Name this car....

[Viv]

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I would never have got that one.

 

[hektor]

Viv, they were quite rare with only 21 made.

[stuny]

I was thinking Sebring, so I'd have missed, too.

[John Z. Goriup]

19 hours ago, hektor said:

Hi John,

Close enough.  It is a Maserati, but body by Alemano:

 

I hope I'm not being presumptuous assuming your reply gives me the next turn - if not, I'll gladly delete my next puzzle car below and let m410 take a crack at it.

Make and model, please.

JZG

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[hektor]

Good morning John.  Your answer was IMHO as close as possible for such a rare car.  I recognise your latest post but will leave it for others to have a go.

[stuny]

1950s, European, exotic, and I eagerly await seeing the full car photos.

[wlaidlaw]

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Jag XK 140 Zagato? 

Wilson

[John Z. Goriup]

Thank you, Hektor.

Stuart, it is an early '50s creation, and Yes, it was considered exotic back in the day because even though it used one of the 'Big Three' engines, it was the first U.S. built prototype of the model-line with which the wealthy owner wanted to take on the European sports car icons. Subsequent cars were built by Vignale at a much lower cost.

Wilson, not a Jaguar, nor any Zagato involvement, but it was one of the first US built sports car expressly created for the purpose of trying to beat Jaguar ( among others ) at the most famous endurance race in in the world.

JZG

 

[wlaidlaw]

John,

I think I know what it is, from the information you have given but have nothing to post and packing up French house to return to the UK. I have never seen one with a hard top before and out of its usual white paint. 

Wilson

[John Z. Goriup]

Wilson, it certainly looks like you have identified the current puzzle subject ( 'its usual white paint'  being the give-away line) ), but I'd like to wait a while in case someone else may wish to take a crack at solving this.

JZG

 

[pippy]

53 minutes ago, John Z. Goriup said:

Wilson, it certainly looks like you have identified the current puzzle subject ( 'its usual white paint'  being the give-away line)...

Funnily enough along with the clues you, yourself, had given earlier I thought the give-away part from Wilson's post was the 'never seen one with a hard-top' bit so I subsequently googled my 'original suspicion' suitably amended and found 9-year old images of the car whilst still(?) in racing-colours.

Googling, however, is cheating and no substitute for knowledge so I won't spoil the fun for everyone else.

Pretty car - especially in B.R.Green!

Philip.

 

Edited September 14, 2020 by pippy

[wlaidlaw]

White rarely does a car any favours. One of the few cars that I think looks stunning in white is the Jaguar Mark V Drophead. When I get too old for my 911RSR, which is not far off, I will swap it for a Mark V Drophead. I missed one of those earlier this year, albeit in dark blue and it was not too expensive, as it did not have the original Standard based engine but a 3.4 XK DOHC,  plus XK 140 disc brakes, which I would not have minded at all. 

Wilson

[John Z. Goriup]

1 hour ago, pippy said:

Funnily enough along with the clues you, yourself, had given earlier I thought the give-away part from Wilson's post was the 'never seen one with a hard-top' bit so I subsequently googled my 'original suspicion' suitably amended and found 9-year old images of the car whilst still(?) in racing-colours.

Googling, however, is cheating and no substitute for knowledge so I won't spoil the fun for everyone else.

Pretty car - especially in B.R.Green!

Philip.

 

This car was green when originally manufactured in '52. It was never raced by the manufacturer, only participated in US Club racing after it was purchased by an enthusiastic collector who painted it white with blue stripes to emulate the original manufacturer's paint scheme whenever he entered his cars at LeMans.That first owner ( Karl Kiekhafer, owner of the Mercury Outboard Motor Company, who was deeply involved with US motorsports) sold the car to the next owner who eventually sought to dispose of the car at auction in Monterey a few years ago, where it did not meet reserve. After that failed attempt, it was returned it to its original color and interior.

If there's no correct, outright identification of this car soon 'all will be revealed' ( Hercule Poirot's deathless phrase ) later today.

JZG

[pippy]

1 hour ago, wlaidlaw said:

White rarely does a car any favours. One of the few cars that I think looks stunning in white is the Jaguar Mark V Drophead...

