Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2017 i Classic American

Welcome to the September issue of Classic American…Wow, September? That must mean autumn is almost here! Fear not though, if previous years are anything to go by, we’ll have the nicest weather (and by that I mean dry!) yet to come in September and October. It’s certainly been a busy month here at Class Am Towers and I worked out that I’d been to six American car shows in the last four weeks alone. There used to be a lot of events in June a decade or two ago – Billing for example – but that all seems to have changed in recent years. And speaking of shows and American car events, the feedback we’ve been getting from readers is one of dissatisfaction, boredom… even disappointment with the current offerings.…

The Brooklands Museum, near Weybridge, Surrey, again played host to the aptly named auction house Historics at Brooklands with another eclectic mix of classic vehicles, including a few of interest to Classic American readers. Among the 135 consignments for their summer auction were a modest 10 vehicles of American origin, ranging from a late Thirties Buick to a 1990 Corvette. Estimates varied wildly from ‘no reserve’ to a wallet-busting £200,000. Nevertheless, with any auction it comes down to how much bidders will pay on the day. The aforementioned Buick, a former Classic American feature car, was a 1939 Special with a straight-eight engine. It showed under 34,000 miles on the clock and was a stunning example, reputedly a 100 point concours restoration that had cost £50,000 to achieve. With an…

Dear Classic American, My son decided back in 2003 that he’d ‘misuse’ his student loan and buy a 1970 Dodge Challenger. Afterwards, we were soon doing the rounds to all the American car meets around the country. We heard about a seriously huge gathering of American cars in Sweden called the Power Big Meet, and in 2005 we made the trip. We flew to Stockholm and stayed overnight prior to the onward journey to Västerås the next morning. That evening was a particularly poignant one for us. We looked out over the waterways and watched hot air balloons lifting into the blue evening sky. London had been attacked by terrorists earlier in the day and we felt we shouldn’t have been there. The show site at Johannisburg is situated about…

This month I am going to champion the local classic car show. Up and down the country during the summer months hundreds of small gatherings of old car enthusiasts can be found. While I really enjoy the huge lifestyle mega-shows and traditional American car shows that are reported so well in this magazine, there are plenty of village green type small congregations that are a joy to attend as well, because you never know what classics are going to turn up. I do like to support my local classic shows and since I live on the Surrey/Hampshire border I am spoilt for choice nearly every weekend during show season as there are lots of events. Recently my favourite watering hole held a Father’s Day classic car show and it turned…

Words: Jim Smart Photography: Jim Smart Illustrations: Ford Motor Co Syndication: Fox The physics behind automotive air conditioning is simple heat transfer, yet a car’s A/C system can be baffling to troubleshoot. Now that the warm months are here, we offer some advice on keeping your cool, starting with a brief explanation of how an A/C system works. Refrigerant begins its journey as a gas at the compressor (pump), where it’s compressed and flows to the condenser in front of the radiator. Hot gaseous refrigerant in the condenser gives up its heat energy to the atmosphere. As the hot gaseous refrigerant flows from the condenser to the evaporator inside the car, it passes through the expansion valve (also known as a throttling valve), where it transforms into a cold liquid…

Royal Bath and West Showgrounds, Shepton Mallet, Somerset June 17-18, 2017 Phew, what a scorcher! This year’s Footman James Bristol Classic just happened to coincide with one of the hottest Junes on record and that meant a great turnout of vehicles at the show, which is held at the Royal Bath and West Showgrounds, just outside Shepton Mallet, Somerset. Taken over by Classic American’s parent company Mortons two years ago, the show has retained much of its original ethos, with a few new twists and attractions thrown in for good measure. There are plenty of traders and autojumble, as well as stalls dealing in all manner of automotive related businesses, from valeting to insurance to chrome plating, plus indoor displays and an auction on site. Of course the main attraction…

Goodwood House, West Sussex June 29-July 2, 2017 What started out some 25 years ago as a low-key hillclimb event up Lord March’s driveway at his country estate has snowballed to become a massive, world class event attracting competitors, spectators, manufacturers and media from around the world. With the passing of time, the Goodwood cursor constantly slides forward, embracing the latest cars, bikes and technology, so it never goes stale. I can think of no other event anywhere where you would see the current Formula One World Champion, Nico Rosberg, hooning around in his Mercedes F1 car, doing tyre-shredding doughnuts and burnouts, and tearing up the grass like a motocrosser. Also the latest Le Mans-winning hybrid Porsche, still covered in French dirt and flies, prewar Grand Prix cars running on…

