Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2019 i Hemmings Classic Car

Valiant That Shouldn’t Be MOST PEOPLE WOULD SEE THIS 1964 PLYMOUTH VALIANT WITH MISMATCHED PAINT and dismiss it as just another old car. Dale Edward Johnson of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, however, picked up right away on what made it unique: Plymouth never built a two-door hardtop station wagon Valiant in 1964. “Did they make them in limited quantities?” he asked. “Perhaps only in Canada? Is this a prototype? Or might this be the work of a creative autobody specialist?” We scoured both U.S.- and Canadian-market brochures for 1964 Plymouths and didn’t see mention of such a creature. Sure, Plymouth built two-door hardtops and station wagons that year, but it didn’t even offer any two-door station wagons, with a post or without. So somebody very well could have played weld-’em-up with…

If the 1955 Chevrolet Bel Air represented rock and roll, perhaps in the form of Bill Haley and the Comets, then the 1955 Packard Four Hundred’s soundtrack was something more like traditional pop from the likes of the McGuire Sisters or The Four Aces. Both are classics equally representative of the 1950s, but the Packard and pop represent the adult side of the equation — the men and women in gray flannel that set the overall tone of that decade. That’s not to say, however, that the Packard gives up anything to “The Hot Ones” from Chevrolet. The 1955 Packards looked remarkably fresh, especially considering that their body shells dated back four years already. Thank Richard Teague for that, as it was his pen that redrew the old “high pockets”…

If you’re going to name a car after yourself, it had better be something pretty special. And Walter P. Chrysler, whose career as a journeyman railroad machinist and mechanic had taken him throughout the West and Midwest, put that knowledge to use building cars. The original 1924 Chrysler B-70 bristled with innovation: aluminum pistons, a counterweighted crankshaft with seven main bearings, full-pressure engine lubrication, air cleaner, oil filter with removable element, tubular front axle, hydraulic shock absorbers, four-wheel hydraulic brakes (developed in conjunction with Lockheed), and more. Priced to compete with the Buick Six, it offered more power, higher compression, and weighed a whopping 700 pounds less. This engineering-led philosophy continued for decades: By 1928, Chrysler employed more than 500 engineers. This philosophy led to some of the most driveable…

“LeBaron is a highly styled automobile, which offers comfort and road-ability usually associated with larger, more expensive cars, but in a smaller, more fuel-efficient package, declared Chrysler.” The “new-size” personal luxury car took its name from the revered LeBaronbodied Imperials of the 1930s and the high-end Imperials of the 1950s to 1970s. 1977 Arriving in the Spring of 1977 with its sibling, the Dodge Diplomat, the Chrysler was offered in the LeBaron and Medallion series, both comprised of two-door coupes (featured in this article) and four-door sedans. The body styling of the 204-inch-long and 73.5-inch wide LeBaron two-door differed somewhat from the four-door models even beyond the obvious required roofline variations. Whereas the four-doors featured a modern boxy design, the coupes blended many of those elements with a few well-placed classic…

Detroit may be considered the home of American automobile production, but a sizeable epicenter of the industry was positioned inside the borders of Indiana. Consider this: The 2½-mile Indianapolis Motor Speedway was long respected as one of the most demanding proving grounds the industry relied upon during the prewar era, accompanied by 249 other motorsports facilities within the Hoosier State. Joining these colosseums of speed were no fewer than 357 manufactures, 82 of which were located inside Indianapolis alone. Hoosier natives included Blackhawk, Overland, and Stutz; Waverley, Anderson, and Elcar. Many were mere meager attempts on paper. Most have been nearly forgotten. Others, like Studebaker, are both fondly remembered and critiqued back into hypothetical existence. Then there were the few manufacturers that are truly world renowned: Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg.…

There were indications this SL wasn’t a run-of-the-mill example, but it took a trained eye to see them. Since the 280 SL’s 1968 debut, Mercedes-Benz employees had built each one of the firm’s touring sports cars with care. But the well-equipped car from the final year of production was something special, and its marque-expert caretaker would uncover its extraordinary past while ensuring its preservation into the future. By 1971, the SL was established as a legendary model in a line of sporting postwar two-seaters. Having originated with the racing-derived, “Gullwing” door-equipped 1954 300 SL coupe and its image-conscious contemporary counterpart, the open-top four-cylinder 190 SL, that duo had evolved into the singular 230 SL of 1963. This thoroughly modern and civilized convertible split the difference in character between the exotic…

