Great Cars Available…Get It Before It's Gone. Check the date of the post. If it is a few weeks old, it is probably too late.

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How it happens…Sold

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Frequent readers to Mint come to the site to see what we think are some of the most interesting or just appealing vintage, classic or special interest cars available for sale. We put the offerings to bed in the evening the day before most of the time before dinner Eastern Daylight Savings time. The listings go live around 2AM the next day. Our email subscribers receive their notice at 8 AM. During that almost 12 hour lapse in time, some really desireable cars sell. Rather than pull the listing from the site, we leave it up so you can see what the market says about that particular car. If you think there is a better way to handle it, please comment.

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Be careful out there…

With our office now located at Auto Turismo Sport, we see lots of new acquisitions by owners who have not seen nor requested a thorough PPI prior to purchase. That, dear readers, is Russian roulette, vintage car style. Some are lucky and get what they expected but in most cases there are surprises. Big surprises. DSC_1752Like “no floors in my new Porsche” surprises. In most cases, you have very little recourse for cars that are misrepresented. So you have to suck it up and lose some money. Read More

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Spring isn’t in the air…

ATS Colonel

It’s still cold here in Northwest, Connecticut however we know Spring will come…when it is good and ready. And ready we must be so the M-B 230S aka The Colonel is up in the air at our shop getting the leaking steering box resealed. It has some pretty interesting company. A beautiful ’71 Porsche 911T, a ’84 911SC and, get this – a real live Alfa-Romeo GTA. The GTA is getting suspension components installed so it can get moved around easily. It is a genuine GTA with all the visible rivets and aluminum panels. Alas, none of these fabulous cars are for sale (at this time).

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Amelia Island RM Auction: Cars we will be watching…

We’ll let smarter people try to predict whether the rise in collector car prices will continue unabated. There are a few cars that we have a special interest in mainly because we’ve either helped a buyer find one recently (or tried to) or know someone who might be selling a similar car. We selected 3 cars at RM Auctions: 74 Grifo1974 Iso Grifo 7-liter Coupe: Auction estimate $185,000- $250,000. This one is a story car so it won’t really reflect the value of a 7-liter car from the already small production run and without modification. '72 GTC41972 Ferrari 365GTC/4: Auction estimate $225,000- $275,000. We tried to place a car that we have “available” with a reader in California. We learned a lot about the surge in popularity of these desirable 12-cylinder Ferraris. This one looks spectacular and probably one of the best available. 59 Jolly1959 Fiat Jolly: Auction estimate $75,000 – $95,000. Auto Turismo Sport performed a ground-up restoration on one. We learned a lot about wicker seats in the process. These go for spectacular numbers and could be the canary in the coal mine if it sells at the low end.

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2014 Amelia Island Concours & Auctions

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Mint is hitting the road with our final destination, the Amelia Island Concours. Amelia Island has become one of the premier automotive events in the country. And along with the Sunday display of incredible cars on the lawn there is an amazing assortment of auctions, seminars and exhibits at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel.

So we will be on the road quite a bit during the next 10 days since we decided to travel the East Coast by car. Uncertain winter weather will provide an added bit of uncertainty that we will have to monitor carefully. We’ll be driving a car totally unsuited for the trip but that is what makes it interesting. We’ll be reporting on auction results as they happen.

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Watch The Hennessey Venom GT Hit A World Record 270.49 MPH At NASA

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A Hennessey snake bite vanquishes the Bugatti Veyron title as fastest production car. Not by much but just enough. It doesn’t take long to watch this video so if you have gasoline in your veins, watch it. Click on the image above, go full screen and turn up the volume.

