Bummed out by our recent report on the high price and scarcity of the Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione? Well here's another chance, and it's decidedly more accessible yet still exclusive enough to avoid seeing another every day on your drive to the office. It's called the SV 9 Competizione, and it's about to hit the market. Based on a modern Corvette, the SV 9 Competizione revives the old tradition of re-bodying Corvettes with Italian coachwork. This design borrows heavily from the aforementioned Alfa, but instead of the $300,000 sticker price, the SV comes in at less than $100k. For that you get a Corvette with a custom carbon fiber body, a revised intake and exhaust to boost power up to 450 horses and a more upscale interior. The improved mechanicals translate to a 4-second sprint to 60, a 12-second quarter-mile, a 60-0 braking distance of just 107 feet and 1.03g of lateral acceleration...in other words, at least as fast as the Italian machinery it emulates. And with a maximum of only 1000 units to be produced and a catalog with 25 exterior colors, four wheel choices and five interior trim options, SV promises no two will be alike.

On August 13-15 RM Auctions is holding its annual Sports & Classics of Monterey auction in California, starring an historic 1952 Jaguar C-Type sports racer (above) that was driven to victory in 1952 by the legendary Phil Hill and is expected to fetch over $3 million. 26 Ferraris and several other rare and valuable autos will be part of the 200 vehicles crossing the auction block over the course of the three-day event. The beautiful and rare C-Type (a precursor of the modern-day XK we wrote about recently), designated XKC-007, was one of just 53 examples built and one of the first Jaguar C-Types delivered to the United States.

Shipped to New York in 1952, this example was immediately driven to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, where it, along with XKC-009, made their competitive racing debuts as part of the company's North American sales effort for the model. It was at this meet that XKC-007 made Jaguar history when the eventual World Champion driver, Phil Hill – then just 25 – drove it to victory in the Sheldon Cup. Presented in period correct condition, it notably displays the signature of the great Phil Hill and retains its original, numbers matching engine.

The star amongst the stunning selection of 26 Ferraris is a 1953 166MM Spider Scaglietti estimated at $1.4 million - $1.8 million. The important car was given by Enzo Ferrari to his son Dino for a design project with Scaglietti. It is known as the first Scaglietti-bodied competition Ferrari and its attractive, rakish styling resulted in the prototype for the subsequent 750 Monza and 500 Mondial models. It was restored first in the 1960s and again prior to running the Mille Miglia Storica in 2005.

Automobile auctions happen all the time. Sometimes they've got something interesting, sometimes they're all rather ordinary. But once in a while a sportscar rolls across the auction block oozing with heritage in equal measure to motor oil. This is one of those cars. It once belonged to Harley Earl, widely renowned and fondly remembered as the dean of automobile design. General Motors made this 1963 Corvette Stingray convertible specially for Earl, packed with all manner of special features, from the special paint scheme to the unique side-mounted exhaust. He drove the car for two years, even drove it as the Grand Marshal of the Daytona 500, before selling it and the car disappeared into obscurity. Four and a half decades later, the unique Corvette has been fully restored to original condition, and is being auctioned off to the highest bidder at the Mecum Bloomington Gold Corvette Auction in St. Charles, Illinois, later this month, where it is likely to fetch the highest price ever paid for a Corvette.

Exclusivity has its price. In this case, that price is a jaw-dropping $2 million. That's the tag which Stile Bertone has placed on customer versions of its latest automotive creation, the Mantide. The famed Italian coachbuilder was recently restructured and solicited the talents of one Jason Castriota, formerly of rival design house Pininfarina. As his first project in his new home, Castriota and his crew took the devastatingly fast Corvette ZR1 and gave it a new body, inside and out. The result wowed some and reviled others, but pandering the lowest common denominator is hardly what Bertone was after with this machine: with a few orders already in place, Castriota says the company will build no more than ten examples, effectively ensuring right from the start that the Bertone Mantide will remain a collector's item in perpetuity.

Earlier this month we wrote about the $1.7 million Bentley Continental GTZ designed by famed Italian coachbuilder Zagato. Now they have designed a less expensive but hardly less attractive new supercar for South Africa's Perana egineering, dubbed the Z-One (above). Slated to debut at next month's Geneva Motor Show, only 999 examples of the stylish GT will be built at a price of about $115,000. The limited production is due to the fact that the body of each Perana Z-One will be handbuilt in Italy by Zagato and then shipped in pieces to South Africa to be attached to the vehicle's chassis. Under the hood lies a 6.2L LS3 V8 engine sourced from General Motors' Corvette. The engine will allow the Z-One to do 0 - 62 mph in less than four seconds and reach a top speed of close to 200 mph.

