Nice cars other than x-fire

[LE BARON]

In 1970, pulling up to the country club in a loud, brightly colored Pontiac GTO was considered bad form. If you had serious money and still wanted to lay down black rubber at a stoplight, you ordered a Buick Riviera Gran Sport.

This specific year was a unique, one year only design for the Riviera. Buick stripped away the hidden headlights from previous years and added sweeping rear fender skirts. It looked like a heavy, formal luxury vault. But that tailored sheet metal was actively hiding a street brawler.

Checking the GS option box got you a heavily upgraded suspension and a brand new 455 cubic inch V8. While it made a highly respectable 370 horsepower, the real story was the torque. It produced a tectonic 510 pound feet of torque.

You could comfortably seat five adults in a completely silent, air conditioned cabin surrounded by premium vinyl, while simultaneously outrunning dedicated sports cars. It was the ultimate velvet hammer

 

[1st Vette]

 

[Murray20c8]

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in flight refueling.
lol

 

[LE BARON]

In 1967, Goodyear asked Carroll Shelby to test a new line of cheap whitewall tires. Instead of showing up with an average commuter car, Shelby built an absolute monster. He took a single white Mustang GT500 and stuffed it with the exact 427 cubic inch racing V8 that had just dominated Le Mans in the Ford GT40.

This one of a kind creation became the legendary Super Snake. With over 500 horsepower on tap, Shelby drove it to an insane top speed of 170 mph. It then survived a grueling 500 mile track run, somehow keeping those skinny economy tires completely intact.

Dealerships begged to sell it, but the astronomical price tag killed the project immediately. Because the public could never afford a Mustang that cost more than a small house, only this single prototype was ever made. Born strictly to film a tire commercial, it became the ultimate unicorn of American muscle

 

[LE BARON]

If you pull up to a local car meet in a 1964 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 Fiesta Wagon, everyone will stop and stare. It has a massive Rocket V8 under the hood, but the real fascination with this long roof has absolutely nothing to do with straight line speed.

You are actually looking at a rare piece of hand assembled history. Unlike other General Motors cars of the era, this body was not made by the giant Fisher Body plant. Instead, the assembly was farmed out to the Ionia Manufacturing Company, a small coachbuilder hidden in the Michigan countryside.

Ionia workers hand crafted these bodies with jewelry like precision, using the same expert skills they used to build the ultra exclusive Lincoln Continental Mark II. Since 1964 was the last year Oldsmobile ever offered a full size wagon, this gorgeous survivor represents the final, hand built masterpiece of a forgotten era

 

[LE BARON]

In 1935, most American roads were still dirt tracks and the average family car struggled to reach 50 miles per hour. Into this slow world arrived the Auburn 851 Boattail Speedster, a machine so fast it felt like a visitor from the future.

To prove its performance was not just a marketing trick, Auburn hired land speed legend Ab Jenkins. He personally test drove each completed Speedster, certifying that it had surpassed 100 mph. Every buyer received a hand signed plaque on the dashboard confirming the exact speed of their specific car.

Designed with a sweeping tail inspired by wooden speedboats, it used a supercharged Lycoming engine that whistled as it accelerated. Decades before Enzo Ferrari ever built his first production road car, this American outlaw was already redefining what it meant to fly on wheels

 

[LE BARON]

n 1970, Chevrolet stylist Jerry Palmer sketched what a Camaro might look like crossed with a Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. GM design chief Bill Mitchell saw those drawings and, in classic fashion, swiped the ideas for Pontiac instead of Chevrolet.

What followed was stranger still. Ferrari's 365 GTB/4 Daytona ran a 4.4 liter V12 producing 352 horsepower at 7,500 rpm through six Weber carburetors. Enzo Ferrari himself offered one up and shipped it to Flint. GM's three-speed Turbo Hydramatic proved a poor match for the Italian engine's temperament, so Ferrari sent his own five speed manual to finish the job. The firewall moved back nine inches to make room. Ferrari also supplied his gauges, his exhaust, and his shifter.