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Hemmings Sports & Exotics April Issue

Mint version

We don’t expect you to run out and subscribe to Hemmings Sports & Exotics Magazine just to read an article about—-US!!! Well, it isn’t exactly about Mint2Me but it is about our Mercedes-Benz 230 S rally Tribute aka: The Colonel. Hemmings is a classic/vintage car juggernaut with 4 magazines in print each month. Hemmings probably started it all with that classified ad, brown covered classic that we couldn’t wait to get back in the day before Al Gore invented the Internet. Thankfully, Hemmings has gone digital too so you can read all of their publications on your iPad. We give a shout out to Terry Shea for a well written, accurate article about our journey with The Colonel. I could give you a link to the article but that wouldn’t be fair to Hemmings.

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AUTOWEEK Recognition!

One of our daily readers forwarded to us a link to an AUTOWEEK Magazine article listing the 10 Most Memorable German Classic Cars of 2013. Well, it appears we have qualified for recognition.

Read the article by clicking here.

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Happy 1st Anniversary!

First PostIt feels like just yesterday when we published our first featured post – a ’61 MGA. Well, 1,231 featured cars later and we have reached this incredible 1-year milestone. Along the way we have met or talked to so many interesting and knowledgeable car people. We think the timing for Mint2Me was perfect. The collector car hobby has never been more exciting as more and more people join our ranks. If you look back 10 years, would you have ever forecasted live coverage of automobile auctions? Going forward, we will continue to search for the cars that we like and hopefully you will have interest in too. Our tastes are pretty eclectic therefore on some occasions you might say to yourself, “what were they thinking.” That’s okay. Our skin gets thicker by the day.

Now is the time to think of Mint as something more than an interesting read with your morning coffee. You see we’ve been very successful in finding cars for our readers. We’ve also sold a few under our Preferred Program. Both have fees attached but they are modest in comparison. Before you move on, you can help us out by sending in some treasure that you have found. We can’t promise to feature every one but if it is Mintworthy, we will.

Screen shot 2014-01-31 at 5.11.45 PMWe would like to give a shout out to our friends at Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car Magazine. It is a terrific publication and a fitting extension to the traditional Hemmings Motor News. If everything goes okay, there will be a feature article about our ’67 Mercedes-Benz Fintail in the April issue.

To our daily or occasional readers, we like to thank you for your interest and we welcome any ideas that may help us make Mint a better place to visit.

Michael Maddalena and your friends at Mint2Me Media, LLC

 

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More Auction Results: ’14 Gooding & Company, Scottsdale

We continue to digest the auction results from last week’s successful Scottsdale auctions. And since we were not overwhelmed by anything offered on the market for our Daily Digest, we thought our readers should pause to look at some of the results along with us. Perhaps it might change the contents of your bucket list. All we can say is maybe our ’67 Mercedes is going for a one-way trip to Monterey this August! Click on the image below to take you to the Gooding results.Screen shot 2014-01-20 at 5.32.46 PM

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Bonhams Auction Results: Scottsdale

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No one should be astounded by some of the numbers achieved by A-list cars at Bonhams. There were some good values too and that confirms the direction the market is taking. For example, a super nice ’62 TR4 Surrey top with good ownership history went for $32,000. And how about a sweet MG TD in great colors and condition for $20,000. Let’s throw in a ’64 Morgan Plus 4 in excellent condition for $30,000. That is not enough sanity to combat a ’77 Porsche 911S selling for $88,000. Click here to see all of the results to date.

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Congratulations! Announcing the most popular Mint listing of 2013

As we approach Mint2Me’s first anniversary, we took a look at some statistics provided by our website host, WordPress. We had some surprising news. Out of the 1,165 cars we featured during our first year (actually 11 months), the Fiat X1/9 was our most popular featured car (by page views). The Fiat was submitted to us from David Scheinberg, the original owner and careful caretaker of this little Italian jewel. The Fiat sold within days although the transaction took a little longer to complete as most long distance transactions do. But everyone is happy and if I remember correctly, the seller flew in to Michigan flew in and drove it home to California. 

