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1947 MG-TC

There's unlikely to be any place on earth as good for seeing classic cars as in the parking lots of the various supermarkets in Malibu. I pulled into the Vons lot the other night and saw this 1947 MG-TC parked a little distance away from the other cars. When I went over to get a few photos, the owner walked up and told me that he's had the car for awhile, but that it was the latest in a line of TCs he's owned. Apparently the last one was totaled in the parking lot of another local supermarket. Nice guy, very much into these classics. 

The license plate doesn't leave a lot of mystery as to the make, model, and vintage of this car:

One of the nice things about Malibu is that people drive their classic cars. I used to regularly see a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing pulling out of the lot with bags of groceries filling up the passenger seat. 

Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster

I was driving through Brentwood heading toward PCH on San Vicente the other day when I saw a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster pulling into a driveway. I didn't get a closeup look at it but i did have just enough time to get the camera up and get one photo as I drove by. It appears to be in concourse condition...

I've got to think that there are probably very few other places in the country (if not the world) where you might see people driving cars such as these around on the street. I love Southern California!

Maserati 3500 GT

I first became aware of the Maserati 3500 GT during high school. I'd walk home after classes and would pass by a house inhabited by a Cal Poly student who happened to own a 3500 GT that was much the worse for wear - the blue paint was faded and heavily oxidized and the interior wasn't in particularly good shape. Despite this, I loved the lines of this car, as I did the other equally beat up car parked in front of in the driveway a Mercedes Benz 300SL (I later learned that the student was one of the Hearst sons). 

10 years later I was living in Los Angeles and was in need of a new car and noticed an ad in the Recycler (a predecessor to Craigslist) for a 1964 Maserati 3500 GT for sale. After speaking to the seller I headed over to a backyard in Van Nuys where I took a look at a semi-complete car. It was only missing a good portion of the engine, most of the gauges, and just about all of the stuff that in those pre-internet days were impossible to find without wielding a huge checkbook. Being a working musician that was out of the questions and, even for a mere $5K, I had to pass. The dream of owning one still lives on, but reality keeps intruding and the present-day cost of $75K+ just for one that's driveable (and $200K+ for a great car) has put this out of my reach, barring a winning lottery ticket or something. 

The car pictured here was driven to the recent Motor4Toys event in Woodland Hills. The owner drives it regularly and put a fair amount of work into its original restoration but says that the car is so reliable that the upkeep isn't too bad. the biggest problem is that the hubcaps fall off at speed, and given the replacement cost he's not inclined to drive with them on the car and potentially lose them. 

The car was nicely detailed and sounded great as it pulled into the lot.I'd love to drive one at some point, just to see if it lives up to what I think it'd be like. 

There's plenty of into available on these cars online, particularly a recent cover story in Hemmings Sports & Exotic Cars. There re individual websites devoted to specific cars, as well as a 3500 registry in the Netherlands and a fun piece on the car in Sports Car Market.

While you're at it you should check out Top Gear's drive of the 3500 GT: 

Cobra Convoy on PCH

Carroll Shelby is gone, but there are a lot of Shelby Cobras out on the road...

Looked in my rear view mirror, and what did I see? A coupla Shelby Cobras, comin' up on me...

Can't tell if they're originals, continuations, kit cars, or whatever. The kits these days are pretty good. The originals have become so valuable now that most have been restored better than new and they look as good as the tribute cars. An expert can probably tell the difference from a distance, but I'm no expert in this marque.

Never driven one, but hope to someday.

ZAZ-965 Zaporozhets spied in Los Angeles!!

I was never very good about following my parents' advice to not talk to strangers. Thus it was no surprise that I began chatting with a guy with a middle-European accent (IIRC he was from the Ukraine) at the Petersen Automotive Museum a few months ago. We got talking about cars and he mentioned that he'd recently found a Zaz somewhere in the former Soviet bloc and had brought it over to the USA. It turns out that he'd driven it to the Petersen and since I'd never actually seen one of these, he was kind enough to let me take a look at it and get some photos. 

These things are small! Production began in 1960 and it's got a four cylinder rear-mounted engine. It seats four people (it doesn't look as if it'd be particularly comfortable though) and it seems to have been a very popular car, with some 3,422,444 of them being produced before Zaz moved on to another model.

Note the suicide doors and the air intake vents on the rear panel of the car. It's not unlike Fiats of that era, only funkier!

This car was very clean, looking more maintained than restored. 

Not having seen one before it's difficult to tell if previous owners had done any modifications to the Zaz, but the tires are definitely original: 

The interior is pretty basic. Not much safety gear other than the seatbelts,but at least the fabric on the seats and on the rest of the interior matches.

The engine appears to have received a lot of attention. Nice and clean. I didn't hear it start up but it's probbly not the sort of rumble that sets off car alarms as it passes by.

The gas tank and spare tire are in the front of the car. 

