Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i Hemmings Classic Car

“All the grit and nerve of a touring car — all of its staunch stick-to-it-iveness — comes out in a hill-climbing contest. The Oakland, in that field, is first.” It’s a bit wordier than a mere photo of a GTO making a turn onto Woodward Avenue with the caption “You know the rest of the story,” but that’s because those words, published in 1910, were the beginning of the story. Most are familiar with the origins of the Pontiac marque, in the 1920s, as a companion make to Oakland — the child that devoured its parent. Pontiac didn’t begin cultivating a performance image until the 1950s, but Oakland had laid the groundwork four decades earlier. Hill climbing, an exhibition of torque and tenacity, is the spiritual predecessor to drag racing.…

MILTON STERN’S COLUMN IN HCC #166 could have been a serviceable article on compact trucks if he hadn’t felt compelled to add a highly judgmental paragraph expressing his personal biases in a way that added nothing and really ticked me off. He writes: “I find it ironic that many people who buy enormous pickups do not use them for their intended purpose... I laugh when I pull up next to one that hasn’t a speck of dust on it, and I see the driver in a suit, drinking an $8 coffee. I think, ‘The only thing he has ever hauled in that truck is a 5-pound wheel of artisan cheese.’ ” The paragraph reeks of condescension, judgment, and arrogance. I own a 2013 Ram pickup, which has…

Even a passing glance at any of the stunningly styled 1955 to 1966 Thunderbirds will reveal that they’re automotive icons. Though those that came after haven’t cultivated as large or reverent a following in collector circles, they’re still significant and satisfying personal luxury cars to own and drive. Like any automobile, the Thunderbird had to advance in design, engineering, and technology to remain viable in an ever-changing market. “Bigger” still translated as “better” in Detroit in the early ’70s, so the revised T-Bird for 1972, which shared a platform with the Lincoln Continental Mark IV, featured a 120.4-inch wheelbase, 216-inch overall length, and 79.3-inch width. The OPEC-induced fuel shortage that arrived in late 1973 and an accompanying economic recession hadn’t been beneficial to large personal luxury car sales, including the…

When it came to automotive styling in the 1950s and 1960s, General Motors was the preeminent company, with each of its divisions sharing in the glory. The number of show cars and concept models created by GM Styling during that glamorous decade was nothing short of astounding, while the special concepts developed by Oldsmobile were among the most exciting of those thrilling decades. General Motors really began showing off its styling imagination in January 1949 when it sponsored a special exhibition of its newest models in New York City, with a second appearance in Detroit the following April. Called “Transportation Unlimited,” it was a forerunner to the most popular automotive displays of all time — the legendary Motorama shows. The first, held in January 1950, was dubbed the Mid-Century Motorama.…

I have been immersed in Studebakers since I was 15, and had been restoring them for more than 10 years by the time I crossed paths with this car, so I was prepared for what I had to do. I can’t say there were any surprises while working on this car because it was clearly going to be a major undertaking. Fortunately, the parts cars came with it, saving me time and effort. To date, I have never restored a Studebaker to make money; I did it because I like them. I knew what this Land Cruiser could be going into it, but it turned out to be far more than what I thought was possible. It’s very rewarding.…

THE MOST EFFICIENT WAY TO GET from point “A” to point “B” is… why, with a “Bee” of course! On Cape Cod in the 1950s, there were a lot of early Fords around. Some were used for lightweight use on cranberry bogs, some for cheap transportation, and some for just having fun driving on the beaches. Well, my summer girlfriend’s mother owned an exclusive and remote girl’s camp at the end of a seven-mile sandy peninsula. This location deterred the girls from leaving the premises while also discouraging visits from salesmen, campers, and, of course, boys. Well, that meant with my girlfriend having to work as a summer camp counselor, I would be spending the summer without a date. However, one day I got a letter from my girl hinting…

