Cohort Outtake: Cars Help Make Friends

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The CC Cohort is a great source for photographs of Curbside Classics, and also an insight into how fellow Curbivores observe Classics, and how they are used. Predominantly the Cohort is of modest cars, not the true top end brands and models, and that’s how we (normally) like it, but occasionally something comes in that isn’t, such as this Bentley Continental, Aston Martin DB6, Jaguar XK120 and Ferrari 330GT, all seen In Rochester, VT, by Monteverde3 (Gene Herman at CC.

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These cars were seen when taking part in the recent Pan-American Friendship Rally 2016. This was a non-competitive event, for cars built before 1970, crossing the US from San Pedro, California to Boston, Massachusetts, going through 27 states in around 35 days and 10,300 miles. The route was selected to be constantly scenically spectacular, to be on tarmac and to cover two of the most outstanding roads in the US – Pike’s Peak, Colorado and the Tail of the Dragon in Tennessee. Many of the cars were shipped over from Europe for the event

But what of the cars? There were 25 cars entered (and the number limited deliberately by the organisers), and Gene has chosen four of the highlights for these photos.

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The Bentley Continental has been seen on CC before, not least in this wonderful piece by Don Andreina.  4.9 litres and 6 cylinders of traditional British elegance, and downright beautiful to boot, I can think of fewer cars I’d rather cross America in, or take to the Laundromat. Can you?

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Or maybe you have Aston Martin lust? Certainly, doing a Sean Connery and Ursula Andress impression up and down Pike’s Peak in a DB6 sounds attractive, to say the least. This example in a 1970 car, so it is a late DB6, which was being superseded by the Aston Martin DBS, which became the V8 when the new V8 engine was fitted.

As it happens, these were not quite as fast or a good to drive as Sean Connery’s exploits might have suggested, but the craftsmanship was definitely there, and now so is the value.

The other car in the shots is a 1953 Jaguar XK120 fixed head, one of three XK sports cars on the rally, and a car with genuine long distance rally credentials, though 10,000 miles would have been a very long one back in the early 1950s

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And the fourth choice, from a marque rarely seen on CC, the Ferrari 330GT, in this case a 1964 Series 1 2+2 version. This is (no surprise) a front engined V12 grand tourer, with a 4.0 litre engine, hence 330cc per cylinder giving the model name. The first series of cars were identified as the 330 America, which may have been clue to its intended market, but the Series 1 cars had a 2 inch longer wheelbase and heavily reworked Pininfarina styling.

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Amongst the other cars not covered by these photographs were a 1972 Bristol 411, a 1965 Mercedes 300SE Cabriolet and a selection of Austin-Healey 3000 sports cars. If you can’t make friends in cars like these….

So, what would you take for this rally? Pre-1970, production standard?