Booklist: Cars I Could've, Should've Kept, by Jackson Brooks

Booklist: Cars I Could've, Should've Kept: Memoir of a LIfe Restoring Classic Sports Cars, by Jackson Brooks
McFarland and Company, 2007
249 pages, plus Index. Several b&w photosscattered throughout.
Library: 629.2221 BRO

Description
A small businessman and lifelong [enthuusiast of classic cars], Jackson Brooks began in the early 1960s to purchase, restore, and enjoy a long succession of rare automotive beauties, many of which are million-dollar commodities in today's market. Not so much a collector as an enthusiast and entrepreneur, he recounts how he found and selected the cars, some of which were on the verge of the scrap-heap, the process of restoring them, the challenges he confronted along the way, the ones that got away, and always the hunt for the next vehicle to spark his imagination.

The cars, primarily sporting machines, include 8C-2.3 Alfa Romeos, a Jaguar SS100, Ferrari 250MM Barchetta racers (of 13 built), a 1922 Mercedes Targa Florio racer, a Type 57 Bugatti, four Talbot Lagos, and a 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton among many others, with particular concentrations on Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. Often the sale of one, after restoration and use, financed the purchase of the next, and the text includes the purchase and sales prices as well as approximate present-day market values of the cars. Few people have enjoyed so much hands-on experience with so many of the world's most desirable automobiles.

Now retired, Jackson Brooks lives with Jackie, his wife, in Estes Park, Colorado.

Table of Contents
Preface
1. The 8C-2.3 Alfa Romeo
2. The Jaguars (and a few others)
3. The De Mola Bodied Alfa
4.. The 6C-1750 Gran Turismo Con Compressore
5. The 250MM Ferraris
6. The 1959 410 Superamerica Ferrari
7. The Lusso Berlinetta Ferraris
8. The Maharajah's 2.9 Alfa Romeo
9. The 1922 Targa Florio Mercedes
10. The 1957 Gullwing Mercedes
11. The SSK Mercedes
12. The 1953 212 Inter Ferrari #0289EU
13. The Talbot Lagos
14. The Type 57 Bugatti
15. The 1949 Type 166 FErrari Barchetta
16. The Alfa Romeo Disco Volante
17. The 1930 6C-1750 Alfa Romeo Zagato Spider
18. The 250 GT Boano Ferraris
19. The Fire Alfa
20. My Last 8C-2.3 Alfa Romeo
21. An Idyllic Interlude
22. The Nash Healy
23. My Packard Education
24. The Audtin Mini Cooper S
25. The TWelve-Cylinder Pierce Arrow Club Brougham
26. The 1937 Supercharged Cord Phaeton
27. The 1939 Alvis Speed 25
28. Cars I Admired But Never Owned
29. Conclusion
Index