Hemmings Classic Car March 2024

“Cleaning and remodeling the dumping ground has been an ‘on a rainy day’ topic for years.” WE HAVE A digital workspace dubbed Content Dumping Ground. The name was created on a whim at the onset of the 2020 pandemic when it was obvious Hemmings’ facility would be locked down, relegating our staff to the cozy confines of hastily erected at-home office nooks. The unglamourous Dumping Ground—for short—was an organized transient space for our day-to-day editorial work, the content that made the technical jump from editor’s laptops to printed copies. If it was going to be printed, it was thrown in there. We never missed a deadline. Recently, someone posed the idea of renaming Content Dumping Ground to something more sophisticated to match its poignant purpose. Some of us have grown…

WE ALL DREAM of finding some treasure sealed up and left to gather dust until we happen to stumble across its resting place. The engine seen on these pages, property of Bob Berggren, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, is that sort of thing. “Vinny Casidy, a gentleman who is very big in car parts, had bought a container from the Owls Head Transportation Museum in an auction and in that was some Model A stuff and some Model T stuff,” Bob says. Among Casidy’s load of curiosities were two crated engines; one of them was a stock Model A engine, the other was this modified Model B unit. The Model B was a 50-hp updated version of the Model A engine, built for use in Ford cars and trucks from 1932 to…

I GREW UP in Southern California in the 1960s, when car culture was a big influence on a boy. Slot cars and plastic models were the gateway drugs, so to speak, which were followed by go-karts and minibikes. I lived in a rural area on the family chicken ranch where there was plenty of room to rod around on hardpacked dirt. My dad, who built much of his own farm equipment, fabricated a gokart for my older brother when he was 5. I inherited the kart when my brother moved on to bigger things. Of course, I modified it by installing a larger engine. One of my nearby buddies back then was Gary, also from a gearhead family. His dad enjoyed cutting down old Lambretta motor scooters to make dirt…

EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS TO: mlitwin@hemmings.com I ENJOYED THE FEATURE IN THE DECEMBER ISSUE about John Corey’s 1996 Buick Estate wagon. We owned a ’96 for many years and put about 325,000 miles on it before the car failed to pass emissions testing. It meant I could no longer license it in the Phoenix metro area, so I reluctantly sold it. Every summer we drove the Buick from Arizona to Bethany Beach, Delaware, usually putting 8,000 miles on it each round trip. The Roadmaster wagon was the most comfortable road-trip car I ever owned, and it wasn’t unusual to drive it 300 miles without stopping. It almost always averaged 25 mpg on the highway at speeds of 80 mph or more! Returning from Delaware we usually had it loaded with…

1969 MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SEL 6.3 The 300 SL was the original Mercedes-Benz performance legend, but the 300 SEL 6.3 began a dynasty of high-powered Benz sedans that blended speed and luxury in equal measure. This 1969 6.3, which ultimately sold within its market range as a Make Offer listing, appeared in great condition with damage-free silver paint over uncreased leather seating. The red interior presented very well with working A/C, and it looked factory-correct via a hidden Sirius satellite radio receiver. The eponymous 300-hp V-8 engine was noted to be a rebuilt replacement that operated with no problems, and neither it nor the backing automatic leaked. A comprehensive video and ample photos helped sell this car. Reserve: $99,000 Selling Price: $87,150 Recent Market Range: $78,000-$108,000 1950 CHEVROLET STYLELINE DE LUXE…

There is no singular road to Pebble Beach, but this is the story of one car that made it to America’s best-known concours d’elegance and came home with two awards. You’ll note that the “before” photographs accompanying this Restoration Profile show a beautiful, finished car in its own right—though it was exceedingly tired in detail, with oxidized components, torn upholstery, scuffed paint, and the usual ailments borne of long-term storage. At its most pedantic, to “restore” something means “to bring back to or put back into a former or original state” (thanks, Merriam-Webster!). Sometimes that means something has decayed over time, other times it simply means entropy has taken its toll on original components and finishes. So it was that restoring this 1923 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost was more about correcting…