I LIVE IN RA’ANANA, A SMALL town near Tel Aviv, and own a little red 1960 Ford Falcon; I also have a 1963 Squire and 1966 Mustang. I was born in the year of 1948 and grew up near the Mediterranean Sea within the State of Israel. Israel in the 1950s was a young, poor country, trying to absorb hundreds of thousands of new emigrants, most of whom were Holocaust survivors. There were few cars on the narrow dusty roads, most of them commercial vehicles and buses that had been the main means of transportation. Few people could afford new cars. The cars were primarily British, French, and American. Kaiser-Frazer of Israel produced most of the American cars, while Chevrolets, Plymouths, and Fords were available but sold in far less…

Orphans Go West THE VINTAGE MOTOR CAR CLUB OF AMERICA ANNOUNCED DETAILS ABOUT ITS Orphan Car Tour, hosted by the club’s Colorado West Chapter, which will be located in Western Colorado this October 21-25. The tour will take place around Glenwood Springs and Palisade, and is open to any car built from an American manufacturer that is out of business. Tour highlights include scenic drives through the Colorado National Monument, and a trip to the Gateway Auto Museum and the Redstone Castle near Aspen. For more information, call 303-514-6587. Lee Iacocca, 1924-2019 LEE IACOCCA, WHO LED TWO OF THE BIG Three auto companies and had become a household name, died July 2 at his home in Bel Air, California. He was a driving force behind the Mustang and later the…

New England Exchanges BARRETT-JACKSON COMPLETED ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL AUCTION IN CONNECTICUT THIS JUNE with its Northeast Auction raking in more than $21.8 million and 545 vehicles changing hands. Among the consignments were 14 cars from The Vault Portfolio, which will also include cars in the upcoming Las Vegas and Scottsdale Auctions. This 1957 Bel Air had an extensive two-year body-off restoration and was equipped with a Super Turbo-Fire 283-cu.in. V-8 with dual four barrels paired with a Powerglide automatic — it sold in Connecticut for $62,700. Also selling from The Vault Portfolio were two 1940 Ford coupes, a Standard and Deluxe. Both had flathead 221 V-8s; the Standard sold at $38,500 and the Deluxe for $46,200. Barrett-Jackson’s next auction will be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas October…

A Pair of Porsches BOB COLAIZZI • 937-477-5530 • WWW.COLAIZZIDESIGN.COM  • $300 One of the latest pieces to emerge from the ColaizziDesign studio of Dayton, Ohio, automotive artist Bob Colaizzi is “Niemeyer Brothers,” a tribute to the vintage, air-cooled Porsches of Kurt and Bill Niemeyer Jr. It features Kurt’s unrestored original 356 Cabriolet, along with Bill Jr.’s once-repainted, otherwise untouched Speedster. Like Bob’s other mixed-media portraits, this one combines hand drawing with layers of Photoshop digital painting, resulting in an image that genuinely looks like it was finished in opaque acrylic or watercolor paint. He’s making a limited run of 17 x 22-inch giclée prints of this piece, on archival paper, and they’re ideal for the 356 enthusiast in your life. Black Gold ACME TRADING COMPANY • 888-209-2263 WWW.ACMEDIECAST.COM  • $129.95 While Chrysler’s…

THE FIRST TIME I SAW THIS MONTH’S underdog, I couldn’t get over the resemblance to another American car from the same era, inside and out. I would mention this to anyone within earshot, but much like the empty bottles of Wild Turkey bourbon we’d find in Granny’s trash can every week, no one wanted to acknowledge it. I’ve read many articles about the 1956-’70 GAZ Volga, and it is always mentioned how its styling was based on the Ford Custom. Really? It isn’t even the same size. Volgas were more in tune with the American compacts of the early 1950s, such as Nash Rambler, Willys Aero, and Hudson Jet. I truly believe if some dealer had snuck a few Volgas into the United States and slapped on any American car…

I grew up in an era of a lot of fun times for automobiles. I tore this car apart in ’67 to restore and it sat partially fixed until 2015. I had bought four or five cars while I was in high school. I started restoring cars at age 16 or 17 — I did a ’30 Auburn Convertible Coupe for a friend in 1958. I’ve owned over a hundred Packards over the years — after I opened my junkyard in 1967. But this one was different. It was way more money than I’d ever spent up to that time and it was the first car that I’d bought on my own. It was pretty important to me.…

