Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2018 i Hemmings Classic Car

More Portholes, Vern STEVE SMALLEY EMAILED US A FEW PHOTOS OF A… CREATION… HE RECENTLY CAME across in Newportville, Pennsylvania, and “was just curious, was this actually produced or was this handmade?” Well, unless Buick and Packard had a long-forgotten fling and one of the two produced a V-10 at some point, we’re going to guess that it’s handmade. But — bonus! — we’re also going to guess why it was built as it was built. If you’ll recall Jim Donnelly’s article from HCC #49 on a 1947 Buick Roadmaster, you’ll also be familiar with the concept of firefighter competitions and the often outlandish cars employed in those events. That doesn’t give us a specific answer regarding this Buickard, so maybe somebody in the Newportville area can fill in the…

1955 Chrysler Ghia Falcon 800-639-1744 • WWW.REPLICARZ.COM  • $338.99 As this car’s current caretaker relates, Virgil Exner Jr. said that the 1955 Chrysler Falcon, built by Ghia of Turin, Italy, was his father’s all-time favorite personal design. Envisioned as Chrysler’s response to the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford’s new Thunderbird, this two-seat sports car might have changed America’s postwar car history, had it been green lighted for production. Instead, the show car was deported to South America after finishing its tour of duty, only returning to the U.S. 30 years later, and it joined the fleet of noted show-car collector Joe Bortz (www.bortzautocollection.com) in 1988. Joe worked closely with the scale-model experts at Minichamps to create an incredible 1:18-scale resin model (item P107143030) of the 1955 Falcon, which recently joined the 1:18…

I thought ‘This is going to be easy.’ And then I started finding out about the hodgepodge car I had. The body is actually a 1927, the engine is a ’28, the frame is ’28. I’ve got ’26 bumpers on it. I have ’26 rear wheels, which are 21-inch. The front wheels are 20-inch, which was ’28-period size. The car was delivered that way. They were trying to get rid of inventory. There are two other series cars, the A and the M. They changed the design of the car. And that was selling very well. People were looking at the E and said, ‘This looks like last year’s car.’ So, they only made them for four months because the public stopped buying them.…

To most of us the term “free piston” conveys little to nothing. But although the car which forms the subject of this article was developed during the Fifties, the concept was already well-known. Most of the development work dates from the pioneer efforts of R.P. Pescara who, although a Spaniard, commenced his experiments in 1922 in France. The concept upon which his early work concentrated relied upon making an engine whose pistons had no connection with the output shaft and where the exhaust-driven turbine — rather than the non-existent crankshaft — provided the drive. Although research went on in France almost continually, except during the last war, little progress was made until interest was rekindled in the gas turbine. The Fifties witnessed a good deal of experiment and development work…

For millions of kids around the world, over the course of decades, a Matchbox model was their first car, packed with attention to detail that often lacked on other models. However, the start for one of the world’s most storied diecast names was tentative. Unrelated founders Leslie Smith and Rodney Smith began the Lesney Products foundry in England in 1947. “Lesney” was a self-referential moniker that simply blended their first names, as they weren’t yet sure what they’d be making. Soon, Rodney brought pal Jack Odell into the fold. An engineer by trade, Odell was a toolmaker with no place to set up. Soon, the company’s meager ability to fill orders outstripped its ability to attract new ones. To survive, Lesney began marketing toys under its name in the late…

I LIKE TO POST CARS FOR SALE ON Facebook to gauge my motorhead friends’ reactions. If a post just gets a lot of likes and maybe a few “It’s gorgeous,” “My grandfather had one,” or “I would love to have this” comments, the car probably isn’t an underdog. However, if the post elicits a heated discussion on high asking price, place in the market, styling, etc., folks, we have ourselves an underdog. Popularity or lack thereof in its day does not determine underdog status. Plenty of once-highly popular cars have only a few fans today. On the flip side, there are plenty of rare cars that also find themselves in the underdog corral. Add to this reasoning, my intense need to stir the oil pan, if you will. A while…

Dragone Dealings THE LIME ROCK HISTORICS FESTIVAL OVER LABOR DAY WEEKEND IS ALWAYS FUN, AND FOR THE first time, Dragone Auctions held one of its events there, on Sunday, during the Lime Rock Concours d’Elegance. The auction saw 85 percent of its lots find new homes, with over $3.7 million in total sales. Despite the gray and rainy day in Connecticut, the sale hosted an impressive array of cars, covering multiple genres, including the Brass Era, Full Classics, and Detroit iron from the 1940s and ’50s. This 1903 Cadillac Model A rear-entrance tonneau featured a 100-point restoration with correct brass lanterns and side wicker baskets, perfect for picnicking; it sold for $80,940. Dragone’s full results are now available at www.dragoneauctions.com. Look for a reprise at next year’s Lime Rock. Cactus…

Ford wasn’t about to let the achievement of manufacturing its 50-millionth vehicle since the company’s establishment in 1903 go unnoticed. To celebrate what it christened its “Golden Milestone,” the automaker produced a 1959 Galaxie Town Sedan with a large “50 MILLIONTH” graphic painted in gold and black on each side. A distinguished new series, the Galaxie had been introduced partway through the model year and was positioned above the then top-of-the-line Fairlane 500. It borrowed its formal roofline design with broad sail panels and slightly recessed upright backlite from the highly successful four-place Thunderbird and retained the upscale Fairlane 500 trim right down to the “Fairlane 500” callouts on the decklid and instrument panel. This historically significant Galaxie was produced on April 29, 1959, at the Rouge Dearborn plant, but…

