Classic AutoRAI 99: post-war cars:

Maserati, MG & Mercedes

Yet another exotic Italian sportscar manufacturer is Maserati. The Bora was Maserati's first mid-engined road car and one of the last real "supercars" to come out of the factory. It was first introduced at the Geneva Car Show in 1971 and it was developed with the financial and technical backing of Citroën, which owned a large part of the company back then.
The bodywork design for this car came from Giugiaro of Ital Design and it was quite innovative at the time. Its rounded, low-slung and wide looks are still very appealing, although dark paint colors like on the car on the picture tend to obscure that. Painted in silver metallic it is still one of the most attractive sportscar designs ever in my opinion.
Besides being good looking the Bora was also a very fast car: Its 4719 cc V8 engine developed 320 hp @ 6000 rpm which was enough for a top speed of about 270 kph. It is also pretty rare: between 1971 and 1979, its last production year, about 571 Boras have been produced. If you'd like to own a rare Italian sportscar the Bora could be the car for you: nowadays it's very undervalued and good ones are sold for about half the price of an equally fast Ferrari or Lamborghini from the same era. Beware of tricky hydraulics though.
It's a pity that Volkswagen decided to tarnish the once great Bora model name with their identically named but mindnummingly boring Golf spin-off.

Most early Maserati roadcars were Grand Tourismo coupés like this Sebring. It's based on the 3500 GTI model from the early sixties and has bodywork by Vignale. A very elegant and clear-lined car, but a bit understated. First appearance was in 1962 and the last of the 446 produced Sebrings left the factory in 1966.
Under the hood this car has a straight 6 cylinder 3485 cc fuel-injected engine, delivering 260 hp @ 5500 rpm and a top speed of 235 kph. The Sebring is not very popular on the current classic car market, in mint condition it more or less is worth its original price, which is about the same as what you would pay for a new middle-class car.
So what will it be for you: a new BMW 3-series or an old Maserati Sebring? I can tell you that it is far more difficult to find a good Sebring than a good BMW dealer...

The MG TC was the post-WW2 version of the short-lived 1939 TB model. It had a had a newly designed gearbox, a 60 litre fuel tank behind the front seats and high and narrow 19" spoke wheels. About 10,000 of these cars have been made between 1945 and 1949 and most of them have been sold in the U.S.
For a large number of people cars like these are the definition of a classic British sportscar and that's why they're still very popular. In excellent condition a MG TC can be worth ten times as much as they went for during production. At that time however TCs were relatively inexpensive, so they are still quite affordable now.
The motorization of these nimble cars was pretty humble: a small 1250 cc 4 cylinder engine delivering 55 hp @ 5200 rpm limited this 820 kg model to a top speed of 128 kph.

About the total opposite to the MG TC is this contemporary: the German Mercedes 170 S convertible. The pictured A version is also a two-seater (there was also a four-seater B version available), but both philosophy and target group is completely different to that of the TC.
Oddly enough the engines of these two cars compared pretty well: the 170 had a 1767 cc 4 cylinder (pre-war side valve) engine that turned out an even less impressive 52 hp @ 4000 rpm. Top speed was about 122 kph for this 1270 kg heavy car. But that's where the similarities ended; the stately 170 S was intended for the upper middle-class and for cruising along comfortably along the highways where the TC was an affordable motor for the determined sportsman who demanded direct driver involvement and good handling and could do without "excess" luxuries.
Nevertheless the 170-series is also very popular in the classic car scene. It has a strong following and there are a lot of owners clubs for the wide range of 170 models. The elegant 170 S Cabriolet A is one of the rarest: it was produced between 1949 and 1951 and only 830 left the factory. Its original price was about three times (!) that of the MG TC; nowadays one in perfect state does about two times the price of an equally good TC.

Go to the next page by clicking the arrows pointing right...