Parking Lot Sighting: 1972 Mercury Comet GT

Note the rare Dodge Dakota Sport Roadster pickup visible in the background.

College Cars: 1937 Delage D8-120 Drop Head Coupe

This is College Cars, a recurring feature about the Academy of Art University car collection. Today we look at this 1937 Delage D8-120.

This Delage is one of only 12 D8-120 Drop Head Coupes built by Henri Chapron. It's powered by a 115-horsepower overhead valve straight-8 engine turning the wheels through a Cotal 4-speed pre-selective transmission. This car was purchased by the Academy of Art University at the Gooding & Co. auction in Arizona in 2010 for the princely sum of $605,000.

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.