It is common writing convention. Ships and cars are ALWAYS women, becasue as men we fall in love with them. Don't think I'd refer to a thing of automotive beauty as "Fred" or "Bud". When refering to your car, "He's just gorgeous!" just doesn't sound right.
Using "it" to describe a car, you may as well be talking about a blender or toyota corolla.
I agree, she IS gorgeous, rare (and significant), well documented AND a great buy- lots of my clients putting money into hard goods these days. We did have very strong offers on the car right after the Playboy Mansion, at that point the owner was not interested in selling it. The market has given some ground that it will eventually give back. As an investment, this is a strong buy!
