built in the 1960’s.

The AC Ace is the basis upon which the Cobra was built. Early Aces are particularly valuable as they may be eligible for entry into the Mille Miglia. This one was built a few years too late for Mille eligibility, but is still a very valuable item. It has a 2 litre, 6 cylinder Bristol engine that produces 120hp to push around its alloy body and tubular chassis.

The new owner has apparently been searching for one of these for nearly 15 years. And as sometimes happens in these vehicular missions, he ended up finding the car quite close to home. The long-term owner was the original AC importer for South Africa. He bought the car to Tasmania when he moved here 30 years ago.

This owner passed away some time ago and the car has been sitting under a cover in the family home ever since. The new owner only secured his prize recently and had it at Classics today for the first time.

Original AC Cobras routinely sell at auction for more than $1.5 million. One recently sold for $5.5 million!

The AC Ace doesn’t fetch as much as it’s more famous descendant, but it’s no slouch, either. A 1958 model sold by RM Auctions last year fetched $341,000.

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Lotus Esprit in silver – I love the angles on these early Esprits. There’s almost no change in angle from where the bonnet of the car meets the windscreen.

I’m also a big fan of two-spoke steering wheels.

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I hadn’t seen this Porsche 356 before but (to my untrained eye) it appeared to be finished to a very high standard indeed. A beautiful car.

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There was a good selection of Jaguar E-Types present today. This little group made for a nice little Italian tri-color effect.

Given the bonnets were open, it would have been rude to not take a closer look 🙂

Turns out we had both a six cylinder and a twelve cylinder on display. Excellent!

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The E30 BMW 318i below belongs to a friend of mine. He bought it at a bargain price as a project for he and his son to work on. It’ll be his son’s first car when he passes his licence.

They’ve done a stellar job of recommissioning the car, sourcing all the parts either locally or online and doing all the work at home. It’s got a new camshaft, new wheels, suspension and stereo system (and probably much more that I don’t know about).

I had the pleasure of driving the little Bimmer a week ago and it was fantastic fun. It was much more perky than I expected. The lads should be proud.

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This ‘stepnose’ Alfa Romeo Giulia GT is a Targa competitor. It was good to see it again, this time in daylight. It was a shame there weren’t more Targa cars present, actually. This Alfa and a Ferrari 360 (I think) were the only ones present.

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The rest of the photographed fleet from today includes a certain Porsche 928S that was sold later in the day. It’ll stay in my drive for just two more nights before heading about 15kms down the road.