I could find very little info (in English at least) about these cars, but the Wikipedia Zaz entry is a good place to start if you'd like to know more. This isn't exactly a supercar or anything, but it was fun having the chance to get a closeup look at one. I like that the owner was as proud of his new possession as if it were a Pagani Zonda - his family obviously wanted to go home but he took the time to show me this car that's unusual, even by Los Angeles standards. 

Lotus Eleven

Driving back home up PCH last Sunday I saw a bright yellow car way up ahead. It had a rather seductive silhouette compared to most cars out on the road so I tempted fate and the LA County Sheriff to thread my way through the tourist traffic to catch up with it.   

I got a little closer and the car began to look a lot like a Lotus Eleven. Sexy and lumpy in all the right places, there are very few cars that look like this. The only problem with this one is that all of the Lotus Elevens I've seen have been right hand drive, and this one had its steering wheel on the left side. I reckon it's a kit car, but it's Malibu and it's not all that unusual to see million+ dollar cars being driven out here for fun, so maybe it was a special order for the US or European market and it really is the real deal. It looked like the people riding in it were having a whole lot of fun (bugs in their teeth and on their goggles), and that's the point in having these cars. 

Lotus cars aren't overly common out here (other than the Elise, of course) and it was nice seeing this one (Caterhams do appear with some regularity). I ran across a website called the Colin Chapman Museum. It' appears to be a work in progress, but there's no lack of information online about the marque, old and new. 

MG-TF, MG-TC Parade on PCH

I was walking along PCH last week, minding my own business, when what should appear on the horizon but a flock of MGs! (does "five" constitute a flock?)  The parade was going past me as I was able to get the camera out of my pocket but I got a couple of shots - these are not the fastest cars in the world but they do move along). 

Above is a MG-TF from 195-1955, the last of the  midget series before the debut of the MGA. Behind it is what appears to be a MG-TC, built from 1945 until 1949, and the car that American sports car drivers first fell in love with (despite being available only in a right hand drive configuration).

 The MG-TC above was amid the parade and like the others, seemed to be in remarkable condition. Great to see these cars out and about. At one point in high school I had the opportunity to buy a MG-TD for $1200. It was right hand drive and probably wouldn't have been reliable or useful, but it would have been a lot more fun than my Chevy Malibu wagon. I spent a lot of hours poring over the Moss Motors catalog, deciding what I'd buy to repair the TD when I bought it. Never seemed to be able to get the money together for the car though. Maybe if I had, I would have learned my lesson early about how driving and/or restoring old sports cars often turns into a quagmire of good intentions vs. financial reality. 

Jaguar Mark IX, Vienna

While walking from my hotel to VieVinum at the Hofberg Palace, I saw this Jaguar Mark IX parked in the rain in Vienna yesterday. It looked good from a distance, but I'm a sucker for red paint jobs on non-Italian cars. This Mark IX could probably use a nice detailing (if not color sanding or entierly new paintjob) to set the colors off a bit more, but I kind of like its patina...it doesn't seem inappropriate that Jaguars from this era always seem to me to be a little tired.

As you can see by clicking on any of the Mark IX links above, these cars are beloved by their most recent owners. Most take their time resotring their cars by themselves; the value on the resale market isn't as high as the pride of ownership they instill, so if you're a DIY sort of car person, this might be a good way to go. However, if you're sending things out to others for restoration (or even just resurrection), it could get real expensive real quick. 

The car was parked in front of what appeared to be a school or a church. A female choir was rehearsing and it seemed an appropriate soundtrack to a car as stylish as this one. 

MG MGA

 

Saw this MG MGA at Supercar Sunday yesterday. The cost of the immaculate restoration has to have been a lot more than the cost of the car itself, but that's one of the good things about MGAs (and MGs in general). They're available at reasonable prices, there's a lot of DIY info available (i.e.: mgexperience.net) and there appears to be a good supply of parts around. 

The MGA replaced the MG TF in 1955. Its design was based on a MG TD that was raced at Le Mans in 1952. The car's high center of gravity prooved problematic so MG engineers reworked the frame and came up with this lower-to-the-ground design. The body looked much more modern than previous MG automobiles, but they came equipped with a relatively low-powered engine. the initial cars put out about 68 bhp, and by the end of the run in 1962 this output had expanded to around 80 bhp.There was a special twin cam engine available that was quicker, but this was never meant to be a car to take to the track directly from the showroom. The car does have a good vintage racing history, indicating that the motor is easily modded for higher performance. 

and itself made way for the MGB around 1962.It was 

Jaguar HK 120 DHC - M

Saw this beautifully restored Jaguar HK 120 Drophead Coupé heading down PCH last week. I presume it was a DHC-M (special order) due to the dual exhaust and split windscreen. Some excellent background on the HK 120 and its descendants on ultimatecarpage.com. 

The DHC seems a little more staid and decourus than the HK 120 Roadsters. I guess havig roll-up windows can do that to a car...

At one point, these cars were affordable, but they've really been climbing over the past decade or so. Parts are available, but I rarely see these on the road these days, and when I do, they seem to be in concourse condition. There's a good video on Jay Leno's Garage about his HK-120...