The last time that we spotted today's eBay find of the day, it was cruising along Woodward Ave in Birmingham, MI this past summer. The RancheroStar immediately caught our attention, but evidently the For Sale sign in the window didn't catch enough eyeballs from onlookers. Thus we now find it again.
According to its eBay listing, the creator of this minivan-trucklet died before completing the project, although he apparently had some pretty serious plans for it going forward. The truncated 1987 Ford Aerostar currently has its stock front V6, rear-wheel drive (not front-wheel drive as in the listing) configuration, but the deceased creator had plans to eventually replace it with a mid-mounted 460 cubic-inch V8. Apparently, the bodywork as it stands today is all metal, with no fiberglass or dreaded Bondo. From what we saw briefly at Woodward, the vehicle seems to be well executed for as far as it got.
If you are interested in an oddball project to complete, this one might be worth checking out. At this point, there aren't any bids, so you might get a good deal.
If you have kids, you probably know that no matter how times you tell them that two wrongs don't make a right, they still have to find out for themselves. Case in point, the 1990 Chrysler Imperial – which clearly had way more than two wrongs against it from the start – has been with a Dodge Rampage. The Rampage actually wasn't a terrible idea, although the execution left something to be desired, especially on the inside (where have we heard that one before?).
The Imperial, on the other hand, stretched the K-Car to within an inch of its life – and beyond. With ridiculous overhangs and narrow width, the front-drive Imperial was simply no match for Cadillac and Lincoln – to say nothing of Europe's luxury machines. However, we can't help thinking that if Lee Iacocca had a ranch somewhere, he might have had the Chrysler engineering staff whip up something just like this. As we write this, there are no bids on this luxurious load lugging gem, so have it.
When Ferrari unveiled the Enzo supercar in 2002, it was the fastest, most expensive roadgoing vehicle ever to roll out of the gates in Maranello. But the exotic automaker – and its sister company Maserati – soon found that its wealthiest customers were willing and eager to pay even bigger money for the chance to get behind the wheel of even more extreme versions on the race track. So to meet that demand, the Enzo gave birth to two track-bound seven-figure beasts: the Ferrari FXX and the Maserati MC12 Corsa. Only twelve of the latter were made available for the Trident marque's most loyal customers. We reported on one example – the only one that managed to get onto the street – going up for sale a little over a year ago, and now another has popped up on eBay, this time right outta Miami.
The MC12 Corsa is an extended derivative of Maserati's racing program. Rather than field a competition-spec version of the Enzo itself, Ferrari lent the platform to Maserati – which was then under its wing following acquisition by Fiat – to create the MC12 GT1 racer. Homologation requirements in the FIA GT championship required Maserati to build a small run of street-legal versions, of which 50 were built and sold to select customers.
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American muscle. Italian design. Cadillac Allanté notwithstanding, that right there is a recipe for success. And few were ever as capable of straddling that divide with one foot in each of the best of both worlds as De Tomaso. Like modern-day Pagani, De Tomaso was founded by an Argentinean based in Modena, and the small automaker created some of the most exotic machinery of its day. Chief among them was the Mangusta – its Italian name means 'mongoose,' which might not seem as ferocious an animal to name a sportscar after as, say, a jaguar, viper or stingray, until you realize that the little rodents are known for eating cobras. Then the Mangusta's mission statement becomes a little clearer.
Like the later revival (which was subsequently sold under Qvale and then MG badges), to say nothing of its prey, the original Mangusta packed Ford V8 power: From 1967 through 1971, 400 Mangustas rolled out of the De Tomaso factory with 289s or 302s installed, out of which fewer than 200 are believed to still be around.
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Next up on the auction block is every Corvette-loving Walter Mitty's fantasy come true, a 1968 SCCA Corvette hardtop convertible race car. Okay, maybe that's not everyone's idea of the perfect Corvette, but for those of you old enough to remember the glory days of SCCA Trans-Am racing circa 1968, this car should hit all the right buttons. What started life as a perfectly adequate, four-speed 327350 optioned 'Vette, has been transformed into the very special race car tribute you see in our gallery. It's a street car that looks an awful lot like the Trans-Am racers of the late '60s and early '70s.
The good folks at 2nd Generation Automotive Restorations are the ones who turned it into what you see here today, minus this car's current fire-breathing factory race engine, a genuine Bowtie ZL-1. That's right, the current owner found one of the factory's limited edition Ram Jet ZL-1 engines (number 155 of only 200 made) nestled in a '55 Chevy show car. The engine had just 36 miles on it and needed a better home. We'd say the result is pretty spectacularly awesome. This very car was featured in the August 2007 issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines and can be yours for a Buy-It-Now price of just $60,000 – it would probably cost nearly twice that much to replicate it today. If this sounds like the right car for you, you'd better act fast. Bidding ends today at 7 PM PDT.