California Tribute THE 2018 PALOS VERDES CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE RETURNS TO THE ZAMPERINI FIELD in Torrance, California, on Sunday, September 30. This will be the 25th edition, and the theme aims to highlight “California Style.” It’s open to all makes that have contributed to the history of the California car culture including woodies, American convertibles, sports cars, and prewar classics that display custom coachwork by California designers Murphy, Bohman & Schwartz, and Darrin. More than 200 automobiles will be on display, and beneficiaries of the proceeds will be the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Los Angeles Harbor and the Western Museum of Flight. Go to www.pvconcours.org for more information. VCCA Southern Fall Tour THE VINTAGE CHEVROLET CLUB OF AMERICA WILL FEATURE ITS 15TH SOUTHERN FALL Tour this October 1-6. The…

Den Hartogh Ford Collection BONHAMS SOLD THE MASSIVE COLLECTION OF FORDS ON-SITE AT THE DEN HARTOGH MUSEUM in the Netherlands on June 23, with a 100-percent sell-through rate. The impressive collection featured more than 300 lots that included 200-plus Fords and Lincolns along with 50-plus motorcycles. Each lot was sold individually with no reserve, and legions of Ford fans went home with a part of the collection. At one time, the Den Hartogh was certified as the largest Ford museum in the world, and its origins date all the way back to 1956. The collection featured cars ranging from a 1903 Model A Open Tourer to a few postwar late-1940s cars and pickups, but most of the selection consisted of prewar Fords and Lincolns. Also included were specialty vehicles such…

The death of the “Great American Convertible” from the mid-’70s through the early ’80s has led to a lot of soul searching, head scratching, and finger pointing over the years. Who pulled the trigger? Who’s to blame? Was it the government publicly mulling over zealous safety regulations? Was it the advances in air conditioning that had made cool, enclosed air more desirable — and cheaper — than sun and a natural breeze? Was it Detroit, which refused to spend the millions tooling for a body style that was shrinking in sales from year to year? And if Detroit stopped making convertibles because of slow sales, wasn’t it really our fault? How did we ever get to a place where convertibles weren’t cool enough to buy? But there will always be…

I really like the fact that this Thunderbird is just as stock as it was when the original owner took delivery of it in Carrollton, Ohio, on June 23, 1977. Plus, it’s a car that I don’t worry about driving to the store because it already has a few little door dings in it. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t be happy about any door dings being added, but, since it’s far more of a driver-quality original car, it wouldn’t be the end of the world, either. I think this generation of Thunderbird is a bargain. There are a lot of them still in good shape that can be bought relatively cheaply, and they’re great cars to drive.…

It was equal parts of historical forethought and promotional acuity that prompted the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company to start acquiring noteworthy means of transportation, as well as preserving special examples of its own creation. Now, well over a century after Clement Studebaker bought the first in what would become a priceless collection of horse-drawn and motorized vehicles, the Studebaker National Museum stands in tribute to the legacy of one of the most beloved independent automakers, telling the story of four-wheeled transportation in America, from its earliest days to the present. One of only three automobile museums in the United States — the others being the Auburn Cord Duesenberg Automobile Museum and The Henry Ford — to have earned the challenging, prestigious accreditation of the American Alliance of Museums, the not-for-profit…

THIS IS THE STORY OF WHY THE FIRST 1975 Cadillac Sevilles were silver with silver interior, and why this had to be. I was corporate general manager for a company called Silvatrim Corporation of America with factories in Brooklyn, New York, and South Plainfield, New Jersey, but at the time of the introduction of the Cadillac Seville, I was the production/plant manager for a company in Brooklyn called Glass Laboratories. Glass Laboratories was a plastic profile extrusion company that produced a patented, trademarked product called Silvatrim. Basically, Silvatrim was aluminum foil incased in clear plastic. We manufactured the fixed external opera window trim for all the General Motors lines of the era. We also produced and supplied the steering wheel moldings (woodgrain and chrome) for most of the GM lines,…

