Rare is defined as “something not found in large numbers.”
Our list of rare cars built in the US only includes those models that were intended to be sold to the general public. That knocks out some rare classics like the 1964 Ford GT 40 and the 1969 Chevy Camaro ZL1 that were both specifically designed for racing but leaves some real beauties whose numbers are small but whose popularity among collectors is huge.
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America’s love affair with the Corvette began at the January 1953 Motorama auto show in NYC where it was introduced as a concept car. Nobody had seen an American sports car like this. Sleek, curvy, low to the ground with rocket ship taillights and a toothy grill this roadster was an immediate hit with the show crowd and auto critics alike. The praises for the Vette came rolling in but Chevrolet had built it purely as a show car and had no plans to put it in production.
And then they changed their mind.
Not wanting to risk the farm on a new untried sports car, with the exception of one major innovation the original Corvettes were made from off the shelf parts from other GM cars. The innovation was fiberglass. With the Korean War going on steel was difficult to come by so Chevy became the first manufacturer to mass produce an entirely fiberglass body. The engine was a 235 cu. in. inline six cylinder used in passenger cars tweaked just a tad by adding three single barrel carburetors and dual exhaust.
They hand built 300 of them, all in polo white with red interiors. The option list was short; an AM radio and a heater. The price…$3498 fully loaded as it were. Today if you can find one of the 300 expect to pay north of $200,000.
Okay, this one comes close to violating our ban on cars built specifically to race because the Hemi Superbird was a variant of the Road Runner that Plymouth built to attract racing phenomenon Richard Petty away from Ford. It is one of the oddest looking cars with a bolt on nose and a mile-high wing in the rear but when you drop a 426 Hemi engine under the hood looks take second place to performance.
Inside the Superbird is no great shakes. In fact it looks like a hardware salesman’s commuter car complete with bench seats and vinyl covers. If however, that hardware-salesman decided to let it out on a straightaway he’d best be sure his nuts and bolts were firmly strapped in. This car was intended to win drag races and with the 425 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque you are in for the ride of your life if you keep your right foot planted.
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Petty did join Plymouth and won seven races in the Superbird in 1970. Plymouth built over 1900 Superbirds that year and many of them sat on dealer lots unsold because customers didn’t like the weird wing design. However 138 of those vehicles had the Hemi installed and they went fast. In a recent auction one of those 138 which was originally sold for $5,503 in New Jersey, drew a winning bid of $226,000.
If you can’t conjure an image of this one in your mind just flash back to James Dean in a Rebel Without a Cause. We included the Mercury because of its iconic look and its reputation as one of the most modified cars Americans ever owned. It seems like owners, whether they bought the ’49 new or used couldn’t keep their hands off it.
The result was a removal of excess chrome, frenched headlights and taillights, severe lowering of the suspension, even hacking off the roof. Every owner wanted a personalized ride and the coupe’s ominous profile with its sloping fastback roof and long hood delivered.
The ’49 Mercury coupe could quickly go from America’s feel good ride to a sinister almost wicked custom appearance. And it wasn’t just a wicked look. Under the hood there was a 5.7L V8 pumping out 350 hp, three-speed Turbo Hydra-Matic 400 automatic transmission, independent front suspension and live rear axle with Air Ride system, and four-wheel hydraulic brake system.
If you can find one of these icons, KBB estimates you will lay out $40,000 to $60,000 for the right to park it in your driveway.
Classic designs, innovative features and reputedly smooth handling, the Cord L-29 Cabriolet launched during the Great Depression and ended its career with just 4400 units built. The Cabriolet bespoke of an era with its oversized front fenders, side fold up engine access panel, running boards, spare tire featured on the side of the body, wire wheel covers, white sidewalls and overall classic look that conjures up images of The Great Gatsby.
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The L-29 had several innovative features including the first front-wheel drive and a complicated but functional electronic transmission. Powered by a Lycoming 125 hp engine it wasn’t the fastest in its class but it was easily one of the best looking.
Today you might find bits and pieces of the car offered up for as much as $35,000 plus of course the cost of restoration. A fully restored Cabriolet recently went for over $400,000.
In 1930 Cadillac, operating under the pressure of leadership, launched a limousine that encompassed two new ideas. Cadillac believed that their customers wanted an engine simultaneously more powerful and smoother than any other available and with several competitors examining V12 designs the obvious solution (at least to Cadillac) was to build bigger, specifically 6 cylinders bigger. The result was a 452 cu. in. V16.
Fortunately the auto style of the time called for long hoods and minimal rear ends so the appearance of the V16 meshed nicely with the sophisticated look of luxury cars of the time. Cadillac had one other advantage over the completion and that was GM’s decision to buy Fisher Body and Fleetwood Metal Body both outstanding carriage shops that actually dressed the raw V16 chassis. Most luxury manufacturers farmed out the finishing of their chassis giving Cadillac an advantage in delivery time by finishing their cars in-house. It also gave them options in design and they ended up offering no fewer than 70 different models to the public.
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Despite the fact that the stock market crash of 1929 heralded the start of the Great Depression, Cadillac sold 2,000 vehicles (almost half the total sales the model would sell over the next decade) by June 1930 but that’s when the financial crunch took a real bite worldwide and sales plummeted. Over a decade the V16 sold only 4,112 vehicles ending in 1940 with a total of 50 units going out the door. Of course if you could find one of these today the price would probably be in the neighborhood of the total sales Cadillac realized for the V16 over 10 years.
Well that’s the list. There are easily a dozen or more models that could have been on it. When a country builds cars for over a hundred years there are bound to be unforgettable and rare vehicles but we will save those for another day.
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