Mitchell loved taking the Pegasus to events, blasting around tracks, then popping the hood so people could stare at the twelve cylinders sitting inside something wearing Pontiac badges. He took it home when he retired from GM in 1977 and drove it as his personal car until he died in 1988, when the Pegasus returned to General Motors. Only one was ever built. It has not left the GM Heritage Collection since

 

[LE BARON]

When AMC formed in the '50s, everyone assumed the small automaker would be crushed by Detroit's Big Three. To survive, they couldn't just play by the rules. In 1957, they quietly unleashed a masterpiece that completely rewrote them.

At first glance, the Rambler Rebel looked like a totally innocent grocery getter. But American Motors did something radical. They grabbed the massive 327 cubic inch V8 engine meant for their heavy luxury cruisers and shoved it into a lightweight compact unibody.

The result was a total rocket. Hiding behind four doors was a family hauler that could hit 60 miles per hour in just 7.5 seconds. It became the fastest production sedan in America, routinely embarrassing supercharged Thunderbirds at stoplights. In fact, the only 1957 American car that could outrun it was the fuel injected Chevy Corvette. By building the ultimate sleeper, AMC proved they could outsmart the giants and stay alive.

 

[LE BARON]

Imagine walking into a Chevrolet dealer in 1971 and paying a massive premium just to have them rip the radio out of your new Corvette. That is exactly what happened if you knew about the top secret ZR2 package.

GM deliberately kept it quiet. Ticking that obscure order box was a backdoor way to buy a track ready race car. You lost air conditioning, power steering, and all basic creature comforts. In exchange, Chevy stuffed the monstrous 425 horsepower LS6 big block V8 under the hood, bolting it directly to heavy duty brakes and a brutal M22 Rock Crusher manual transmission.

The resulting car was deafeningly loud, blisteringly hot, and painfully expensive. Because it was so uncompromising, a mere 12 people actually bought one before Chevy scrapped the project entirely. Decades later, those twelve brutal survivors have become the undisputed holy grail of Corvette collecting, turning a forgotten track toy into a multi million dollar masterpiece.

 

[LE BARON]

In 1963, after a heated argument with Enzo Ferrari over an order of 100 cars, Peter Monteverdi lost his right to sell Ferraris in Switzerland. It was the wrong man to humiliate. He went home to Basel, and by 1967 the company that bore his name had started operations with the aim of building some of the world's most exclusive high performance sports cars.

Seven years after the Ferrari argument, Monteverdi arrived at the 1970 Geneva Auto Show with the Hai, the German word for shark, painted in a bespoke color called Purple Smoke. Mid-mounted behind the seats sat a Chrysler 426 Hemi V8 with twin four barrel carburetors, a compression ratio of 10.25:1, and 490 pound feet of torque, driving a ZF five speed transaxle. Trevor Fiore of Fissore designed the body. The engine was pure Detroit. The president of the Swiss confederation came to the stand. All the newspapers followed. Swiss motoring magazines put it on their covers.

Monteverdi planned to produce 49 copies at $27,000 each. No orders arrived. Two prototypes were completed. Only one was ever sold. Of the four Hai chassis ever built, only the prototype carries the Hemi block. The other three were fitted with Chrysler 440 engines.

 

[1st Vette]

In 1963, after a heated argument with Enzo Ferrari over an order of 100 cars, Peter Monteverdi lost his right to sell Ferraris in Switzerland. It was the wrong man to humiliate. He went home to Basel, and by 1967 the company that bore his name had started operations with the aim of building some of the world's most exclusive high performance sports cars.

Seven years after the Ferrari argument, Monteverdi arrived at the 1970 Geneva Auto Show with the Hai, the German word for shark, painted in a bespoke color called Purple Smoke. Mid-mounted behind the seats sat a Chrysler 426 Hemi V8 with twin four barrel carburetors, a compression ratio of 10.25:1, and 490 pound feet of torque, driving a ZF five speed transaxle. Trevor Fiore of Fissore designed the body. The engine was pure Detroit. The president of the Swiss confederation came to the stand. All the newspapers followed. Swiss motoring magazines put it on their covers.

Monteverdi planned to produce 49 copies at $27,000 each. No orders arrived. Two prototypes were completed. Only one was ever sold. Of the four Hai chassis ever built, only the prototype carries the Hemi block. The other three were fitted with Chrysler 440 engines.

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Nice wheels at least ......