Rare Rides: The Stunning 1992 Oldsmobile Silhouette, in Teal
A special day has arrived here at Rare Rides. Our subject is modern, sleek, and the Cadillac of Minivans. That’s right, it’s Van Time with the Oldsmobile Silhouette.
Rare Rides: A 2002 Ronart Lightning, Euro Mustang Relative
What sports car has Aston Martin and TVR-adjacent looks, but is neither of those things? Why, it’s a Ronart! Let’s find out more about the coupe they called Lightning.
Rare Rides: A First-generation Maserati Quattroporte From 1967
Maserati’s Quattroporte has always been a large, sports-oriented luxury sedan, though the sports part occasionally waned in its influence. Through six total generations to date, Quatroporte serves as the pinnacle of the company’s sedan offerings.
Let’s have a look at where it all started, with this stunning first-gen example from 1967.
Rare Rides: An Elegant 1966 ASA 411 Berlinetta, Founded by Ferrari
A short-lived Italian experiment, the ASA brand was created by Enzo Ferrari himself. Think of it as a stylish Sixties Scion, if you will.
Rare Rides: The Very Special 1998 Ford Expedition SeaScape
There’s nothing especially unique about a first-generation Ford Expedition, given that the company sold hundreds of thousands of them in the late Nineties. But things get a bit more exciting when the Expedition in question was a custom build for SEMA.
So today let’s remember the boat times, with this 1998 SeaScape.
Rare Rides: A 1974 NSU Ro 80, in Convertible Form
Today’s Rare Ride was a relative revolution at the time of its introduction. With smooth, aerodynamic styling and a rotary engine, NSU’s Ro 80 made big promises. Years later, one man decided he’d create the convertible that was missing from the Ro 80 lineup. Let’s check out this one-of-two NSU.
Rare Rides: A Forgotten German Coupe by Wiesmann - the 2010 GT MF 4
Your author first heard about Wiesmann on Top Gear in the early 2000s, while watching Jeremy Clarkson drive what appeared to be a very well-constructed roadster around a track. After that particular episode I never heard of Wiesmann again, and promptly forgot the company existed.
Turns out they made more than a singular roadster. Today we learn about the Wiesmann brand — and this particular 2010 GT MF 4 coupe.
Rare Rides: A Fiat 125 Vignale Samantha From 1969
The Rare Rides series has featured a string of two-door vehicles lately, with representation from marques around the globe. Today’s Rare Ride is sleek and also has two doors. It hailed from the Vignale factory around the same time as the 850 featured here.
Let’s check out a very rare 125 Vignale Samantha.
Rare Rides: A Beautiful Alfa Romeo 6C From 1952
Today we take a look at a stylish grey Alfa Romeo that is the only example of its type. With coachwork from one of the greatest names in the business, it’s Fifties artwork that moves.
Rare Rides: The 1967 OSI 20 M TS - a Stylish Ghia and Ford
Today’s Rare Ride is part Belgian, part Italian, and almost unheard of. It’s an OSI-Ford 20M TS sports coupe from 1967.
Rare Rides: The 1983 Buick Riviera Twentieth Anniversary
Not long ago, Rare Rides presented Buick’s very special celebration of the company’s 75th anniversary via the 1978 Buick Riviera. Today we’ll fast forward five years and have a look at another anniversary Riviera.
It’s the Riviera “XX,” from 1983.
Rare Rides: A 1969 Fiat 850 Special, by Vignale
Not long ago, Rare Rides featured a top-line Fiat 2100 sedan that was rebodied at the order of Abarth into the luxury 2200 Coupe Allemano. Today we have a look at a subcompact Fiat that received a similar treatment. It’s an 850 Special, Vignale-style.
Rare Rides: The 1992 Mazda 929 - Frameless Luxury Motoring
Remember when Mazda sold a rear-drive sedan as its flagship? Me either, but the internet assures me it happened.
Let’s have a last-of Mazda moment, with a pristine 929 from 1992.
Rare Rides: The 1966 Innocenti 950S Spider, Sprite by Another Name
Innocenti made a name for itself by manufacturing vehicles from British Motors (BMC) under license in Italy. We reported on one of the brand’s later offerings previously, with the hot hatch Innocenti Mini de Tomaso from 1978.
Today we’ll have a look at one of the company’s earlier works: A classic British roadster for which Innocenti ordered up a new body.
Rare Rides: The 1959 Abarth 2200 Coupe Allemano
Fiat’s tuning company Abarth has appeared on Rare Rides once before, when we featured the very boxy Ritmo from 1987. Today’s Abarth is from a time when the company was independent of Fiat, and it happens to be the opposite of an Eighties econobox.
Presenting an Abarth 2200 Coupe Allemano from 1959.
