The owners of the 1931 Cadillac 452A Fleetwood Imperial Limousine that appeared last week on the green at Pebble Beach have said they plan on driving the V16 on a two-week trip through New England soon, most likely to see the fall foliage. For a car that is exquisite enough to be invited to the Pebble Concours to be used in such a fashion is either a fool-hardy gamble with a sizable investment, or a finger in the face of the classic car establishment.
I appreciate those who drive cars no matter how expensive they are, as machines are meant to be enjoyed first-hand. Being an Auto Enthusiast shouldn’t just be a spectator sport. I’m pretty sure you share this opinion and so for today I’d like to know what insanely valuable, or expensive, or rare car you would drive every day, just to enjoy it, no matter what the consequences.
Image: Michael Roselli/Jalopnik
Hooniverse Asks: What Crazy Expensive Classic Car Would You Daily Drive?
By Robert Emslie
Aug 31, 2016
Jeff Glucker
If I could afford to replace it, I would drive it, whatever it is.
http://moparblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Nash-Bridges-Cuda.jpg
Behind the studio where they filmed Nash Bridges?
Yes. That’s not a factory color. The producers of the show invented a hue that photographed well in daylight and at night.
One of these, absolutely. The alloy wheels are kickass.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/21/Bugatti_Typ_35A_1925.jpg
One of the eccentric rich guys associated with the Larz Anderson Museum, Boston, in the 1980s DD’d a Bugatti Type 46 that he had painted safety orange & white.
Pretty much anything that would be capable of serving the purpose. I don’t see the appeal owning seldom-driven museum pieces. I would especially love a Gullwing 300SL, Jaguar D-Type, Alfa’s Disco Volante coupe or a Cheetah.
Being rich, I have only limited time and need for transportation. The more cars you own, the fewer of your time can be devoted to each individual car, rendering the collection to a standing stock museum.
Sad but true.
If I’m going to own a bunch of cars (I do), I’d rather be rich (I’m not). At least then I could pay someone else to maintain them. Plus I’d have better cars.
So actually rich people should interpret the question as “What Crazy Expensive Classic Car Would You Make Others to Daily Drive?”
For the right-minded well-heeled individual the question becomes, “What crazy expensive classic do you drive daily?”
For me, it’s “What expensive-when-new classic did you buy for a song as a beater and attempt to drive daily whilst attempting to keep parts from falling off on the highway?”
Not that this happened to me. Yesterday. On the way to soccer practice after work. On 435.
I’m not rich, but I also have limited time and need for transportation, which renders the question slightly meaningless. Work is a 5-10 minute cycle, so I don’t take a car. I covered more miles on track last friday than I’d ever do in a week! Once I have my MX5 on the road, I’ll actually have to specifically make time to go for drives.
So I guess, sorta cheating, under a similar useage pattern of pretty much entirely recreational driving, but with more moneys.. McLaren F1 please, Predictable, but don’t say you woudn’t…
not really an answer to the question, but I’d love to daily drive this,
http://www.topgear.com/sites/default/files/styles/16x9_929w/public/news-listicle/image/1emotionjoymag2016.jpg
I’d prefer the xk, but this photo was better
http://pocketclassics.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Pocket-Classics-Roadster-Brochure-2015.pdf
..and become the joke of the neighbours? I could afford that…
If you’re properly rich, your neighbours are a few KM away and one needs a way of getting to the far end of ones estate/chateau…
None. If we’re talking true daily driver – as in every day, including blinding snowstorms, -50 January days, or severe thunderstorms, than none. There is no museum worthy car, or myself for that matter, that I would subject to that.
If we’re talking a
106 month out of the year car, well, that list is far too longNo Jeep Grand Wagoneer? Those are crazy expensive these days…*
*: My definition of “crazy expensive” may differ from the article author’s definition
Mercedes-Benz 540K Spezial Roadster
As if there was any question.
http://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/160201102818-gallery-highest-priced-cars-lot-242-780×439.jpg
This isn’t as simple a question as it appears, at least for this Texan….
So: Before I answer, I have a question of my own:
If I hide it so it’s not visible, can I put air conditioning in it?
Use a bit of the money for a campaign that establishes the “internet truth” that it always had the AC. Just have some people stating it in high ranking outlets and buy the according product off Google.
Anyone that would be pissed that you installed an air conditioner will already be pissed that you’re driving it. Your car. Your money. Go nuts.
