Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2021 i Hemmings Classic Car

Bronco Wildflower IN THE HUBBUB LEADING UP TO THE INTRODUCTION OF THE 2021 FORD BRONCO, the company released a number of historical images, including a few of the circa-1970 Bronco Wildflower concept truck. It was given a “lively multicolored paint treatment” with a “psychedelic design of blues, yellows and reds… topped off by a pink grille.” Groovy. However, under that paint, we’re pretty sure the Wildflower was really just a lightly revised version of the 1966 Bronco Dune Duster concept: a George Barris-modified rig with the same cut-down doors (that differed from the production Bronco Roadster doors), the same roll bar with integrated headrests (that Ford and Barris both claimed was NHRA-approved), the same wheels, the same side pipes, and the same scoop in the hood. Why Ford didn’t just…

In July 2018, Bill Lillie welcomed home his completely restored 1919/1931 Detroit Electric Model 98A Brougham —a project we featured in the January and February 2019 issues of HCC. The car’s makeover was an exacting process that culminated with a stunning, award-winning result. One would suspect that a respite was in order, some time to allow the Gales Ferry, Connecticut, resident to share the car’s history with countless old-car enthusiasts — one of his favorite aspects of vintage vehicle ownership. Instead, fate added a slightly different twist to that well-deserved plan. Just weeks later, the public auction of the Lloyd and Shirley Young collection in Canal Winchester, Ohio, came to Bill’s attention. The widely-respected Youngs had managed to amass an extensive array of vehicles, ranging in years from 1905 to…

The Pontiac has stayed in our family and it has been my car since I was just shy of my 18th birthday. It took me through many life experiences: drive-in movies, shore trips, college, job interviews, blizzards, heat waves, gas lines, New England vacations, and hundreds more. I have always loved the style, performance, and driving experience this car offers. I had it partially restored 30 years ago, and since then it’s been reserved for pleasure drives, car shows, and cruise nights. This year, it made the move with me from New York to Florida, where I can make new memories with it year-round. But of all the adventures I have had with this car, of all the memories, none do I hold more dear than that day 57 years…

Barry Davis Claycomo Plant Ford Motor Company IN 1960, I WAS ONLY 20 YEARS OLD with a wife, one child, and one on the way. Working part time at Milgram grocery store, attending Kansas City Junior College for a business degree, and driving the old newspaper truck route three times a week in the wee morning hours was not helping ends meet. My best friend since high school, Jack, was already working on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company’s Claycomo plant just north of downtown Kansas City and making more than $9 an hour. It occurred to me that getting a job there would solve all of my problems. Plus bypassing college, after one dull semester, was a relief. Late in July 1960, I applied for work at the…

EVERYBODY RESPECTS TRUCKS THAT EARN THEIR LIVING THROUGH hard work. There’s something honest and trustworthy about these utilitarian vehicles that inspires genuine enthusiasm, and that has been proven hundreds of times with the trucks that have crossed the Hemmings Auctions virtual block. Bidders and spectators seem to be equally fond of factory-stock examples that are true to their roots, and of custom-modified ones bearing the personal stamps of their owners. “We’ve seen some unusual trucks get attention, such as the 1973 Ford F-350 Super Camper Special, as well as once-ordinary trucks, like the 1929 Ford Model AA,” explains Hemmings Auctions Editor Terry Shea. “The four trucks reviewed here have been kept stock or largely so, but the market seems to love trucks of all sorts — preserved, restored, modified, and…

Mullin Automotive Museum Reopens THE DOORS OF THE MULLIN AUTOMOTIVE MUSEUM, IN OXNARD, CALIFORNIA, HAVE reopened to the public. Visitors can see concours “best in show” winners such as the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, 1938 Hispano-Suiza Dubonnet H6B “Xenia,” and a 1937 Talbot-Lago T150-C-SS “Goutte d’Eau.” Other favorites on display include a 1994 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport “Le Mans” and an extensive collection of Bugatti artwork, sculpture, and furniture. “We are excited to welcome back visitors to the Mullin Automotive Museum with new weekly business hours,” says Founder and Executive Director Peter Mullin. “To reopen in a responsible manner, we are prioritizing the health of our community, visitors, volunteers, and employees by adhering to the safety guidelines set by the government and public health officials.” The museum will follow…

