Ape Piaggio extralusso or E-Type Jaguar Roadster?
05 June 2020 2 min read 6 images
Anyone can be a pro when talking about a million-dollar car, but it takes understanding and a sharp eye to find the diamond in the rough and this is one of my favourite pastimes: at every auction I am always on the lookout for a few lots with a budget under $100,000 that I would have liked to have put in the garage.
Here are my picks from the RM auction “Driving into the Summer”.
The most expensive one here is the 1964 Jaguar E-Type S1 Roadster Bouillot Helsel. We are now used to names like Singer and Eagle that take historical cars and fill them with modern technology and engines and then add little luxuries that didn’t exist some 30 or 40 years ago. We think this “rest mod” phenomenon is something recent, but it actually goes back a long time. Bouillot Helsel did the same thing as early as 1983 by taking an E-Type S1 Coupé and removing the roof, after which he upgraded both engine and suspension with the novelties of the time and to this added a five-speed gearbox. And, today as then, this artisanal product was charged dearly: the price back then was £50,000. This is the only model produced, purchased by the seller in 2014 and restored by removing some excesses that were typical of the 80s. The price? $85,800, practically less than a “standard” equivalent.
Dropping our budget slightly to $62,500 we find one of the jokers of the current market: the Maserati Mistral. I must admit that I simply don’t understand why the price of this model is so low. Some say it’s for the somewhat unhappy front end (but I really like it) however this 1967 model with aluminium body and the more powerful 4-litre engine was a real bargain granturismo. The auction house declared that the car needed to be restored, although the photos tell a different story, so some potential customers may have been frightened away by the costs of restoration...
We come out of the fabulous 60s and we’re now in the ‘90s. For $79.200 you could have taken home both a 1990 BMW M3 Coupe “E30” ($35.200) and a 1991 Acura NSX ($44,000). They are both icons in the youngtimer world but in addition to the numerous arrows that these models have in their bows they also had a couple of defects.
The Acura NSX (in its classic red livery with a black roof) may not be welcome in the European market – which used the Honda brand for this continent – while the M3 was prepared for trackdays and may have suffered numerous abuses on weekends. My choice? Coin toss.
In the “weird” section the Lucra LC470 Roadster took home the gold medal. Produced in 2012 with a 6.2-litre V8 LS3 (derived from the Chevrolet Corvette) producing 430bhp and weighing just 900 kg, thanks in part to the carbon fibre body. It’s the perfect car to go to the track on Sundays, and with just 3 produced you know you’re not going to lose it in the pits. It came from the set of “Fast & Furious 6” and it should have ended up in my garage, too bad I noticed it too late, when by now they had sold it for $33.000.
The cheapest car among my choices - $14,300 – was a powerful (em...) Italian car. No, it’s not a Ferrari or a Lamborghini or even a Pagani Zonda. It represents true Italianness more than any supercar from the Motor Valley ever could, it is a Piaggio Ape Limousine version coached by Pavesi. Outside of the big Italian cities, swarms of these mini three-wheeled pickup trucks always turn up loaded with something. Pavesi took one and built in an extra-luxurious version with walnut interior, damask upholstery and even an intercom between the rear lounge and the driver zone. Rumours had it that The Classic Car Trust was in negotiations to use this actual car for trips to the finest elegance competitions but so far no-one has stepped forward with any proof...
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