I think hiding air conditioning isn’t an easy task. Interior vents and controls, underhood compressor, coils, and lines, and of course the condensation dripping under the car while the AC is running. I guess maybe you could do a trunk-mounted electric compressor and a container to catch the water, with hidden ducts at the rear, but that wouldn’t cool your car right away.
That being said, it’s your car, make yourself comfortable. I’ve got a factory AC car cloned into a Not Available With AC car, and with a few modifications, the compressor still fits.
If you were to have the kind of money that it would take to make your car not visible while daily driving it, why would you care about the opinion of the Little People? 😉
A Plymouth Superbird. It’s probably not like crazy expensive, but that’d be one hell of a daily driver.
Not exactly a daily parallel parker, though
Not sure how much they cost…
http://i1136.photobucket.com/albums/n482/1LordHumungas/how.jpg
Get one of these: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6b/Rolls_Royce_Armoured_Car_(3665496047).jpg and take it to your local Rolls-Royce dealer for parts and servicing…
Break the piggy bank: Yesterday’s 2CV with a BMW motorcycle engine. h/t
Crazy Expensive On A Theme: Ducati-powered Volkswagen XL1.
Bankrupting even Bruce Wayne: Matching car, engine, and motorcycle of my own construction.
Phantom Corsair
http://silodrome.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Phantom-Corsair.jpg
Worse visibility than a new Camaro.
Plow me the way home.
“Jameson! The driveway, if you please! I cannot send Muffy out to pick up my morning paper with all of that snow. Her paws would ache so from the cold.”
“Sadly, sir, the Massey Ferguson is currently out for repairs.”
“Jameson, could you affix the plow to the Rolls?”
Jameson takes off his coat and pulls on thick leather gloves, a thick leather apron, and a gleaming, flawless stainless steel welding helmet.
“I imagine I could … AHEM… rig up something, sir.”
No, seriously. It’s a Festiva body shell and a SHO powertrain: power, size, and visibility are all reasonable enough to be driven in traffic, repairable if it got in a fender-bender, and most of the drivetrain parts could be sourced from my local NAPA counter.
I see the question, I see the photo, I see the word “seriously”. Yet I can’t make a meaningful connection, ha!
Honestly, this car as a rich person’s toy would be worthy of attention.
Now you just need to find one for sale for this week’s Crapshoot. It might be stretching the “from the factory” rule, but if you find a SHOgun for sale, it has to count.
The biggest obstacle to building your own Shogun would be finding donors in good condition.
Maybe that’d be YOUR biggest obstacle. Mine would be all the cutting and welding needed combined with my total lack of fabrication skills.
In this Hooniverse Asks, we’re all rich enough to afford not just “a guy” but “THE guy” to fabricate all sheet metal bits from, say, titanium, or if you’re into real workshop challenges, beryllium. Or gold, if we’re bling-rich, not eng-rich.
To give my Tuesday answer, I have to know: how old is “classic” and how expensive is “crazy”?
http://img-webike-370429.c.cdn77.org/mm/newbike/666xn85_1981/xn85_1981.jpg
And first thing to do is disconnect the stupid,never works properly, anti-dive system on the forks.
I have a set of ’82 GS750E forks with the hydraulic anti-dive on them. I’ve been wondering whether, instead of just blanking them off, I could convert to later clicker-style units. The bolt pattern is different, but I am thinking a simple aluminum adapter plate would potentially be all that would be needed. The problem is, I haven’t found the PDF units cheap on Ebay.
Just blank them off. The forks work better under braking without them anyway, without suddenly having all the compression damping radically increased and effectively hugely increasing the spring rate. You can get a better effect, as I did, by drilling and tapping the top nuts on the fork and running a little air pressure in there as an extra continuously variable spring.Don’t forget to connect the two forks together through a common line with a tee-connection to one air valve. Or better still get some later forks off a GSXR- or anything newer really. I put the larger diameter fork, bigger brakes and 17″ wheel off a Suzuki Impulse 400 on mine with the air conversion and with my original fork springs which suited the bike’s weight better. There was a better choice of tyres for the 17 but it was soon obvious that the Metzeler 33 as fitted to the wheel in your photo was the best. And sticking with the 16, the best was also the ME33 in the120/80/16 size shown in your pic. Yes I painted the orange out with black to match the existing wheels.
http://www2.bikechannel.info/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/p3-ed324.jpg
Rich enough to have someone else prepare my car before I even get up in the morning? Someone posted the Doble E20 on here a while ago. I can’t forget about it. The quietness, power, ancient yet advanced tech…it’s such a brilliant vehicle. Rich enough to not care about maintenance or running cost,I’d go everywhere in this, even if I’d need to have a service guy in a van follow me with a five minute delay. This is the most decadent car ownership I can think of.