When launched in 1972, the Fiat X1/9 was the first affordable mid-engine sports car, and was immediately dubbed the “Baby Ferrari”.  Those early cars were powered by a 1.3-liter SOHC four putting out about 63 hp in U.S. trim, running through a 4-speed gearbox.  This particular example is at the other end of the X1/9’s historical arc – 1987 was the final model-year during which X1/9s (badged “Bertone” from 1982 through the end of the run) were imported to the U.S.

Bertone X1/9Compared with the early models, the ’87 is more powerful (displacement up to 1.5-liters, and output to 75 hp), more relaxed and fuel efficient on the highway (5-speed gearbox; 32+ mpg on regular fuel), more modern and reliable (Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection; well-sorted electrical system), and more durable (improved corrosion resistance).  Read More

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Success at Mint: ’14 Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray Convertible

Lou 2One of our frequent readers, Lou O., really wanted a new 2014 Corvette. He wanted one of the first convertibles and pay a fair price for one. His experience shopping on his own, was less than pleasant. Either the dealer wasn’t allocated any Corvettes or the dealer added a signficant “dealer profit”. We read this on The GM Authority Website that described his experience: “As the 2014 Chevrolet Corvette begins to trickle into dealerships, the more greedy establishments are not hesitating to charge as much as $10,000 and more for their C7 Stingrays on the block. Way to go, guys. At the same time, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Stuff like this always happens when it comes to vehicles as hotly anticipated as the new Corvette.” And they were referring to the Coupe and not the Convertible! We know a great dealer who has a franchise on Long Island and New Jersey so we gave them a call. We put a deal together and a few months later, Lou’s Cyber Grey Convertible arrived at the dealership.He paid a fair price and the dealer is happy to have a new customer. If you are looking for that special car, give us a chance to make it happen for you.

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Recent Featured Car Updates

Toyota-Supra-Turb

Toyota Supra – No bids

 

 

 

 

1959 Porsche 356A 1600

Porsche 356 Cabriolet – No Sale at $100,109

 

 

 

 

 

53 Hudson Jet

Hudson Jet – Sold at $4,206

 

 

 

 

 

Porsche 914

Porsche 914 2.0 – Sold at $13,100

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As the season ends, we recap the story of our rally car experience.

Every car deserves a name. We named our Mercedes – The Colonel. So what’s with The Colonel you ask? Well, we love cars with stories. Our 230S was originally purchsed by a US Army Colonel while stationed in Brussels.

Our introduction to the 230S on eBay with this image.

Our introduction to the 230S on eBay with this image.

Original documents from Belgium

Original documents from Belgium

It is a European specification model with those gorgeous headlamps (5 bulbs in each lamp). He was transferred to Puerto Rico briefly (the badge on grill is from Puerto Rico) and shipped the Mercedes with him. From there, he went to Seattle. The Mercedes stayed in the family until 3 years ago when a M-B fan purchased it with the intention of making it his wife’s daily driver. That plan unraveled when they left for Europe for a year. It sat with fuel putrefying in the gas tank. We found it on eBay and 2 weeks later, the car you can (as the seller states) “get in and just drive” arrived at my mechanic’s shop. I made it about a 1/4 of a mile before it choked to death on contaminated fuel. That signaled the beginning of a systematic rebuild/refresh to make it a reliable and competitive vintage rally car. First things first – get the fuel delivery system clean. The gas tank had to be removed, boiled and re-lined and the entire fuel system cleaned. We added an electronic ignition, all new filters, then a complete fluid/lubrication refresh to benchmark it.

Work begins in January at Auto Turismo Sport in New Milford, Connecticut

Work begins in January at Auto Turismo Sport in New Milford, Connecticut

The shipper (DAS) destroyed the rear shocks but that gave us the opportunity to get a set of adjustable Konis.

The handy work of Dependable Auto Shippers. You can't see all of the damage while the shock is in place.

The handy work of Dependable Auto Shippers. You can’t see all of the damage while the shock is in place.

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