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1955 Ford Crown Victoria
There are a lot of rare and interesting cars on Carforsale.com. These were our picks for the coolest, most compelling listings.
Cars Worth Collecting
What makes a car a “collector car”? Uniqueness, rarity, desirability? Perhaps all of the above. For this, month’s Critics’ Choice, we asked our writers to scour Carsforsale.com for the rarest of the rare, the car mostly worthy of entering that imaginary multimillion dollar garage in their heads. What car would be the pinnacle of their rare car collection? Find out below.
Jesse Batson – 1970 Plymouth Superbird
Short List:
There are so many cars to choose from on Cars For Sale. Searching through them all, looking for a rare vehicle, makes you realize that. What is one of the rarest though? This 1970 Plymouth Superbird has to be one of them. Chrysler only manufactured an estimated 2,000 models. Memos from September 1969 indicate plans to produce 1,920 Superbirds, but some figures indicate that 2,783 were built and sent to dealers in the United States and Canada. That helps explain the price tag of at least $225,000 (or muscle car trade).
This 1970 Plymouth Superbird has the 440 Super Commando V8 engine, a 727 TorqueFlight automatic transmission, and a lot of NOS and date-coded parts used for the restoration. It also features Goodyear Polyglas GT F60-15 tires, a restored dash, and new door panels. As you can see, it’s finished with the original Y-1 Lemon Twist yellow body paint. Of course, it’s got the pop-up headlights, too. Looking at photos of the engine, you’ll see the purple horn that makes the instantly recognizable Road Runner ‘meep, meep.’ Inside the Superbird, the combination of black leather and stainless trim looks sharp. There’s less than 50 test miles on this Superbird since the restoration was completed.
An impressive winged-warrior, the Superbird was only available as a 1970 model, so it may not get the notoriety it deserves. The car was a modified Road Runner (hence the Road Runner symbols), designed to lure Richard Petty back to the Plymouth NASCAR Racing Team after he switched over to Ford. Those tall vertical struts hold the rear wing up proud. It’s a cool looking car, but the wing has a practical purpose, too. Along with the rear spoiler, Chrysler added a giant nose, and vents in the back to make the vehicle more aerodynamic. Tested in a wind tunnel, the cast aluminum wing increased the downforce once the wing was higher than the roofline.
Chrysler’s plan worked. Petty came back in time to qualify for NASCAR. He won the race at Talladega, and went on to win seven other races. NASCAR ended up changing their requirements, effectively banning the aero cars from competing. Meanwhile, Ford responded to the 1970 Plymouth Superbird with the Torino Talladega, and Mercury responded with the Cyclone. Despite its short lifespan, the 1970 Plymouth Superbird certainly made a statement, both in terms of looks and on the track.
The exotic styling may have been a little extreme for the 1970s, so these cars, priced at around $4,300 at the time, sat unsold. Today is a different story. They easily sell for six figures. Jay Leno laid down some money to add an orange 1970 Plymouth Superbird to his epic car collection. and the Mopar is finally getting some recognition. Strip “The King” Weathers, from the Cars movie, was based on Petty’s #43 Superbird. It may have taken a while, but the Superbird is finally getting its due. Getting behind the wheel of a 1970 Plymouth Superbird offers the chance to drive history. Just be ready to get some looks along the way!
Chris Kaiser – 1959 Ferrari 205 GT Pinin Farina
Short List:
There are a lot of directions you can go with “rarest cars on Carsforsale.com”. The latest low-production supercars were certainly tempting. Unique imports were another consideration. But most alluring of all were historically significant, low production cars. Before I tell you where I landed, I want to quickly cover my short list.
One listing that caught my eye was a 2012 Holden Ute SS, though not rare in Australia, they’re not very common here is the States. You can blame the 2008 Great Recession for that. Prior to the finical collapse, GM had planned to bring the Ute over to the US along with the Pontiac G8. Sadly, those plans were nixed. Even so, if you’re go a hankering for a souped-up ute, this Holden Ute SS is pretty slick. Next, I found at 1953 C1 Corvette. Just one of 300 built in its first year of production, I would have gone for this option had I not recently written about the first gen Vette here. A 1964 Pontiac XP-833 “Banshee” concept was perhaps the strongest runner-up. The project was canceled to ensure John DeLorean’s sports car wouldn’t overshadow the Corvette. Ironically, the XP-833 styling would be pirated for the C3 Corvette itself.