Elkhart Highlights RM SOTHEBY’S RELEASED THE RESULTS OF ITS ELKHART COLLECTION AUCTION IN Elkhart, Indiana, with total sales grossing over $44.3 million. More than 240 collector cars and an expansive selection of memorabilia were offered during the two-day show on October 23-24. Looking deeper into the numbers, American cars saw sales eclipse $3.5 million. The top sale of this group was a 1935 Auburn 8 Supercharged Speedster. Believed to be one of approximately 150 original Speedsters made, it had a well-documented and impressive ownership history. It was fully restored and painted ivory, with a red interior. Most of the original components were preserved, down to the body wood, which still bore its number stamping. The factory-installed engine still powered the Auburn and the Speedster won awards at the Classic Car…

WHEN I WAS A LITTLE BOY GROWING up in Newport News, Virginia, my next-door neighbor’s daughter drove a light green Renault Dauphine, which I saw her crank start one morning. Another neighbor had a cream-colored Dauphine. Travis, a woman who used to play piano for Rodef Sholom Temple’s Annual Sisterhood Cabaret fundraiser, also drove a white Renault Dauphine. She was a chain smoker, with a deep voice and really big hair. There were several Dauphines in our high school student parking lot in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They say Americans weren’t too keen on Renaults, but they were ubiquitous. And for a car many maligned, the aforementioned Dauphines were on the road long after their production ended. Whenever I see vintage photographs from America in the 1950s and…

When you look at the ownership evidence in more detail, it’s really a remarkable story. I’ll always say if you take the time during a restoration and make careful notes about what seem like minute details, you’ll make a tremendous discovery. Each clue is a layer and, before long, you have a bigger picture of where a car was, and who owned it. It’s part of a car’s restoration, really. There’s the obvious goal, to make the car look new again, but doing homework like this helps make it correct. You may run into a clipping in an old, obscure newspaper that shows what the interior looked like, or if the car came with bumpers or not. What you will ultimately end up with is a project you can be…

In 1926, Pontiac was born from GM division Oakland to fill a niche, specifically the spot in the brand hierarchy above Chevrolet but below Oldsmobile. It thrived from the beginning by emphasizing value, soon rendering its parent division obsolete. Over the decades, Pontiac was associated with many things —style and reliability to name a few, but it wasn’t until Bunkie Knudsen began to rework the division’s image in 1956 that performance really came to the forefront. The 1957 Bonneville was intended to send a message to the world that Pontiac was a performance brand, and soon the division was promoting its Wide-Track stance, which delivered longer and lower looks and improved handling. The Pontiac V-8 continued to gain larger displacement variants and more power, and had developed a reputation on…

Most people buy a new car with little thought beyond its day-to-day usefulness and the reliability promised by fresh mechanicals. Even keen enthusiasts don’t typically approach such a purchase envisioning decades of ownership, much less their new car signing on for a “lifetime contract.” Sometimes things work out that way, when a special car has the luxury of being treated gently, avoiding harsh weather conditions and accidents, all the while in the care of a singular devoted, hands-on owner who takes pride in preserving original features. The Triumph convertible on these pages is one such lucky ride. Ken Cioffi was 23 in the summer of 1980, recently having started his education career with the Albany City schools and still working part-time for his father’s service station/auto body shop in New…

