Coffee & Classics in Boulder in July

On the last Sunday morning in July, vintage cars filled up all of 8th Street just south of Pearl in downtown Boulder.  They included this Austin-Healey 100-6, built from 1956-'59, and a red C1 Corvette from '56 or '57.

Though the Corvette is called a C1, the '56 and '57 are visually and mechanically different from the '53 original, with concave scallops behind the front wheels, and Chevy's then-new small block V8 (introduced in '55) along with a 4-speed manual alternative to the sluggish Powerglide. The Healey, meanwhile, replaced the 2.6 liter four cylinder in its predecessor with a smooth, 2.6 liter inline six...

Mechanical differences between the '56 and '57 Corvettes included a 283 cubic inch V8 replacing the 265 for '57, and the Rochester mechanical fuel injection option that year, which made 1 horsepower per cubic inch.  Which year is this car?  Well, we never saw the engine, and missed the adjusting nut on the dash-mounted rearview mirror, which is the only external clue.  It's a wing nut on the '56, and a hex nut on the '57.  We couldn't find the owner either.  Sorry...

Meanwhile, over at Ford, the big news in 1957, the last year for the 2 passenger Thunderbird, for awhile a Corvette competitor, was the Skyliner, which remained in production through the 1959 model year shown above.  The Skyliner's innovation was a retractable metal hardtop, an idea adapted from the retractable tops offered by Marcel Poutout in 1930s France.*  

You may have noticed a 1950s theme by this point in the proceedings...

Why abandon the theme now?  In 1958 you could've had this Jaguar XK150 roadster to park in your garage next to your Ford Skyliner.  The 3.4 liter twin-cam six made 210 hp, and this was the first Jag roadster with winding side windows.  As with the XK 140 and 120, there was also a drophead coupe with a cushier padded top, and those always had winding side windows.  Automatics were available but unpopular...

A very familiar '67 Series 1 E-type Jag gets its comeuppance from a pristine Series 2 roadster from 1969, driven on this morning all the way from Niwot.  The Series 2 has 2 carbs instead of 3, a cooling system better suited to non-English weather, and headlights raised a bit to meet changing US regulations, along with tail lights below a wraparound rear bumper.

An Alfa Romeo GTV with the famous "stepnose" design features a 1600 cc version of the immortal twin-cam, all-alloy inline four, and Giugiaro's classic body design for Bertone.  The stepnose feature disappeared after the 1967 model year...

The Porsche 912 was a competitor to the GTV in this period.  This is the 87-inch wheelbase model that gave way in 1969 to an 89-inch wheelbase and slightly flared wheel wells...

This Mercedes 280SL was the first example of the "pagoda roof" series to visit.  Beginning with the 230SL in 1963, the graceful series included the one-year only 250SL in 1967, and then the 280SL that gave way to the 350SL V8 in 1971.  Unlike that wedge-themed V8 SL, the pagoda series kept the swing-axle rear suspension. The series was nicknamed for the shape of its detachable hardtop, which is not on display here.  A Saab 97 Sonnet lurks behind it...

A Ferrari 246 Dino is a familiar visitor, and we've featured more photos in previous essays.  It's been in the same family for decades, is in stunning condition, and dates from 1968.  

A Jensen Healey from the 1972-77 period brings us into the Seventies.  This one still has its Lotus Type 907 2 liter twin-cam four, one of the first 4-valves per cylinder engines offered in the US in the postwar era.  Duesenbergs and Stutz Super Bearcats had this feature in the 1930s...

The Eighties are represented by this Ferrari 328 GTS from 1986. This pristine example was featured in one of our first posts on the Sunday morning Boulder events...

And it was a record turnout for Ferraris, with this 1989 Testarossa bringing us to the edge of the modern, microchipped era.  A flat 12 making around 380 hp in stock tune keeps the driver busy.  A memorable car to drive, and hard to ignore even when parked.

We continue our tour of the lineup with a Lamborghini Diablo, built in 2,884 examples from 1990 to 2001, bringing us to the threshold of the present century.  The car was offered with 5.7 and 6.0 liter V12s mounted, as in the LP400 Countach from the Seventies, ahead of the rear wheels and behind the transmission, which nestled between the seats.  Prototype design was by Marcello Gandini, who had styled the Miura and Countach, but the production model was restyled by Tom Gale after Chrysler bought Lamborghini in 1987.  It was the first Lamborghini to appear at these Sunday gatherings...

Finally, we enter the present century with this 2006 Aston Martin DB9 Volante in a metallic green similar to the color on Aston's racing cars. Aston convertibles have been called Volantes since the Sixties.  Offered during Ford's stewardship of the firm, it features a 6.0 liter, 450 hp V12 based on the architecture of Ford's Duratec V6.  Shifting is by button-controlled 6 speed automatic transaxle; a 6 speed manual was also offered. The owner praised the car's reliability, except for the motorized top, and noted high repair costs for that.  If you have to ask...

*Footnote:  Boulder Coffee & Classics events are organized by Mike Burroughs; there's a website with schedules of national events at fuelfed.wordpress.com. We featured Pourtout's retractable hardtops in "Forgotten Classics" on April 9, 2022, and also in a post from Jan. 17, 2020 entitled "The French Line Part 1---Carrosserie Pourtout: Well, Maybe Not for Everyone."

Photo Credits:  All photos are by the author.