Wow! We just got back from yet another awesome weekend at Pendine Sands, courtesy of the Vintage Hot Rod Association. Still unique among UK car events, it’s hard to describe in mere words how special this event is, especially if you are into vintage machinery. Once again hot rodders converged from all over Europe as well as the UK to test their jalopies on the hallowed beach in South Wales, and no yellow dusters were seen and not a drop of polish used. We were far too busy having fun for that nonsense! Many classes had records broken as the VHRA racers have gradually upped their game over the five years, culminating in a blistering run by Jim Henshaw driving a V8 powered 1928-29 Ford Roadster Pickup which upped the…

Z28 Indy 500 Pace Car Vendor: Martin Edinburgh, Cheshunt, Herts Telephone: 01992 631296 Price: £8500 For this month’s Drive-Buy, we evaluate a slightly more modern Yank, a Chevrolet Camaro Z28 Indy Pace car, quite distinctive and relatively rare, with only 645 built in 1993. This particular example had two owners in the USA, prior to being imported into the UK in 2005 and remains in the same ownership. This fourth generation Camaro is emblazoned with the full Indy 500 decal treatment, comprising of multicolour ribbon graphics and various other colourful artwork, over black and white paintwork. These are all original and remarkably well preserved, on a car that’s almost 25 years old. Indeed, the bodywork in general is extremely well presented, there’s no rust or unsightly blemishes anywhere, the T-tops…

The popular American-themed Autumn Classic returns to Prescott Speed Hill Climb on Saturday, September 30 and Sunday, October 1, 2017. The all-American Stars and Stripes weekend celebrates the biggest and brightest cars this side of the pond and you can be a part of it! We have five pairs of tickets up for grabs, plus the opportunity to WIN a thrilling passenger ride in an American muscle classic car! The event is packed with spectacular American vehicles from every era, as well as hot rods, customs, Indian motorcycles and custom choppers, plus a wide variety of competition cars competing on the historic hill climb course. There’s a dedicated show ‘n’ shine display area for American vehicle owners all vying to scoop the prestigious Footman James Car of the Year competition,…

In late July 2017 the British Government announced a ban on the sale of new diesel and petrol cars by 2040 in a bid to encourage people – perhaps ‘force people’ would be more accurate – to instead buy electric vehicles. Currently just 4% of new car sales in the UK are electric and Environment Secretary Michael Gove warns Britain can’t carry on with petrol and diesel cars due to the damage they’re doing to our health and the planet. A National Grid report says the resulting increased demand for electricity could add some 30 gigawatts to the current peak of 61GW. To meet these 2040 requirements the UK would require another 10,000 wind turbines – at a present cost of £1.3 million each – or around 10 more nuclear…

The Fifties witnessed the emergence of British kit cars, or rather ‘specials’ to use the parlance of the day. Dozens of firms sprung up all over the country offering exoticlooking bodyshells that, in theory at least, were ready to be draped over rather less sexy Austin Seven and Ford Popular running gear. The thing is, the USA witnessed a similar boom in parallel, with the diminutive Skorpion being one of the most heavily publicised of the period. The men behind it had experience and ability, and the drive was certainly there. Nevertheless, it lived the life of a mayfly. The story begins in 1942 at an event organised by 25-year-old John A Wills which he hoped would promote new wonder material glass-fibre. The show proved a flop, with poor attendance,…

1956 Ford Thunderbird “KEITH TOLD US THAT THE CAR IS SO NICE AND ORIGINAL HE PLANS TO KEEP IT EXACTLY THE WAY IT IS...” Back in 1956 when this gorgeous Ford Thunderbird was a brand-new car just out of the showroom, it was probably being driven and enjoyed by an affluent and respectable owner in an upmarket suburb somewhere in Southern California. Maybe it belonged to a banker’s wife − or the owner of a jewellery store, like the mysterious white one in American Graffiti? Certainly it would have been a million miles away from the noisy, greasy, and rowdy craze of teenage hot rodding which was growing over on the other side of town at the time. But times change, and while nearly all Fifties Thunderbirds have achieved desirable…

Pendine Sands, Wales June 24-25, 2017 This June saw the VHRA returning for the fifth time to the hallowed Pendine Sands where between 1924 and 1927 five land speed records were broken, first by Malcolm Campbell in his famous Bluebird and later by Parry Thomas in Babs. Last year’s event saw a massive increase in pre-1949, mostly Ford, period hot rods running over 100mph and their drivers receiving the coveted 100mph T-shirt. This year was no exception, with many cars going much faster than before. Conditions on the sand in 2017 were perfect with the tide far enough out, and 250 makeshift pits which included over 250 VHRA members. It’s always a race against time and tide to get as many runs in as possible because the course changes as…

Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Oxfordshire July 9, 2017 The Rally of the Giants no longer conflicts with the Mopar Nats – not that there was ever a natural cross-over crowd – however, it does come pretty close to the Power Big Meet, which ends the day before. A bit of careful planning does mean it’s possible to do both, but for a more relaxed life it’s probably wiser to choose one or the other! The weather was perfect for the show, dry, warm and with a good forecast so it was in full swing by 10am. Indeed, numbers seemed up on previous years, although the older cars did seem a bit thin on the ground this year. Could it be the weather was too hot for them, or are the older…