Apologies for going a bit off-tangent for a minute but...

It's funny you mention that, Wilson. I agree with the sentiment and also would say that (in my opinion) certain of the older Jaguar models - especially the DHC's - are notable exceptons. Last Easter a gentleman living along the road from 'The Inlaws' (in La Rochelle) purchased a beautifully kept XK-140 which he allowed me to snap as I was passing-by one day. One detail I had never noticed on the 140 before was the boot-lid badge!...

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Whole thing just for fun;

Philip.

Edited September 14, 2020 by pippy

[pippy]

1 minute ago, John Z. Goriup said:

This car was green when originally manufactured in '52. It was never raced by the manufacturer, only participated in US Club racing after it was purchased by an enthusiastic collector who painted it white with blue stripes to emulate the original manufacturer's paint scheme whenever he entered his cars at LeMans...

Ah! Thank you for this information, John! Much prettier in my opinion!

If Wilson really is indisposed due to his imminent return to the UK and no-one else has a 'Next Item' then I would be pleased to offer up an item for perusal - along with the answer if you would prefer?

Philip.

 

[stuny]

Wilson's comment about hardtop and white and blue suggest Cunningham.   The haunches make me think of the C3, but I've never seen a C-3 coupe:  that one's my guess.

[John Z. Goriup]

Stuart, you are correct. It is a Cunningham C-3, in fact, the only C-3 Coupe ever made. The photo below shows the car at Pebble Beach in 2015, the year when Cunningham cars were the featured marque.

This C-3 Competition Coupe Prototype (the official designation ) was a one-off affair built on a mofified C-2 chassis in Cunningham's West Palm Beach, Florida shop, and powered by a 331 cu. in. Chrysler Hemi engine, because Cadillac, which powered previous Cunningham racing efforts would not support his efforts at LeMans, whereas one of Briggs's ex-Yale schoolmates had become an executive at Chrysler and sold him Chrysler Hemi engines at a large discount. When finished the car was deemed too large, too heavy and most negatively, much too costly to produce 'in house',  therefore all subsequent C-3s and later models were farmed out to Vignale, hence their similarity to the then current Ferrari.

M240-P / 35mm Summilux FLE

Thanks for participating, you're up.

JZG

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[John Z. Goriup]

I believe this is a case where more information not absolutely directly connected to the subject at hand might be of assistance in determining exactly the lineage of the 36 total Cunningham's ever made, especially since so many of the surviving Cunningham's were all gathered in one place at Pebble Beach that year.

It all started with a couple of Cadillac Sedans entered in the LeMans 24 hour race in '1950, named 'Le Monstre' by the French. That effort sufficiently lit the fire with Briggs Cunningham to get more serious to try to win LeMans outright with and all American effort............no photos available. 

Enter the C-1 in 1951, Cadillac powered,  designed and built by the B.S. Cunningham Co. in West Palm Beach. Any way you slice it, this constitutes the first post-war American sports car.

One can clearly see the beginning of the general outlines and design of the car that eventually evolved into the C-3 Coupe Prototype.

M240-P / 35mm Summilux FLE

JZG

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[John Z. Goriup]

Very shortly afterv the C-1 was introduced to the public, Cunningham followed it up with three C-2R Roadsters, Chrysler Hemi powered with Lasalle 3-speed manual transmissions, intended solely to win LeMans. Fast ( timed at 154 down the Mulsanne straight ), but bedeviled by crashes and mechanical issues in the '51 race - 18th was the best one of them could do.

After that experience came the C-3 Prtrotype shown above which never was entered, but it certainly displays the relationship  between the C-1, C-2 and the C-3 Coupe.

Plkease note the Vignale Road version of the C-3 Coupe next to the C-2.

Same camera set-up

JZG

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[stuny]

Thank you, John.

Briggs Cunningham and Lake Underwood raced a Porsche 904 at Sebring, taking first in class.  Lake kept that little beauty in the window of his Air Cooled Motors VW/Porsche dealership in South Orange, New Jersey for several months.  I loved passing there, and stopping to ogle the car.  Years later Lake tried to solve a problem on my Audi 100 LS himself, rolling up his custom shirtsleeves to go at it.

Let's try something a bit less exotic:

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