Rare Rides: A Mazda Bongo 4×4 - JDM Van Time From 1994
For decades, the Japanese market has loved vans of all shapes and sizes, ranging from basic kei to fully-loaded VIP luxury. Rare Rides has touched on JDM van time just once previously, with a luxurious and capable 1990 Toyota Town Ace. Today we’re taking a look at what Mazda offered a Nineties Japanese consumer of vans.
Rare Rides: The 1988 Merkur Scorpio, a Luxury Liftback for Nobody
Rare Rides broached the subject of Merkur in the past with a very clean XR4Ti. Today we have a look at Merkur’s only other offering — the luxurious liftback called Scorpio.
Rare Rides: A Panhard PL 17 Tigre Cabriolet From 1963
Rare Rides introduced the Panhard brand to the series a while back, showcasing the little 24. The miniature coupe would end up as the last passenger car offering from the brand before it was stomped out by its parent, Citroën.
Today we’ll take a look at an even smaller Panhard from 1963. It’s a rare PL 17 convertible, in even rarer Tigre guise.
Rare Rides: The Very Rare 1981 Porsche 924 Carrera GTR
TTAC’s own Sajeev Mehta gets the credit for discovering today’s Rare Ride. It’s the most special version of the Porsche 924, and it’s for sale in his hometown in the tiny republic of Texas.
Rare Rides featured one of Porsche’s 924s a couple of years ago, with the Martini Championship Edition (a steal at $7,000). This 924 is much more obscure — and much more expensive. Is this one-of-17 car worth the cool $925,000 asking price?
Rare Rides: The Very Special 1978 Buick Riviera 75th Anniversary Edition
Riviera. The mere mention of the name brings to mind visions of luxury. Perhaps of a CRT that glowed brightly on a stormy night, as your grandmother drove you home from a 4:55 p.m. dinner at Old Country Buffet. Or perhaps of the GM 3800 V6, maybe in elite supercharged form.
Today’s Rare Ride predates either of those anecdotes, and is special for a very different reason: It’s a last-of moment.
Rare Rides: An Air-cooled Berkeley Twosome From 1959
Today’s Rare Ride comes from one of those little European brands you’ve never heard of. The company was in business for just a few years, and produced tiny cars powered by even tinier engines. Let’s take a look at the Twosome, from 1959.
Rare Rides: A 1972 DAF 66 Two-Door Wagon, Small and Not Quite a Volvo
Today’s Rare Ride is from an automaker headquartered in the Netherlands which faded away long ago. It’s a little DAF 66, from 1972.
Rare Rides: A 2017 Gillet Vertigo - The Best a Man Can Get?
In what may be a Rare Rides first, today’s featured coupe is sporty, aggressive, and completely off the map. Don’t bother searching TTAC for Gillet, because there are zero results. Let’s learn a bit more about whatever this is, as it’s surely very good.
Rare Rides: The Lancia Beta HPE, a Reliable Shooting Brake Dream From 1977
Rare Rides: A Lancia Delta HF Integrale From 1990 (Part II)
We began our story of the Lancia Delta with its conception and birth. Taking its place as the small family hatchback in Lancia’s lineup, it was quickly worked into something much faster and more aggressive. Let’s find out just how far Lancia went with its creative editing.
Rare Rides: A Lancia Delta HF Integrale From 1990 (Part I)
Today’s Lancia is one of the company’s final unique product offerings. In the finest tradition of creating a sleeper, the good people at Lancia took their practical Delta hatchback to new planes of existence. Presenting the 1990 Lancia Delta HF Integrale.
Rare Rides: A Panhard 24 From 1964 - Parental Problems
Rare Rides is partial to the unique motoring opportunities offered by French manufacturers. Among many Citroëns featured here, recently a Talbot-Lago coupe wowed the eyes with its style and price. Today we’ll take a look at another French coupe that’s a bit more affordable.
It’s an unrestored Panhard 24 from 1964.
Rare Rides: The 1954 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe - Supreme Elegance (Part II)
In Part I of this two-part edition of Rare Rides, we learned about historic manufacturer Talbot and the ups and downs the performance and luxury car brand experienced due to outside forces. Today we take a closer look at the car which generated this story — a very rare T26 Grand Sport coupe.
Rare Rides: The 1954 Talbot-Lago T26 Grand Sport Coupe - Supreme Elegance (Part I)
Talbot’s history was a difficult one, fraught with adversity. Yet during the company’s earlier iterations it produced beautiful, luxurious cars like today’s Rare Ride. It’s a T26 Grand Sport coupe, from 1954.
