Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2019 i Hemmings Classic Car

Bouffort’s Citroën FREQUENT HEMMINGS DAILY CONTRIBUTOR GREG STEINMAYER, FAMILIAR WITH OUR penchant for oddballs and three-wheelers, sent over this photo of an allegedly abandoned oddity. We’ve yet to discover the circumstances of the photo, but some digging did turn up some info on the vehicle. It seems to be the vision of Victor-Albert Bouffort, whom Rétromobile featured back in 2017. Influenced by aircraft design, Bouffort started out designing three-wheelers instead of four-wheeled vehicles, but also came up against a scarcity of tires in postwar France. In 1947, he introduced his first design, a streamlined tadpole design powered by a Citroën Traction Avant 11 CV drivetrain and built by Jamin Meaux. Reportedly, Bouffort built just three before moving on to smaller vehicles, including the Citroën-based Lohr Fardier and the Minima city…

To anyone interested in a car like this one, I’d say watch out for rust. Cars of that era rusted out terribly; I bought this one because it had been Ziebarted. From what I was told, Bob McDonald Chevrolet-Oldsmobile was the first dealer in Nova Scotia to offer Ziebarting, so of course his own car had it. I love the clean, crisp lines on this car. If I could change one thing about it, I’d probably order the rest of the options— it didn’t come with air conditioning, which was because it was Canadian, but it doesn’t have power seats either. I drive this car 250 miles a year — only to shows. That’s it. I’m just keeping the mileage low. I never go cruising in it. I really should,…

Since 1902, the Cadillac brand has eschewed the “good enough” tag and forged a path of technical innovation in all departments — body, chassis, engine, and, of course, comfort and convenience. The company was founded on precision principles, and thus became known as “The Standard of the World.” The list presented here includes just the highlights of Cadillac’s myriad technical advancements — most of which set the standard for cars that we enjoy today, new or old. We are ignoring those game changers, like knee-action independent front suspension, full-steel turret-top bodies, and the Autronic Eye, that were shared among GM divisions simultaneously. Cadillac’s engine innovations were so numerous that we’ve dedicated an entire story to it within this special section. 1902 Precision was an early Cadillac attribute; company founder Henry…

Somewhere on the outskirts of Detroit lies a hidden automotive styling studio concealed in a back room within a nondescript commercial building. Inside that studio several highly talented designers and clay modelers, formerly with American Motors and Chrysler, have labored for years on a top-secret project: the creation of a modern Metropolitan subcompact car. Sound a little crazy? It’s not. The men who have been involved with this project from the beginning are veteran automotive designers, stylists, modelers, and engineers with years of industry experience, some of them counted among the best in the business. The team, which varied over the years of the project, has included Bill St. Clair, a retired AMC designer; Frank Pascoe, a highly skilled clay modeler who worked at AMC, moved over to Chrysler after…

The plan was simple. Dan Baker and his father, Dan, were going to buy their neighbor’s 1931 Ford, a long-neglected Model A Victoria that was being swallowed up by a sea of vegetation. Others had the same idea prior, but inspections deterred those would-be suitors. It was too far gone, was the common claim, amid dejected frowns. But the Bakers saw past the overgrowth and weathered appearance, and after acquiring the Ford in 2008, the pair was going to clean it up, put things back where they belong, and sell the Model A as-is for a modest profit. In theory, the Model A was worth the effort. Both men had vast experience with Henry’s Lady, crowned by a lifetime of Ford tinkering by the senior member of the family; they…

MY FIRST REAL JOB AFTER COLLEGE was with the Philadelphia District Sales Office of the Ford Division of Ford Motor Company in Pennsauken, New Jersey. I started in September 1966 and was assigned to the Distribution Department, where I learned to be a vehicle scheduler. Ford dealers signed monthly stock orders, one for cars and one for trucks. It was the dealers’ responsibility to submit these orders, either for retail sales or for dealer stock. In the event a dealer failed to submit his order on a timely basis, it was the vehicle scheduler’s job to create an order on behalf of the dealer. The vehicle schedulers kept the factories running by submitting “daily lineups” for production. If the dealers didn’t submit their own orders, they got what the young…

