To my delight, I had a chance to snoop around Hallville’s Sports Car Factory this morning. The place is a veritable trove of automotive awesomeness. Now, we’re not talking about the car as a mode of transportation, but as an art-form. Of course, with old-school British cars’ (one of the Factory’s apparent specialities) reputation in mind, actual locomotion does at times take a rumble seat, if you know what I mean. But with form like this, who needs function?

The Factory’s museum-like second level contains a few works in progress, along with spare parts and other car stuff. Flick on the fluorescent lights, and auto relics appear in the dusty gloom. The place seems to be caught somewhere in between order and chaos, depending on where you look.

The cars are lifted up to the second level through here:

Now, this looks like a couple of body panels from an old E-Type. The back end rests a few feet away.

Back outside, British motoring’s finest are well represented: Triumph, Austin-Healey, and MG. Not to mention the Jags scattered about, albeit in various stages of (dis)repair, along with a couple of Land Rovers that look like they had at one point or another been abandoned along the banks of the Congo River.

Anyhow, they’ve got some right fine specimens lined up along County Road 43 as well; it was nice to see a couple Sprites, as well as a handsome TR6. It’s hard to drive by the lot without pulling over and kicking a tire or two. At risk of heartbreak, of course, when you inevitably realize that gem you noticed last visit has mysteriously disappeared, and is no doubt gracing the garage of some lucky fellow (or lady).

You know the saying, “they don’t make ‘em like they used to;” but when presented with these beauties, you can’t help but wonder why?