We arrived just after the 8 o'clock opening on the last Sunday of the month, parked the old Lancia, and noticed the already long coffee line outside the door of Spruce Confections, along with many of the usual suspects in the lineup of old cars. You know, Alfas and BMWs and lots of Porsches, with your occasional Ferrari sprinkled in. We thought, "Gee, it's going to be another case of too many cars and not enough coffee this morning." But we forgot about coffee when we saw this...
The owner-driver of this British-built Ariel Atom drove up with his young son just in time to steal the show. What is an Ariel Atom? According to the manufacturer's website, it's an attempt to change your thinking about road-going transportation. In standard form, a turbocharged 2 liter 16-valve four makes about 320 hp, and gets you to 100 mph in 6.2 seconds. This Atom has been modified by its owner, with superchaging supplanting the turbocharger, and around 400 hp at the rear wheels. In a 1,350 lb. vehicle, he says it's beyond his capacity as a driver to explore its potential. Notable design touches are the open trusswork sides, the pushrod-operated inboard suspension dampers, the cycle fenders, and the complete lack of weather protection. When asked if it was necessary to take off the steering wheel to exit the car, the owner said, "No, but it's the only anti-theft strategy we have."
The Indiana plate says "Get off your phone and drive." Well, yeah...
More conventional participants (well, cars with body panels, anyway) included this Alfa Romeo 2000 GTV from the early 70s, the usual flotilla of Porsche 911s, and BMWs including the 2002 hiding behind that red 3-Series...
There were more Ferraris than you'd see on an ordinary morning in Boulder, including this Testarossa from the late 80s. Leonardo Fioravanti's body design for Pininfarina seemed to view the car as wind-processing machine. The slatted air vents feed side-mounted radiators intended to reduce heat gain compared with the previous front radiator, mid-engined Boxer model. The flat 12-cylinder, 4.9 liter car replaced the Berlinetta Boxer in 1984, and nearly ten thousand were built over a dozen years...
After which the Testarossa was replaced by a front-engined, V12-powered car at the top of the line, the 550 Maranello. The silver car shown below is a 575 Maranello, which features a 5.7 liter, 4-cam V12. The car was offered with two 6-speed transaxle options, one automatic...
Obeying alphabetical order, Ford comes after Ferrari, and this 1927 Model T provides maximum contrast to those Italians. 1927 was the last year for the Model T, which launched the mass-production revolution in 1908. The 177 cubic inch, side-valve inline four made all of 20 hp, but it put Americans on wheels...
We're putting this Zephyr next in order because it's really a Ford (built at Dagenham in England). This one, which appears to be a 1958 model, was powered by a 156 cubic inch, OHV inline 6 making 90 hp. The 107 inch wheelbase was only 2.5" less than the Ford Falcon that Ford's Dearborn factories would release in 2 years. For some mysterious reason, these compact Fords shared almost no common parts...
\\A Jaguar XK120 from 1954 (the last year) shows a real contrast in style with the wedge-shaped Lotus Sprint hiding behind it. Released in 1949, the XK120 shook up the British car industry by offering an unprecedented performance / price ratio, and spearheaded Jaguar's export expansion in the USA.
This Lancia Delta Integrale has been featured in a previous post, but it's a favorite, so here it is again. The all-wheel drive, turbocharged Delta Integrale was introduced in 8-valve form in 1986, and the 16-valve version of the twin-cam four appeared 3 years later, winning in its first rally appearance.
The blue Lexus LFA is seldom seen here, or really anywhere, as only 500 were built from late 2010 to late 2012. In that way, the exotic LFA inherits the mystique of the Toyota 2000GT from the Sixties, also a rarity. But unlike the 2 liter, 6-cylinder GT, the LFA features an even-firing 4.8 liter V10 driving the rear wheels though a 6-speed "automated manual" gearbox.
The Lotus Sprint (called Eclat in Europe) was built from 1975 to '82 and went with a lighter, more minimalist approach. The Lotus-built, Type 907 engine was a pioneering example of a 4-valve per cylinder configuation, and was successful in adapting to US emissions regulations. A twin-cam aluminum inline four, it also powered the first versions of the mid-engined Lotus Esprit.