Having celebrated its third such conference in as many years, the 2019 convention took place this past April in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Held on the spacious grounds of The NB Center for American Automotive Heritage, this year’s event was a special one as it was a joint effort by the Historic Vehicle Association and Society of Automotive Historians, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary. For three days, the 137 attendees on hand were treated to a variety of seminars and presentations, and a very interesting tour of all the buildings that comprise The NB Center’s first-class restoration facility. Lead by curator Keith Flickinger, the “Workshop” seminar took place in the body restoration and paint building, where the discussion centered on the staff’s step-by-step approach to rebuilding a car to authentic concours…

A master of business as much as he was of things mechanical, Walter P. Chrysler was the consummate engineer, so it should have come as no surprise that the company that bore his name was focused on innovative engineering solutions from the very beginning. After stints at Buick and Willys-Overland, Chrysler took over the Maxwell Motor Company in the early 1920s. One of his first tasks was to assemble an engineering crew par excellence. Frederick Zeder, Owen Skelton, and Carl Breer had years of experience, their collective resumes including stints at Allison-Chalmers, Tourist, Pope-Toledo, Packard, E-M-F, and Studebaker, the latter where the trio formed such a juggernaut of engineering prowess that they gained the nickname “The Three Musketeers.” Chrysler hired them at Willys-Overland, where the trio developed the “Chrysler Six,”…

Even if you’re a classic-Mopar enthusiast who knows your 1960s Chrysler products, you might do a double-take upon encountering this convertible. To American eyes, it’s a curiosity that combines Plymouth and Dodge styling, but isn’t badged as either of those brands. It’s an unusual import, hailing from Canada, and this largely original 1964 Valiant Signet 200 illustrates the alternate automotive reality that once existed above the 49th Parallel. It took a pair of retired Chrysler employees to seek this car out and bring it down to America. Williamson, Michigan, residents Dick and Connie Roth were looking to add a convertible to their old-car collection, and were particularly keen to find one built by their honored former longtime employer. The red-over-black Valiant on these pages had jumped out at Dick, when…

Like any pickup truck, a 1957-’60 Ford F-100 can haul you and your stuff from place to place. But as a piece of rolling history, these evolutionary rigs illustrate how light-truck design got from there to here. Dearborn’s upright and boxy third-generation F-series was a transitional model that built a bridge from yesterday’s rounded cabs, bulging fenders and running boards to today’s squared-off, slab-sided trucks with aggressively styled front ends. Technologically these trucks had a lot in common with their ancestors, but a cosmetic overhaul of the new-for-1957 Fords made them a drastic departure from all previous series. The hood was a wide clamshell that capped the front fenders — rather than fitting narrowly between them. A pair of steps mounted inside the cab aided ingress and served as a…

DODGE’S 880 IS A BIG RIDE WITH CLASSY WORKMANSHIP AT A REASONABLE PRICE. You have a choice of two powerful yet smooth engines in the 361- and 383-cu.in. V-8s with three-speed manual or pushbutton automatic, as well as a four-speed manual for the 383. The scuff-resistant vinyl trim looks like genuine leather without the drawbacks, and the 880 is available in nine different body styles, including this convertible that starts at $3,264. CHAMPIONS Daytona 500 ............... Richard Petty (154.334 mph) Indianapolis 500................ A.J. Foyt (147.350 mph) Formula One.................John Surtees (40 points) STUDEBAKER BRINGS A FULL LINEUP OF cars that feature the quality and high standards with which the company has become synonymous. Each model offers you a spacious cabin with a comfortable interior and gives you the option of the…

CAR 1932 Buick Model 66 S AUCTIONEER RM Sotheby’s LOCATION Auburn, Indiana DATE June 1, 2019 LOT NUMBER 5009 RESERVE None AVERAGE SELLING PRICE $25,000 SELLING PRICE $28,600 THE YEAR 1932 WAS A DISTINGUISHED ONE for Buick as it exchanged the long-used hood louvers for a different style of side hood doors. The windshield was slightly sloped, the grille was redesigned with a narrower base, and the fenders were longer. The Series 60 Buicks were the mid-level option for the marque that year, with the two-door special coupe starting at a factory price of $1,270, which would be about $23,500 today. This Buick was equipped with a 272.6-cu.in. straight-eight engine and three-speed manual transmission. A Texas car, it had a body-off restoration completed in 2011 and earned multiple awards, including…

