Collector car model histories
One rich, honest page per model — production numbers, specs, what to look for, common problems, and market context. Every non-obvious fact is cross-checked and cited, with uncertainty called out rather than glossed over.
Compare two models head to headNSX (NA1/NA2)
1990–2005 · 18,734 built
The Honda NSX — sold as the Acura NSX in North America from late 1990 — is the car that proved a mid-engine supercar didn't have to be temperamental. Honda…
Spider (105/115 Series)
1966–1993 · 124,104 built
The Alfa Romeo Spider (105/115 series, 1966-1993) is the longest-lived single model in Alfa Romeo's history and the last car overseen by Battista 'Pinin' F…
770 (1961–1968)
1961–1968 · 3,878 built
The Amphicar 770 is the world's first — and by far the most successful — mass-produced civilian amphibious car: a car that drives straight into a lake and …
Ur-Quattro (Original quattro coupe (B2 platform))
1980–1991 · 11,452 built
The Audi Quattro of 1980-1991 - called the Ur-Quattro since, to separate the car from the drivetrain that took its name - is the machine that moved four-wh…
3000 (Big Healey (3000, Mk I to Mk III))
1959–1967 · 42,926 built
The Austin-Healey 3000 (1959-1967) is the last and best known of the Big Healeys, a body-on-frame two-seater and 2+2 built by BMC at Abingdon on Jensen-mad…
2002 (02 Series)
1968–1976
The BMW 2002 began as an improvisation. Alex von Falkenhausen, who ran engine development, and Helmut Werner Bonsch, who ran product planning, had each qui…
Isetta (Isetta 250 / 300 and BMW 600)
1955–1962
The BMW Isetta was not a BMW design. It began as the Iso Isetta, drawn for Renzo Rivolta's Milanese refrigerator and motorcycle firm by the engineers Ermen…
M3 (E30)
1986–1991 · 17,970 built
The BMW M3 (E30) is the car that founded the M3 name, and it was born for one reason: to go racing. BMW needed a homologation special to qualify a 3 Series…
M3 (E36)
1992–1999
The E36 M3 (1992-1999) is where BMW M stopped building homologation specials and started building a product line. Where the E30 M3 was a four-cylinder Grou…
M5 (E28)
1985–1988
The BMW M5 (E28, 1985-1988) was the first car to wear the badge and the car that created the super-saloon class. It was a plain four-door body, assembled b…
Camaro (First generation)
1967–1969
Chevrolet met the Ford Mustang three years late, and with more engine. The Camaro was shown to the press in Detroit on 12 September 1966 and reached dealer…
Chevelle SS (Second generation)
1968–1972
The second-generation Chevelle SS covers the 1968-1972 A-body, and across those five model years the car changes character completely. It arrives in 1968 a…
Corvette (C1)
1953–1962
The Chevrolet Corvette C1 (1953-1962) began as a Motorama show car and spent its first two seasons close to cancellation. The 300 cars built largely by han…
Corvette (C2 Sting Ray)
1963–1967 · 117,964 built
The second-generation Corvette (1963-1967) replaced the C1's leaf-sprung live axle with an independent rear end on a shorter 98-inch wheelbase, and added a…
Corvette (C3)
1968–1982
The third-generation Corvette (1968-1982) took the Mako Shark II show car's waisted, high-fendered shape into production and then carried it, largely uncha…
Corvette ZR-1 (C4)
1990–1995
The Corvette ZR-1 was the option that turned a Chevrolet into a 175 mph car. Announced for 1989, delayed a year and sold from 1990 to 1995, it was built ar…
DS (D-Series)
1955–1975
The Citroen DS (1955-1975) replaced the Traction Avant after a programme running intermittently since before the war. Andre Lefebvre laid the car out with …
240Z (S30)
1969–1973 · 164,616 built