With 504 collector cars, trucks, and motorcycles vying for various AACA Grand National awards in over 100 classes, the University of Pittsburgh’s Greensburg campus was overrun with skillfully restored and properly preserved rolling masterpieces from the club’s membership ranks. A stipulation of this annual event is that only vehicles that have achieved AACA Senior status in a past year are eligible. The Western Pennsylvania Region Antique Automobile Club of America hosted the May 31-June 2 meet and ensured that it ran like a finely tuned classic. Various activities, including tours of local car collections, were offered, and social get-togethers were held at the Greensburg Ramada host hotel. On Friday, at the Westmoreland Fairgrounds, the exquisite 1935 Packard 1204 Super 8 owned by Gregory and Cheri Haack of Freeport, Illinois, earned…

Over half a century of not-quite-continuous production, Ford built 4.4-million Thunderbirds. Much like Elizabeth Taylor’s efforts on the silver screen, early successes were instrumental in forging the path for later triumphs — but later efforts still have much to recommend. Despite changing body styles and engine displacements and despite swinging from sporty to personal luxury to full-on luxury, and back again, Thunderbird always meant the same thing. Much like Liz, it’s a touch of class in a world of the ordinary...something that was a cut above. Regardless of comparisons to the Corvette, Thunderbird was never meant to be a pure sports car. In the mid-1950s, sports cars were spindly little things, powered by small engines, covered in fragile bodywork, with little in the way of creature comforts. Designed around a…

The business coupe, as clever an invention as ever rolled out of a factory from Detroit, probably reached its peak in the late 1930s and early ’40s. Sporting the same rounded, streamlined bodies then popular, along with long, cavernous trunks, business coupes cut a distinctive line, for sure. After the war, the business coupe soldiered on a decade or so, the last of the utilitarian, two-door post coupes with a package shelf in place of a back seat drove off the line in 1956. No longer useful to businessmen, those bulbous, big-trunked examples from the glory years, that survived ,became the darling of hot rodders intent on stuffing a big V-8 under the hood and fat tires under the fenders. So, when Jack Johnson went looking to complement his 1940…

Before he had even earned a driver’s license, Bob Belling purchased his first Studebaker, a 1953 Commander coupe, at age 15. Undeniably attracted to its styling, Bob added that his father had owned Studebakers, and, to drive home the point, stated that his grandfather — who worked at Pierce-Arrow while it was under Studebaker ownership — also drove Studebakers. The Columbia, Connecticut, resident still owns and drives the coupe he bought 52 years ago, yet his appreciation for the make goes beyond the long-term ownership. He’s since added 11 other Studebakers — both cars and trucks — to his collection. Among them is this 1934 “Year Ahead” President Land Cruiser. “I knew the mid-year Land Cruiser was rare,” explains Bob. “Though the body style was available in other series, Studebaker…

BUICK RETURNS in its third year with their Models G and F, Roadster and Touring respectively. Whether you’re looking for style or function, both will be maximized in these two offerings. Each Buick features a two-cylinder double opposed engine (capable of producing 22 horsepower) and planetary two-speed transmission. Buick is also the only car to complete a 1,000-mile, New York to Chicago, relay this year as well. The Model G is available for $1,000 and the Model F can be had for $1,250. THE MOON MODEL A TOURER TURNED HEADS this year at the Chicago Auto Show. Equipped with state-of-the-art technology, the Moon is powered by a Rutenber four-cylinder engine and sliding-gear three-speed transmission, allowing the Model A to reach speeds up to 50 miles per hour. The Moon Model…

If you’re craving some ’80s style escapism this fall, movie theaters around the country are rescreening the 1988 action classic, Die Hard, to commemorate the film’s 30th anniversary. Much has changed since a barefoot Bruce Willis stalked the halls, elevator shafts, and air ducts of Nakatomi Plaza as the indefatigable John McClane. For instance, concealed firearms are frowned upon aboard commercial airliners — even when the carrier is a New York cop. A limo driver bragging today that his car is equipped with “CD, CB, TV, and VHS” would first have to explain to many of his passengers what those initials mean. Also, Hollywood has thankfully stopped the practice of assigning vaguely German accents to movie villains. Okay, so, what does a retro movie review have to do with the…