cars and planes

Story and photos by Dale LaFollette

It was a typical spring day sometime in the mid-1990s, with a light mist in the air as I was on my way to work. We were going to have an Indy Lites test session and I already knew there would be complaints about the weather. As manager of Portland International Raceway (PIR) weather was one thing that I did not manage nor did I make excuses for. It just was.

When I got to the office, one of the Lites drivers, Ray Richter, was on the phone asking about the weather and then asked if he could land his RV4 airplane on the main straight. This was something I had allowed before as the FAA seemed to have no problem with it as long as he stayed below 800 feet. I asked what time he would arrive, after he told me I said I would have everyone on the property alerted to his arrival so there would be no issues.

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Ferrari 308GTB Fiberglass, 1974. $152,360. Maybe I am getting cynical in my old age but isn’t it strange than when early 308GTBs were worth about £25k they were simply known as fiberglass 308s. Now that they are over £100k they have become 308 GT Berlinetta Vetroresina’s! Madison Avenue at it’s very best! This rare right hand drive 1976 example had been on static display at the Shikoku Automobile Museum since 1991. On the wall behind the 308 is the order of battle and operational availability board covering 7 RAF/RCAF bomb groups as of the 26th April 1945. But that is a mere hint as to the rest of the displays of cars with aircraft, such as the Spitfire, B24, and P51 as you will see in this article.

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From the Editor: I can’t imagine this happening at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums. But somehow,on December 8th, Bonhams was again able to pull enough strings to be able to hold classic or auction at the RAF Museum in Hendon, U.K. and position the cars to be sold next to significant historical aircraft.

And of course, our intrepid Jonathan Sharp, who is as much of a car nut (he owns four Alfas) as a vintage aircraft enthusiast, surely wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to see and photograph both of his passions. (He comes by his love of aircraft honestly…his father witnessed the birth of the Spitfire in 1936).

But he didn’t just take great shots of the cars and planes. First, he lists the car information as provided by Bonhams. But then, he describes the aircraft in the background of each photo, carefully editing (for your convenience) the RAF’s history of each plane. While the descriptions might be a bit long, it is interesting to note that the lives of vintage aircraft often reflect those of vintage cars, including some of the same people who collected and or piloted both cars and aircraft (like Bob Tullius of Group 44 who owned the P51 Mustang photographed with the VW Microbus below). Some are barn finds, some bitsas, some are totally original, but all have great histories; if you like old cars, we guarantee you’ll enjoy old aircraft.

There is no correlation between the cars and the aircraft, although some seem to fit together quite nicely. Perhaps that could be the subject of another show or even auction—placing a Mercedes 540 with a German bomber, a Rolls with a Spitfire, a Lincoln Mark I with a Hellcat, Bugatti with a Bugatti aircraft engine, the possibilities are intriguing as the logistics are formidable.

Our sincere thanks to Jonathan Sharp, who put a lot of time and enthusiasm into this series of photos. We put the sales prices in USD next to the cars and they include buyer’s premiums.

Auction results can be found on the Bonhams site.

RAF Museum History

By Jonathan Sharp

Alfa Romeo TI Super, $59,946. This 1964 Alfa Giulia TI is generally accepted as being one of the three cars prepared by Autodelta for the 1965 Sebring 12 hour race and driven by works driver Tedoro Zeccoli to 6th place overall and third in class behind the winning Lotus Cortina of Jim Clark. [Read more…] about Classic Cars, Vintage Planes: The Bonhams RAF Auction

Flight of Fancy

Classic Cars, Vintage Planes: The Bonhams RAF Auction

Pistons and Prop Show, U.K.