[via MotorAuthority]

Renowned entrepreneur and broadcast veteran Art Astor is selling off part of his famous car collection in Anaheim, California this weekend. The sale, conducted by RM Auctions, mainly features American cars with a few classic imports of the kind we're partial to thrown in. We're particularly fond of this 1970 Jaguar XKE Series II Roadster, for example, which with an estimate of only $40,000 - $60,000 is something of a bargain. Also included in the sale: a 1927 Rolls-Royce Phantom I "Playboy" roadster which was used as a movie car and has been driven by Bette Davis and Robert Redford, est. $175,000 - $250,000; a 1968 Jaguar XKE Series I.5 2+2 Fixed Head Coupe, est. $30,000 - $40,000; a 1961 Jaguar XK150 3.8 Roadster, est. $80,000 - $120,000; a rare 1941 Chrysler Town & Country Nine-Passenger Estate "woody" wagon, est. $250,000 - $300,000; and a 1954 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster. est. $125,000 - $150,000. See the gallery for pix, and place your bids online at LiveAuctioneers.com.

As Detroit inches ever closer to its famous Dream Cruise, a celebration of antique, classic and modern American cars, the famous Woodward Ave. is bustling with '69 fastbacks, '57 Chevys and the like as they perform their trial runs for the big event. The annual classic car extravaganza

Forbes has just what we need -- a list of the top ten all-American sports cars. From the cars that have become synonymous with America, like the Corvette and the Mustang, to the less obvious but still powerful, such as the supercharged, 443-horsepower Cadillac XLR-V and 305 hp Panoz Esperante. Modern classics, such as the new Challenger, Camaro and Mustang, also pepper the list, as do American exotics, including the Saleen S7 and Dodge Viper SRT10, though the absence of the Ford GT was curious.

Click through to Forbes for the mouth-watering slideshow.

[Source: Forbes]

The Chevrolet Corvette has always been at the top of the stack in terms of American sports cars, but as Chevrolet sets the bar higher and higher with each new 'Vette, the world is starting to take notice of the car as one of the best... period. No "American" qualifier about it.

Still, eyebrows rose when KGP Photography caught a Chevrolet Z07 (the next all-new, top-of-the-line 'Vette slated for production) testing against a Ferrari 599 -- Chevrolet can't be looking at the Ferrari 599 as the Corvette's competition for real, can it? Maybe, maybe not, but the real juice to this story is the fact that the current standard Corvette (not the high-powered Z06) shares Ferrari's magnetic suspension system, developed by Delphi.

This development is very fitting, particularly since critics occasionally hint that the last big hurdle for the Corvette to clear in dropping the "American" qualifier is the vehicle's handling. Can Chevy/Delphi tune the suspension system to handle the 500+ horsepower the Z07 will offer up? Time will tell, but we're sure many folks out there are looking forward to Ferrari performance in a $100,000 package.

[via Autoblog]

It was a happy day for Chevy when its cutting-edge Corvette Z06 was thrust by auto journalists into the same universe as the world's fastest and most exotic supercars. It's a luxury vehicle in only the purest sense -- interior frills are minimal at best, and legend has it that many a Z06 engineer went home in a snit after the decision was made to motorize the convertible top because of the weight it added.

That's right, folks, this baby is about pure performance -- and perform it does. Its 505 hp 7.0L V8 engine launches the 'vette to 60 mph in 3.5 seconds, putting it well within reach of vehicles three times as expensive, including the Lamborghini Gallardo, Mercedes SLR McLaren and Aston Martin V-8 Vantage.

Chevy engineers can barely contain themselves as they work to top the masterpiece in the C7 (the seventh generation of the Corvette), but to tide us (and them) over, they're taking one last crack at the C6 in the form of the Chevrolet Corvette Z07, expected to launch in time for the 2009 model year. Often referred to as the Blue Devil, the super-super Corvette will serve as a sneak preview for the 2010 C7 -- a whopping 700 horsepower will likely be achieved by supercharging the V-8 in preparation for putting it under the hood of the C7, and powertrain components borrowed from the C7's parts bin will grace the Z07's infrastructure.

Supercars, beware.

We mentioned that actor Matthew McConaughey had put his 1971 Corvette Stingray up for auction on eBay, with the proceeds from the sale to benefit Oprah Winfrey's Angel Network charity and the survivors of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina. The car has sold for a total of $61,600. As an added bonus, per the FAQs answered by McConaughey about the car, the owner will get to know the names of all the other celebrities who have ridden in the car.

Clearly, that was one of the biggest selling points (just kidding - hopefully).

Actor Matthew McConaughey becomes the latest to do a little something for charity. He's selling his blue 1971 Chevy Stingray convertible on eBay to benefit Oprah's Angel Network's Hurricanes Katrina and Rita recovery. On the auction website, McConaughey says that he picked up the car that he calls Mako in 1998 at a car show. He calls it the " quintessential, bare bones, badass American sports car" and says he has driven it all over Texas (where the car is now). No bids thus far...

[via Contact News]