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For Sale: An Official A-Team Van – 1 of 6

This 1979 Chevrolet Van is one of just six that were built and licensed by Universal Studios to Hollywood Productions Inc. to promote the TV series throughout the U.S. and Canada from 1983 to 1987.

The vans that were built for use on screen were mostly destroyed and few are known to remain, the video clip below is a good example of what happened to most of them – the scriptwriters of The A-Team were just as fond as body-bending jumps as the Dukes of Hazzard writers.

The A-Team Van

In The A-Team TV series that ran over five seasons from 1983 to 1987 a number of GMC G-series/Chevrolet Vans were used – all painted with the distinctive black lower body, with a red stripe, and a grey upper body. They were fitted with a rear spoiler, a front air dam, quad exhaust tips on either side, and 15″ American Racing “Turbine” 14 spoke wheels with 60 Series BF Goodrich Sport Truck T/A radial tires.

Above Video: A compilation of A-Team van jumps from the original TV series.

Unlike many vans, the G-series offered considerable power thanks to their 350 cu. in. V8 mounted upfront, they were originally topped with a two barrel carburetor but aftermarket parts suppliers offered all manner of upgrade kits for them – as a result some were genuinely quick and drivers could easily get themselves into trouble.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the van craze was in full swing, there were even “vansploitation” films made to cash in on the movement. In more recent years we’ve seen a modern resurgence in vans thanks to the van life movement, where people buy themself a cheap van, set it up with basic living amenities and take to the road for adventures.

The A-Team played no small part in making vans desirable to a wide audience, and replica A-Team vans are commonly made from surviving GMC G-series vans, right down to the replica machine guns in the back.

The A-Team

The A-Team TV series hit the airwaves in 1983, it had originally ben pitched as “a combination of The Dirty Dozen, Mission Impossible, The Magnificent Seven, Mad Max and Hill Street Blues, with “Mr. T driving the car”, it’s not hard to see why the studio gave it the green light.

The term “A-Team” was originally a nickname coined for US Special Forces’ Operational Detachments Alpha (ODA) during the Vietnam War, it was chosen for the series as the four main characters are former Special Forces who are on the run after being court-martialed “for a crime they didn’t commit”.

The series featured B.A. Baracus (Mr. T) alongside John “Hannibal” Smith (George Peppard), Templeton Peck (Dirk Benedict), and H.M. “Howling Mad” Murdock (Dwight Schultz). Episodes largely featured around various capers and the van was usually heavily involved – frequently being modified for special purposes.

The A-Team Van Shown Here

As mentioned in the intro, this van was built and licensed by Universal Studios to Hollywood Productions Inc. to promote the TV series throughout North America. In this role it will have attended countless shows and appeared frequently in various local media stories.

Inside the van you’ll find the signature four white bucket seats, cabinets for storing weapons and equipment, guns mounted to the wall, and most importantly, a belt-fed machine gun mounted in the back to shoot at pursuing enemies.

Worldwide Auctioneers are offering this van without reserve at the Scottsdale Auction on Saturday January 23rd, with the proceeds benefiting the J. Kruse Education Center, a 501(c)(3) organization providing career pathway development to students and transitioning veterans.

If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing.

Above Video: The wildly popular opening sequence and theme song from The A-Team.

Images courtesy of Worldwide Auctioneers

The post For Sale: An Official A-Team Van – 1 of 6 appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/official-a-team-van/
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Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 - 1968 by Perico001 W109 6.323 cc V8 396...

Mercedes 300 SEL 6.3 - 1968 by Perico001 W109

6.323 cc
V8
396 PS
Vmax : 270 km/h

Techno Classica 2013
Essen
Deutschland - Germany
April 2013 https://flic.kr/p/2khWtiD

from Tumblr https://somar78.tumblr.com/post/637837519934865408

Mickey Thompson’s Personal Chevrolet Corvette Z06 “Tanker”

This car was Mickey Thompson’s personal daily driver back in the mid-1960s, it’s a rare Corvette Z06 “Tanker” – essentially a factory-built race car that could be ordered as an option package for an additional $1,818.45 USD in 1963 dollars. That works out to $15,473.94 USD in 2020 money.

