1912Staver

When I was in High School I had a 1966 Mustang 2 + 2 . I afforded it quite easily on my weekend job earnings. { 12 paid hours / week at minimum wage } Insurance and gas came out of the same pay cheque, but I was 17 so living at home for nothing. These days the same car is way , way out of reach. How times have changed. Mine wasn't 100% stock. Aftermarket wheels and headers. It was the 1970's after all.

My guess would be marine. But it could just as easily be a hoist engine. Stephenson link reversing mechanism. So something that either needs to go back and forth or up and down under power.

1969 Mercury Cyclone C.J.

In 1975 this was 100% a problem. These days this looks like a great deal to me. If they were Cosworth Sierra's ; the next step in Cosworth's racer for the road development you would be looking at more like $40,000 - $50,000. Instead of Cosworth working their magic on the the Vega bottom end, the Sierra was based on a Ford Pinto short block. Is a Pinto based engine really worth 10 X or more what a Vega based engine is worth ? Unfortunately too many projects already, but this package is seriously tempting!!!

These engines have a lot of potential. The full race spec. versions had problems with cylinder distortion, but like rockettraider says a power output of at least 270 HP. Not bad at all for a N.A. 2 liter . Dial it back to 150 - 175 H.P. and they are wonderful. The Cosworth Ford 4 cyl. is even better either in 1.6 or 2.0 Liter form. But prices for those are $10,000.00 + these days. { just for the engine }

I guess my previous comments were not clear enough. This car only makes sense to a local Canadian buyer. That's because of the very high cost of bringing a " better " car back home to Canada. 99% of the local, potential buyers could not care less that a running , driving 75%+ better overall New Mexico car is available for only about 4 or 5 times the price. { by the time you get it back home and paid for in Canadian dollars. } The Canada / U.S. border is a 50 foot high wall of extra expense for would be Canadian buyers. Even more so at the entry level, starting point of a street machine level. Whatever power train is in either car is going to be the first thing pulled out and listed on marketplace for $500.00 - $1000.00. Then a clip goes in , followed by a crate motor. Dozens of cars like this at car shows around here. Tons of interest in cars like this in my area. The scruffy but not too far gone appearance is seen as a bonus to most potential buyers, not a drawback that needs $ spent to correct. I agree, this car makes no sense at all for a U.S. buyer who has financially unhindered access to the far larger U.S. market.

I forgot to ask, what engine in the Caterham ?

If I could roll back the clock 40 years that would be a dream pairing. The LaSalle for my father and the Caterham for me. Too late for my father, but still some time left for me and something Seven- ish. I don't need to go too fast on the road these days. So something like a L.H.D. Series 1 Seven replica would fit the bill . A warmed up 1275 BMC A series would be more than enough power , but a 1500 or 1600 Kent is possibly a better choice. I had a early 1960's build 7 ish home built years ago. But pretty poor engineering compared to a Lotus built car. Sold it in the later 1980's but looking back I should have held on to it. The track car homebuilt I currently have would also make a very close to a Caterham road car substitute . Once again a bunch of poorly worked out details in the original build. But the basic chassis is done reasonably well. Once I get all the rough edges worked out of it I may attempt to change it from a dedicated Auto - X er to a road going machine. It was built as a circuit racing car and had a massive, high down force body built out from the basic 7 ish chassis. A pretty flimsy sub structure and a lot of thin alloy panel work. But crude and apart from the down force not much to recommend it. I am 99% going to not use it. Much like later Mallock's but without all the well engineered tech in a Mallock.

I will put things into a bit of perspective. { I have been doing the old car thing here in British Columbia for about 50 years now } First thing you have to realize is that for the local market this is actually a quite desirable car. Many / most of the more upmarket local cars were high graded to a U.S. buyer a decade or more ago. Or in very long term ownership, will as often as not will change hands to an insider. Great body style of a great looking car. Most sub 10 K 1950's , 2 Dr. Ht. cars around here are needs everything , total basket cases. And most of the time nothing for paperwork. The paperwork alone makes this car at least 30 % - 40 % more valuable than the same car without paperwork. And that any car bought in the U.S. is going to cost a lot more by the time you have it home in your garage. Anywhere from 50% more to 100% what you paid for it in the U.S. { Canadian dollars out of your pocket vs what you paid in U.S. dollars } So that $20,000 New Mexico 51 Pontiac is going to look more like $40,000 to a British Columbia buyer. Also bear in mind it is just as hard for a Canadian to earn / set aside $100.00 Canadian as it is for a U.S. person to earn / set aside $100.00 U.S.D. Worst of both worlds, cost of living is high here and wages are nearly always less than in the U.S. Why do you think so many U.S. TV and Movie production companies do so much filming here in Canada? They save a ton of money paying Canadians to do all the non actor work compared to paying U.S. wages to film in the U.S. The market here is tiny compared to the U.S. , but the number of affordable , decent starting point cars around here is even tinier. Much tinier. Not what I would do ; but like I said, 98 % this will end up as a street machine with a crate motor, clip , 9 inch rear end.