I bet it has a better towing capacity than most modern trucks. And plenty of heat in the winter!
The only thing I’d change would be to upgrade to modern hydraulic disc brakes. And maybe also replace the mechanical boiler control circuit with modern electronic controls.
I agree on the brakes, but I wouldn’t add any electronics. My ’71 Volvo 145 had most of its electronics concentrated in the aftermarket radio, and that was just fine. In a Doble, I can imagine that listening to the sound of the wheels and wind is just enough entertainment. And I’d like to race Leaf’s and Tesla’s whereever I could, particularly in the winter. I’d call that “blowing off steam”.
https://66.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lqt3kxPJOZ1r0gfsio1_400.gif
5000 lbs and 2200 lb ft at the wheels- I think the towing capacity is probably “Yes”.
(I was just coming here to post the Model E)
No hesitation: Bentley S3 Drophead
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/W4A0I87sl2Y/maxresdefault.jpg
http://www.imcdb.org/i038457.jpg
Nah, the Roller is too gaudy for me. Too Donald Trump (who is, after all, a real life Rodney Dangerfield character.) I like the understated classiness of the Bentley.
The Fiat Dino looks fantastic, but not too indiscreet. For some reason they are also at least 50 000 euro.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7a/Fiat_Dino_reg_1968_1987_cc.JPG
…and of all the fine, classic cars in your examplary image, it’s a 90s Rover that has popped the hood.
My wife’s cousin has a big collection of Brass Era and Classic Era cars. He and I both agree that about the most “modern” and therefore drivable and safe in almost any road environment “classics” are the 1930s Packards.
Inline eight cylindre engines…have you tried one of these? It’s on my bucket list.
Pretty sure the ’32 Packard roadster I drove was an inline eight. Back in the day, because shifting was fairly difficult, they tuned it for maximum low-rev torque. Basically, you got to high as soon as you could and left it there until you had to stop.
Sounds perfect.
That might be why there are so many around where I live?
http://packardweddingcars.co.nz/build/images/img-three-stylish-packard-wedding-cars.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-4HhpVLjKb8Q/USJhneKhpRI/AAAAAAAAruQ/3xNTfN1ikcg/s1600/PAKRRD.jpg
http://gregoryyoungphotography.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Red-Packard-_.jpg
Ask Margaret: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/102-year-old-driver-wows-car-show-crowds-82-year-old-packard-roadster-article-1.1165000 http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1164996.1348260577!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_1200/driver22n-4-web.jpg
Cobra is always the answer for me.
http://www.conceptcarz.com/images/Shelby/Shelby-Cobra-64-CSX2196-DV-12-MH-04.jpg
It never occurred to me until now, but somehow this reminds me of a disappointed character in Bob the Builder: http://tv.ark.com/thumb_v3/20100327/bob%20the%20builder-(a%20new%20job%20for%20roley)-2010-03-27-0/5_bob%20the%20builder-(a%20new%20job%20for%20roley)-2010-03-27-0.jpg
Psychologically rejecting this entirely out of not wanting to negatively affect my idea of the Cobra :/
Sorry, I was trying to make a joke, not to shatter ambitions.
Haha no worries, everybody has to hold at least something on a pedestal! Ambitions still in full force; joke still appreciated
but I feel like you could get so many replicas that perfectly mimic the experience while actually performing better. it’s almost hard to see the point of driving an actual Cobra these days.
I’d daily a kit Cobra in a heartbeat.
