The Daily Vroom

This is how you do a Collection

Car & Classic has just launched their first Collector’s Edition, and if you care at all about how great cars should be showcased online, this is worth your time. The sale features 33 cars, pre bidding is already live, and it all ends on 15 November. The big story is not simply the cars. It is how they have chosen to present them.

You do not just scroll a list. (you can if you want)
You sign up (for free) and unlock a 78 page interactive catalogue that feels more like a luxury brand lookbook than a standard auction preview. You can download it here and it’s well worth a look, much better than scrolling on the site and much easier to see, read and view every car.

Each car receives its own beautifully designed spread with a single click through to the listing. There is a polished intro video included right in the catalogue.

And soon there will be a Chris Harris introduction video to the collection which will give this a major spotlight moment.

This is what happens when a platform decides to treat a curated set of cars like an event rather than just inventory.

The Cars Earned the Spotlight

A few highlights from the lineup:

• Aston Martin DB4 Convertible
• Porsche 356 Pre A Speedster
• 2021 Ford GT
• Bentley Speed 8 Le Mans style tourer
• Lamborghini Countach LP400 S for the bedroom wall generation

There is no filler. Every car contributes to the story. Each one deserves to be in the grid.

Here is the real takeaway

We are living in an attention economy in the collector car world. New auctions launch every day. Inventory is everywhere. That means one thing:

Presentation has become part of the value.

Let us call this clearly:

✅ Big collections need to feel big
✅ The noise in this market is real
✅ Collectors respond to theatre not sameness
✅ A special group of cars deserves a special stage

Clearly not every sale can have this treatment. Daily volume makes that impossible. But when a great collection arrives, there is no reason to roll it out on autopilot.

Mohr Imports demonstrated this earlier this year with their postcard concept for a collection on BaT. That was smart. This is smart. Car & Classic has taken the same idea of elevating a collection and transformed it into a complete digital experience.

The message to the entire industry is simple. If you want people to care, give them something worth caring about.

I genuinely enjoy seeing creative thinking like this. Car & Classic has stepped outside the usual playbook, applied real design thinking, and delivered something that enhances the cars, the consignors, and the entire online auction experience.

The catalogue is absolutely worth a look.

Auctions To Keep An Eye On

This one is not usually our wheelhouse. We do not often find ourselves reviewing side by sides here. But DirtHammer has just launched a brand new auction platform specifically for these machines, and I want to support new ideas in the space, especially when they are trying something different.

And no, before anyone asks, this is not the ‘mystery’ platform I hinted at a few weeks ago that is launching soon. Completely separate story.

So let us talk about what they are doing.

DirtHammer is leaning into a segment that has been exploding over the past few years. The side by side market is massive, the average used unit price is over twenty six thousand dollars now, and most owners flip into a new one every couple of seasons. Yet most of the marketplace options today are, to put it politely, not great. DirtHammer is trying to fix that with curated listings, expert write ups, and tools to make the buying process less of a gamble.

And their very first auction is this:

2023 Polaris RZR Pro R Troy Lee Designs Edition

What stands out here is that it is not just a standard machine. The Troy Lee Designs Edition was limited to a single year, making it genuinely rare in its segment. It packs 225 horsepower from a naturally aspirated 2.0 liter four cylinder and runs Fox Live Valve adaptive suspension with Polaris’s Ride Command system. It is a street legal spec with extended flares, dual batteries, windshield setup, cameras, and more. It also comes with a transferable extended warranty through 2028 which is a big plus in this world.

It has a clean presentation, low miles, and a long list of comfort and usability upgrades that make it genuinely appealing if you want something ready to go for actual adventures, not just garage art.

Is this something we would feature every day? No. But that is what makes supporting new sites like DirtHammer worthwhile. New platforms deserve a chance when they try to bring transparency and real storytelling to a category that has mostly lived on Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

If you are curious and want to see how they present machines on the new platform, have a look. The bidding is already moving and there is a Buy It Now if someone decides they want to hit the sand right away!

I like seeing more creativity and more niches getting the premium treatment. The more platforms we have thinking seriously about user experience and trust, the better this whole ecosystem becomes.

Anyone who has been reading me for a while knows it does not take much to get me writing about a wagon. The moment you take real performance and wrap it in a long roof, I am there. And this one is a proper unicorn.

A 2007 Audi RS4 Avant in Sprint Blue with a six speed manual and a naturally aspirated 4.2 liter V8. The B7 RS4 is already a beloved car. It is sharp, it revs to the sky, it gives you quattro confidence, and in the sedan form it was already a hero. But the Avant version was never offered here in North America. This is the version we always wished Audi had given us.

That makes this a special car in a very real way. It wears all the character of the era. Wingback inspired Recaros with Alcantara inserts. Bi xenon headlights. Nappa leather. The coveted blue interior accents. And here it is essentially as Audi intended it, mostly unmodified other than a quality coilover setup and a modern head unit.

Mileage is reasonable at around seventy four thousand. Clean title in Canada. Fresh inspection. And the right color that every RS4 fan immediately shouts about in the comments.

The only catch is timing. It is still a bit too young for US import under the twenty five year rule, which is why the comment section is full of people planning fictional Canadian shell corporations. The energy is real. Everyone sees the appeal. It is that moment where enthusiasts know exactly what this is, but cannot quite have it yet.

That only makes it better in my book.

We celebrate rarity all the time in this market. We celebrate performance. We celebrate analog engagement. When you combine all three and package it as something you can drive year round with a dog and kids in the back, that is the good stuff.

This RS4 Avant is exactly why the wagon cult exists. It is the car that does not compromise. Power plus practicality plus pedigree. A proper drivers car that never needed a wing to announce itself.

So yes, I am writing about a wagon again. Of course I am. The special ones deserve it.

Not every homologation great needs a crazy wing or a second mortgage. Some are quieter about their history but no less important in shaping the era. This is one of them.

The Mercedes 190E 2.3 16 Valves Cosworth is the car that Mercedes built for battle. First for rally. Then famously for DTM. It never got to throw dirt at Audi’s Quattro, but it did get to chase BMW around touring car circuits. And it did the job brilliantly, thanks to Cosworth heads, a high revving four cylinder, and aero that cut lift almost in half.

This example is exactly the kind collectors chase. Low mileage at thirty three thousand. Clean Carfax. Well kept. Still wearing its original Recaro interior and the period correct Becker. Just the right amount of patina for nearly forty years old.

Yes, it is the automatic version. The purists will immediately say manual or nothing. Yet the reality is that the auto cars feel surprisingly good, especially if you plan to actually drive the car instead of chasing lap times. You are still getting the engine that made the car famous with a more relaxed setup. Honestly, that might be the smarter choice if you want to enjoy it regularly.

Cosworths have been climbing as people wake up to the fact that there were not many good ones to begin with, and most well priced cars have lived hard lives. Finding a tidy one under fifty thousand miles is getting rare.

So is this the one that will suddenly spike to Evo II money? No. That is not the point. This is a chance to grab a piece of the DTM era with history in its veins and life still ahead of it.

The affordable homologation icon is becoming an endangered species. This one still fits the description. And that is exactly why it is worth a look.