Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i Hemmings Classic Car

RECENTLY,MY NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBOR junked his 2000 Mercury Mountaineer, which he bought four years ago, for $800, with more than 300,000 miles on the odometer. When he started it in the morning, it sounded as if he paid $799.95 for it. The driver’s-side window was stuck open, apparently since he took possession of it. He didn’t even bother putting plastic wrap over it, so you can imagine what that SUV smelled like inside with all the rain we get in Florida. Now, in its place is a 1995 Chevrolet Cavalier that he bought for… are you sitting down? $400. I am not one to criticize, because in college I drove a 1964 Ford Falcon that I bought for $25 from a stripper in a topless bar where my father worked. I…

A magnum opus is an artist’s most important work. It is the work that truly defines that artist’s sensibilities and demonstrates his or her skill and craftsmanship at its best. This 1957 Ford Thunderbird F-code is Don Antilla’s magnum opus. It may be the most perfectly restored ‘57 Thunderbird in existence. Don, who lives in Southbury, Connecticut, is truly an artist. He has perfected his vision and craft for decades, with a string of immaculately restored Fords to show for it. For much of that time, Don’s been holding on to this car, waiting for when he could do it justice. It was not too distant (geographically and temporally) from the Three Mile Island incident, back in 1979, where and when Don acquired this car. It had already lived an…

Enjoying retirement at a lakeside “camp” nestled in the mountains of northern New England can’t possibly be any more idyllic, right? Imagine: Tranquil sunrises with a cup of coffee, hours of boating and fishing, long colorful sunsets while on the dock with early evening libations and, at times, a group of friends. Still, one needs to get to town to restock supplies, and haul the refuse to the local waste transfer station from time to time, so why not do that in a vintage vehicle? That was the logic behind Jamie Longtin’s decision to purchase the 1931 Ford Model A pickup featured here. The story begins on the calming shores of the aptly named Sunset Lake in Benson, Vermont, where Jamie has long maintained a cozy summer cabin away from…

Jim Ross, of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, worked for a paving company that was assigned a driveway-resealing job in town. The owner of a ’70 Chevelle, Jim’s tastes ran toward Chevrolets and high-performance but, in 1994, he was looking to add another older car to the family fleet. Jim wanted something he could drive during the endless, sloppy Pennsylvania winters and the slushy roads that followed the plow and the salt. He wasn’t particularly looking for an Oldsmobile, an A-body, a Cutlass, or an emissions-era machine —he wanted something cheap and reliable that would get him to work and back. But at the job site, he locked eyes on an immaculate 1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme two-door — everything he wasn’t looking for. It was all snug and protected in a covered garage,…

RM SOTHEBY’S SEASON OPENED WITH ITS 22ND ARIZONA EVENT, HELD AT THE OTTO CAR Club in Scottsdale in January. The limited, by-appointment auction, saw total sales of more than $35 million with 90 percent of the consignments changing hands. The top American prewar classic to sell was this 1932 Cadillac V-16 convertible coupe by Fisher. This Cadillac, thought to be one of 14 made and only four remaining, still wore its original stainless-steel wire wheels, single rear-mounted spare, and Heron radiator mascot. It appeared in the “American Classic 16 Cylinder 1930-1937” class at Pebble Beach in 1995, winning best in class. It also received the Claude Nolan Cadillac Award for Most Elegant Cadillac at Amelia Island in 2018. The rare and stunning V-16 Caddy sold for an impressive $1,022,500. Another…

Avancier IT’S EASY TO SEE HOW INFORMATION ABOUT INDIVIDUAL CARS CAN go missing over the course of several decades, but Mark Mundorff has known of his 1959 Thunderbird since 1967, and has yet to find out who customized it. All that he and his father were told by the used car dealer in Omaha who sold it to them was that it was fast (180 mph fast), that it was one of two built that way, and that it was intended to be raced as a convertible. A quick look under the chassis revealed that it had been reinforced with double shock absorbers, a Pan-hard rod, and traction bars. Though the VIN said it came with an automatic transmission, it sported a T-85 three-speed manual with overdrive behind the big…

