Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2020 i Hemmings Classic Car

The genius of Bruno Sacco was on full display in the SEC, and yet, he was only getting started. The Italian-born designer — an alum of the Polytechnic University of Turin and Carrozzeria Ghia, who, at age 24 in 1958, was hired by Mercedes-Benz in Sindelfingen —would take over the automaker’s Styling Department in the mid-1970s and lead it until his 1999 retirement. Under his watch, this company would build the trendsetting 190 and 300 E, and reimagine the venerable SL for the 1990s and beyond. But the first major production-model project bearing his signature was the 126-chassis S-Class flagship, in both its four-door sedan and two-door coupe forms. The sedan was influential and enduring; his coupe, the SEC introduced in 1981 and built through 1991, was a masterpiece. Germany’s…

Billy Durant may have created General Motors, but it was Alfred Sloan who made it the corporate powerhouse it became. At the heart of the Sloan conception of GM was the idea of “a car for every purse and purpose.” The divisional structure at GM was intended to push one up the corporate hierarchy as one’s means increased —when you worked in the mailroom, you drove a Chevrolet; by the time you made it to the boardroom, you owned a Cadillac. The trouble was, back in the mid-1920s, there were some pretty significant holes in the GM lineup, including a big one between Chevrolet and Oldsmobile. Another gap existed between Olds and Buick, and a larger one came between Buick and Cadillac. A 1925 ad illustrates the issue. “General Motors,”…

MY FATHER WAS A CAR GUY, JUST not in a mechanical sense. I never saw him turn a wrench, but he always loved cars. Every year, when the new models were introduced, we would visit showrooms to check out the latest that Detroit had to offer. His business did well enough to afford to feed his passion for new automobiles, so there was never anything more than two years old in our garage. Mom and Dad each had their own car, and in the early Sixties, the list included some that I would love to have today. There was a 1959 Oldsmobile 88, traded for a baby-blue ’61 Buick Electra, and then came a ’62 Oldsmobile Starfire: all were convertibles. The string of convertibles ended with a beautiful 1964 Buick…

Hilton Head Cancelled, 2021 Event Announced THE HILTON HEAD ISLAND MOTORING FESTIVAL AND CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE HAS been cancelled for 2020, but organizers have announced plans for 2021. Next year’s festival will kick off on October 28-31 with the Savannah Speed Classic in Savannah, Georgia, and culminate on November 5-7 at the Port Royal Golf Club on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, with the concours d’elegance. These two events happen within 30 miles of one another and combine a mix of vintage racing and gorgeous cars. The Savannah Speed Classic will take place at the Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa and features a 2.1-mile road course and street circuit where you will see some fantastic vintage racing. The Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance will feature Stutz cars as the main…

Mecum Indy Results ON JULY 10-18, MECUM’S INDY AUCTION, AT THE INDIANA STATE FAIRGROUNDS IN INDIANAPOLIS, saw impressive sales totaling more than $74 million, despite being delayed several months due to the pandemic. More than 1,800 vehicles crossed the block with a sell-through rate of 78 percent, and 346 were sold online, accounting for $10.3 million. Quite a few American classics came up for sale with some interesting pedigrees. Among those was a 1939 Packard Limousine, seen here, that sold for $165,000 and had previously served the Argentine government. The Super Eight Derham Phaeton was built to special order for Roberto Maria Ortiz and it would serve several presidents, including most recently, the Juan Perón regime. According to its documentation, the Packard was said to be a favorite car of…

The 1957 Rambler Rebel is one of those special, highly unusual cars that come along only once in a blue moon: a one-year-only effort with outstanding performance that’s mostly been ignored by both vintage car and muscle car fans. The fact that it was the fastest American sedan for 1957 makes the situation all the more curious. The idea of offering a four-door performance car came about as a result of low product development budgets. When American Motors was on the ropes in 1955, CEO George Romney made a decision to halt development of new senior Hudson and Nash models, instead pushing forward an all-new Rambler for 1956 rather than 1957. However, AMC was so short of money that Romney had to limit body styles for the new Rambler to…

