Category Archives: Sale

Sale

Ferrari 328 GTS Conciso

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Some Ferraris are preserved. Others are restored. And a very small number are reimagined into something so left-field that even Maranello would probably do a double take. The latter is where the Michalak Design “Conciso” lands—an almost unrecognisable reinterpretation of a Ferrari 328 GTS that trades weight, complexity, and convention for a sharper, leaner kind of exoticism.

Built in the early 1990s by German design house Michalak Design, the Conciso started life as a standard 328 GTS before being stripped back and re-bodied into something closer to a design study than a traditional restomod. Ferrari itself had no involvement in the project. The mechanical backbone—the chassis and 3.2-litre V8 drivetrain of the original Ferrari 328 GTS—remains, but everything wrapped around it was re-engineered with one obsession in mind: mass reduction.

The result is a car that looks like a parallel-universe Ferrari. The proportions are familiar, but the surfaces are tighter, the bodywork more experimental, and the overall aesthetic far more industrial than sensual. It debuted publicly at the 1993 Frankfurt Motor Show, where it stood less as a Ferrari derivative and more as a design thesis on what happens when you aggressively strip a mid-engine sports car down to its essence.

Diet of Aluminium, Gains in Everything Else

The headline number is the weight. At just 1,900 pounds (889 kg), the Conciso sheds roughly 780 pounds (363 kg) compared to the standard Ferrari 328 GTS. That puts it not only well below its donor car but even beneath modern lightweight benchmarks like the Mazda MX-5.

That kind of reduction changes the character of the drivetrain entirely. With the same 3.2-litre V8 doing the work but far less mass to move, performance tightens up dramatically. The Conciso is said to reach 62 mph in around five seconds and continue on to roughly 170 mph (274 km/h)—numbers that push it closer to early-2000s supercar territory than late-’80s Ferrari grand touring.

It’s not about outright power. It never was. It’s about what happens when you remove everything that doesn’t absolutely need to be there.

A Collector’s Odyssey

After its Frankfurt debut, the Conciso entered a quieter, more nomadic phase. Michalak Design sold it to a North American collector, where it remained until 1998, before passing to a Belgian owner. In 2018, it returned to the United States, continuing its slow evolution from show car curiosity to bona fide collector oddity.

Between 2022 and 2023, the car underwent a comprehensive restoration by Italian specialists Bacchelli & Villa. More than €50,000 was spent returning it to its original specification, including a full respray in Rosso Corsa with Gunmetal Grey accents. The paintwork alone reportedly accounted for over €23,000—a reminder that when low-volume coachbuilt Ferraris are involved, even cosmetics operate in a different financial universe.

Now on the Market—Quietly

Today, the Conciso is being offered for sale in the United States through RM Sotheby’s Sealed platform, meaning no public price tag is attached. The last recorded auction result in 2018 placed it at $109,250, but given its rarity, restoration work, and renewed collector interest, that figure now feels more like a historical footnote than a benchmark.

RM Sotheby’s is keeping expectations discreet, which is fitting. Cars like this don’t really price themselves against standard Ferrari market logic. They exist in a narrower lane where design provenance, engineering curiosity, and sheer individuality matter as much as badge value.

The Conciso isn’t trying to be a better Ferrari 328 GTS. It’s trying to be a lighter, stranger, more focused interpretation of one. And in doing so, it has become something arguably rarer than performance alone: a Ferrari-based machine that feels genuinely unrepeatable.

In a market increasingly dominated by escalating horsepower wars and digital excess, the Conciso’s appeal is almost rebellious in its simplicity. Strip weight. Keep the engine. Redefine everything else.

Source: RM Sotheby’s

Sale

This 104-Mile 1987 Chevy Camaro IROC-Z Is a Time Capsule with an Ambitious Price Tag

The Chevrolet Camaro has spent decades perfecting the art of looking fast while standing still, and few eras did it with more attitude than the third generation. Boxy, low-slung, and unapologetically Eighties, the Camaro IROC-Z wasn’t just a trim level—it was a statement. And every so often, a survivor surfaces that reminds us just how sharp these cars could look before time, mileage, and questionable modifications took their toll.

Case in point: this 1987 Camaro IROC-Z, a car that has lived an almost suspiciously sheltered life. Since leaving the showroom, it has reportedly covered just 104 miles. Not 104,000—104. That’s barely enough distance to warm the oil, let alone scuff the bolsters.

Instead of heading to a polished auction platform like Bring a Trailer, where this kind of low-mileage unicorn would feel right at home, the seller has chosen a more old-school route. The car is currently listed on Facebook Marketplace in Bradenton, Florida, quietly waiting for the right buyer with both deep pockets and a strong sense of nostalgia.

