The Lane Motor Museum is possibly the coolest car museum in the world. Jeff Lane has built up a totally bizarre collection of wheeled mongrels to choose from, and it’s constantly shifting. As such, the museum occasionally has reason to offer up some of its artifacts to the general public in order to bring in new stuff.
Here are ten cars from the collection that are currently for sale. You (yes, you!) need to buy them!
1960 Lancia Appia – $US12,000
A beauty in blue, this little Lancia sedan is a stunner. It’s described as an “average older restoration” that “runs and drives.” There’s a bit of surface rust on the underside and some oil leaks typical of old Italian stuff. Seems like a nice price to me.
The Doors!
Besides, just look at this pillarless entry with coach-style rear doors. It’s just incredible.
1961 Lloyd LT-600 – $US50,000
Started by Carl Borgward (yeah, it looks like a Borgward design), Lloyd was meant to be a cheaper alternative in a post-WWII Europe. When new it was cheaper than a Volkswagen Beetle. This one is “recently restored” and in “near perfect condition.”
1966 Fiat 600 Multipla – $US40,000
One of the weirdest shapes in automotive, the original Fiat Multipla looks like it’s traveling backwards, as the front is very upright, while the rear is very sloped. I absolutely adore these little weirdos. This example has just 72,000 kilometers on the odometer, and is said to be in “good condition.” It even “drives well” and “stops great.”
The Doors!
Again, this thing is just so bizarre. Look at how the front doors open rearward and the rear doors open toward the front. Why would you do that? I love it.
1969 Mercedes-Benz 280S – $US15,000
Okay, this one is less rare and weird, more just beautiful and interesting. In the late 1960s, this was just a regular family sedan, albeit a nice one. Today it’s a beautiful piece of German engineering. Lane says it’s recently had a head gasket replacement, and runs and drives well.
1971 LeGrand Mk12 Super Vee – $US20,000
Hot damn, this is a live one! Aldin “Red” LeGrand was a SoCal racing chassis builder, and his company built single seaters and sports racers from the early 1960s to 1991 with quite a bit of success on the regional level. This car, a “Mk12” built for the highly competitive Super Vee class, was never given series production and this is the only example ever made. An odd little footnote in American club racing history.
It is said to be in excellent condition, and runs and drives. You’d have to ask Jeff (or a vintage racing sanctioning body) what it might need to get back into racing shape, which usually includes some safety upgrades.
Portions For Foxes?
I would love to know the backstory of this single-seat Volkswagen-powered race car from 1971, and how it came to be sponsored by indie band Rilo Kiley (active from 1998 to 2010-ish). That little possum graphic is so goddamn adorable.
1986 Alfa Romeo Spider “Graduate” – $US15,000
This car was built in 1986 to commemorate a movie that came out twenty years prior. That’s weird enough on its own, I think. I always liked these Spiders, and wouldn’t mind driving around in this beautiful example. It “runs and drives well” and is in “good condition” with 75,100 miles on the clock.
1988 Citroën Tissier Car Hauler – $US45,000
If you need to haul a car, why not trust a diesel Citroën CX to get the job done? It can carry up to 3,600 pounds, so don’t expect it to haul an Escalade or anything, but it could be a really cool vintage racing hauler.
Repairs made in 2021 include a replacement low-mile engine, transmission, suspension work, brakes, and electrical repairs. Chassis shows 552K kms, but replaced engine and transmission has under 50K kms. Runs and drives well, has some cosmetic issues.
1994 Tatra T-815 Rollback – $US45,000
If the Citroën isn’t your vibe, how about a Tatra rollback with six-wheel drive? It might not totally fit your needs, though, as this behemoth tops out at 50 miles per hour.
The example seen here is a medium COE (cab-over-engine, two passenger with berth) 6×6 with an air-cooled Tatra V-12 engine and 5-speed Allison automatic transmission. It was sold new to an Alaskan logging company, and was used for field recovery and transport of broken logging equipment. The nearest dealer is in Venezuela.
1999 Dallara IR-9 Oldsmobile – $US60,000
For the 1999 season, Oldsmobile-powered Dallaras were used by a handful of teams, including Kenny Bräck’s Indy 500-winning run for A.J. Foyt Enterprises. It was a fast combination, and won Olds the manufacturer’s cup, and Greg Ray the Drivers’ Championship that year.
This chassis has been dialed in for road course racing, but it hasn’t been on track in fifteen years, so there’s no telling what it might need to get back running again.
1950s Deutsch Bonnet Racer 500 Formula JuniReplica – $US10,000
This one is so weird even I can’t really do it justice, so here’s the museum’s explanation of what it is to do the job for me:
Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet (DB) were important names in French motor racing between 1940 and 1960. Together they embarked on designing competition cars, first with Citroën engines, but supply was troublesome and DB soon moved on to using Panhard, whose flat-twin air-cooled engines lent themselves to race preparation.
From these beginnings, the different configurations of the DB-Panhard achieved enormous success in their class, due largely to the advanced thinking behind the weight and aerodynamics of the car. At the beginning of the 1950s, it was Deutsch’s cousin Georges Boschetti, a young engineer from the Ecole Centrale who designed the car and convinced Charles and René to produce the Racer 500 DB, a single-seater formula car with a Panhard engine and front-wheel drive for participating in competition.
More than 60 years later, Claude Chaume and Catherine Baroche, attracted to post-war formula cars, decided to build a Racer 500 replica. Claude had a passion for cars and Catherine had a passion for driving them. Claude was 10 years old when he and his father built a go-cart using a 125cc Monet Goyon engine from the 50s. He also had a particular affinity for the Citroën 2CV engine. Historically, Panhard was taken over by Citroën in 1965; it seemed a perfect idea to link all these connective elements and create his own single-seater Racer 500 DB.
It took just four and a half months to complete. They befriended Raymond Janiaut, a specialist of DB in Côte-d’Or, France. He had an authentic Panhard Racer 500 DB from the same era. Raymond has remanufactured a large number of the DB monoposto Racers that are currently driven today. He lent Claude and Catherine the body molds to an original Racer 500 DB so that the proportions of the “new” Racer were perfect.
Rather than a complete copy, this one is a close evocation, assembled with reliable and easy-to-find parts. The steering wheel is from a Fiat 124 Spider, with mirrors from an Austin Mini. The original Racer 500 DB used the 610 Dyna-Panhard engine, underbored at 497cc instead of 650cc to qualify for the 500c class of Formula Junior. Claude and Catherine fitted theirs with a 1980s Citroën 2CV6 602cc, twin-cylinder. It is stock except for an added oil cooler.
The frame was rendered by computer software using the same dimensions as the original Racer 500 DB, but they took a few liberties, including the more modern and safer roll bar. The gearbox remained the original 2CV6, with power to the front wheels. The engine is fueled by a simple 5 liter jerrycan fitted behind the seat. They called their car Racer CC (Claude & Catherine).
Both Claude and Catherine marveled at the authenticity of their Racer CC. Catherine described her drives, in vintage racing goggles, as pure exuberance! This is one of 12 purported to have been built so far.
The 1950s Were A Wild Time, Eh?
In period, this car wouldn’t have even had the roll hoop over the back of the car. And you were supposed to race it in the extremely competitive Formula Junior championship? Woof.
Which Would I Buy?
It’s a really tough call, but I think if I were in a buying mood, I’d stick the LeGrand on the back of the Citroën hauler and have a blast getting into vintage open wheel racing. You can catch me running down the highway toward Laguna Seca playing Rilo Kiley’s The Moneymaker at max volume.