1956 Chevrolet 210 What is Street Eliminator? Drag racing involves reaching the end of a quarter-mile track as fast as possible. How long that takes is known as the Elapsed Time (ET), anything around 12 seconds is regarded as quick for a standard car. A stock 1969 Hemi Charger probably did about 13-14 second ETs, and a Challenger Hellcat perhaps 11 seconds. At the time of writing the Street Eliminator class record is 7.243 seconds by Mark Todd in the ‘Freight Train’ GTO, while current best speed is 208.17mph by Richard Billings in the Owen Developments Mustang. Everyone wants to be the first into the sixes. Once the racing is over, all Street Eliminator cars go on a cruise on the public roads – the rules state each car must…

Wowser! What a busy old month it’s been with the Footman James Car of the Year competition, with no less than four heats over the past month – that’s one every weekend in July! Here’s a round-up of who won what when. There are show reports on Stars & Stripes and Rally of the Giants in this month’s magazine and don’t forget you can see these four fantastic cars (and the four other heat winners!) on the Classic American stand at the Classic Motor Show, NEC over the weekend of November 10-12. Heat 3 Stars & Stripes Show, Tatton Park, Cheshire. WINNER: Steve Sullivan, 1955 Ford Thunderbird. Heat 6 Rally of the Giants, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire. WINNER: Sven Larsen, 1950 Nash Ambassador Airflyte Heat 5 Damn Yankees, North Weald, Essex.…

In this day and age it was probably inevitable. On August 31, Fiat Chrysler Shuttered the Conner Avenue facility in Detroit, where from 1995 until 2017, the iconic Dodge Viper was hand assembled by elite teams of workers. Fiat Chrysler officially announced the decision in July. This followed a statement from the company last year, citing that 2017 would be the last model year for the Viper, since the car would be unable to meet upcoming crash standards (scheduled to take effect September 1, 2017). Conner Avenue, located just south of Eight Mile Road and close to Van Dyke Avenue, originally opened in 1966. Initially, it was operated by Champion Spark Plugs as a parts manufacturing facility; in 1995 it was acquired by the then Chrysler Corporation. As for its…

“I’m an anorak for the Mustang,” says Brian Preston. His wife Loraine nods and smiles, and though Brian is being a little self-deprecating, there’s a lot of truth there too. Anyone who’s owned, restored and driven Mustangs for 13 years is going to end up that way. It wasn’t always so. Brian was into English Fords as a young man and had a very tasty Mk 2 Zephyr Zodiac. Then he saw a 1967 ‘Bullitt’ Mustang replica at a show and thought: “That’s what I want.” But simply selling a Zodiac and buying a Mustang isn’t possible without a fair bit of spare cash, and Brian busted a gut to save the money. A red notchback came up for sale around 2004 and Brian was keen, but Loraine, who clearly…

Beaulieu, Hampshire June 18, 2017 There’s one word that really describes this year’s Beaulieu Hot Rod and Custom Car Drive-in Day, held in association with the Solent Renegades car club, and that is ‘scorching’. That covers both the weather and the quality of the 600 or so cars that rocked up. Beaulieu is a perfect venue for car events. After a tranquil drive through the beautiful New Forest admiring the newborn foals and calves, you arrive at the National Motor Museum where you are expertly directed into the show area by the well drilled events team. There are no long queues and no dramas, just as it should be. Once inside there are all the facilities and amenities required to make for an enjoyable day. Thank goodness for the avenues…

Tatton Park, Cheshire July 1-2, 2017 In an era when a lot of car shows and clubs seem to be struggling, it’s refreshing to see an event like the Stars & Stripes show thriving… In fact this is now probably the largest American car event in the north and it’s not unusual to hear Scottish accents or those from the North East or the Midlands, such is its draw. Held in the grounds of the fabulously beautiful Tatton Park, there are plenty of trees for shade and visitors pass through the aristocratic grounds to reach the area where the show is held. There’s always plenty to do and see and this year was no exception with plenty of traders, food vendors, live music, a wall of death, fair rides and…

There can be little doubt that the Power Big Meet has been one of the most amazing American car events on the calendar for the best part of three or four decades now. I first went in 1999 and have been intermittently going ever since. For me it’s such a treat, that I deliberately ration myself, going every two, three or four years, so that I don’t become jaded with it. However, in that time, it’s become a bit more of a challenge to visit, as ferries to Sweden were discontinued (and latterly to Denmark too) meaning that a ferry to Amsterdam, then driving through Holland, Germany and Denmark on to Sweden was the only option. I had planned on driving this year with a friend/ colleague; however a knee…