The bright metal handle feels solid and reassuring in the hand, and, with a twist, it opens up a vast interior, with broad benches in striped mohair, a three-dimensional plastic fascia, and an intriguing instrument pod. Step over a broad sill, settle into the couch-like seat, thread the key through the wheel into the ignition, and, after two pumps of the accelerator and a hearty shove of the clutch onto the floor to actuate the starter, this mid-century transportation pod smoothly grinds to life. Our eyes have not deceived us: The unusual barrel-back shape of this four-door family sedan indicated we were in for a fascinating motoring experience, and this unrestored 1949 Nash 600 Super did not disappoint. As is the story related by many classic-car owners, our feature Driveable…

When Harvey Moran, the owner of this 1940 Buick, decided to get back into cars, he was actually looking for a 1950 Ford F-1 pickup. “It was something I had expressed to a friend of mine, when I was visiting him in Cocoa, Florida,” Harvey recalls. “During the conversation, he told me that his next-door neighbor owned an old Buick. ‘Some sort of coupe; I don’t know exactly what it is,’ is what he said, so we walked over and looked at it. I liked the body style of the car and knew there were not a lot of them around. That’s how it all started.” It may sound like a potential collector-car ownership solution had fallen into Harvey’s lap; however, the Clinton, Connecticut, resident went on to explain that…

GROWING UP IN MY SMALL Maryland hometown adjacent to the Delaware state line, many of my schoolmates and their families worked in one of two automobile assembly plants in nearby Delaware, either the Chrysler plant in Newark or the General Motors plant in Wilmington. I had worked at a full-service Exxon station as a teen and had a keen interest in cars, buying my first antique car, a Model A Ford, while I was still in high school. Once I went to college, I was looking for a higher-paying job and obtained a summer job as a relief janitor at the GM plant. This plant produced Chevrolets and Buicks. The wages were union scale, and the work was not terribly demanding, as we were filling in for other janitors who…

Hupmobile and the Hupp Motor Car Company: two names largely lost to history. The Detroit-based automaker pioneered or popularized a variety of innovations throughout its time. One of those was the straight-eight engine. Powerful and smooth, it had previously been the domain of luxury carmakers, but in the hands of Hupmobile, it became firmly rooted in the mid-price segment, barely outpricing Buick, but a substantial bargain compared to the more expensive Packard Six. Hupmobile’s eight-cylinder gamble proved the right move for the small independent automaker, as, by the end of its first model year in 1925, it could claim — legitimately — to be the world’s largest producer of straight-eight-powered automobiles. It should be noted that Duesenberg gets credit for being the first American producer of such engines with its…

August 20, 2017, marked the 67th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, held annually at the Pebble Beach Golf Links on California’s Monterey Peninsula. By special invitation only, 204 of the world’s finest automobiles were driven onto the perfectly manicured, 548-yard 18th fairway, presented by owners and special guests from 15 countries and 31 states. This year, five special marks were celebrated, the most pertinent to this title being American Dream Cars of the 1960s. Other special classes included: Duesenberg; Packard; and California Specials that Raced at Pebble Beach. Standard classes consisted of American Classic Closed/Open; Antique Closed/Open; Prewar/Postwar Preservation; Postwar Closed/ Open; Postwar Racing; and Postwar Grand Touring. All told, 27 classes were arranged for spectators. Judging was unobtrusive, starting nearly as soon as car owners/stewards were given enough time to…

Enthusiasts often refer to General Motors as the design leader of the 1950s because of the many fantastic production cars it introduced during that decade. GM also won acclaim by unveiling a veritable flood of fantastic dream cars covering each division and a wide array of themes. Remember the Waldorf Nomad, Buick LeSabre and Wildcat, Pontiac Club de Mer, and so many others? GM also sponsored the fabulous Motorama series that brought show cars to various cities across America. GM was a styling dynamo, no doubt about it. But sometimes we forget that other companies were producing dream cars, too. Ford, for one, certainly wasn’t sitting on its hands during the 1950s. As a matter of fact, the company unveiled a surprising number of concepts and show cars, and many…

1947 Studebakers You get more than the world’s first genuine postwar automobile, when you become the proud owner of a new 1947 Studebaker. You get a thrilling new car that’s a melody in metal — with extra low, extra wide, new bodies styled by Raymond Loewy, internationally famous designer. You get a car that’s newly engineered throughout, from its wheels on up — a car with almost incredible new handling ease — with cradled riding comfort that surpasses anything you’ve experienced even in much more costly cars. Studebaker was able to introduce these brand new 1947 cars months early, largely because of the teamwork and competence of the finest group of employees in the motor car industry. It goes without saying that these 1947 Studebakers excel in quality. They are…

BECAUSE “HOME” WAS ON A FARM, it was not unusual for youngsters to learn how to drive. By the time I was 13, one of my chores was to take out the trash after dinner. The second part was to drive my parents’ cars into the main barn from in front of the house. We had an old barn that was beginning to implode from heavy snowfalls. In the spring, Dad felt we should tear it down before it fell down. The idea was to hook a chain to the upper corner of the weakened structure then attach the chain to the back of Dad’s green 1950 Plymouth station wagon. I was the driver while Dad directed the demolition. Well, with the back of the car attached to a chain…