Pontiac Paint INLINE TUBE • WWW.INLINETUBE.COM800-385-9452 • $18 (12-OUNCE CAN) Engine paints using factory formulas to match the original colors are now available for Pontiacs built between 1959 and 1981. It’s formulated to withstand up to 300 degrees and a light application will minimize burn-off on the cylinder head. Six different colors are available. Rumble Seat Rumblings THE FILLING STATION • 800-841-6622 WWW.FILLINGSTATION.COM  • $49.50 Trunk and rumble seat latches are now available for 1929-’38 Chevrolets, Buicks, and Pontiacs. If your car has a wooden framed deck lid, you may need to perform some modifications, but this assembly will replace the old latch with ease. Dimensions from center to center, top and bottom (narrow width) are 1¼-inch, and top to bottom (long/ tall side) are 2 3/8-inch. The latches will fit most…

For 1926, Buick leapfrogged Dodge, Hudson, and Willys-Overland in the sales race, going from sixth place the year before to third. Ford and Chevrolet were still in their own league, battling it out for the common man on a previously unprecedented scale. But in that next tier, Buick led the pack, its near-luxury appointments bolstered by the company’s well-earned reputation for quality. The 1926 Master Six Coupe on these pages serves as a reminder of all that Buick did to earn its place on that ever-important sales chart. For the 1925 model year, Buick did away with its four-cylinder line and introduced two different six-cylinder models, the Standard Six and the Master Six, each available in a variety of body styles, with the latter higher priced and laden with more…

Packard was rather late to the overhead-valve V-8 launch party with the debut of its 352- and 320-cu.in. engines for the 1955 model year. Though its history was steeped in prior engineering achievements, including the famed V-12 Twin Six four decades earlier and others since, Cadillac and Oldsmobile had already released their versions of the OHV V-8 for 1949. Then Chrysler, Studebaker, Lincoln, De Soto, Dodge, Buick, Ford, and Mercury all came to market with their designs before Packard did. If that wasn’t enough, the introduction would also have to share the press limelight with newly arriving OHV V-8s from Chevrolet, Pontiac, and Plymouth. And let’s not forget that Packard’s purchase of Studebaker in October of 1954, which formed the Studebaker-Packard Corporation, would also bring significant change. According to the…

It looks like your grandpa’s New Yorker at first blush, but the noises coming from under that long hood are strictly Super Stock. The 300 “Letter Car” had the American motoring press, and its growing preference for spindly little European sports cars, in a lather for nearly a decade; the notion that a car so large could handle with the power and precision they desired seemed anathema to Detroit, yet here was a machine that proved that someone really understood. And the power! Massive gobs of torque, which no little four- or six-cylinder could possibly manage, the luxury feel of a larger European sedan, and cornering that nothing else made in America (barring a Corvette) could approach. The Chrysler 300 was a one-man-band of automotive enthusiasm, all wrapped up in…

“Folding, extending, adjustable” is how the Fryer-Auster Company of Providence, Rhode Island, described its accessory tonneau windshield in a 1916 letter to automobile body shops and coachbuilders. The Auster Extending Tonneau Shield was an inspiration from Europe, and was a windshield that bolted to the rear of the front seat in a touring car to protect the rear seat passengers from the often extreme wind and drafts that blew into the car while it was in motion. With no windows in the doors to roll up, the tonneau shield was the only thing viable to protect the passengers without the side curtains in place. Although most often associated with touring cars, this type of windscreen was being fitted to rumble seats at their front edge to protect the passengers sitting there,…

The restoration of this Pontiac should not have happened. The Le Mans convertible, though completely original, was visually tired by 2012. Purchased new in 1968, it had been driven daily through Pennsylvania’s sun, rain, and snow, where any citizen of the Keystone state can tell you salt is also a winter reality. Not only was the A-body weather-worn, it had been saturated with corrosion. Coupled with the fact that it contained a straight-six engine and an automatic transmission, it’s reasonable to assume that some within the collector-car community would view the pedestrian Pontiac as a potential parts car for the restoration of, say, a GTO. Conversely, this Le Mans — effectively a well-appointed, upscale Tempest — was far from the utilitarian commuter some would suggest it to be. The Pontiac…

I WAS A COLLEGE STUDENT AND worked for General Motors in various jobs and positions at the Rochester Products Division (RPD) in Rochester, New York, from 1961 to 1966. At the time, RPD supplied GM with steel tubing for gas and brake lines for a variety of its cars and trucks. It also manufactured the locks, keys, and carburetors for the entire line of its vehicles, including Corvette fuel injection units. I applied for an hourly position and, since the Division was hiring, I was offered a job immediately; the officer asked if I could begin on Monday. My hourly wage was much more than my other college friends were making in their part-time jobs, so I was delighted to be able to attend college during the day and work…