CHEVROLET’S BEL AIR FEATURES SHOW-CAR STYLING AT ITS FINEST. THE LINE HAS something for everyone — wider, longer, and lower with crisp lines, classy chrome, and six body styles available. Choose between a variety of engine options including the new “Power Pack” V-8 that brings you added power, performance, and versatility. Starting at $1,668, the Bel Air series can be found at your local Chevy dealer. FORD RETURNS WITH NEW STYLING AND the latest engineering to give you automobiles that are strong and reliable performers. Interior styling has been updated with brand-new instrument panels, and the longer and wider design yields a more spacious cabin. The Crestline has been replaced with the new Fairlane series, and keep an eye out for the new two-passenger Thunderbird available for $2,944. All other…

South Bend Shindig THE STUDEBAKER NATIONAL MUSEUM ANNOUNCED THE CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE at Copshaholm, to take place July 13 in South Bend, Indiana. The event is an exclusive gathering celebrating automotive design, engineering, and culture. This year’s featured marque is Lincoln with other classes highlighting Chrysler 300 “letter cars,” Italian sports cars, Studebaker Presidents, Fords, and Euro-American hybrids. The event will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and judging for the show will be French Traditional. For more information, please visit www.concoursatcopshaholm.org. AMC Designer, Dies at 86 BOB NIXON STARTED OUT AT CHRYSLER AS a technical illustrator in the Dodge styling studio and eventually made the move to American Motors. Dick Teague put him on the Rambler American, and ultimately chose Nixon’s front-end design for the 1964 restyle. With…

Gooding Results THE FINAL NUMBERS FROM GOODING & COMPANY ARE IN FROM ITS SCOTTSDALE AUCTION that took place in January. Total sales eclipsed the $48.2-million mark with 10 percent of those cars fitting the American non-muscle and classic-car mold. Among those that sold were this rare two-cylinder 1902 Yale Rear-Entrance Tonneau, which was made during the first year of the former Toledo, Ohio, car manufacturer. Despite the limited numbers, this Yale managed to survive all this time and the well-documented tonneau saw a final sale of $105,280. Also sold was a nice Willys workhorse, a model 6-73 station wagon finding a new home for $33,600. A 1956 Continental Mark II also turned some heads reaching a final sale of $100,800, while a pair of nice Cadillacs in a 1963 Series…

Though its styling resembled the woodies of the era, when the Willys-Overland Jeep station wagon was introduced in July of 1946 it featured a durable, easy-to-maintain, all-steel body. The two-wheel-drive offering was joined by a four-wheel-drive version in 1949. Though modestly updated visually and mechanically over the years, the basic design remained in production well into the 1960s in the U.S. and even longer in South America. It was marketed as a dual-purpose vehicle that was indispensable on the worksite but just as comfortable scaling hills in four-wheel drive on weekend fishing or hunting trips or negotiating Main Street in two-wheel-drive mode while ferrying the kids to and from school during the week. There was seating for six, hauling capacity was a ½-ton, and cargo space could be expanded by…

I ENJOYED THE ARTICLE ON THE 1939 Pontiac in HCC #174 as it brought back memories of the 1939 Pontiac that my dad had in 1951 when I was in high school. This photo shows the fun you can have in older cars with classmates; notice the girls inside the car, with the boys on the outside — how lucky can you get? We were on our way to our favorite hamburger place. The Pontiac was dark brown and ran very well; I don’t recall ever having any trouble with it. But Dad later traded it for a 1946 Hudson, which was then given to me after his death. Robert Elium Durham, North Carolina I REALLY ENJOYED AND connected with Pat Foster’s column in HCC #175 regarding Kaiser-Frazer. My dad…