The Elwood Engel Continentals are so instantly recognizable that Lincoln borrowed some of their design cues when creating modern vehicles like the MKX crossover. These big hunks of awesome from the Sixties are still even relatively affordable, too. The seller of this gem claims that there's more than $120,000 invested in this much modified example, which is admittedly a whole lot more than we'd expect to pay for even this gobsmackingly nifty thing, so it's possibly a case of overdoing it. You've got a day, and as it stands now, the reserve has not been met by a $30,000 bid.
Lower than a dead man's blood pressure, this Lincoln has been expensively redone in a stunning shade of PPG Cherry Black. Underneath, chassis mods have been carried out to add an Air Ride Technologies suspension that gives you the slammed stance for going low and slow, but it also pumps up to regular height for motorvatin'. Underhood yields the biggest surprise, as if the beautifully straight bodywork, sumptuous leather interior and high standard of work weren't enough.
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One of the most unusual vehicles to grace last year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas is now up for auction on eBay Motors. Called the BatSmart, this little vehicle was unlike most of the high-octane pieces of rolling artwork at the event in that it used just three pistons and 70 horsepower to move along its twin passengers. What it loses in power, though, it makes up in style, right? Designed by George Barris himself, creator of the original Batmobile from the mid '60s, the Batsmart features a faux turbine and rocket launchers to go along with its full custom body kit, which includes the requisite rear batfins and rodent-like pointy nose.
Star Wars fans, behold, your dream car; too bad the listing has ended. The original owner of this particular piece of automotive art apparently had a serious love affair with George Lucas's space-themed soap opera. Painstakingly painted across the surface of this unassuming Chevy are images of Yoda, Han Solo, X-Wing fighters and other movie characters, as well as nebula and galaxies originally photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope. This would have been just the thing to drive to the theatrical premiere of the Clone Wars. A lot of work went into this paint job, though it would take a level of dedication we don't have just to own it, let alone drive it in public. After all, it's a Cobalt underneath it all, and it's emblazoned with the stigmata of the basement dweller.
"It's not a kit car" will be an oft-repeated phrase for the new owner of this Kodiak F1. Billed as a 1 of 1 car, though the seller mentions another prototype with Mercedes power, this German daydream of an '80s super coupe has been bid up to $48,000 so far. The composite body covers a tubular frame in the same fashion as airplanes are built, apparently, and power comes from a Corvette small block. The Kodiak F1 made its debut at the 1983 Frankfurt Motor Show, the pet project of Mladen Mitrovic. Mitrovic's company, Speed and Sport, manufactured convertible roofs and other parts, and the chief wanted to fulfill his sports car dreams. The mid-engined two seater was planned with a standard blueprinted 350 carrying aluminum Brodix heads and a quartet of Webers or Bosch fuel injection for roughly 320-340 horsepower. Optional powerplants were 5.0 liter Mercedes V8s, one stock, one breathed-upon by then-independent AMG to the tune of 380hp. This car would have been just the thing to make coked-up Countach and Testarossa drivers feel like commoners in Chevettes. We're not sure why the Kodiak never made it much past pie-in-the-sky spec sheets and a pair of prototypes. On paper, it sounds like it would be a better performer than the underwhelming DeLorean turned out to be, though cost was likely a big factor, ringing up a bill of $117,000 or so in 1986. Get your bids in now, and you may be the lucky one cracking your temple on those gullwings every time you get in.
Back when Barack Obama was still vying for the official Democratic presidential nod, the now President-elect made a well-publicized switch from a HEMI-powered Chrysler 300C to a Ford Escape Hybrid. The issue, of course, was that the HEMI is seen as a gas swiller (15 mpg city / 23 highway) and an obvious target for those looking to point a finger at the junior senator's green credentials. So, out went the 300C and in came the defacto mode of transportation for image conscious politicians: a Ford Escape Hybrid. The trade made headlines a while before everybody moved on to more important issues. Or have they? Obama's old 300C is back in the news and currently up for auction on eBay Motors. Just how much would it cost to park Obama's old whip in your driveway? We'll know for sure in about a week, but the opening bid is a rather staggering $100,000. Even a low mileage 2005 300C (this one has racked up just 20,000 miles) isn't worth more than about $17,000 or so on the open market. Is it really worth an extra $80,000 (and probably much more) to drive the next President's ex-car? If so, the bidding is now open.
