Practically Classics Forum

Aww, it's a car. I was hoping for Donny Osmond's battered head on a stick.

That is rather lovely though.

Deusenberg. Haynes museum has a tourer. Ex Clark Gable I think. £1000,000. Value 1998.

The workman ship and attention to detail just blows Rolls-Royce into the weeds.

Incidently in the between the wars years, Rolls-Royce weren't thought of as the "best etc" . There were many better cars. What saved RR cars from oblivion was the aero engine business and the Co -Op funeral service and taxis in Edinburgh and sales in India. It wasn't until 1971 that RR cars made a profit. For the first 67 years they lost money on every car sold.

Bob

Aston Martin were a similar non-profit organisation when in David Brown ownership. I can't remember the star's name, but Cary Grant comes to mind so it was someone of that era, wanted to buy a DB3/4 and was being "courted" by David Brown. The star old DB that he intended to pay retail price for his car and not the inflated price that many firms who tried to cash in on his fame quoted. "That's very good of you sir," said DB, "we usually sell them at a loss!"

I would guess the 1971 "end of loss" had something to do with the time RR went bust (thanks to the cost of developing the RB211 engine) and was split up. There was a knock-on from that: the banks got frightened and called in lots of loans. Unfortunately, David Brown was one of the firms whose loan was called in - and hence AM and DB tractors had to be sold off. DB himself was so annoyed, he left the country!

Tractorman.
Indeed it was the RB211 that caused the aero to separate from the cars. Fortunately the Shadow cars were selling well.

Napier cars were loss makers as well.

The history of upmarket cars is littered with casualties.
Many dealers in these sorts of cars go broke.

Bentley. Napier were a contender for buying Bentley in 1931. Which would have probably finished Rolls Royce cars. But Rolls Royce got there first. The key was W O Bentley. Rolls Royce engines at the time were down on power compared to the competition. W .O. Bentley sorted out the engines. Then he went to Lagonda.

Bob

Bit radical, I know, but how about the early version of the Dodge Viper as best sports car? They dont come much more raw than that...

Biggest engine about made for a car. A viper could be the best sports car because its scary fast. If one hasn't quiet woken up then by the time one gets to work one will be awake.

How about a Morgan.

Bob.

Always liked Morgans...

Funny thing is, Dodge made a car way back in 1968 that would literally blow the wheels off their Viper. Trouble is, its not really a sports car.

Morgans are cute.

American muscle cars are fun providing one likes entertaining handling. However with mods the wild ways can be tamed -'-- a bit.
Are you referring to the Charger.
Everybody likes Chargers whats not to like.

A good thing with muscle cars is the smooth power delivery makes them easy to drive at sensible normal speeds. Whereas some supercars are hard work.

Something like a C6 Corvette can be used as a daily driver and 90% of the time it will fine to drive. Whereas say a Lambo 90% of the time will be not nice.

I would call a Charger a Sports coupe or a GT car.

Which raises the question what exactly is a sports car.