If ever there was an automobile that inspired people to work hard and be successful in their career, it’s Cadillac. It has long been the automotive brand of choice for wealthy businessmen, doctors, lawyers, movie stars, and the upper-middle class alike. In fact, years ago, it seemed as if everyone wanted to own a Cadillac; at least it was that way in my old Brooklyn neighborhood. It was the car that my father, uncles, and neighbors constantly talked about having one day. They used to say, “When you own a Cadillac, you’ve arrived.” Like Buick, Chrysler, Lincoln, Packard, and several other high-end brands, the cars that Cadillac built were always well appointed. The quality, design, and vast selection of their upholstery fabrics were the top of their class, as were…

Luxury automaker Cadillac developed several celebrated engines in the 20th century fortified with trailblazing engineering that improved performance, operation, and/or efficiency while maintaining or enhancing its hallmark smoothness. Proving that progress isn’t always a guarantee of success, however, there were also some noteworthy strides that didn’t fare as well. The selection of engines presented here denotes a few Cadillac firsts (and in some instances, industry firsts) or significant achievements that reaffirmed the company’s commitment to excellence. Also included is an engine that may have set Cadillac’s reputation back a pace, yet all are deserving of discussion. 314 - CU.IN. V - 8 Cadillac garnered praise and prestige when it engineered America’s first mass-produced V-8 to replace its four-cylinder engine. Released in the fall of 1914 for the 1915 models, the…

When GM’s Parade of Progress rolled into Muskogee or Ashtabula, Yuma, or Ft. Pierce, everybody turned out. Its appeal was so compelling that no one could endure staying home. In Fredericksburg, Virginia, for instance, enthusiasm ran so high that two and-one-quarter times the town’s population attended. The first Parade of Progress hit the road on February 11, 1936, opening in Lakeland, Florida. By Pearl Harbor, the Parade had covered well over a million miles, had visited 251 towns and small cities in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Cuba, and had played to some 12.5 million people. There would eventually be three GM Parades of Progress, the last one taking its final curtain in mid-1956. But in abbreviated form, the Parade still lives even today [March 1977]. Called Previews of Progress,…

AHHH, DE SOTO. MAY BE GONE from most living memories, but not from mine. At age 18, I acquired a dark-red, 10-year-old, 1941 De Soto convertible — 6 volts, straight-six, Fluid Drive, three-on-the-column. The clutch pedal was half the area of the large brake pedal next to it. That little clutch said plainly that it was mostly optional. Just leave it and the shift lever alone, and the car would drive in whichever of its three gears you put it in. Starts and stops, too. Of course, third-gear acceleration from stop was painfully sluggish and even dangerous for entering traffic with only 100 horsepower at best, so I usually worked that midget clutch through at least two and usually all three of the gear ratios with which the De Soto…

CAR: 1941 Cadillac Series 62 Convertible Coupe AUCTIONEER: RM Sotheby’s LOCATION: Phoenix, Arizona DATE: January 17, 2019 LOT NUMBER: 275 CONDITION: #3 AVERAGE SELLING PRICE: $50,000 SELLING PRICE: $58,800 THE CHANGES FOR THE 1941 CADILLAC included the shifting of the headlamps into the bodies of the fenders and the addition of a horizontal grille that stretched from side to side. This was also the first year that the rear taillamp fuel filler was put in the marque, a feature that would be used for a long time during the era of the fabulous fins. This convertible coupe had a lot to offer including pushbutton radio, heater, and electric clock. The pleated red upholstery was in good condition and the black canvas top showed little wear and tear. The low-mileage Cadillac…

HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THERE WAS a time when, unless your significant other was playing the banjo beside you, there was no way to listen to music while you cruised the countryside. Buried deep within today’s “infotainment” system is the device that started it all: the car radio. We owe the humble car radio as we know it largely to Paul Galvin, founder of Motorola. Galvin was born in Harvard, Illinois, seven miles south of the Wisconsin state line, on June 27, 1895. After high school, he spent two years at the University of Illinois before concluding that the education was not worth his time and money. Instead, he returned to Harvard to work as a clerk for Chicago and North Western Railway. On the eve of the First World…