YOUR MARCH ARTICLE ABOUT THE Cadillac flower car reminded me of one of my favorite blends of imagery and nomenclature: Superior Coach’s Cadillac flower car, the Coupe de Fleur. It has become practically a generic term. Now model names are legendary among vintage car enthusiasts. Who can’t name the hierarchy of Caprice/Impala/Bel Air/ Biscayne and hopefully remember to add Delray. Getting trickier, if I said Pacific, Panama, Mayfair, and Cavalier, many would recognize these as Packards. But model names of professional cars are virtually unknown. Due to the clientele, they were understandably much more dignified. Up through 1970, you had hearses named Crown Royale, Memphian, Beau Monde, Knickerbocker, Kensington, Crestwood, Criterion, Park Row, Park Hill, Sovereign, Consort, Paramount, Tiara, Triune, and Olympian, plus Florentine and Embassy flower cars. Not a…

Just because the Falcon was a low-priced economy car, that didn’t mean that it wasn’t satisfying to own. Ford referred to the redesigned 1964 and 1965 editions as its “Total Performance” compact. That philosophy also extended to the larger models and took into account styling, handling, roadability, acceleration, braking, efficiency, and more. Sure, a buyer could’ve gone the bare-bones route in 1964 and become a fuel-savings connoisseur by driving a base Falcon two-door or four-door sedan, featuring the standard beige cloth-and-vinyl interior (more colors for 1965) with a full-width front seat, rubber floor mats, and 144-cu.in. straight-six (170-cu.in. for 1965). Yet, with the 1964 and 1965 Falcon lineups providing avenues for boosting image, power, and comfort, why stop there? Stepping up in price, the 1964 Futura two- and four-door sedans…

Do you remember Susie, the Little Blue Coupe? As the title hints, it was an animated short about a cute sporty car that flirted its way out of a dealership window and into the hands of its first, proud owner. During the 8-minute flick, produced by Walt Disney and originally released in June 1952 by RKO Radio Pictures, Susie’s care eventually slipped, and her owner reluctantly sold the rough-running coupe. A cigar-chomping, gruff-looking chap became Susie’s next owner, though his lackadaisical attitude eventually left her painfully disheveled in a cold and scary scrapyard. That is, until she was rescued by a young lad with a dream, a touch of know-how, and a boatload of ambition. It’s pure coincidence, but the basic elements of Susie’s thought-provoking yet lighthearted automotive tale parallel…

IT ALL STARTED WHEN I WAS 13. I built a soapbox-derby car and won the Charleston, West Virginia, race, but then wanted something with an engine. A homemade wooden go-kart, powered by a sideways-mounted Briggs and Stratton engine, nearly killed me when I flipped it over. But I wanted more. My father, who liked big, comfortable Chryslers and didn’t know the difference between a connecting rod and a camshaft, thought I was crazy when we went to the town of Wolf Pen, just outside of Charleston, and bought a ’62 Corvair for $100. He let me pilot it home without a driver’s license. The generator was held on by a coat hanger, and promptly fell on the floor as I pulled into the center of our two-car garage. After buying…

“Born From Jets” may have been marketing hyperbole, but there was a grain of truth in Saab’s circa-2005 advertising campaign. While by that time it shared nothing more than its name with the Swedish aerospace firm, the automaker had verifiable aeronautical roots that included building cars for special airport use. In conjunction with the National Swedish Traffic Research Institute and National Aeronautical Research Institute of Sweden, Saab’s automotive and aviation engineers had developed —and, for more than a decade, built in-house —a self-contained surface-friction testing platform that remains in use around the world today. The unrestored, complete, and fully functioning 1990 900 Turbo on these pages is a rare example of Saab’s Friction Tester that was retired from official duty and is now in private hands. What is a Friction…

In any discussion about classic cars, there will always be a point where Ford will take over the conversation. Afterall, the Ford Model T has been said to be the most important car ever built because of its versatility and availability to the masses. But the story doesn’t end there. The Model A replaced the Model T in 1928 and was an instant success, becoming a popular collector car decades later. Of course, the ’32 Ford V-8 ignited the desire for more power and in the late ’40s became the catalyst for the hot rod culture. The Thunderbird came along in the ‘50s and was an instant classic with its sports car feel and V-8 power and it is still one of the most popular collector cars today. Around the…

AS TIME ROLLS ON,THE CARS AND TRUCKS WE FIND OURSELVES MOST drawn to —perhaps those that populated the roads when we were impressionable children, or those we aspired to when we came of driving age —get older along with us. There’s a group of vehicles that have, for more than 70 years, fallen into a single classification, though, and they are the ones built before World War II. Despite the model-year constraints imposed by that common vehicle categorization, the breadth those vehicles represent is huge and fascinating, and they remain a perennial bright spot in the collector-car marketplace. “The term ‘classic car’ means a lot of different things to the people who read this magazine,” according to Auctions Edition Terry Shea, “but just about everyone can agree that prewar cars…