According to the listing, the Camaro was originally delivered by Modern Chevrolet in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and has spent its entire existence tucked away in climate-controlled garages. If preservation were a competitive sport, this IROC-Z would be on the podium.

The IROC-Z badge—short for International Race of Champions—was more than just decals and louvers. Chevrolet gave these cars meaningful hardware upgrades, including Delco-Bilstein shocks, stiffer sway bars, improved braking, and a visual treatment that made standard Camaros look positively plain by comparison. In the late 1980s, this was as close as you could get to a factory-handling package without stepping into full-blown racing territory.

Buyers back then had a choice of two small-block V-8s: a 305-cubic-inch (5.0-liter) engine rated at 220 horsepower or a 350-cubic-inch (5.7-liter) version making a modestly higher 230 horses. This particular car gets the bigger engine, paired with a four-speed automatic transmission driving the rear wheels—exactly the configuration you’d expect from a muscle car of this vintage.

Unsurprisingly, the car appears virtually untouched. The deep red paint still shines with the kind of gloss most restored cars struggle to replicate, and the original wheels and tires remain in place. Inside, the gray-and-black interior shows no visible wear, looking more like a museum exhibit than something designed to endure decades of use.

The original factory invoice lists a purchase price of $18,000 back in 1987. Adjusted for inflation, that works out to roughly $52,500 today. The seller, however, is aiming considerably higher, with an asking price of $92,500—territory that puts it above even a brand-new Camaro ZL1 1LE.

That’s a bold number, no question. But then again, cars like this aren’t really about performance, value equations, or rational decision-making. They’re about restraint. About what happens when someone buys a muscle car and—against every instinct—decides not to drive it.

If you’ve ever wondered what 104 miles of ironclad self-control looks like, this IROC-Z is your answer. It’s a Camaro that’s barely stretched its legs since Reagan was in office—and it’s asking you to pay dearly for the privilege of keeping it that way.

Source: Facebook Marketplace

Sale

The Original Ford Probe IV Concept Emerges After Decades in Hiding

Every so often, the internet does what the internet does best: turns up something extraordinary in the least dignified way possible. This time, it’s a piece of Ford history long thought lost—a genuine 1983 Ford Probe IV concept car—now casually listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace like a used lawn tractor or a mismatched set of wheels.

According to the ad, spotted by the editorial team at Ford Authority, this is no replica or forgotten show car shell. This is the first Ford Probe IV, chassis 001—the original prototype built by Ghia as part of Ford’s advanced aerodynamics program in the early 1980s. Its current location? Spring, Texas. Its current condition? Let’s call it “historically significant but functionally inert.”

The Probe IV program began in 1979, when Ford asked Ghia a deceptively simple question: just how slippery could a car be if fuel economy were the only priority? The answer arrived in 1983 in the form of a concept so extreme it still looks alien today. Ford claimed a drag coefficient of just 0.15—an absurdly low figure that remains out of reach for modern production cars, even with four decades of computational fluid dynamics and wind-tunnel wizardry.

Of course, there was a catch. Actually, several. The Probe IV wasn’t designed to meet safety standards, carry groceries, or survive a pothole. The composite body sits atop a wooden chassis—yes, wood—with steel subframes solely there to keep the wheels attached. The suspension is manually adjustable, built for testing rather than driving, and the car doesn’t even have a complete gearbox. It doesn’t start. It doesn’t run. It was never meant to.

Chassis 001 lived its entire life as a research tool, shuffled in and out of wind tunnels and engineering labs. Then it disappeared. For years, its whereabouts were unknown, turning it into one of those quietly whispered-about artifacts that historians assume has either been destroyed or buried deep in a corporate warehouse.

We do know what happened to its sibling. Chassis 002 surfaced publicly and sold for around $125,000 in 2022, eventually landing at the Petersen Automotive Museum in California. That car, however, was in far better shape—and still, it wasn’t exactly road-ready.

This newly rediscovered Probe IV won’t command the same money. A non-running, non-driving, purely experimental concept isn’t exactly a weekend cruiser. But value isn’t always about usability. For the right collector, museum, or deep-pocketed Ford obsessive, this is a one-of-one artifact from an era when automakers were willing to ignore reality in pursuit of a single number on a wind-tunnel readout.

That such a car reemerged not at a high-profile auction, but sandwiched between used pickup trucks and patio furniture, feels strangely appropriate. The Probe IV was never meant to fit neatly into the automotive world. Forty years later, it’s still doing things its own way—this time, by reminding us that some of the most important cars ever built were never meant to drive at all.

Source: Ford Authority