classic cars

A busted car theft ring has turned up a vintage Cadillac once owned by one of the Magnificent Seven. The five-finger-discount drivers out of Colorado, headed by Jeffrey Earle Piper, would steal expensive rental cars, change their VIN numbers and "sell" them. The new "owner", who was in on the whole thing, would then report "his" car stolen and collect on the insurance policy. One of the cars found among the loot: a $133,000 1959 Cadillac - looks like a Series 62 convertible - that once belonged to Steve McQueen. It's other claim to fame: a guest spot on the TV show MacGuyver. The mystery we're still trying to solve is which one of its owners put the Yeti pelt over the driver's seat? Hat tip to Derek!

Click the 1948 Tucker above for more from the San Diego Auto Museum

The Woodward Dream Cruise has been a very professionally run event for most of the past 13 years, but when it came time to check for updates on the Dream Cruise website, it was amateur hour. That has changed, as the rip-roaring event has been given a more modern website with easy to traverse navigation and cleaner graphics. The site also includes a new blog that features the ideas and knowledge of the Dream Cruise leadership team.

Click image above for high-res gallery of classics and exotics from HB

You will never, ever be as cool as Steve McQueen, but if you've got $2 million lying around, you can buy the Porsche he drove in one of the most exciting endurance races in history.

The 908/2 he raced at Sebring and drove in the classic 1971 movie Le Mans goes on the block later this summer, and the early word is bidding could hit $2 million. Pretty cheap, considering the car is a pop cultural and motorsports touchstone with a storied history.

Click above for more photos of classic cars and dogs

The Woodward Dream Cruise is one of the biggest events in Michigan all year, with 1.2 million people attending and over 40,000 hot rods, exotics, antiques and oddities coming from near and far to one of the world's most storied roads. Yet each year businesses on the cruise route complain that the annual event actually hurts their bottom line. It isn't so much the weekend that kills profits as it is the fact that cruisers plug up Woodward for the entire week before the big cruise on Saturday.

In California, home of the strictest car emissions regulations in the U.S., cars produced before 1976 do not need to undergo smog testing. California State Senator Dean Florez has proposed legislation that would remove that exemption for cars registered in the San Joaquin Valley Unified Air Pollution Control District.

What would that mean if it were passed into law? It would mean that as of January 1, 2009, any car registered in a rather large swathe of central California -- from the 1974 Maverick to the 1929 Model A -- would need to pass every current and future smog test. If it didn't, it couldn't be driven.

Click above for a high resolution gallery Shelby's personal '69 GT500