Estate Sale Find: Multiple Race Car Projects
While most estate sales these days generally reveal few surprises as it relates to collector cars, there’s always one that makes you stop in your tracks. This is the case with an upcoming public auction in Illinois, where several vintage track vehicles will be sold off to the highest bidder, including this 1971 De Tomaso Pantera, plus several others, listed here on AuctionZip.com. Thanks to Barn Finds reader Paul Z. for the find.
While the Pantera may be the top banana as it relates to value and rarity, it’s clear the former owner of these cars did not mess around when it came to building a track-ready ride. This Nissan 240Z track car comes with box flares, turbine-style wheels, lots of aero touches, and no engine. There are pictures of other engines in various stages of repair on stands in the shop, so perhaps the original engine is still hiding out somewhere inside
Then there’s this later Nissan 300ZX which received a similar fender flare treatment, along with a full cage, racing bucket seat, hood induction system, and more. No other information is offered about this car’s track credentials or what types of events it ran, but I suspect that’s because the auctioneer doesn’t have that level of insight into a car’s history. It’s great to see a mid-90s sports car like this up for grabs, but it’s hard to say what a fair sale price would be .
And for something completely different is this gorgeous 1935 MG. This one clearly doesn’t fit in with the others, but I love a collector with varied tastes. As per usual, the auctioneer has very little info, but it’s obvious this one was either cherished or restored or possibly, both. This and the Pantera will likely draw the strongest bids, but you never know – people tend to get a little loopy when they’re determined to bring something home.
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Comments
That Z is the one to bid on.
It’s an early ‘70 240z. You can tell by the lack of vents on the C pillars (where the emblems would typically be). Also, it has the vented hatch covers , but that’s less of an indication, as people swap those all the time.
Someone needs to get that VIN – there could be an interesting story there!
The 300zx is a tube frame car using custom suspension and Wide 5 hubs/wheels. The giant hood scoop likely covers triple Weber carbs (as used on Porsche 911’s) or three downdraft Weber IDA’s on top of a Nissan VG series V6.
It also likely has some type of 5 speed dog ring transmission and a quick change rear end, all common pieces in tube frame cars for SCCA GT2 in the 90’s.
The 240z could be the real sleeper of the lot though, as its likely been a race for for much of its life. The round SCCA and R/W/B road racing championship decals in the quarter window give away its relative age as those have not been used by SCCA as identifying decals since the early 80’s. The car also has an SCCA Runoffs Tech sticker, the blue Valvoline Runoffs decal above the rectangular SCCA decal on the front fender. The Runoffs were Valvoline sponsored in the mid to late 80’s. The final age giveaway is the Firestone decal above the RR tire, as Firestone quit making road race tires in the mid 80’s.
Hopefully the logbooks are with the cars and can tell their stories.
I was at this auction it was very interesting. Unfortunately the guy was a dentist in the area and died of a massive heart attack suddenly but none of these cars have been touched in a long time. This house was only about 20 minutes from Autobahn country club.
the 240Z sold for $4500
the 300Z sold for $3500. was a VG30 engine car. Very old school build with wilwood quick change rear ends.
Pantera was 45-50k
If I was more into nissans/ datsuns it would have peaked my interest but I’m not. I race mazdas, bmws, porsches.
It was sad to see how cheap things were being sold at. this auction wasn’t advertised really at all. The auctioneer did a terrible job. The parts were being sold at insane prices. I remember a pallet of nissan 240z full blocks selling for $30-40. Transmissions for nothing. Titanium connecting rods set for $40. (retail was prob $1-1500) There was literally a wall of carbs/ intake manifolds for these cars so many different setups. A truck bed tool box full of rear differentials ($240z). Sold for nothing prob 10 in there everyone prob had an aftermarket diff if i had to guess based on what this guy spent on his cars/ builds. It was sad to see the family get penny’s on the dollar for this stuff.
Nathan, thanks for posting, but what a heart breaker. Long time Datsun/NIssan guy (with W2W experience) wish I knew about this…