Forgotten classics?

[matty46]

I was thinking of cars that I forgot about and thought... You know what thats a cool classic car one day! Things like the Mercedes SEC Coupé from the 80's is a great contender as a "forgotten" classic. So whats your cars to make the list ???

[northwest monkey]

BMW M Coupe.

[giuliatz2]

Alfa Guilia TZ2. Much overlooked by the 33 Stradale/Tipo.

De Tomaso Pantera (noone I know seems to have heard of it anymore)

BMW 8 Series

Ferrari Maranello

Nissan Primera (must be poverty spec)

[daveofedinburgh]

giuliatz2 said:

Alfa Guilia TZ2. Much overlooked by the 33 Stradale/Tipo.

De Tomaso Pantera (noone I know seems to have heard of it anymore)

BMW 8 Series

Ferrari Maranello

Nissan Primera (must be poverty spec)

Pantera was my first thought too.

Yanks haven't really forgotten them as far as I can discern- Spinelli and his buddies on /DRIVE have discussed them quite a bit in the last few years.

Have a vague recollection of reading about an American kid buying a 'bring a trailer' type example, doing a home mechanic resto, then driving his date to the high school prom in it. IIRC it looked a bit 'Countach', but in a good way. Bet alot of Panteras are getting well-deserved TLC in North America/ Canada right now.

It's getting tougher to come up with genuinely 'forgotten' classics these days, as they are becoming increasingly more tempting places for people to put their money.

Imho the true 'forgotten' classics are the properly retro (pre 80s/ 90s) Jap cars like original Skylines, Datsuns etc. Plenty of people starting to speculate on these, again the Yanks seem to be all over them.

Not convinced that the original BMW breadvan can be considered 'forgotten' anymore- good ones start just under £20K and climbing. Unicorn low-milers are £30K+.

[coppice]

Pantera wasn't that uncommon a sight in early 70s- my then home Leeds had a resident Pantera owned by racer Chris Meek and others were seen regularly. Of course they were raced too. The really rare birds were things like Iso Grifos and AC 428s. Ironically Cobras were a very rare sight indeed - I never saw one on the road in period,a bit like the Lotus Cortina legend- "of the 10,000 originally made 15000 now survive"

[swisstoni]

I think these have disappeared in plain sight.
They were certainly invisible to me until I started looking for a convertible (for my wife mainly) which I might find OK to drive myself. I then started noticing them around and about and realised that they looked pretty good. Its subsequent face lifts that have made post 2008 versions progressively uglier.
And then I noticed that were not a lot of money for what they were, so I recently bought one a bit like this.

[Don1]

There is a car, with Le Mans heritage. V6 twin turbo. Rare, good looking.... and currently sitting about £25k (during the summer).

Venturi Atlantique.



Other brands would include Marcos, Lister and Spectre.

[C7 JFW]

I think Forgotten is the wrong word, but under appreciated would be correct for the:

Nissan Skyline R33 GT-R

Price wise they are available from 8-13k currently and whilst many have questionable bits done to them, those parts are easily removed. Clean R33's in general have been extremely rare for the past few years as a result of people using and abusing and coming short on upkeep and maintenance.

I could easily see a good one with strong history or a high quality rebuild appreciating significantly.

In 10 years time having a clean Skyline will be the preserve of few.

[giuliatz2]

Has to be the Skyline R32, R33 and R34 too well known

[battered]

At more modest money, Honda Prelude. Shed money now, and great cars.

[matty46]

The Skyline is a future classic for me in my opinion but one car over looked has gotta be the Fiat Punto Cabriolet its rare to see and styled by Bertoné so i'd say its made the "list"

[s m]

Don1 said:

There is a car, with Le Mans heritage. V6 twin turbo. Rare, good looking.... and currently sitting about £25k (during the summer).

Venturi Atlantique.



Other brands would include Marcos, Lister and Spectre.

Nice , looks like a mini F40 in that pic

[coppice]

matty46 said:

The Skyline is a future classic for me in my opinion but one car over looked has gotta be the Fiat Punto Cabriolet its rare to see and styled by Bertoné so i'd say its made the "list"

Hmm ..brave choice that man . I'll raise you a Fiat 600 Giardinetta and a Honda Beat.

[mikey77]

battered said:

At more modest money, Honda Prelude. Shed money now, and great cars.

What he says. I wish I hadn't sold my 2.2 VTI. Or my 1986 2-litre twincam. I saw the VTI parked in the street recently and was sorely tempted to put a note on it, offering what he paid and a bit more.

[LotusOmega375D]

Don1 said:

There is a car, with Le Mans heritage. V6 twin turbo. Rare, good looking.... and currently sitting about £25k (during the summer).

Venturi Atlantique.

That's not a Venturi Atlantique. It looks like the fearsome Venturi 400GT. You won't pick one of those up for £25k any more.

[300bhp/ton]

giuliatz2 said:

Alfa Guilia TZ2. Much overlooked by the 33 Stradale/Tipo.

De Tomaso Pantera (noone I know seems to have heard of it anymore)

BMW 8 Series

Ferrari Maranello

Nissan Primera (must be poverty spec)

I think there is a difference between forgotten and unknown.

Niche cars, which where only around for a short period of time, and not recent. Aren't forgotten, they just weren't well known in the first place.

[Fleckers]

Opel Monza 3.0 GSE
Opel Manta GTE
Vauxhall Shovit HSE
Vauxhall Frizena [sp] with the dropsnoot front end
Vauxhall Astra GTE from 1983/4 the square one normally in white