CAR 1957 De Soto Adventurer hardtop coupe AUCTIONEER RM Sotheby’s LOCATION Elkhart, Indiana DATE October 23, 2020 LOT NUMBER 1207 RESERVE None AVERAGE SELLING PRICE $65,000 SELLING PRICE $84,000 THE HIGH-POWERED ADVENTURER HARDTOP coupe was introduced two months after the other De Soto offerings and it received Chrysler’s Forward Look design. Each carried over gold-colored trim accents from the prior year, as well as TorqueFlite transmission and antennas. The limited production run only saw 1,650 hardtop coupes produced for the model year. This De Soto had become a well-known example among marque enthusiasts, winning best in show at the 2001 National DeSoto Club Convention. The well-preserved older restoration had the correct gold- and-white finish, with the interior showing no defects. The 345 Hemi V-8 with dual four-barrel carburetors was sound…

Poor De Soto. The division was designed to be the Oldsmobile competitor in Chrysler Corporation’s five-part GM-division-equivalency program (where Plymouth = Chevy, Dodge = Pontiac, De Soto = Oldsmobile, Chrysler = Buick, and Imperial = Cadillac). The only flaw in this plan was that Chrysler didn’t have the market penetration to front five divisions —and the divisions were so busy trying to cannibalize each other’s sales that GM’s equivalents always felt out of reach. Consider: In 1955, all five of GM’s divisions were in the top-10 overall for sales, living in first, third, sixth, seventh, and 10th place. That same year, Plymouth was fourth, Dodge was eighth, and Chrysler was ninth, while both De Soto and Imperial fell outside the top 10. De Soto was averaging roughly 100,000 units a…

I WAS VERY PLEASED TO SEE AND read Patrick Foster’s article about 1965-’67 Dodge Coronets in HCC #195. My first car was a ’65 Coronet 440 wagon. My parents bought it as a new demonstrator and gave it to me in 1969. It had the 273-cu.in. engine with the TorqueFlite transmission. In college I would give other kids a ride home for $4 round trip and could carry five with all their luggage. Gas was around $0.25 per gallon, so I could fill it up for about $5 and, with five passengers going both ways, I could clear about $10 a weekend. That was good money in those days for a college kid. It served me very well through college and was our wedding getaway car. It handled better than…

Automotive history books are brimming with iconic vehicle names, both domestic and foreign, that have left an endearing legacy in the minds of millions. They’ve originated from all eras, no matter how narrow or broad each is defined: brass, prewar, postwar, and so on. And while each era can arguably claim a rich legacy like no other, perhaps some of the most indelible names appeared when the first, true postwar designs from Detroit emerged in the late 1948-’51 period. Take General Motors, for instance, and its collaboration with Fisher Body that resulted in the first mass-produced hardtop body style. Buick took full advantage of it in 1949, using it first in the Roadmaster series when the Riviera moniker was applied to the striking design. Cadillac called its hardtop the Coupe…

At first glance, early Indianapolis 500 specials and an assortment of racing Porsches wouldn’t seem to have much in common. At The Brumos Collection, in Jacksonville, Florida, however, these diverse heroes of motorsport history are all parked under one roof. One half of the museum is dedicated to the history of the Miller racing engine and its successor, Offenhauser. In the other half, it’s Porsche history, centered around the Brumos Racing team. The Brumos Collection is an offshoot of Brumos Porsche, in Jacksonville, a dealership founded by Herbert Brundage. Peter Gregg bought the company following Brundage’s 1964 death, and later befriended driver Hurley Haywood at a local autocross event. The racing team was formally founded in 1971, and quickly became known for three things: the number 59 (marking the first…

Over the past 35 years or so, I’ve been involved in chronicling and conserving the history of American Motors. A fun part of my efforts has been recording the AMC story as told to me in videotaped interviews with former designers, stylists, engineers, and upper management. During this time, I’ve been able to meet with most of the former CEOs and presidents, starting with George Romney and ending with Joe Cappy, AMC’s last CEO. The effort is ongoing. One of the most interesting people I’ve had the privilege to meet with was Howard Turtle, a mid-level test engineer. Mr. Turtle, who has since passed away, was a soft-spoken, modest man, but in the three hours I spent talking with him I learned more about the history of crash-testing automobiles than…