My pick, however, went to this 1959 Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina first owned by Swedish Prince Bertil. Back in the early days of Ferrari, the company’s initial road cars were luxury GTs, most of them powered by Ferrari’s signature Colombo V12. Starting in 1954, the 250 GT cars had been produced in low numbers, including the 250 Europa GT, the 250 GT Coupe Boano and 250 GT Coupe Ellena, and, starting in 1958, the 250 GT Pinin Farina. Despite the name, all the early 250 GT cars were designed by Carrozzeria Pinin Farina, but it was these later cars that were coach built by the designer. The 250 GT Pinin Farina cars were the first series production Ferraris, of which 335 were built between 1958 and 1960.
This specific car, number 1471, was built in 1959 and prior to delivery was showcased at the 1959 International German Auto Show. From there it was shipped to its new owner, the Duke of Holland, Prince Bertil Gustaf Oskar Carl Eugen, 3rd son of King Gustaf of Sweden and a big sports car collector.
Jesse McGraw – 2019 Porsche 911 Turbo S Coupe GEMBALLA GTR 8XX Evo-R
Short List:
I’m always scouring Carsforsale.com for some unique or cool car finds, so you could say I’ve already made a catalog of sorts when it comes to our subject for today. I found a pretty cool Motorama Corvair tribute Corvette, but what Corvette isn’t considered “one of one” by their owners. Then there were the exotics like the McLaren Senna or the Bugatti Veyron, but that’s still too common for my tastes. Finally, I found a true rarity among from the car world, this 2019 Porsche 911 Turbo S GEMBALLA GTR 8XX Evo-R – a one of 50 model. So, you may be wondering “What’s a GEMBALLA? Why is this Porsche special? And why is it priced at nearly $2 million dollars?!”
First off, GEMBALLA is one of the leading high-end car modifying garages in the world. They craft expensive sports cars into some of the most unique, fast, and exclusive cars out on the road. They primarily work with Porsche models like Ruf and RWD do, but radically modified Mercedes and Ferrari models have also rolled out of the GEMBALLA shop. While they have an extensive list of special production cars, the Porsche 911 Turbo S Coupe GEMBALLA GTR 8XX Evo-R could be considered the pinnacle example from the GEMBALLA brand.
GEMBALLA enhanced the aero all around this 911 by adding some carbon fiber crafted parts like canards, front lip splitter, and a large rear spoiler with intake scoops for the rear engine. In addition to those components is a custom made DTM Autobody molded wide body kit featuring some wide fenders, new bumpers front and back, a unique carbon frunk lid, extended side skirts, and a revised side vent design. This widebody kit allows for some wider specialized GRS-F2 wheels that were forged to be super light. The final exterior touch is the GEMBALLA logo spanning across the rear brake light.
But GEMBALLA isn’t just about the exterior, it’s also about what’s underneath the skin. The 3.8L biturbo 6-cylinder boxer engine has been significantly improved by the tuning shop. The standard 540 hp and 516 lb-ft of torque has been ratcheted up to 818 hp and 807 lb-ft of torque. This increase was made possible by their in-house Performance Turbo system that’s made up of carbon fiber crafted intake manifolds and intake housings, ported cylinder heads, bigger valves, high-performance air filters, and a full GEMBALLA sport exhaust system. All this added performance comes with an updated ECU and TCU remap to fully experience the peak performance generated by this Porsche. In the end, GEMBALLA says this Porsche 911 can hit 62 mph in just 2.38 seconds and improves the top speed to exceed 230 mph.
Being a rare car, you have to expect a nice interior. GEMBALLA does a great job of further imbuing this Porsche with a sporty interior design by adding red stitch accenting, Alcantara along the dash and door cards, and providing some high-quality leather for the bucket seating. This thing is super cool, super rare, and well out of my new car budget.