For this significant financial outlay Chevrolet would build you a lighting-fast Corvette with a cavernous 36.5 gallon (138.16 litre) fuel tank, this led to the cars being nicknamed “tankers” and the moniker is still in use today almost 60 years later.

Early in 1963 Chevrolet only offered the Z06 package on the coupe version of the Corvette, later in the year they would also offer it on the convertible – however the convertibles didn’t get the larger fuel tank as part of the package and had to make do with the standard 20 gallons of fuel.

When ordering your 1963 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 the dealer would explain to you that it was going to come ready to win races, with a Rochester fuel-injected 327 cu. in. L84 V8 turning out 360 hp. This engine was mated to a close-ratio 4-speed Borg-Warner T-10 manual transmission which sent power back to the Positraction rear end with 3.70:1 gearing.

Chevrolet still fitted the car with drum brakes front and rear despite the fact that discs had been catching on with other manufacturers for a few years by this time. In order to better compete with discs they used large 11.2 inch finned drums both front and rear with ample venting, sintered metal brake pads, and a dual-circuit master cylinder.

Suspension was similarly race-focussed – the stock suspension was replaced with heavy duty suspension that consisted of firmer shock absorbers, stiffer springs front and back, and a thicker anti-sway bar up front.

Possibly due the fact that the Z06 cost added almost 50% to the price of the car it wasn’t a wildly popular, frequently used by racers and few others. Just 199 would be built by the time the 1963 Corvette left production, and today they’re highly collectible – particularly in original condition.

The car you see here belonged to Marion “Mickey” Thompson, one of the most prolific speed and endurance record setters in American history. He started out in the world of hot rodding before getting into drag racing – a sport he would fundamentally change in just a few short years. Over the course of his remarkable life Mickey would have a huge impact on a variety of motorsports, an impact we still feel today.

Mickey used this vehicle as the “Sears/Allstate Tire Test Car” and it was researched, confirmed, and documented to be Thompson’s personal driver by Corvette expert David Burroughs’ 24 page “Prove It” report.

The car was used as the advertising model for Mickey Thompson mag wheels early in its life and in more recent years it has won a slew of awards including NCRS Special Interest Display awards in 2003, 1998, and 1997. It was also displayed at the National Corvette Museum for one and a half years, it was in America’s Dream Corvette 60th Anniversary display and it won the Hot Rod Power Festival Award of Excellence.

If you’d like to read more about the car or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Mecum. It’s due to cross the auction block in January and at the time of writing there’s no hammer price estimate listed.

Images courtesy of Mecum

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For Sale: An Original Ferrari Daytona Steering Wheel

This is an ordinal Nardi steering wheel from a 1971 Ferrari Daytona, it has an estimated hammer price of £1,500 to £2,000 ($2,004 to $2,672 USD) making it reasonably affordable as far as vintage Ferrari parts go.

The wheel will probably be bought by one of two people: either someone who needs a replacement steering wheel for their Ferrari Daytona or someone who wants to mount it to their wall or place it on a shelf as a display piece.

Nardi steering wheels are among the most famous steering wheels in the world of classic automobiles, alongside their longtime rivals Moto-Lita from Britain. Nardi was founded by Enrico Nardi – a highly regarded racing driver in the 1930s and 1940s who competed around Europe including in the Mille Miglia.

He worked with many of the true greats of the Italian automobile industry during his life including Enzo Ferrari and Gianni Lancia. Enrico Nardi enjoyed a good relationship with Enzo Ferrari, having been the company’s first test driver, and when he began manufacturing steering wheels they were used by Enzo in his road cars for many years – a testament to their quality.

This steering wheel measures in at 38cm in diameter (outside diameter), it has the horn-push centre button and it’s fixed to a cast alloy boss.

The wheel itself is of an alloy-three piece design with a wood wheel that has finger grooves on the rear. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid you can click here to visit the listing on Bonhams.

The post For Sale: An Original Ferrari Daytona Steering Wheel appeared first on Silodrome.

from Silodrome https://silodrome.com/ferrari-daytona-steering-wheel/
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