It’s been 35 years since convertibles have been back on America’s streets and in our new-car dealer lots after taking a half-dozen-year hiatus that barely registers as a blip on the old-car radar these days. Remember when convertibles seemed to go gentle into that good night? Detroit killed them because it got scared: In the ’70s, there had been some talk that the NHTSA would mandate a rollover-protection standard that would legislate convertibles clean out of existence. While that particular bit of draconian motoring code never entered the books, Detroit was so gun-shy that it freaked itself out and quit before Washington forced its hand (as it did with bumpers and unleaded gas); no point in spending resources on a new generation of droptop if the government says you can’t.…

IN 1988, I DECIDED TO TRADE IN MY Chrysler LeBaron. On the lot at Merrimack Motors in Hampton, Virginia, was a white Eagle Premier. I inquired about this very attractive car, and Richard, the owner, said to me, “It’s a French car. I know nothing about them, and you don’t want one.” I found it strange he didn’t know anything about an automobile on his lot. I did drive home in a white Plymouth Horizon that turned out to be a great car. However, I spent the next 31 years convinced the 1987-’92 Eagle Premier (and by default, 1990-’92 Dodge Monaco) was a French-built Renault that Chrysler had to sell after its takeover of American Motors in 1987. I am embarrassed by my ignorance. I never researched the Eagle Premier.…

Squint a bit and the original Ford Capri looks a bit like a Mustang, what with its long-hood and short-deck design, its faux louvers behind the doors, and its stylized flanks. Look under the skin and, still like the Mustang, it shared a lot of parts cribbed from other models. It’s more than coincidence that the cars shared such a resemblance in appearance and engineering. Striving to capitalize on the Mustang’s incredible success in the U.S., Ford of Europe set about creating its own affordable, personal sporty car. Though instead of the compact Falcon as with the Mustang, Ford borrowed heavily from the Cortina sedan to create the Capri. American Philip T. Clark, who is credited with the Capri’s design, also contributed to styling the Mustang. The Capri took its…

Cadillac started in failure, Henry Ford’s failure to appease his financial backers. From that failure, however, came probably its greatest success — the one on which all its subsequent accomplishments have been built. That success was one particular version of its first car that made international headlines and announced in no uncertain terms that the American automotive industry would be a force to be reckoned with. 1907 MODEL K Cadillac received its “Standard of the World” epithet thanks to Henry Leland. When Leland was brought in to liquidate the former Henry Ford Company in 1902, he recognized the potential of the organization, and persuaded its directors to give him a chance at bringing his experience from the Leland & Faulconer machine shop into the world of automaking. The cornerstone of…

Do you remember those halcyon days of the 1980s and ’90s when pickup cabs were short and beds were long? For decades, two-door trucks with one row of seating were the norm — in contrast to the sedan-like crew-cab rigs of today with 5.5- and 6.5-foot beds. Yes, they’re fantastic for hauling people, but forget slamming shut the tailgate with a couple sheets of plywood and some 8-foot lumber lying flat in the back. Of course pickups, old or new, aren’t strictly for serious work. They’re for fun-related work too: pulling a boat, hauling motorcycles, or, when that yearning to get away from it all strikes, packing up and heading to the great outdoors for a few days of camping. This month’s feature truck, a 1970 Chevrolet C20 Longhorn owned…

Mid-engine placement has been around since the earliest days of motoring, but its potential to improve a car’s weight distribution and handling performance was first exploited by pioneering German and American race cars in the 1930s. Porsche built a handful of mid-engine 550 Spyders in the 1950s, and, in the late 1960s, Lamborghini electrified the world with its mid-mounted V-12-powered Miura, but neither were considered the first production sports car to utilize this layout for the road — this honor went to René Bonnet’s fascinating D’Jet. Competition was the primary goal for cars using this mechanical layout, and racing was the raison d’être of France’s Deutsch-Bonnet. Charles Deutsch and René Bonnet would start building race cars in Champigny-sur-Marne, near Paris, in 1938, using second-hand Citroën mechanical components. Their first racer,…