STREET RALLY RACE CELEBRATING ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS AND EXCITING FORMS OF MOTORSPORT

Early automakers recognized the power of good press. At the turn of the 20th century, the first automobiles were a radical and untested novelty even for wealthy Americans like the Andersons. The broader public needed proof these machines worked and were worth their sizable premium over a horse-drawn carriage. Competitions and stunts were old hat. Cars racing each other and setting records where none existed—that was a new spectacle the papers and radio stations could feast upon all year. Motorsport was born, entirely out of marketing.

The museum’s latest exhibit, “Street Rally Race,” recognizes the cars that made their respective marques fame and money. The adage “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday,” was just as true for Henry Ford in 1901 as it is for Mercedes-AMG in 2023. When a car company appears sorted and successful, people naturally want their cars.

Ford raced Alexander Winton for 10 laps in October 1901. His first venture, the Detroit Automobile Company, failed in 1900. Ford’s quickest shot at rebuilding his name was staging a race against Winton, one of the top drivers, in his Detroit hometown. He beat Winton and his 40-horsepower Bullet—the first true race car to be sold to the public—which resides in the Anderson collection and survives as the last of only four made.

“People were lined up because Ford beat a superior driver in a superior car that didn’t fare well that day,” said Director Sheldon Steele. “Ford was bankrupt, and that win turned him around.”

Another early model in the exhibit, a 1907 Fiat advertised with the slogan “No Hill Can Stop Me,” proves the point that car enthusiasts know the world over—If you’re not racing, you’re not serious.

“We’re curating a collection of road cars with race-car

DNA,” said Steele. “These are cars with lots of livery and provenance in national rallies, primarily from the 1960s to now.”

Rally racing is arguably the most grueling and death-defying form of motorsport. Without any wheel-to-wheel combat, a driver and co-driver must beat the clock by executing a perfect run across multiple stages—on closed public roads that often aren’t maintained, without any safety barriers, sometimes in the worst weather. Rally drivers rely on their co-drivers for precise directions and can’t memorize the course like a driver would on a track. Get it wrong, and the whole rally—or their lives—are over.

Up to a dozen prestigious rally cars and motorcycles will be on display including a 1949 Cadillac 62-series owned by Chestnut Hill resident Lloyd Dahman who raced it in the 2010 recreation of the famous Peking to Paris rally. The 1972 Lancia Fulvia 1600 HF competed in a dozen rallies, while a particularly rare Ferrari—a 1975 Dino 308 GT4 dressed in Alitalia colors—has only recently come to the U.S. after racing all over Europe. A former Belgian prime minister once owned and raced the 1972 Alpine A110 on display, which looks absolutely striking in orange and white. On the German side are a Mercedes-Benz 450SLC and a replica of the 1978 East Africa Safari Rally 911 that sits in the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.

Future Classics

2002-06 ACURA RSX

IS ACURA’S MILLENNIAL SPORT COMPACT THE NEXT COLLECTIBLE HOT HONDA?

From Miatas and MR-2s to Skylines and Supras, almost every modern enthusiast car with a “made in Japan” sticker is a heck of a lot more expensive than it was just a few short years ago. Aside from values shooting up pretty much everywhere in the collector car market, there are a few reasons for this.

For car folks who grew up in the 1990s, most of the more exciting new cars on the road were coming out of Japan. Not all were perfect and only a handful were very fast, but they were well-built, technically sophisticated, reasonably affordable, and entertaining to drive. Take those positive qualities, and combine it with some nostalgia and a finite supply, and you have a recipe for rising car values. This has been the case for just about every sporty car from Japan’s Automotive Golden Age, which spans from the early 1990s to early 2000s. One vehicle that hasn’t gone stratospheric in value quite yet is the 2002-06 Acura RSX, particularly the Type-S. It has so much of what makes other modern Japanese cars “collectible.” It may be just a matter of time before the RSX appreciates as well.

Introduced for 2002 as a successor to the 1997-01 Integra (it was still sold as the Honda Integra from 2002-06 in Japan), the RSX Type-S has a rev-happy twincam, four-cylinder engine generating 210 horsepower, mated to a slick 6-speed manual. It boasts lively handling and looks that have aged better than most cars from 2000s. (Remember, this is the decade that brought us the Pontiac Aztek and Chevy SSR) It also stands out for its decently handsome interior with leather seats and white-face gauges. The RSX has more usable torque than earlier sporty Honda fourcylinder engines, and the sixth gear makes for quieter highway driving than the earlier 5-speed Civics and Integras.

And yet those earlier Civics and Integras, down on performance and usability, aren’t currently down on price. On the contrary, while clean examples of the RSX Type-S sell in the teens or low-20s, similarly clean examples of the earlier Civic Si and Integra GS-R that came before them tend to bring similar or even higher prices.

I think the RSX just hasn’t had its time yet. Aside from all the good qualities it shares with other modern collector cars, there’s something else to help make its case – this car came out right as sport compacts were starting to disappear in a SUV-saturated world. Millennial and Gen Z enthusiasts crave sports compacts. Acura’s parent company Honda also started to move away from its peppy, fun-to-drive performance image not long after. Being the “last” of something tends to lead to collectability down the line, so keep an eye out.

OTHERS: GEORGE KENNEDY