1937 Packard. Especially if I could get that license plate.
“Isn’t fun the best thing to have?”
http://pics.imcdb.org/0is337/vert2fg6.6311.jpg
My Tuesday answers would a Munch Mammut for max crazy
http://www.motorcycleclassics.com/~/media/Images/MCC/Editorial/Articles/Magazine%20Articles/2014/03-01/Fearsome%20Four%20Clymer-Munch%20Mammoth/Clymer%20jpg.jpg
And a Krauser MKM for stupidly expensive but sort of practical (I selected a model kit pic, because I actually own the model) Also the MKM is basically a BMW R100RS with a trellis framand 4 valve heads so it’s bulletproof.
http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Gallery/BMW%20Krauser%20MKM%201000%20%203.jpg
Although maximum crazy usable would be a Morbidelli V8
http://www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Gallery%20%20A/Morbideli%20V8%2098%20%202.jpg
Maybe I wouldn’t daily it, but Drag racing a Duesey looks fun
but it would have to be a weekend car, I’d need something a touch more modern for daily status.
so..
http://www.carstyling.ru/resources/studios/1962_Dual-Ghia_L-6.4_Coupe_02.jpg
There is a disappointing number of answers with the engine in the Wrong place.
Tatra T87
https://assets.blog.hemmings.com/wp-content/uploads//2012/07/1941TatraT87_02_1500.jpg
Bristol anything..
Specially the Fighter. A Viper in a Saville Row suit.
http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/multimedia/archive/00057/Bristol-580_57762a.jpg
Alternatively, you could daily
drivefly *this* Bristol Fighter: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/24/Ross_Smith_Bristol_Fighter.jpg/1024px-Ross_Smith_Bristol_Fighter.jpg By Frank Hurley – This image is available from the Collection Database of the Australian War Memorial under the ID Number: P03631.013This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work. A normal copyright tag is still required. See Commons:Licensing for more information.Български | English | Français | हिन्दी | Македонски | Português | +/−, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5544601916 Cadillac Type 53 http://gmauthority.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Mecum1916TownCarAuction-670×340.jpg
Rowan Atkinson had the right idea. Buy the car before it gets too expensive, (so new in this case £540,000). If something goes wrong, fix it. Have good insurance- so that it dosn’t matter when you end up with the most expensive car insurance claim ever after another accident. Which might make your new premiums too high. So then you finally sell the car – at a profit,( final price £7.5 million . But you did get to daily drive a McLaren F1 for ten years plus for more than 45000 miles. The first picture is just before he sold it, after repair from the second accident.
http://images.car.bauercdn.com/pagefiles/8695/0000000001atkinsonf1.jpg
http://home.bt.com/images/rowan-atkinson-makes-75m-profit-on-his-supercar-136398553523903901-150609101007.jpg
http://i.wp.pl/a/f/jpeg/30649/mclaren_f1_atkinson_640_daily_mail.jpeg
And I’d still daily drive an F1.
I imagine the guy I saw racing the 250 GTO had the same theory!
I also have a one-off Lancia from the ’20s in my mind, but that would hurt too much crashing; and then I also have a pre-war Tatra in my mind, but those would kill me the very first winter, so I’m thinking I’d be driving one of these. What could possibly go wrong (other than everything)?
I’m not sure there would be much difference in crashing, or did the Cord have crumple zones? Otherwise you are dealing with a solid steering column and lots of metal either way.
The Tatra would probably be reasonable in the winter thanks to good traction, but avoiding highway speeds on snow/ice would be good advice!
The safety difference would be negligible, but a Cord would be way easier to restore than a one-off. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f83de2985b51d3829268398deefa68d865306ccb626a58eff07dc1da3b7ce034.jpg
I don’t know, just post the Tatra to the Czech republic, done!
Great car above, I was able to find some information on it including that it used to be in Australia and went to the national Lancia rally in 1995. That event is held every 2 years and I only just managed to get to it last year. There were 8 or so Lambdas there including one coachbuilt car, a conventional sedan rather than this extraordinary example. Mind you, other angles that show more of the rear roofline are less attractive.
It is worth noting that Lancia only built RHD cars in this era (I think) including for Italy where they drove on the right, and that was fairly common then.
The car wouldn’t be the same without the roof dormer, though I’d like to see one done up exactly the same way but with a fastback roof.
I agree, way more unique. And the proportions of the car don’t work for a Bentley Blue Train type look.
How about this one for a daily driver? It’s a 1936 Cord that’s been fully restored inside and out, but with an LS1 swap. The crazy part is that the LS1 is attached to a Porsche transmission, so it’s still front wheel drive. They even kept the push button gear selector!
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/tail-two-thrashings-hot-rod-drag-week-really-begins-race/
http://st.hotrod.com/uploads/sites/21/2016/02/Crazy-Cord-LS-Front-Wheel-Drive-2016-AMBR20160127-0757.jpg?interpolation=lanczos-none&fit=around%7C660%3A440&crop=660%3A440%3B%2A%2C%2A