Rare Rides: A Ford Probe From 1991 - the Mustang Replacement
Probe is a significant name in the history of Rare Rides, as the series started off in early 2017 with the Ghia-designed Probe I. That design study was the kickoff of a series of Probe concepts from Ford; a series which ultimately resulted in an aerodynamic liftback that entered production in the late Eighties.
Let’s see a clean, original example of the all-but-vanished first-gen Probe.
Rare Rides: A 1987 Dodge Raider, Lil' Red Montero Sibling
Today’s Rare Ride is the rarely seen Dodge version of Mitsubishi’s most famous off-road SUV. It’s a Raider, from 1987.
Rare Rides: Vintage England Via the 1957 Austin Cambridge
Recently Rare Rides featured the Rolls-Royce powered Vanden Plas Princess, which was the very pinnacle of luxury offered by BMC’s coachbuilding arm.
Today we’ll check out one of the less luxurious cars British Motor sold to the proletariat: It’s an Austin Cambridge from 1957.
Rare Rides: A 1967 Glas 2600 V8 (and Future BMW Coupe)
Today’s Rare Ride is a German V8 luxury coupe that was designed in Italy and hails from a brand unknown to many. It’s a Glas 2600 V8 from 1967.
Rare Rides: The Original Audi 5000 From 1980
Before Audi revolutionized rallying and four-wheel drive cars with the Ur-Quattro circa 1980, the company made front-drive vehicles underpinned by Volkswagen platforms (some things never change). Today’s Rare Ride 5000 hails from the waning days of Audi’s front-drive era, not long before an all-new 5000 set the template for aerodynamic sedan design.
Rare Rides: A 240SX From 1992, Where Stock Is Wonderful
Along the winding road of automotive history, certain vehicles become targets for the sort of owners who want to put a personal touch on their ride. Stance, stickers, and now, sick clouds. Once a car becomes popular with said crowd, unmodified examples become few and far between.
The 240SX was such a car, and most were chopped up long ago. However, a few slipped through the net and managed to remain original. Presenting a stock 240SX, from 1992.
Rare Rides: The 2009 Invicta S1 Coupe - Not a Cheap Watch
Though this Rare Ride looks like it might’ve come from a design commissioned by a Russian businessman, it’s in fact mostly British — and just a bit American. Let’s have a look at the Invicta S1 from 2009.
Rare Rides: A Rene Bonnet Le Mans From 1963 - French and Fiberglass
Today’s Rare Ride is one of the more obscure vehicles seen on these pages. The result of an argument between two men, the Le Mans was a short-lived model from a short-lived manufacturer.
Rare Rides: An Original 1988 Toyota MR2 - the Supercharged One
The mid-engine MR2 started out strong in the Eighties, but ended its life in the new century with a quiet, blob-shaped whimper. Today we take a look at the best of type — it’s a first generation supercharged model, in Ticket Me Red.
Rare Rides: The 1989 Mitsubishi Sigma - Excellent Parts Availability Guaranteed
Luxury, elegance, Mitsubishi: Three words that sound just right in a singular sentence. Similarly, one sedan expresses all three of those words in a magnificent way. It’s a very rarely seen Mitsubishi Sigma, from 1989.
Rare Rides: The Original Ford SVT Lightning From 1993
Today’s Rare Ride is a first-generation SVT Lightning from the first year of production. Let’s find out what happened when Ford decided to turn its F-150 into a sport truck.
Rare Rides: A Bristol Beaufort - Timeless Beauty From 1984
Today’s Rare Ride is the very first Bristol featured in this series. Hand-crafted in a shed somewhere in England, Bristol maintained exclusivity via an owner who only sold cars to people he liked.
Presenting the aerodynamic Beaufort cabriolet, from 1984.
Rare Rides: A Prototype Rover P6 From 1966
The P6 was an important leap forward in style and modernity for the small and independent Rover Motors. And today’s Rare Ride subject is particularly important because of its prototype status. It’s an early example of the most powerful P6 which became Rover’s flagship.
Rare Rides: The 1987 Shelby CSX, Not a Dodge
Rare Rides previously featured two vehicles that resulted from racing legend Carroll Shelby’s association with Chrysler in the Eighties. The first was a rakish and special Charger GLHS liftback, followed a few months later by the Shelby Dakota. Both of those examples wore their Dodge badges proudly, front and center amongst the additional Shelby tinsel. But the 1987 CSX took a more independent approach to branding.
Rare Rides: A Pristine AMC Pacer Wagon From 1978
Our most recent late-Seventies Rare Ride from AMC was a delightfully brougham Matador Barcelona from 1978. Today’s Rare Ride shared showroom space with the Matador that very same year, but had its eye on a slightly different customer. It’s a base model Pacer DL, complete with wood paneling.