The Datsun 240Z is the car that put Japan on the sports-car map. Launched for 1970 (built from late 1969), it paired a smooth 2.4-liter overhead-cam inline…
510 (Third-generation Bluebird (510))
1968–1973
The Datsun 510 was the North American name for the third-generation Nissan Bluebird, launched in Japan in August 1967 and sold in the United States from 19…
Pantera (Pantera)
1971–1992
The De Tomaso Pantera (1971-1992) came out of an arrangement that had no obvious precedent: an Italian mid-engined coupe drawn by an American working at Gh…
DMC-12 (1981–1983)
1981–1983 · 8,975 built
The DeLorean DMC-12 is one of the most instantly recognizable cars ever built: a wedge-shaped, Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed coupe wrapped in unpainted brush…
Challenger (First generation (E-body))
1970–1974
The first-generation Dodge Challenger (1970-1974) was Chrysler's late and expensive entry into the pony car war, and the more upmarket of the two E-body ca…
Charger (Second generation)
1968–1970
The second-generation Dodge Charger (1968-1970) replaced the fastback first car with a Coke-bottle B-body coupe on a flying-buttress roofline, and the mark…
308 GTB/GTS
1975–1985 · 12,112 built
The Ferrari 308 is the car that put a mid-engined V8 Ferrari within reach of a generation — and, thanks to Magnum, P.I., into millions of living rooms. Lau…
328 GTB / GTS (328)
1985–1989 · 7,412 built
The Ferrari 328 (1985-1989) is the last and most developed form of the transverse-V8 line that began with the 308 GTB in 1975, and it is best read as a ref…
Dino 246 (Dino 246 GT and GTS)
1969–1974
The Dino 246 GT and GTS were built at Maranello between 1969 and 1974 and sold under the Dino marque rather than as Ferraris. No prancing horse appeared on…
F355 (F355)
1994–1999
The Ferrari F355 (1994-1999) replaced the 348 and set out to correct almost everything the earlier car had been criticised for. The name is a specification…
F40 (F40)
1987–1992
The Ferrari F40 (1987-1992) was built to mark the marque's fortieth year and was the last new model Enzo Ferrari personally approved and presented before h…
Testarossa (Testarossa)
1984–1991 · 7,177 built
The Ferrari Testarossa (1984-1991) replaced the 512 BBi and was designed around two specific complaints about that car: a cabin cooked by coolant pipes run…
Bronco (1966–1977 (First Generation))
1966–1977 · 225,861 built
The first-generation Ford Bronco (1966–1977) was Ford's original compact 4x4, conceived under Donald Frey and approved by Lee Iacocca to challenge the Jeep…
F-100 (Fifth generation (‘bumpside’))
1967–1972
The fifth-generation Ford F-Series, built for the 1967 to 1972 model years and universally called the bumpside after the horizontal crease running from fro…
GT40 (Mk I / Mk II / Mk III / Mk IV)
1964–1969
The Ford GT40 was the product of Henry Ford II's decision, after a failed attempt to buy Ferrari, to win the 24 Hours of Le Mans outright. Its starting poi…
Mustang (1965–1968 (First Generation))
1965–1968 · 1,956,544 built
The first-generation Ford Mustang, unveiled April 17, 1964, created the 'pony car' segment and remains the defining affordable American classic. Built on h…
Thunderbird (First generation (the two-seat 'Baby Bird' or 'Classic Thunderbird'))
1955–1957
The first-generation Ford Thunderbird (1955-1957) was Ford's answer to the Chevrolet Corvette, and it answered by declining the question. Where Chevrolet b…
S2000 (AP1 / AP2)
1999–2009
The Honda S2000 was launched on 15 April 1999 to mark Honda's fiftieth year, a front-mid-engined, rear-drive roadster descended from the SSM concept shown …
E-Type (Series 1)
1961–1968
