2008 Maserati Quattroporte Executive Gt* 1 Owner* Heated/cooled Seats* Pristine on 2040-cars

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Gary Cooper's 1935 Duesenberg SSJ fetches record price at Pebble Beach

The 1935 Duesenberg SSJ formerly owned by Gary Cooper sold for a jaw-dropping $22 million over the weekend at the Gooding & Co. Pebble Beach auction, setting a record for the most valuable pre-war car ever sold at auction. It also appears to have become the most expensive American collector car ever sold at auction, eclipsing the very first Shelby Cobra ever made, which sold for $13.75 million in 2016. The Duesenberg was also the lone American-made entrant in the list of top 10 sellers, which was crowded with the names Ferrari and Porsche. You have to go all the way down the list to No. 21 to find the next American car: a 1930 Packard 734 Speedster Phaeton, which sold for a mere $1.127 million. All told, Gooding & Co. said it realized more than $116.5 million in auction sales over the weekend, with a whopping 25 cars sold for north of $1 million, an 84 percent sales rate and an average transaction price of $947,174. Clearly this is how the other half 1 percent lives. Gooding & Co. said there were five world-record sales at the auction. Joining the Duesenberg were a 1955 Ferrari 500 Mondial Series II, which sold for $5.005 million; a 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Tour de France Berlinetta, $6.6 million; a 1967 Ferrari 330 GTC Speciale, $3.41 million; and a one-of-two 1966 Ferrari Dino Berlinetta GT, $3.08 million. Oh, and that 1969 Ford Bronco test vehicle we told you about? The one that was rebadged by Holman & Moody as a Bronco Hunter? It sold for $121,000, which was well below the expected range of $180,000 to $220,000. Perhaps it was the presence of all those gorgeous Porsche Spyders and Ferraris that meant collectors weren't interested in boxy, utilitarian off-roaders. View 24 Photos Gooding and Co. had expected the convertible Duesenberg coupe to go for more than $10 million. It was one of only two of its kind built by Duesenberg — the other having gone to Clark Gable — with a specially shortened, 125-inch wheelbase and a supercharged straight-eight with double overhead cams, able to produce around 400 horsepower and a top speed of 140 miles per hour. It features a lightweight open-roadster bobtail body produced by LaGrande out of Connersville, Ind. The car was also owned at one point by race driver Briggs Cunningham.

2021 Maserati Quattroporte Trofeo First Drive Review | For the Ferrari faithful

Maserati is fighting hard for relevance right now. Its car lineup is severely dated with both the Quattroporte and Ghibli. The Levante faces more accomplished competition. At least there is hope on the horizon in the form of the Alfa — ahem, Maserati — MC20 mid-engine supercar and high-tech Nettuno engine. Plus, with the Grecale crossover soon to come, there could be brighter days ahead. ThatÂ’s tomorrow, but today we still have the vanguards of the early 2010s. The current flagship, more or less by default, is the big Quattroporte, and Maserati is giving it the Trofeo treatment for 2021 in an effort to bring it back onto our radar. Previous to now, the Trofeo trim was limited to the Levante. In the Quattroporte, the Trofeo formula is similar. It plops in the unbridled version of the Ferrari-sourced 3.8-liter twin-turbo V8 engine — red wrinkle paint and all — making 580 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque. It is, without a doubt, the brightest and best part of this car. The most potent version previous to now was the Quattroporte GTS with its 530-horse version of the same Ferrari V8. Very little is done to the exterior to let you know this Quattroporte is the Trofeo apart from the script on the front fenders that are accentuated with red-painted side air ducts. Beyond this, the C-pillarÂ’s Maserati logo gets a red lightning bolt, and more carbon fiber trim is used throughout. It also comes with 21-inch forged aluminum wheels, a glossy black grille finish and the same restyled taillights applied throughout the 2021 Quattroporte lineup. Unlike “look-at-me” performance offerings from Mercedes-AMG or BMW's Alpina, MaseratiÂ’s Trofeo is notably subtle. This not only goes for the Trofeo extras, but the Quattroporte in general. The big trident in the grille announces its presence, but just as it's been from the beginning, the current-generation Quattroporte simply fades into the background in a parking lot. Our test car's beige paint certainly doesn't help. While most prefer their big luxury sedans to be restrained and tasteful, aren't Italian sedans supposed to have a certain degree of excitement and flare?  At least the Trofeo will be recognizable by the sound it makes. Even with a pair of turbochargers attached, the Ferrari engine and exhaust note are unmistakable. Although the V8 is the same basic engine as the Levante Trofeo's, the Quattroporte version gets new turbochargers, stronger internal components and new camshafts and valves.

The troubled Alfa Romeo Giulia needs serious help [UPDATE]

UPDATE: An Alfa Romeo US spokesman responded to this article with the following statement: The safety concerns expressed in the story are false. The all-new 2017 Alfa Romeo Giulia is designed and engineered to meet or exceed all federal safety regulations. The Alfa Romeo Giulia will begin production for the North American market in the late second-quarter of this year. Alfa Romeo will have a full product portfolio of premium vehicles that includes plans for (8) all-new Alfa Romeo vehicles by 2020. The product launches are prioritized by segment volumes starting this year with the Alfa Romeo Giulia production for North America starting in late Q2, followed by the Midsize-UV – the 2nd largest premium segment in North America. Even on the day you dragged them kicking and screaming and gesticulating wildly to a table full of concrete evidence, Alfa Romeo executives will never admit the Giulia program is going through a tough patch. But it is. Reports say the Giulia, on the eve of production, didn't just fail one internal crash test, but failed the front, side and rear impact tests. Alfa denies it. Automotive News published a report last week saying two suppliers had insisted the Giulia, on the eve of production, didn't just fail one internal crash test, but failed the front-, side-, and rear-impact tests. A third supplier source told us the same thing. Alfa is denying it. It was due on sale in Europe late last year and was supposed to be here in the next month or two. But it wasn't, and it won't. It was to be headlined by a twin-turbo V6 that reportedly howled its way around the Nurburgring 14 seconds faster than the BMW M3 could manage. That second part is only true if you believe it's fair to compare a full lap in a standard BMW M3 with a favorable accumulation of sector times to a development prototype Giulia with 220 pounds stripped out of it and rolling on hand-cut racing slicks. No, me neither. A Promising Start The Giulia's all-new architecture was developed in just two years by a skunkworks of young engineers headed by Fiat's engineering prince, Philippe Krief, and (bafflingly) sited inside Maserati's headquarters complex in Modena, about three hours from Alfa Romeo's own Turin HQ.