The '39 Cadillac V16 is a rare American made car
Rare is defined as “something not found in large numbers.”
Our list of rare cars built in the US only includes those models that were intended to be sold to the general public. That knocks out some rare classics like the 1964 Ford GT 40 and the 1969 Chevy Camaro ZL1 that were both specifically designed for racing but leaves some real beauties whose numbers are small but whose popularity among collectors is huge.
1953 Chevrolet Corvette
America’s love affair with the Corvette began at the January 1953 Motorama auto show in NYC where it was introduced as a concept car. Nobody had seen an American sports car like this. Sleek, curvy, low to the ground with rocket ship taillights and a toothy grill this roadster was an immediate hit with the show crowd and auto critics alike. The praises for the Vette came rolling in but Chevrolet had built it purely as a show car and had no plans to put it in production.
And then they changed their mind.
Not wanting to risk the farm on a new untried sports car, with the exception of one major innovation the original Corvettes were made from off the shelf parts from other GM cars. The innovation was fiberglass. With the Korean War going on steel was difficult to come by so Chevy became the first manufacturer to mass produce an entirely fiberglass body. The engine was a 235 cu. in. inline six cylinder used in passenger cars tweaked just a tad by adding three single barrel carburetors and dual exhaust.
They hand built 300 of them, all in polo white with red interiors. The option list was short; an AM radio and a heater. The price…$3498 fully loaded as it were. Today if you can find one of the 300 expect to pay north of $200,000.
1949 Mercury Two Door Coupe
Okay, this one comes close to violating our ban on cars built specifically to race because the Hemi Superbird was a variant of the Road Runner that Plymouth built to attract racing phenomenon Richard Petty away from Ford. It is one of the oddest looking cars with a bolt on nose and a mile-high wing in the rear but when you drop a 426 Hemi engine under the hood looks take second place to performance.
Inside the Superbird is no great shakes. In fact it looks like a hardware salesman’s commuter car complete with bench seats and vinyl covers. If however, that hardware-salesman decided to let it out on a straightaway he’d best be sure his nuts and bolts were firmly strapped in. This car was intended to win drag races and with the 425 hp and 490 lb-ft of torque you are in for the ride of your life if you keep your right foot planted.
Petty did join Plymouth and won seven races in the Superbird in 1970. Plymouth built over 1900 Superbirds that year and many of them sat on dealer lots unsold because customers didn’t like the weird wing design. However 138 of those vehicles had the Hemi installed and they went fast. In a recent auction one of those 138 which was originally sold for $5,503 in New Jersey, drew a winning bid of $226,000.