The Caterham sounds great. A 7 or 7 concept car has been on my bucket list for 50 years now. I have a home made knock off . track car. Sort of a cross between a 7 and a Mallock. Built in the 90's by a local racer. Not so sure about the Le Mans coupe. I had a MGA coupe back in the late 1970's. Hot and very noisy { interior noise } out on the road. Sold it quickly and put the $ into rebuilding the engine on my MGA roadster. I still have the roadster.

In this part of the world [ the car is only a few miles from me } this is absolutely a good deal. Two or three years from now this will be showing up at car events with a crate motor and modern drive line. Compared to 99% of what is on offer around here in the sub $10,00.00 bracket this one is a sure seller. Just next door to Washington State, but not just another country, a whole different world as far as old cars go.

Unfortunately this sort of situation seems to happen quite a bit with relatively rare and desirable estate / elderly owner vehicles. A family member is tasked with selling the car and advertises at what most would call a realistic " priced to sell without further fuss " price. Then various people decide they just have to have it and bid it to the absolute top ; given the condition , price or even beyond. I have seen it a number of times. Most recently on a local early 1960's Morgan. Very long term storage { about 30 years } elderly owner going into a home. Son selling house and car. Owner's memory seriously fading and can't remember why he parked the car back in 1992. Not a bad car, but generally pretty scruffy. { much like this Buick } Son advertises it on the local British car club site for a pretty reasonable price. And the son's messages explode. Car sells for over twice the initial asking price. No bargain at all considering the money that needs to be spent before the car sees the road again. And that is assuming there wasn't a serious failure that caused the car to be parked in the first place. More or less the same thing happened about 4 years ago on a similar long time sleeping Morgan except it only went for about 50% more than the initial asking price. There could be triple the number of Morgan's and late 30's Buick convertibles in the world and still the prices would be high. Relative low production cars that are reasonably easy to bring back to life and that are great cars out on the road.

Hit and miss style engine ? Perhaps try Smokstak.

One of the best tracks in North America. I have made the pilgrimage several times over the decades.

The one easy to find thing for most Brass Era cars are lights. That and most magneto's. If anything got saved when a brass era car was junked it was either the lights or the mag. If only all the other parts were so easy !

Tex Riv hit the nail on the head ! What car hobby person doesn't have a bucket list of cars ?

My father was very interested in Vintage cars, but never owned one except when a young man driving what were just " used cars " at the time. But he took me to lots of shows and other old car related events. The cars he was interested in varied quite a bit. Late 1930's Buick's and LaSalle's, 49-51 Mercury's , 62 Old's Starfire's and a number of others. He worked at a GM Dealership all his life. But as a parts man , and mainly the medium duty and larger truck end of GM. He did almost all of his own maintenance and repair, right up to ring and valve jobs. I became very interested in the old car hobby as a result.

As far as I know flat base lifters are not heat treated, at least in the way most people think. The cam contact end is " chilled " when the casting is still hot from the casting process. The chilling makes the grain structure of the fresh casting very hard and dense. I expect most old lifters can be reground at least once as long as the wear / pitting isn't too deep. It used to be a very common practice at cam grinding shops.

Bring A Trailer results for Lotus Eleven. lotus eleven For Sale - BaT Auctions (bringatrailer.com)

Here is a very worthy car already right in the U.S. It's in the for sale, " not mine " section. A bit pricy perhaps { but not by much in my opinion, I have been tracking these cars for 50 years now } , but look on Bring a trailer to get an idea of what they usually go for when correctly restored. The most recently sold one that went for a heavily discounted price is I feel something of an outlier. Mostly due to the fact that it is 95 % new construction . Pay more attention to what the more correct / authentic ones are selling for. Why bend over backwards to bring fragments back from Europe when really great projects are right here in North America?

Not at all. Everything from total basket cases to show winners and everything in between.

If it is a car that is worth { at least to you } importing from Europe , and restoring from a tattered hulk. I would think a " salvage " heading on the Title is irrelevant / the least of your worries. Please clue us in to just what this machine actually is. { we are not going to fly over to Europe and buy it out from under your nose } Why is it worth such extreme effort ? Lots of very rare { and even some rare AND desirable } projects already in North America. Why not look a little closer to home ? Unless we are talking about a vehicle of at least say Aston Martin DB4, 5 or 6 status or equivalent I can't see where this is ever going to work out for you.

Agree 100% Gearheadengineer. The shop I worked at in the mid 1980's had one of these in for some work. It looked a lot like this one from the outside. Once up in the air it was easy to see the frame had quite a bit of serious rust . Worst was where the rear section joined to the side rails. Never buy one of these without a very close , in person check of the frame.

100% a scam !! It has all the warning signs!! Drop any interest at once, it is "too good to be true." They are are setting you up for fraud.

Stutz ?