Hemmings Classic Car September 2024

“Adrenaline pulsed through my veins as soon as our feet hit the ground—Dave and I must have looked like a pair of kids set free in a candy store on Black Friday.” PENNSYLVANIA has become a second home to me during the last 28 years, all thanks to my oft-mentioned 1952 Buick Roadmaster. Although the car came with enough parts to build an exact match, save for a frame, an engine block, and a body shell, I felt a sense of urgency to shop for NOS and nice used parts–you know, in case something went horribly wrong during a drive through my native Connecticut countryside. It was a life-long family friend, swap meet veteran, and fellow vintage vehicle enthusiast who pointed me to the Keystone State as fertile hunting grounds,…

A NUMBER OF FACTORY customs were built for or at the behest of Semon “Bunkie” Knudsen during his tenure as Chevrolet’s general manager, from 1961-’65. They included a couple of well-known Corvette styling cars, but also a unique, turbocharged 1964 Corvair Monza Spyder that was recently acquired by Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance founder Bill Warner. It’s undergoing restoration at Werner Meier’s facility Masterworks Automotive Services, just north of Detroit. The car was one of five special builds commissioned under Knudsen and was pulled off the Willow Run assembly line and sent to the Chevrolet Engineering Center to receive several custom touches, including a repaint in Firefrost Blue. The Firefrost and later Firemist colors were unique metallic blends with brighter flake pigments and were mostly available on Cadillac models. In addition…

MY MOM’S AUNT ESTHER was a slim woman who always dressed to the nines and drove a chestnut-colored 1963 Chevrolet Impala Sport Sedan. One memory so strong to my 8-year-old self was running my eyes up and down the length of the car, captivated by its chrome, white painted top, and that expansive bench seat. Right away, it became a car that I hoped would be in my future, somehow, some way. I recall that, at age 11, I said, “I’d really like to have that car someday,” to which my great-aunt replied with a warm smile. By the time I was 12, I was fully infected with the car bug and began riding my bike downtown, where all the primary dealerships were located. Not one of them is there…

IT WAS A PLEASURE TO SEE that beautifully restored 1955 Plymouth Belvedere in the May issue. I bought a well-worn ’55 in 1962 to commute to classes during my freshman year of college. A fascinating design feature is the symmetry of the dashboard layout. It was odd to have the oil pressure and temperature gauges in front of the passenger while the driver had only the fuel gauge and the ammeter. There was one error concerning available options. The two-speed PowerFlite automatic used a one-year-only dash-mounted gear selector rather than one that was column-mounted. −CHARLES L. WOODSIDE Schertz, Texas Matthew Litwin replies: We received a lot of comments regarding the column-mounted shifter. Somehow, we missed that error during our final edit. DAVID CONWILL’S ARTICLE in the June issue about the 1953…

It’s an English gentleman in a bespoke Italian suit. This 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 (chassis no. LML/765) coupled handsome Bertone coachwork with a competent Aston Martin chassis to make a grand tourer of seemingly international appeal, but Aston Martin turned off the tap. Coachbuilders like Bertone and low-volume manufacturers have always depended on patronage. So too do the artisans restoring these cars, like the experts at Kevin Kay Restorations (KKR) in Redding, California, who undertook to bring this Wacky Arnolt creation back to its best days for later owner Alberto Gutierrez. Stanley “Wacky” Arnolt made his fortune as a young man. In the late 1930s, he recognized the potential of the Waukesha Sea-Mite boat motor. His energetic demonstrations of a Sea-Mite-powered boat on Lake Michigan, leaping from wave to wave,…

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