New Make, Model, and Category Pages: Boston Whaler, Hodaka Ace, Kei Vehicles, Toyota RVs, and More!: A Practical Look
Today we bring you, our esteemed BaT community, an update to the sweeping collection of BaT make and model pages, just in time for the spring thaw. Check out the newest additions (including our new kei vehicles category!), and be sure to follow those that interest you in order to receive notifications when new auctions go live.
If you’d like to receive alerts whenever we announce a new batch of pages, please follow the Make and Model Updates category.
NEW CATEGORY PAGES
Japanese-market kei vehicles evolved over the years, but the recipe has remained largely the same since 1998—dimensionally limited to 134″ x 58.3″ x 78.7″ with a maximum engine displacement of 660cc. From sports cars to fire trucks, you’ll find all manner of qualifying vehicles in this newly created category page.
NEW MAKE PAGES
The Austin American Car Company, established in 1929, was in the business of building small cars for the American market. Most notably, it produced an “Americanized” version of the Austin 7 under license from the Austin Motor Company. The firm went belly-up in 1935, but its assets were rolled over into the American Bantam Car Company the following year.
One Richard T. Fisher, founder of Boston Whaler, made history in 1961 when photos of him aboard a halved 13-foot Whaler appeared in LIFE magazine—the unsinkable legend was born, and the firm has remained afloat ever since.
Rey Mehaffey founded the Caribou Manufacturing Company, which built pickup truck campers before retooling to become the Monaco Coach Corporation in 1977. In the ensuing five decades and a string of acquisitions, the firm built RVs until it was taken over by the REV Group in the 2010s.
Oreion Motors, established in 2011 in New Mexico, became well known for its UTV and ATV offerings—most notably its retro-inspired Beach Buggy.
Thor Motor Coach, son of Damon Motor Coach and Four Winds International, was born in 2010. Since then, the outfit has produced a variety of motorhomes ranging from Sprinter camper vans to plus-size toy haulers.
Czechoslovakian brothers František and Mojmír Stránský embarked on a journey to create their first three-wheeled car in 1936, and became part of a government cooperative in 1950. Their firm, originally named Oskar, became known as Velorex in 1956. The company also built sidecars, which are still produced by the Velorex Sidecars Company in the Czech Republic.
NEW MODEL PAGES
The small Model 60 was the first car to come out of the newly formed American Bantam company during the mid-1930s. The more powerful Model 65 followed at its heels, and both now share one new model page on BaT.
The Audi S7 is the A7’s performance variant, and featured a twin-turbocharged 4.0L V8 and a twin-turbocharged 2.9L V6 in the first- and second-generation cars, respectively. At the behest of the BaT community, we’ve made it a model page.
BMW’s funky i3 has a new page in our model library.
The C1 Corvette page has been split apart into the following:
- Chevrolet Corvette C1 (Six-Cylinder, 1953-1955)
- Chevrolet Corvette C1 (V8, 1955)
- Chevrolet Corvette C1 (1956-1957)
C1 race car, fuelie, resto-mod, and parts & automobilia listings will also live on the C1 disambiguation page. These pages will be cross-posted to the appropriate first-generation pages above, as well.
With the C8, Chevrolet finally realized Zora Arkus-Duntov’s somnial ambition of a mid-engined Corvette 60 years later, and a number of variants have come to fruition since. We recently broke apart the C8 Corvette model page into the following:
- Chevrolet Corvette C8 E-Ray
- Chevrolet Corvette C8 Stingray Convertible
- Chevrolet Corvette C8 Stingray Coupe
The Dodge Monaco sporadically showed up in full- and mid-size guise between 1965 and 1992. A particular package was even offered with a cop motor, cop tires, cop suspension, and cop shocks. By user request, we have now given the Monaco its due in the model library.
We now have a page reserved for Ducati’s dedicated sport touring lineup, the ST.
We’ve formed a page for Factory Five’s 33 Hot Rod, which also includes their Hot Rod Truck.
The Fiat 2300 was the automaker’s first model equipped with an automatic transmission.
The Hillman Minx was produced in a variety of body styles during its 39-year production run, all of which can be found on this new page.
The Ace 90, introduced in 1964, was Hodaka’s first bike to market, and the Ace 100 followed with bigger changes in 1968.
Jeep revived the loaded Grand Wagoneer nameplate after a 30-year hiatus with the WS Grand Wagoneer, launched for the 2022 model year.
Come on, John Deere B—we’ve made a new home for the smaller row-crop tractor in our model library.
The Commonwealth taxi is perhaps the most quintessentially British vehicle ever created, and we recently turned out a page for the late-model LTI TXII.
Maserati woke up to the SUV market during the mid-2010s with the Levante.
The underappreciated executive-class Mazda 929 was produced from 1973 to 1997, and we’ve chosen to honor it with a BaT model page.
Before the widely popular Mercury Marquis there was the Park Lane, the automaker’s flagship cruiser from 1958 to 1968.
The MV Agusta Dragster is essentially a stripped-down variant of the already-naked Brutale bike, but with even more muscle.
Porsche’s 992 911 Spirit 70 was a callback to the 1970s that was based on the 992 Carrera GTS cabriolet. It will live under the overarching 992 generation 911 page.
The Spirit 70, along with the Sport Classic and Heritage Design Edition, will also live under a new disambiguation page, which houses each of Porsche’s Icons of Cool—heritage 992 models celebrating iconic 911s of yesteryear.
The Suzuki Katana, starting with the 1980 GSX1100S, was a series of bikes initially designed by German firm Target Design and produced until the early Aughts. The nameplate was resurrected in 2019.
Toyota RVs run the full gamut, from pickup-based campers to kei van pop-tops.
Volvo and Mitsubishi combined their efforts to build a shared platform. The S40 was Volvo’s version.
The Volvo S80 survived 18 years across two generations and served as the Swedish automaker’s flagship car in that time.
We recently created a page for the legendary late-1970s four-stroke thumper—the Yamaha TT500.
That’s it for now. Subscribe for alerts if you’d like to be notified when new updates are available. As always, if there’s something you’d like us to add to our expansive library of makes and models, drop us a line in the comments. We’d be happy to add it to the list!
