The Auburn 851 Speedster: The First American Sports Car?
There was a time when classic cars weren’t the multi-billion dollar industry they are today. A time when you couldn’t gauge fluctuations in the Ferrari market like the price of gold, and vintage iron didn’t double or triple its value seemingly every year. It was once a niche pastime, made up of of grizzled old diehards who worked to keep the past alive in dusty garages and in swap meets all across the country. These pioneers (if you could call them that) were pushing back against the march of Automotive progress, and preserved countless cars that otherwise would’ve been lost to history. And even in those early days, few American cars looked at as reverently as the Auburn 851 Speedster, also known simply as the Boattail.
