Parking Lot Sighting: 1964 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 Limousine

Aluminum Intensive Vehicle: 1996 Panoz AIV Roadster Prototype Chassis #002

(all pictures from seller)

While the Panoz AIV lost quite a bit of its original beauty compared to its predecessor, the later AIV Roadster is still a very pure sports car and is as good or better a performer. 

The car featured here is the only Panoz ever painted Toreador Red, was custom-built for the parents of company founder Danny Panoz, was used in the factory promotional video "Drive and You Shall Fly" that was distributed to potential customers in 1996 and 1997, and was featured in the AIV debut at Chateau Elan Winery in September 1996, where the likes of Pete Brock, Adrian Reynard and Jack Roush drove it. It was then taken to Detroit to become the EPA certification car, then was parked in the back of a shop at the Panoz factory and rarely used. 

This car has 4,900 original miles, has Roush alloy wheels, is one of 4 prototype cars built in 1996, features a Panoz-designed 4-wheel independent suspension, a 305-horsepower, 4.2-liter, 32-valve aluminum-block Ford Mustang Cobra V8 and a Tremec T45 5-speed manual transmission, and is made of aluminum with fiberglass-composite fenders. 

Factory specifications follow:

   Panoz AIV Roadster specs:

• Transmission: 5-Speed Manual

• Engine 4600cc (Ford)DOHC V-8

• Power (bhp) 305 @ 5800 rpm

• Torque 300 lb-ft @ 4800 rpm

• Redline: 6800 rpm

• Miles Per Gallon: 17/23 mpg

• Curb Weight: 2570 lbs

• Performance (0-60mph) 4.3sec

• Performance (0-100mph) 11.7 sec

• Top Speed (mph) 140

• Braking, 0-60 mph: 119 ft 

• Place Of Manufacture: Braselton, Georgia (USA)

Find it here for $32,900 USD at WireWheel, and enjoy this video of a production Panoz AIV:

Missed Opportunity: 1974 Lotus Elite

(all photos from former seller, wirewheel.com)

While this car may no longer be available, and the "wedge" Elite may be polarizing, one still cannot deny that this was a milestone car for Lotus. 

The car in question here, recently sold by wirewheel.com, was far nicer than most other Elite projects seen on the market, had unusually good paint, fiberglass and trim for the model, which could be explained by long storage, the car has factory air conditioning and has had the ghost of Joe Lucas partly exorcised with a Crane Fireball electronic ignition and MSD coil, has had dual electric cooling fans and has only 36,000 original miles. 

Unfortunately the seat upholstery was worn and it needed work from having been stored, and I don't know the sale price, but one could do a lot worse as a starting point, and these cars are great with Ford small-block or Rover V8s.

Find the sold listing for this Lotus here.

Forbidden Fruit: 1998 TVR Griffith 500 Blackpool Edition in the USA

final edit, 2/13/2013: SOLD! Again, we hope we influenced it, and we'd love to hear from the new owner!

edit, 1/18/2013: This car is on hold by the seller. We hope that we helped influence this move.

(all photos from the seller, wirewheel.com)

This rare British roadster, with only 18,000 miles, and a model never sold in the USA, somehow ended up at a British sports car specialist in Florida. While still too new for legal ownership in the US, it just turned 15 years old, so this car can be legally imported and enjoyed by Canadians, it can be repatriated to the UK very easily, and there are many other places that this car can be owned and driven legally. Just 10 more years before it can come to the US, assuming that a politician with protectionist or uberenvironmentalist intents does not overturn the 21/25 exemption in favor of something stricter or no imports at all, or if 21/25 is liberalized into something like what Canada has for private vehicle imports.

The design is unusual but appealing, the engine is a 5.0-liter, 340hp Rover V8 with fuel injection and backed by a 5-speed Tremec manual transmission, it is fully loaded with leather seats, air conditioning, an alarm system and power windows/locks, and being a British car manufactured for Japanese exports, it is right-hand drive. 

$43,900 USD buys this car, but Insomniac Garage does not recommend that an American purchases the car unless they export it to a vacation home or timeshare in Canada or some other place that it is legal, registers it there and does not bring it to the US until it is legal.