Rare Rides: The 1977 TVR 2500M - Regulatory Mishaps (Part II)
In Part I of the TVR M Series story, we covered the new model range TVR developed based upon its dual core principles of lightness and roadster. And while things progressed without major issue for the first few model years, the latter half of the M’s life was fraught with adversity, mishaps, and a case of oversharing. Prepare for government intervention!
Rare Rides: The 1977 TVR 2500M, Continuing a Theme (Part I)
Recently, Rare Rides featured its first-ever TVR, a wedge from the decade or so where all of TVR’s offerings were variations on the same doorstop shape. The 2500M predated wedge design and thus maintained a more traditional British roadster shape. In Part I of this two-part series, we’ll cover the humble beginnings of TVR’s M Series cars.
Rare Rides: A Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R - Overwhelming Britishness From 1966
Vanden Plas. It rolls off the tongue the same way as other luxury words, like Ferrero Rocher. And right now you’re thinking of chocolate, a Jaguar, and walnut tray tables.
But today’s Rare Ride has only one of those characteristics. Presenting the 1966 Vanden Plas Princess 4 Litre R.
Rare Rides: The Very Yellow 1988 TVR 350i
Somehow, Rare Rides has never covered a single TVR in the past. It was just a matter of time before one of their premium motor canoes sporty, all-British roadsters graced these pages. This one happens to be a very rare and very boxy 350i from 1988.
Rare Rides: The 1978 Ford Fiesta, a German Car
Ford has executed an on-then-off strategy with regard to its Fiesta offering in the North American market. Currently in off mode, your local Ford dealer encourages you to look at the sporty and capable first-ever third-world offering EcoSport instead.
But today we’re stepping back in time to 1978 to take a look at the genesis of Fiesta. The Fiestasis, if you will.
Rare Rides: The Very Luxurious 1958 Studebaker Golden Hawk
Rare Rides has featured a couple of Studebaker offerings in the past, both of which were family-hauling wagons. Today’s Studebaker is a more luxurious and less capacious hardtop coupe. Let’s have a look at a rare 1958 Golden Hawk.
Rare Rides: The 1996 Vector M12, an Elusive Supercar (Part II)
Today is the second portion of the Vector story, which we began in our most recent Rare Rides post. Troubled from the start, the company underwent a hostile takeover by a firm called MegaTech, and fired its founder almost immediately.
The first MegaTech-developed product is our subject vehicle — the long and low M12. With an NAIAS debut in 1996, it seemed like Vector had a promising immediate future. Or did it?
Rare Rides: The 1996 Vector M12, an Elusive Supercar (Part I)
Which elite-class supercar features the marker lights from a Miata, rear lamps from a Cavalier, and the steering wheel of a Mustang? There’s only one answer: The Vector M12.
Rare Rides: The Fanciest Mondeo - a 2007 Jaguar X-Type Sportwagon
The Rare Rides series has touched on Jaguars multiple times previously. But perhaps those beautiful and powerful sporting vehicles lacked something the true car enthusiast always requires: cargo capacity.
Presenting the very rare Jaguar X-Type Sportwagon.
Rare Rides: A Citron Van From 1972 Says HY
We’ve lately had some fun Citroën times here at Rare Rides, with the most recent entry being a custom-built and luxurious ID19 coupe. Today’s Rare Ride is not quite as luxurious, and there’s certainly nothing bespoke about it. But it is interesting, and it also looks like a corrugated shed on wheels.
Say hello to HY.
Rare Rides: The Very Rare Morgan Aero 8 America, From 2007
Morgan is a carmaker for traditionalists who wear tweeds, enjoy wooden car frames, and shun modern technology. Its customers’ tobacco pipes are firmly pointed toward the past.
Seems like today’s Rare Ride is not for them. Presenting the 2007 Aero 8.
Rare Rides: A Stunning 1962 Citron ID19, Le Dandy
Our most recently featured Citroën was a BX five-door hatchback, which made its way to Maine on a plane from Spain. But perhaps, as some readers indicated in the comments, it wasn’t Citroën enough given its development on a platform also used for Peugeot vehicles.
Maybe this more pure French beauty will satisfy: An ID19 Le Dandy coupe, from 1962.
Rare Rides: A Subaru XT Turbo 4WD From 1985
Subaru started its first full decade in North America in the Seventies, where it sold the microscopic rear-engined 360. By the Eighties the company had found its niche among crunchy granola types and professors with four-wheel drive wagons like the GL. But Subaru wanted more; specifically customers with more money. Enter the XT.
Rare Rides: A Micro Machine, the Off-roading 1967 Ferves Ranger
Ever wanted a microscopic multipurpose off-road car that’s not much larger than a lawnmower? Well have we got a truck for you. It’s a Ferves Ranger from 1967.
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