This Week on Hagerty Marketplace: Honest, Epic, and Lavish Color Touring

Welcome to This Week on Hagerty Marketplace, a recurring recap of the previous week’s most noteworthy cars and significant sales from the Hagerty Marketplace online auctions.

Here in the waning days of driving season, each adventure behind the wheel of a classic can seem like you’re stealing from Father Time. Just one more drive is a common refrain as fleeting, beautiful fall days and colorful leaves beckon. Your choice of wheeled accomplice can be just as important as the act of getting out there. As we look back on another busy week on Hagerty Marketplace, three means for late-season enjoyment caught our eye. Let’s take a look at each.

Honest: 1965 AMC Rambler Marlin

Sold for $9630

The debut of the 1965–67 AMC Marlin was a bit of a moonshot for an otherwise pretty conservative American Motor Company. “We recognized the rising significance of the ‘youth’ market with its demand for ‘sporty’ styling and performance,” chief designer Dick Teague told Motor Trend in period. Thus: A hefty fastback coupe based on the Rambler Classic with a new roof and rear sheet metal, a bold new interior, room for six, and comfy, reclining front seats.

You could get everything from a 232-cubic inch inline-six to a 327-cubic-inch V-8 under the hood. Remarkably, AMC managed to beat two major contemporary bogeys, the 1966–67 Dodge Charger and the 1968-69 Ford Torino to the market. The result of this styling and go-to-market swiftness? First-year production cleared the five-figure mark, with 10,327 units rolling off the line.

The car seen here is a first-year Marlin, doused on Classic Black and Frost White two-tone paint with a matching cloth and vinyl interior. Power—all 155 horses—comes from the workman “Torque Command” 232 inline-six paired with a “Flash-O-Matic” three-speed automatic transmission. (Side note: The branding of these engines and gearboxes in this period remains unmatched.) Other features include a seven-position tilting steering wheel, air-conditioning, self-adjusting brakes, an automatic choke, and much more.

It may not be a rocket ship, but imagine cruising down a fall-flecked two-lane in this beauty as the sun drops low in the late evening. Where do we sign?

Epic: 1968 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray Coupe 327/350 Four-Speed

Sold for $33,170

When the third-generation Corvette Stingray debuted in 1968, it certainly had large shoes to fill. Those voluptuous hips and fender flares certainly looked the part, and the vacuum-operated pop-up headlights felt futuristic and exciting. The redesigned interior featured a bevy of gauges that kept the driver informed and made no bluffs about its serious performance intent. But, just in case any doubts remained, Chevrolet offered seven different V-8 options under the hood.

The International Blue coupe seen here features the L79 327 cubic-inch “Turbo Fire” V-8, producing a healthy 350 horsepower. A Muncie M21 four-speed manual doles out the V-8’s power through a 4.11:1 Positraction rear axle with independent suspension. The engine stamping matches the chassis number, which is always a plus in these cars.

According to the listing, the car was treated to a frame-on restoration in the summer of 2007. During that time, the engine and transmission were reportedly completely rebuilt. Other features include the aircraft-inspired instrument cluster, pop-up headlights, four-wheel power disc brakes, bucket seats, dual padded sun visors, and more.

There would be a distinct joy in dropping that Muncie down a gear and letting the Turbo Fire rumble as you slipped out to pass the fella in the Marlin down that same two-lane fall road. Sold between the #2 (excellent) and #3 (good) values for this car, we’d consider this first-year C3 one well-bought machine ready for some epic fall fun.

Lavish: 1976 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible

Sold for $14,445

We may never forgive the fuel crisis of the 1970s for what it took from us—namely, massive Cadillacs with unmatched curb appeal and, as (I think) the youths would say, “massive aura.” Cadillac’s radical change in direction in 1977—smaller cars, smaller engines, more considerate footprints—wasn’t going to come without an epic send-off for the previous era.

The 1976 model year marked the end of the full-sized luxury car golden age, and Cadillac made sure to bestow its stalwart Eldorado Convertible with a proper send-off. The 500 cubic-inch V-8 would get one final go-around, as would the convertible roof, which would disappear for many years to come (many at the time thought it was forever). Almost 19 feet in length, this was a giant middle finger to the fuel crunch and looming regulation shifts. We adore it.

The car seen here is one of those swansong Eldos, finished in Alpine White over a Dark Firethorn red leather interior with a white power-folding soft top. The 500 cubic-inch OHV V-8 breathes through a Quadrajet carburetor to make a paltry 190 hp, though the three-speed turbo Hydra-Matic automatic transmission ensures each pony arrives smoothly.

According to the listing, a smattering of upgraded parts were recently fitted to the car, including an idler arm, fuel pump, pitman arm, new power top latches, and an updated air-conditioning system, to name a few. The V-8 received new valve cover gaskets and belts in September of 2023.

As lavish as this one is, there are a few details that offer fantastic DIY opportunities to really return this cruiser to its full glory. Noted imperfections include some paint chipping and cracking, a bit of corrosion on the front panel of the engine bay, cracked leather on the front seats, and a few other odds and ends.

Whether the new owner opts to undertake these projects or just roll as-is, you can bet they’re the most relaxed driver on our hypothetical fall two-lane as October hits the middle mark.