Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2019 i Classic American

Unbelievably, the show season is here with us already and so far we’ve been blessed with a pretty good summer. One’s always a little cautious about making such proclamations, as they are usually followed by biblical rain of the ‘40 days and 40 nights’ variety… hopefully not on this occasion! Huw Evans has been saying it for years, but for me the penny finally has dropped; American car makers really are deserting the manufacture of passenger cars in favour of trucks, SUVs and cross-overs, meaning if you want to buy a sedan in North America these days, you’ll likely be looking at a Camry or an Accord. How on earth has it come to this? When Ford ended production of Panther platform favourites the Ford Crown Vic/Mercury Grand Marquis and…

Sixty years ago, America was a very different place to what it is today. Cars were big, brash and laden with chrome. You could buy leaded hi-test fuel at almost every service station and the new Interstate highway system made cruising from coast to coast and summer road trips the thing to do for many Americans. It was into this environment that General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Corvair. Part of a triumvirate of new, economy-minded domestic cars designed to combat the likes of the Volkswagen Type 1 (Beetle), the Corvair followed its erstwhile German competitor by employing very unorthodox engineering for a Detroit car. It featured unitary construction, four-wheel independent suspension with A-arms up front and swing axles in the rear. Power came from an air-cooled horizontally opposed six-cylinder engine…

STARS & BARRED II Dear Classic American, I would also like to take this opportunity to express my disappointment that six international lifestyle weekenders have seen fit to ban the display of the Confederate flag. It is blindingly obvious that the context in which the flag is used by all Americana enthusiasts is without political motivation. The statement issued by the organisers even acknowledges this, but says ‘the outside world sees this flag and thinks that we are racists and extremists’. In other words, it calls the wider public ignorant. If so, why should anyone be expected to bow to the yoke of ignorance? Ultimately, waving a piece of fabric with a geometric pattern is totally harmless. Banning it simply kills the enjoyment that some people get from it and…

‘Old School’ BR #66 is ICON’s newest creation, a 1966 Ford Bronco re-engineered with modern performance and reliability. Recently listed on the Bring a Trailer auction website, it offered bidders the opportunity to jump ICON’s two-year waiting list for its bespoke early Broncos. To celebrate the release of this vehicle, ICON is partnered with Autotype to donate 10% of the Bronco’s sale price to the Emerging Designer Scholarship Fund, a programme that invests in tomorrow’s design leaders. ICON co-founder/ lead designer Jonathan Ward, a founder member of the Autotype Design Club, accepted the payment, and the vehicle was delivered last month with a clean California title. Like all ICON BRs, the truck’s original character is retained while all other aspects are modernised. Jonathan Ward collaborated on the overall design with…

On the morning of Monday, April 2, 1973, John Z DeLorean walked out of the New York offices at the General Motors Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for the last time. That day would mark the first time in 25 years that he had not been employed in the automotive business. He had come to GM 17 years earlier, as an engineer with the Pontiac Division, helped turn Pontiac around and then, as general manager of Chevrolet, had brought that division back under control, making good profits for the corporation. In October 1972, he was promoted to group executive in charge of the GM Car and Truck Group, with an office on the prestigious Fourteenth Floor at GM’s World Headquarters in Detroit. At age 48, he had raced up…

MSV, Brands Hatch’s owners, certainly know how to rustle up plenty of American razzmatazz for their American Speedfest event – and this weekend always has plenty of that, with NASCARs, cheerleaders, live music, American fast food and just about every type of American vehicle imaginable, as well as hours of on-track racing and demonstrations. This year, like last year, enjoyed hot, dry, sunny weather, with a bit more cloud and a strong breeze on the Sunday, which was by far the busiest day. On the track was a variety of attractions, including the Whelen Euro NASCAR series, Legends cars, Bernie’s V8s (classic American muscle) and even an opportunity for American car and bike clubs to parade the circuit at the end. The constant track activity made for entertainment in addition…

