Thursday on Bring a Trailer and the lineup reads like someone raided a very serious collector’s rolodex and a very adventurous barn on the same afternoon. We’ve got pre-war supercharged oddities, Italian open-air drama, a one-of-a-kind American racing legend, and a Scout that someone had the audacity — bless them — to drop a Vortec into. Bidding is still quiet across the board, which means the window to watch these close for a steal (or a spectacle) is wide open.
Cunningham C-4R Continuation
Stop everything. The Cunningham C-4R Continuation is one of the most significant American racing car names you can put on a piece of metal. Briggs Cunningham’s original C-4R campaigned at Le Mans in the early 1950s, making it part of a short, glorious chapter in American motorsport history that most people have completely forgotten. A continuation car carries enormous weight for collectors who care about that story, and the fact that nobody has touched it with a bid yet suggests either nobody’s noticed or everybody’s doing their homework first — my money’s on the latter.
1965 Maserati Mistral 3500 Spyder
The 1965 Maserati Mistral 3500 Spyder is the kind of car that makes you want to invent an Italian coastal road to drive it on. The Mistral Spyder was built in tiny numbers — we’re talking genuinely rare even by exotic Italian standards — and the 3500 inline-six is one of the sweeter-sounding engines to ever come out of Modena. Open-air, mid-sixties Italian, and carrying a name borrowed from a Mediterranean wind: this one doesn’t need a hard sell.
1989 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet M505 Slant Nose
The M505 factory Slant Nose option on the 930 Turbo was not cheap when new, and it is certainly not cheap now — which is exactly why the 1989 Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet with the M505 Slant Nose deserves your full attention before bidding opens up. Combining the widowmaker 930 Turbo with a factory-fender conversion AND a cabriolet body puts this in a very exclusive corner of the 911 universe. The 930 already commands serious money; add the Slant Nose and drop the top, and you’re in a different stratosphere entirely.
Estates, Wagons, and Avants: A Collection of Longroofs from Tnbusiness71
Collector Tnbusiness71 is dropping a whole curated collection of wagons, estates, and Avants on BaT in one shot, and honestly, good for them. The longroof faithful have been a passionate and growing corner of the collector market for years now, and a themed multi-car collection drop is always an event. Whether it’s Audi Avants, European estates, or something else entirely lurking in this group, wagon people are already sharpening their credit cards.
Vortec-Powered 1977 International Harvester Super Scout II 4×4
The Vortec-powered 1977 International Harvester Super Scout II 4×4 is exactly the kind of restomod that splits a room — purists are clutching their pearls while everyone else is figuring out how to explain this to their spouse. The Super Scout II was the extended-wheelbase variant of IH’s legendary off-roader, and swapping in a GM Vortec V8 is a well-worn recipe for turning a cool old truck into something you’ll actually wheel hard without apologizing to it afterward. Practical? Controversial? Absolutely yes to both.
1941 Graham Hollywood Supercharged Model 113
If you’ve never heard of the 1941 Graham Hollywood Supercharged Model 113, you are not alone, and that’s actually part of what makes it fascinating. Graham-Paige was one of those American independents that built genuinely interesting cars right up until the industry consolidation of the war era swallowed them whole. The Hollywood used a supercharged flathead six and wore some of the most dramatic — some might say polarizing — styling of the prewar era. This is a deep-cut collector piece for someone who wants to show up to a concours and have nobody recognize their car.
1971 Lamborghini Espada Series II 5-Speed
The Espada is the Lamborghini that Lamborghini fans don’t talk about enough, and the 1971 Lamborghini Espada Series II with the 5-speed manual is proof that Sant’Agata was capable of making a proper four-seat grand tourer before grand tourers were boring. The Series II brought refinements over the original, and a 5-speed manual in an Espada is the spec you want — these aren’t always easy to find in this configuration. It’s big, it’s exotic, it’s Italian, and it goes like stink when it’s right.
RoW 1997 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe Vesuvio Edition 6-Speed
The 993-generation 911 is already firmly in the “modern classic you should have bought ten years ago” column, but the Rest-of-World 1997 Porsche 911 Carrera S Coupe in the Vesuvio Edition with a 6-speed has extra layers of desirability. RoW-spec cars often carried equipment or configurations unavailable in the US market, and the Vesuvio designation adds a limited-run collectibility angle on top of the already-blue-chip 993 Carrera S platform. Manual gearbox, last of the air-cooled 911s, rare edition — this is a three-check-boxes kind of listing.
Fuel-Injected, Chevy 406-Powered 1966 Ford F-100 w/Custom Travel Trailer
Saving the most chaotic-neutral listing for last: the fuel-injected, Chevy 406-powered 1966 Ford F-100 with a matching custom travel trailer is the kind of package that makes auction junkies do a double-take. A bow-tie engine in a Blue Oval truck is already a conversation starter — add fuel injection and a bespoke travel trailer and you’ve got a rolling lifestyle statement that’s equal parts campground king and Saturday-morning cruise-in legend. The matching trailer detail alone is worth clicking the listing for.
That’s your Thursday on BaT — a spread that runs from prewar American rarities to last-of-the-air-cooled Porsches, with a restomod Scout and a Ford-flavored Chevy engine thrown in for good measure. Zero bids across the board right now, which means the real action is still to come. Set your alarms, do your homework, and we’ll see who blinks first.
