Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Hemmings Classic Car

For a small business, long-term success—multi-generational success for family businesses—requires at least two elements: talent and business savvy. Pure talent is often broke for lack of organization. Pure business acumen too often turns out a mediocre, passionless product. Marry the two, however, then stir in healthy doses of blood, sweat, and tears, and success should follow. LaVine Restorations, Inc., in Nappanee, Indiana, has been in operation for over 40 years now, doing concours-level restorations; building hot rods, street rods, and customs; and performing service, maintenance, and repair on collector cars. Vivian LaVine, who co-founded the business with her husband Eric, is a respected elder in the restoration community who also sits on the board of the Studebaker Museum and serves as treasurer of the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg Club. Hers is a remarkable…

The 39th Annual Corvair Lovers Holiday and Car Show will take place at the Cottages on the Greens, Perdido Bay Golf Course in Pensacola, Florida, this winter. The two-day event encourages Corvairs from all points to make their way to the Sunshine State. The itinerary will include banquets, a car show, tech sessions, valve cover races, prizes and more. Awards will be given to Corvair owners in various categories, including longest distance traveled, People’s Choice, hard luck, and best of show, among others. The show, which will be hosted by the West Florida chapter of the Corvair Society of America, will take place February 16 and 17. Email wfcc@mediacombb.net for more details.…

Among the Bugattis, the Bentley, the Chenard-Walckers, the Excelsiors, and many other continental Europe racing standbys of the interwar era that had lined up for the inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans sat a lone Ford Model T. It wasn’t described as such on the entry list, and it sported a number of modifications that almost made it unrecognizable as a Model T, but a Ford it was nevertheless, making it the first one to race at Le Mans, long before the GT40s that ran in the Sixties and the Mustang that Ford wants to enter there for the 92nd installment in June 2024. So how did a Model T get there? Charles Montier is hardly a household name these days, particularly here in the United States, but in a…

1 PORSCHE PISTONS MAHLE MOTORSPORT 888-255-1942 Porsche 964 and 993 owners can now get maximum displacement from their car’s engines with these new piston sets. Made for engines with an 80.4-mm stroke and 127-mm rod length, these 102-mm-diameter pistons bring your original 3.6-liter engine to a 3.9-liters of displacement. All pistons are forged from 4032 alloy and deliver an 11.4:1 compression ratio when used with a 1-mm deck clearance. The pistons feature a 1.2-mm top ring, 1.2-mm Napier second ring, and 3-mm oil ring, plus CNC machined pin bores and wrist pin and locks. They’re available to be paired with a Nikasil-coated cylinder set that is available in a slip-in or machine-in application. Ask about p/n PP102-015 for more information. $2,185.38/SET OF 6 mahlemotorsport.com 2 RIVET GUN KIT SUMMIT RACING…

The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, California, pulled together some of the rarest cars and artifacts in the museum’s collection for its “Splendor and Speed: Treasures of the Petersen Collection” exhibit. Located in the Bruce Meyer Family Gallery at the facility, the exhibit features a mix of Brass Era to modern day vehicles with emphasis on style, design, performance, and rarity. “The display is a fitting reflection of the exceptional assortment of vehicles we have in our collection,” said the Petersen’s director, Terry L. Karges. “We are delighted to have visitors view the museum’s most cherished vehicles and artifacts.” Some of the highlights of the display include a 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Aerodynamic Coupe by Jonckheere that features unusual styling cues, including circular doors and dual sunroofs; Steve McQueen’s…

Dave Plummer is hardly the first enthusiast who went looking for one model of vehicle, only to shift gears and end up with something else, but his story is an interesting evolution, nonetheless. “I had been searching for years for a ½-ton 1967-’72 big-block short bed GMC Sierra Grande—a ‘muscle truck’ of sorts—but never found one. In the meantime, I stumbled onto this one-owner ¾-ton Longhorn, and for about half a second contemplated shortening it,” Dave explained. However, the heavy-duty, distinctive nature of the long GMC quickly reeled Dave in, and a return to original condition ensued. Much of the motivation for a stock restoration hinged on the GMC’s well-preserved condition. Credit for that goes to original owners Fred and Jessie Klotthor, and a life spent in California. The Klotthors…

PLASTICS ARE A MIXED BAG for the classic-auto enthusiast. On the one hand, they can be formed into complex shapes at low cost, they’re lightweight, and they’re pretty durable (at least when new). On the other hand, they don’t age well, especially when repeatedly heat cycled or bombarded with ultraviolet light. As newer cars age, keeping them around is going to involve repairing or replacing all that aged plastic. My wife’s 1983 Cadillac Sedan de Ville is a prime example. If you hadn’t followed the saga of the Big Brown Cadillac on the Hemmings website, the important things to know are that it was built at Detroit’s Clark Street assembly plant in late 1982 and purchased toward the end of the 1983 model year by my wife’s grandfather, Bob. Bob…

I OWNED MY FIRST CAR for only a few months. It was a 10-year-old 1965 Ford Galaxie four-door with nothing overly exciting under the hood. But I was 17 and the car was all mine. Until one day when I invited the McVetty sisters to share the front bench seat. Being interested in one of them, Nancy, I let her take a turn behind the wheel. She was 15 and—not having previous driving experience—proceeded to steer it over a curb, rough terrain, and onto someone’s front lawn. The excursion mangled the front suspension and, without money for repairs, I sadly waved goodbye to the Ford as it was towed away. The incident left me without a car until my senior year of college, when my dad suggested I use some…

The car you see on these pages is the mechanical equivalent of the score of The Rite of Spring, hand annotated by Igor Stravinsky himself; the working sketches for Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase; or perhaps a preserved print of The Battle of Gettysburg, recovered from the possessions director of Thomas Ince. This is a piece of art, first and foremost, and one intimately and physically connected with the artist himself, Ettore Bugatti. Just ask Alan Travis, who spent 3,500 hours (that’s 437½ eight-hour workdays) resurrecting his 1913 Bugatti Type 22 from a 90-year slumber. Alan says, “It’s like working on a sculpture after Michaelangelo.” Indeed, the artist himself signed and initialed the castings throughout the powertrain. The Type 22 also represents the debut of the trademark horseshoe radiator,…

Elwood Engel had a knack for fullsize proportions. Before he joined Chrysler in 1961 to replace the ailing Virgil Exner as the head of design, he’d already had a successful stint in Ford’s studio, with the iconic 1961 Lincoln Continental at the top of his resumé. At Chrysler, he co-styled the landmark Turbine car, of which 50 prototypes were built. It had a distinct Jet Age aesthetic that influenced other production models and evolved into the “fuselage” design language that was seen in models like the 1968 Dodge Charger, and was realized fully in the 1969 Chrysler 300. Chrysler touted the fuselage look as a “sweeping new design” that, like the jet airliners that symbolized modern transportation of the day, was sleek and trim-appearing. There were no protruding bumpers or…

The 2024 AACA (Antique Automobile Club of America) Annual Convention will take place near the nation’s capital as it prepares for a busy year. The Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles, located in Chantilly, Virginia, will serve as the host hotel for the event that serves as a launching point for the club’s upcoming season. There will be seminars to help attendees make the most out of shows and touring events, a trade show, judging schools, banquets, and the highly anticipated national awards that honor AACA members’ best vehicles displayed during 2023 in various categories. There will also be a trip to the Air & Space Museum among the tourist attractions in and around the Washington, D.C. area. The convention will be held from February 8-10. Visit aaca.org for booking, discounts, and…