Overcast skies and the usual sea breeze set the scene for the Victory Wheelers’ Hayling Reunion, but that didn’t stop the venue filling up by half-ten so that later arrivals had to start their own show in the council car park next door. Of course, the Reunion is so popular that that kind of thing is commonplace, but one might not expect it to have happened so early in the day given the uncertain weather forecast. In the event, the weather stayed dry, although the sun’s appearance just as the show ended was badly timed. The beach at Funland was crammed with around 200 cars headed, of course, by the Victory Wheelers and strongly supported by the Solent Renegades. Among the various American cars from the 1920s to the present,…

Mark Blanchard, who’s lucky enough to own a 1969 Mustang Mach 1 and a 1970 Dodge Challenger, reports that the recent Mopar day at Brooklands was a great success. Organised by the MMA and Derek Carter, there was a nice turn out of cars and the rain held off too. Mark’s son is pictured in his Challenger, although we’re not sure why he’s wearing a Lotus cap, we’ll have to kit him out with a Classic American cap when they’re next in stock!…

It’s not very often that a British auction house offers up a treasure trove of American vehicles for the taking, but a personal collection of classic American cars is coming to auction at the Historics July 13 event, held at Brooklands Museum, Surrey. The collection, all offered without reserve, comprises five cars, one pick-up and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. The collector obviously had a thing for American luxury cars, as they are primarily Sixties and Seventies models. The auctioneers have described them as follows: 1969 Lincoln Continental, 85,164 miles. Sourced from Houston, Texas in 2014, it is now fully UK registered and is in solid condition throughout with good paintwork. It clearly sits on non-standard 20-inch ‘American Racing’ wheels, low-profile tyres and a non-standard exhaust. The gold-coloured leather interior is in…

AluBright is a powerful concentrated degreaser and restoration product ideal for cleaning and restoring metal parts on cars and motorbikes. Apparently it’s a long favourite of Race Glaze customers as word has spread via users, forums and car club meetings. AluBright dissolves corrosion and removes white oxidation from steel, alloy and most cast metals, within minutes. It leaves a bright, ‘as-new’ finish on dull grey engine blocks which you can seal in with JetLaq. So, if you’re rebuilding an engine or just taking one out, it really lifts the finish. Far more effective than most similar products, it’s ideal for cleaning engine parts such as engine blocks, gearbox housings, turbochargers, pipework, cooling fins on motorcycle engines – anywhere you need to get back to the original finish. Cleans up rust…

We were mooching around in Wareham on the south coast recently and called in at Paul Coleman’s Coltech Classics, where he’d just cut the roof off an Econoline Dayvan… but that’s another story. We were more interested in these cool acrylic resin shift knobs that he has recently started producing. Each one is different, made up of small coloured tiles bonded together and then shaped and sanded by hand. Paul then drills and taps them with a 6mm thread. The ones shown are for sale, subject to availability, or you can request your own colour combo, which we did, Paul making up a knob for our cowl vent handle on our truck to match the existing shift knob already fitted. Prices vary, but bear in mind each knob is hand…

Depending on your age, you might recall the days when local custom shops were plentiful, and many stocked the colourful packs of Cal Custom accessories, dress-up items you could easily bolt on to just about any American car, and back then, that’s just what we did. Surfing online recently we discovered a whole bunch of new old stock Cal Custom stuff plus some other vintage custom accessories that came out of an old warehouse in Los Angeles that had been closed up for 30 years. Since we were importing a car anyway, we bought a whole bunch of it and imported it to the UK. We’ve already sold some of it but there’s still a lot available, and quite a bit has been sold to nostalgic collectors who just want…

Hi folks and welcome to another column. I am this month faced with a bit of a dilemma. Between the Government and the Mayor of London I find my fleet of vehicles banned from London unless I choose to pay the Congestion Charge and the new ULEZ (ultra-low emission zone) charge which will be replacing the T (toxicity) Charge at a cost to me of £24.50 and then have to pay an astonishing amount of money to park the car. ULEZ affects diesel vehicles over four years old and petrol cars over 13 years; however, any historic tax class motor vehicles are exempt and come the end of 2025, a new Zero Emission zone will be enforced for central London. The present Government wants us to be driving non-fossil fuel…