The Jaguar E-Type Series 1 (1961-1968) put racing-derived engineering under a body drawn by an aerodynamicist and sold it for a fraction of what a comparab…
Countach (Countach (LP400 to 25th Anniversary))
1974–1990
The Lamborghini Countach ran from 1974 to 1990 and set the shape of the mid-engined supercar for a generation. Bertone showed the LP500 prototype at Geneva…
Miura (Miura)
1966–1973
The Lamborghini Miura ran from 1966 to 1973 and settled the argument about where the engine of a fast road car belongs. It began as an out-of-hours project…
Delta (HF Integrale (Type 831))
1987–1994 · 44,296 built
The Lancia Delta HF Integrale is the road-going basis for the most successful car in World Rally Championship history. It began as the Delta HF 4WD of 1986…
Defender (Coil-sprung Ninety / One Ten / Defender)
1983–2016
The coil-sprung Land Rover replaced the leaf-sprung Series III in stages, arriving as the One Ten in 1983 and the Ninety in 1984, and taking the Defender n…
Range Rover Classic (First generation)
1970–1996
The Range Rover of 1970, renamed Range Rover Classic in 1994 to separate it from its successor, was Charles Spencer King and Gordon Bashford's attempt to g…
MGB (MGB (Roadster and GT))
1962–1980
The MGB replaced the MGA in September 1962 and stayed in production at Abingdon until October 1980, an eighteen-year run that made it, on the figures its o…
MX-5 (NA (MX-5 / Miata / Eunos Roadster))
1989–1997
The Mazda MX-5 - Miata in North America, Eunos Roadster in Japan - was shown at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1989 and put a small, cheap, front-engine…
RX-7 (Second generation)
1986–1992
The second-generation Mazda RX-7 replaced the first-generation car for 1986 and ran until 1992, sold in Japan as the Savanna RX-7 and coded FC3S as a coupe…
RX-7 (FD (FD3S))
1992–2002 · 68,589 built
The third-generation Mazda RX-7 (FD3S, 1992-2002) is widely regarded as the high-water mark of the rotary sports car and one of the finest Japanese designs…
190E Cosworth (190 E 16-valve (2.3-16, 2.5-16, Evolution I, Evolution II))
1984–1993
The Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.3-16 and the 2.5-litre cars that followed it were the sixteen-valve homologation specials built on the compact W201 saloon from 1…
300 SL (W198)
1954–1963
The Mercedes-Benz 300 SL (W198) is the road car that followed the W194 sports racer into showrooms at the insistence of US importer Max Hoffman, who commit…
SL (W113 'Pagoda')
1963–1971 · 48,912 built
The Mercedes-Benz W113 SL (1963-1971) replaced both the 300 SL and 190 SL with a single, elegant grand-touring roadster. Styled under Paul Bracq's hand at …
SL (R107)
1971–1989 · 237,287 built
The Mercedes-Benz SL of the 107 series replaced the W113 Pagoda in spring 1971 and stayed in production until August 1989 - eighteen years, an internal rec…
Classic Mini (Classic Mini (Mk I-Mk VII))
1959–2000
The Mini (1959-2000) began as BMC's answer to the petrol rationing that followed the 1956 Suez Crisis and to the German bubble cars that chairman Leonard L…
300ZX (Z32 (fourth-generation Z))
1989–2000
The Z32 Nissan 300ZX replaced the Z31 in 1989 and stayed in production for eleven years, sold at home as the Fairlady Z and everywhere else as the 300ZX. N…
Skyline GT-R (R32)
1989–1994
The R32 Skyline GT-R (BNR32) revived a badge dormant since 1973 and was built for one purpose: to win FIA Group A touring car racing. Nissan sized the RB26…
Skyline GT-R (R34 (BNR34))
1999–2002 · 11,578 built
The Nissan Skyline GT-R R34 (chassis code BNR34), built from January 1999 to August 2002, is the final and most revered of the Skyline-based GT-Rs before t…
Barracuda (Third generation (E-body))
1970–1974