SINCE HEMMINGS’ FIRST ONLINE AUCTION IN AUGUST 2019, THE number of vehicles offered, as well as the number of followers and active bidders, has steadily increased. Hemmings Auctions Editor Terry Shea tells us that the sell-through rate has remained well over 80 percent since April 1, with submissions coming in at record high volumes. This has meant there are vehicles for nearly every taste and pocketbook. While Hemmings Auctions specialists do market research and work closely with sellers to set fair reserves, those dollar figures are sometimes found to have little bearing on the sale of the car or truck at hand. The highlighted writeups that follow illustrate a few of the vehicles that surpassed their reserves by a substantial margin —a testament to the desirability of those cars and…

CAR 1958 Packard Hawk AUCTIONEER RM Sotheby’s LOCATION Online only Open Roads, North America DATE July 23-31 LOT NUMBER 124 AVERAGE SELLING PRICE $45,000 SELLING PRICE $66,000 PACKARD HAWKS HAVE BECOME MORE popular over the years due to their limited quantities and their distinction as the last production cars built by Packard. Only 588 of these hardtop sports coupes were manufactured, but, because they shared the Studebaker Hawk platform, mechanical parts are readily available. It’s unknown how many exist today, but this one was finished in red over tan leather and equipped with a Twin-Traction limited-slip rear differential. Recent improvements included new wire wheels and whitewall tires (installed less than 250 miles from restoration) and a transmission rebuild. The rare and distinctively styled “Packardbaker” was powered by its original 289…

I REMEMBER SEEING EARLY PHOTOS and drawings of the soon-to-be-introduced Ford Tempo, and my first thought was how it looked very Audi-like, in smaller scale. I wonder if I am the only one who saw this. If anything, the Ford Tempo/Mercury Topaz twins were the next iteration of Ford’s break from the square styling of its late 1970s and early 1980s offerings. The transformation of the Thunderbird from a clunky box to a streamlined road car was positively revolutionary. The Ford EXP was a fun take on economical cruising, and the trend would reach its zenith with the mid-1980s introduction of the Ford Taurus/ Mercury Sable twins. Always a leader in the 1960s, Ford had become somewhat of a follower in the late 1970s, as evidenced by its stubborn reluctance…

In his 80 years, Dr. Philip Lutfy has owned at least 125 Mercedes-Benz automobiles. Probably. It could be more. “It’s between 125 and 150, for sure,” he tells us. In the last half century and beyond, he’s owned a dozen gullwings, more than 20 Pagoda-top SLs from the ’60s, and more Pontons than he can remember. Most generations of SL, plus plenty of coupes and sedans with rare options, have passed through his collection over the decades. And most of these have been made better at his hands. “I like to touch everything,” he said recently. “I like to play with everything. Upholstery work, a repaint, complete restorations, you name it. I love to work on it, take it apart, and make it like it was when it was new.…

There’s no overestimating the influence that riding in the family car can have over children. Impressions made during those formative years, of time on the road with our parents during summer vacations and countless other long-distance adventures, become the remembrances that many of us seek to experience again in adulthood. “My father owned a 1968 four-door hardtop,” Don Bock of Woolwich Township, New Jersey, offered as his primary reason for gravitating toward full-size Chevrolet Impalas. “I have always owned 1968 models, but I lean toward the Custom Coupes.” Among the 16 Impalas (mostly SS cars) he’s held title to, is this one that he found in March of 2001, on an online auction site. Don reports that it was, “Just as it is now before lots of cleaning and detailing……

Think for a moment about the last time you visited an art gallery where objets d’art are offered for sale. Lots of the merchandise is pristine, brightly lit, spiffy for potential buyers. Then, contrast that image with what you experienced during any visit to a lauded museum, be it the Louvre, The Henry Ford, or the Buffalo Bill Historical Center in Cody, Wyoming. In those halls, you will find exhibitions that were selected on the sole basis of antiquity, or authenticity, with little or nothing done to make them shinier or more presentable. True artifacts don’t need that. That is the sensibility that Dr. Fred Simeone brings to the world of car collecting. His introduction to the hobby came from canvassing used-car lots and junkyards in his native Philadelphia for…