Steve (Ron Howard) and his girl Laurie (Cindy Williams) are cuddling up in the front seat of the big Edsel, with Curt (Richard Dreyfuss) playing the gooseberry in the back. They’re cruising through the streets of their small southern California town for the last night before heading off - or not - to college. Wolfman Jack is on the radio and Curt is listening as they come to a halt at a stop light. Suddenly, in the inside lane, a beautiful blonde in a white ’56 T-bird pulls up next to the Edsel and she and Curt make eye contact. She smiles, and seems to mouth the words “I love you”. Curt is stunned and winds the window down to ask her what she said, but the lights have changed…

When you picture a Chevrolet Impala, I’m willing to bet it’s not the 1961 model you’ll see in your mind’s eye. While the tail-finned 1958 to 1960 cars are popular cruisers and the 1962s and later are favoured among the lowrider community, the 1961 Chevy often gets overlooked. “The ‘61 is definitely rare and getting rarer,” agrees Paul Mander, owner of this white 1961 Sport Coupe. “That’s part of the reason I bought it. I visit America on holiday virtually every March and September and I was actually after a 1965 Impala that was in Charlotte, but before going to look at it I stopped at a car show in Myrtle Beach about 170 miles south. It was there I saw this ’61 and fell in love. “At home, I…

Most classic American cars will use a sender unit of the resistance wire type, with a moving contact that’s connected to a float often made of cork or thin brass, with later versions using plastic. This moving contact’s action on the resistance wire can eventually rub through the fine wire and an open circuit, resulting in a zero gauge reading. To find out why the gauge isn’t showing a fuel level – assuming there is at least two gallons in the tank – try running an earth wire to the sender unit to see if the gauge responds. If there is no reading, disconnect the tank unit sender wire and connect it to a sound earth. This should, with the ignition on, show a reading above the full fuel level…

Heat two of this year’s Kingstown Shipping & RH Insurance Car of the Year competition was won by a car that may look familiar to Classic American readers: this beautiful black 1962 Ford Thunderbird was featured in the May 2018 (no. 325) issue of Classic American. Owner Kevin Moss bought the car in March 2017 and has done a lot of work to it since, including an interior retrim and getting the electric top (including all the original solenoids) to work reliably – although as anyone knows with these cars, which utilise much of the retractable technology pioneered on the ’56-’58 Skyliners – they can be a little temperamental. The car was originally ordered new by an American serviceman in Germany (hence the speedometer in kilometres, rather than miles) and…

1966 FORD FAIRLINE GT/GTA Fords were handsome beasts in the mid-Sixties with a wide range of cars including full-size Galaxies, intermediate Fairlanes, compact Falcons and the ubiquitous Mustang, nearing the end of its first incarnation, and still somewhat overshadowing the other vehicles in people’s memories. The Fairlane was now in its fifth generation, having downsized from full- to mid-size in the early Sixties. Revised in 1966, it now resembled its larger Galaxie stablemate, with quad stacked headlights and razor-edged styling. Along with the more mundane sedans, you could opt for the sportier GT and GTA packages, the ‘A’ standing for a new SportsShift Cruise-o-Matic auto transmission. A high compression 335bhp, 390cu in big-block V8 was standard with a four-barrel carb. Models of the 1966 Fairlane have been available sporadically from…

Heat two of this year’s Kingstown Shipping & RH Insurance Car of the Year competition was won by a car that may look familiar to Classic American readers – this beautiful black 1962 Ford Thunderbird was featured in the May 2018 (no. 325) issue of Classic American. Owner Kevin Moss bought the car in March 2017 and has done a lot of work to it since, including an interior retrim and getting the electric top (including all the original solenoids) to work reliably – although as anyone knows, with these cars, which utilise much of the retractable technology pioneered on the ’56-’58 Skyliners – they can be a little temperamental. The car was originally ordered new by an American serviceman in Germany (hence the speedometer in kilometres, rather than miles)…

California Flathead specialists, H&H Flatheads, have just announced the introduction of complete Navarro-equipped turnkey Flathead V8s, with a 12,000 mile warranty. Available in a range of specs from mild to wild, customers can choose the 8BA and 59A motors in various specs  and carburettor configurations, including supercharged. All engines are built with top of the line components, including new, made in the USA, Navarro heads, Stromberg carbs, Ross pistons, Scat cranks, Manley valves etc. and a choice of Navarro or S.C.o.T. blowers. H&H tell us that all engines come with a one-year or 12,000-mile warranty and can be shipped anywhere in the world. All of this will come at a price however, and for that you’ll need to contact H&H direct on 001 818 248 2371. Our only observation is…