The third-generation Plymouth Barracuda (1970-1974) dropped the Valiant underpinnings of its predecessors for the E-body, a shortened and widened derivativ…
Road Runner Superbird (Superbird)
1970–1970
The Plymouth Road Runner Superbird was built for a single model year, 1970, and existed for one reason: NASCAR would not let Plymouth race the shape unless…
356 (356 (all series))
1948–1965
The Porsche 356 was the first car to carry the Porsche name, and it carried the company for seventeen years. It began in 1948 at Gmund in Carinthia, where …
911 (964)
1989–1994 · 63,762 built
The Porsche 964 is the 911 that dragged Stuttgart's icon into the modern era without losing its soul. Sold from 1989 to 1994, it was pitched by Porsche as …
911 (993)
1994–1998 · 68,881 built
The Porsche 993 is, for many enthusiasts, the definitive 911: the last of the air-cooled cars, sold from 1994 to 1998. Penned by English designer Tony Hatt…
911 Carrera 3.2 (G-Series)
1984–1989
The 911 Carrera 3.2 (1984-1989) is the final and most developed version of Porsche's G-Series 911, and the last air-cooled 911 built on the original 1963 p…
911 SC (G-series (impact bumper))
1978–1983
The Porsche 911 SC (1978-1983) is the car that kept the 911 alive. For the 1978 model year Porsche swept away the 2.7-litre 911 and the Carrera 3.0 and off…
911 Turbo (930)
1975–1989 · 21,589 built
The Porsche 911 Turbo (Type 930) was the fastest production Porsche of its era and the car that made the turbocharged road-going 911 a fixture. Launched fo…
928 (928 (front-engine transaxle V8))
1978–1995
The Porsche 928 was conceived as the car that would replace the 911. Ernst Fuhrmann's management believed the rear-engined car had run out of development a…
944 Turbo (944)
1986–1991
The Porsche 944 Turbo, built to internal type number 951, is the turbocharged development of Porsche's front-engined transaxle four-cylinder car, sold from…
Cobra (CSX2000 leaf-spring and CSX3000 coil-spring cars)
1962–1967
The Shelby Cobra began as an English sports car with an American engine dropped into it. AC Cars of Thames Ditton had lost the Bristol engine that powered …
GT350 (Shelby Mustang GT350)
1965–1970
The Shelby GT350 began as a homologation exercise rather than a marketing one. Lee Iacocca wanted a Mustang with a competition record, and from August 1964…
Land Cruiser (FJ40 (40 Series))
1960–1984
The Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40 is the archetypal Japanese off-roader: a rugged, body-on-frame 4x4 built around a stout inline-six and a reputation for going …
Land Cruiser (60 Series)
1980–1990
The 60 Series Land Cruiser, launched in August 1980 as successor to the 55 Series, is the point at which the Land Cruiser stopped being purely a working ve…
Land Cruiser 80 Series (80 Series)
1990–1997
The 80 Series Land Cruiser, announced on 16 October 1989 and built from January 1990 until Japanese production ended in 1997, is the generation in which To…
Supra (A80 (Mk4))
1993–2002
The fourth-generation Toyota Supra — chassis code A80, known to enthusiasts as the Mk4 — is the car that turned a competent Japanese grand tourer into a gl…
TR6 (TR6)
1968–1976
The Triumph TR6 (1968-1976) was the last of the separate-chassis TRs and by a wide margin the best-selling of them: a Karmann reskin of Michelotti's TR4 an…
Golf GTI (Mk1)
1976–1983
The Mk1 Golf GTI was not a product-plan car. It began around 1974 as an unofficial after-hours project by a small group at Wolfsburg - a test engineer, a p…
Type 2 (T1 Split-Screen / T2 Bay Window)
1950–1979
The Volkswagen Type 2 is the forward-control van Volkswagen built on Beetle mechanicals, traced to a sketch Dutch importer Ben Pon made on 23 April 1947 af…