The MGA 1600 Mk. 2 first appeared in 1961 the year after the MGA Twin Cam went out of production. The 1622 cc, OHV inline four offered 86 hp, 6 more than the previous 1588cc model, but 20 less than the Twin Cam, which had been doomed by early reliability problems and cost. The 1600 Mk. 2 was reliable and successful with SCCA racers. In true SCCA style, this one has a cut-down windshield. That means when you need to put the top up, you need to find the oriiginal windshield and frame...
As noted before, there are always lots of Porsches at the Sunday events, and the lineup across from Spruce Confections involved air-cooled and water-cooled varieties…
But, wait a minute, what do we have hiding in the trunk of what at first appeared to be a 912?
It's a sizable battery pack; that's what. Pat Curtin of Farland Classic Restoration in Englewood, CO described the conversion* to full-electric operation, combined with restoration of the early-style, short (87") wheelbase 912 chassis.
According to Pat, the converted 912 offers about 100 miles of range in normal driving. One goal of the conversion was to avoid making structural changes, like cutting into the floor platform. As a result, as with Jaguar's prototype electric E-type conversion*, one could theoretically convert the car back to IC power. But that's hard to imagine, as the 912 EV offers much better acceleration than the original. And, as Pat points out, most drivers are ready for a stop and a stretch after traveling a hundred miles in an early Porsche. Cost of a converson like this is about $45,000, exclusive of the original car. Eagle-eyed readers will note that the tidy, plaid-seated interior has a clutch pedal. That's because, unlike many EVs, the 912 conversion* uses the original 4-speed transaxle...
The motive power and driving wheels are at the other end of the 1970 Saab Sonnett III shown above and below. The Type 97 was a re-bodied version of the Sonnett ii, made from 1966 and initially offered with Saab's two-stroke inline 3. Saab switched to the Ford-built V4 in '68, and upgraded that 1.5 liter engine to 1.7 liters in the Sonnett III. The restyled body of Sonnett III was by Sergio Coggiola in Italy, and as with Sonnett II, it was built in fiberglass.
The driver of this "wide mouth" Triumph TR-3 has, like the MGA's owner, gone with the chopped-down SCCA-style windshleld. The wider grille replaced the narrow one after 1957; the 2 liter, 4 cylinder car was successful in club racing in England and the USA, and gave way to the more powerful TR4 with wind-up windows in 1962.
The owner of Nissan's new-style Z, here in Proto version (240 built with special yellow and black livery) had to park in the alley because he arrived late. But onlookers noticed the Series One 240Z* parked in the alley across 8th, and arranged a meet-up. Conveniently, the Series 1 reference car is also in yellow...
Viewed from the rear, the 2023 Z is obviously wider. The early 240Z was just over 161" long on a 90.7" wheelbase and weighed 2,355 lb. It offered 150 hp from its OHC, 2.4 liter inline 6, with a 4-speed manual gearbox. The 2023 Z is longer, at 172.4" on a 100.4" wheelbase, and weighs just over 3,600 lb. But it offers 400 hp from a twin-turbo 3.0 liter V6, and either a 6-speed manual or 9-speed automatic. Not apparent in the photos, the cars are roughly the same height in standard form, just over 51"...
The rectangular grille is a clear reference to that first 240Z, where it simply marked the boundaries between flanking fenders, hood and underpan, as former Nissan design consulant Albrecht Goertz described it, "almost nothing."
The roof line and lack of decoration also seem to be in the spirit of the original, though car mags have noted that the new Z is heavier and more expensive than the outgoing model. We noted that the windows behind the B pillar, though in the same shape as the Series 1 reference car, allow only a tiny view outward. But to the onlookers who surrounded the car soon after it arrived, Proto Z generated plenty of interest. Sort of in keeping with the monthly Classics and Coffee. For a schedule of Classics and Coffee + related events in Boulder, you might want to visit fuelfed.wordpress.com.
*Footnote:
Other classic conversions to electric power, including some Porsches and that Jaguar E-Type, are reviewed in "Classic Cars Go Electric", posted here on July 31, 2021. Nissan's sports and specialty cars have featured in this blog before, in "Forgotten Classic: Fairlady Z" from July 9, 2023, in "Whatever Happened to Nissans Bodied by Zagato?", posted September 25, 2016, and in "Mass-Produced Customs----Nissan Pike Cars: Pao, S-Cargo, BE-1 & Figaro", posted September 12, 2017.
Photo Credits:
All photos are by the author.