General Motors’ styling czar Bill Mitchell dubbed it ‘a Corvair-Corvette for the smaller sports car market’. Not that there was ever any likelihood of the Sebring Spyder making it into production, more’s the pity. This long-forgotten concept queen was strictly a one-off, but it was an intriguing one, nevertheless. Breaking cover at the February 1961 Chicago Auto Show, it instilled excitement in onlookers and the media alike, only to disappear into the ether almost as soon as it appeared. According to Car & Driver magazine, the car was conceived with high-performance in mind. Writer Dic van der Feen stated: “Mitchell started with the standard Corvair chassis and reduced the wheelbase by 15 inches, nearly all of it taken from between the back of the stock door and the rear wheel…

May 18 Mercedes Benz World, near Weybridge, Surrey, is a great place to hold a classic car auction. Clearly auction house Historics agree as they returned for their May 18 sale, adjacent to their spiritual home, the Brooklands Museum. With ample viewing space, the majority of cars were under cover, the remainder being assembled in and around the facility’s secure hard-standing. Pre-auction viewing saw 600 visitors inspecting the 172 classic vehicles consigned to this sale, with 1500 attending on sale day. Clearly a successful event, 129 vehicles found new homes, achieving a remarkable 75% sale rate and gross sales of £4.59 million! Classic cars are obviously as popular as ever. As with previous sales, there was only a modest sprinkling of American vehicles, though of great variety. The oldest by…

When your family are as enthusiastic about cars as you are, it’s inevitable that before long, one will be gracing the family garage. Paul Clarkson’s father owned a number of British classic cars and his brother is very into old Porsches, but it was Paul’s wife Suzanne and especially his son Matt who were the driving force behind buying this Plymouth Superbird. “I’ve always liked muscle cars,” explains Paul, “and we went on a road trip across America in July 2014 that included visiting Pebble Beach in the hope of seeing a Superbird. Matt loves the cars; he built Lego versions and had Scalextric Superbirds, so we’d become obsessed with seeing one. “Suzanne then spotted one for sale at a dealership called My Hot Cars (www.myhotcars.com) in San Ramon, California…

Fill me up I managed to find a pair of (what we think to be NOS) seat filler metal panels to recover and fit. My originals had sadly gone walkabout and the repro units were expensive and probably less substantial. A scan of eBay USA yielded this pair, which got shipped easily to Simon using their very reasonable global shipping programme. No, I am NOT paid by eBay to say any of this! Simon then used matching red vinyl supplied by Hill Upholstery and Design (www.hillupholstery.co.uk) to cover these filler panels (which live between the rear quarter and the seat backrest). In the factory these were simply painted interior colour but Simon is a ridiculous perfectionist and first adhered neoprene foam to them, then heat wrapped and then glued on…

In the spring of 2013, after selling his 1966 Rambler Classic 770 four-door sedan, the time was right for Lawrence to get what he’d always wanted: an early Mustang coupe in a pastel colour, either a six- or eight-cylinder car, maybe one with a bit of age patina and with a good provenance. After searching the internet and the pages of Classic American for a couple of months, Lawrence decided to try a dealer. He got in touch with one on the south coast and told him what he was looking for. The dealer had nothing in stock that fitted the bill, but knew a man in New Jersey called Richard (who Lawrence is still in touch with) who had owned a genuine Sprint 200 since the early Eighties and…

Checker Taxis in the 1959 A series form are an American icon – no doubt about that, but I wonder why you rarely, if ever, see an example of this long-lasting marque at American car rallies in this country? At least in some 25 years of attending them, I have never seen one at any meet over here, even at the Rally of the Giants, and even in the US they don’t seem to come out for their ‘Antique Car Meets’. Therefore, I thought why not invite some of their owners to join us for a change at the long-running (since 1996) Packard Spring Meet, held a little later in the calendar this year, and in glorious summer sunshine, on June 2. Checker Taxis – the vehicles – were manufactured…