Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2018 i Hemmings Muscle Machines

As convertibles began to disappear from the new-car landscape of the 1970s, sunroof and moonroof installations gained in popularity, as did T-tops later in the decade. Automaker- and aftermarket-offered designs provided at least a semi-open-air driving experience for those who craved drop-tops. Some of the diverse styles included the folding vinyl type and the manual- or power-actuated metal sliding-panel sunroofs, (and there were multiple glass moonroof designs). Their quality also varied by manufacturer and installer. Art James’ Buick GS 455 Stage 1 was retrofitted with a well-engineered American Sunroof Corporation (ASC) unit early in its life. Growing up in a Buick family, Art’s first car, at age 16, was a ’69 Skylark handed down from his father. He also warmly remembers a high school friend’s ’71 GS 350. So when…

Intact, unrestored, Hemi-powered 1970 Challenger R/T hardtops don’t turn up every day. So, when one of the fewer than 300 produced surfaces — and you have the means as well as the desire to own it — you either make a move or miss out. When Ward Gappa of Quality Muscle Car Restorations in Scottsdale, Arizona, got an email from a customer interested in buying this month’s feature car back in 2013, he knew the Challenger’s days on the market could be numbered. So, he made contact with the seller, then hopped on a plane to the Midwest where the scruffy Hemi E-body had been hibernating for years. “I walked around that car and in five minutes I knew it was the one,” Ward said. “It hadn’t been wrecked, it…

What if? is a powerful question. From big hypotheticals like “What if Studebaker had built cars after 1966?” to those that are smaller in scope, like “What if the Bendix Electrojector had worked on the ’57 Rambler Rebel?” Like writing fiction, restoring a car can be a way to explore the answers to questions, only using mechanical bits instead of flowing prose. This is an especially attractive idea when you read your history and realize that some of Detroit’s more interesting ideas lived and died only as development mules, show cars, or mere concepts sketched out but never mocked up. Take the Pontiac PFST. The PFST, or Pontiac Firebird Sport Turismo, was a development mule put together in 1967 as a successor to the famous Banshee concepts earlier in the…

It was the summer of 1996, and I had been thinking about buying another car. Actually, I was always doing that, but I had kept the desire in check, due not to any sense of propriety on my part, but mainly to mollify my wife, who, although a wonderful partner, nevertheless had this strange attitude toward other people’s collector cars. She preferred that they remain other people’s collector cars. However, as I only had one fun car at the time, I figured I didn’t really have a “collection.” Adding another would only put me in the position of asking forgiveness, which is always easier than asking permission. This thought pattern was not 100-percent rational, but it was good enough for me to let my curiosity carry me to the classified…

MECUM SCORES IN LOS ANGELES We sometimes wonder if the people at Mecum ever get to sleep in their own beds, since they’re so busy crossing the country selling classic, muscle, and special-interest cars and motorcycles. After scoring $13.9 million in Las Vegas at the tail end of January with a motorcycle-only event that saw 1,207 bikes out of 1,324 go to new homes, the Mecum gang headed to Los Angeles, where they sold $9 million worth of collectors cars (and a bit of automobilia) at the Fairplex at Pomona on February 16 and 17. Though European makes dominated the top-10 list, Mecum’s highest-grossing sale was a 2006 Ford GT that pulled in $327,250, including the buyer’s premium. Coming in at number nine on that top-10 list was the next…

RANGER RAPTOR: IT’S COMING Ford’s new baby pickup will pack 2.7-liter, twin-turbo V-6 power Ford is bringing back the Ranger pickup, starting in 2019. In truth, it never really went away: In Australia, Africa, Europe, and South America, an all-new, different-from-ours Ranger pickup went on sale years ago. It just never came to America. But that’s changing. Sales of the midsize pickup market have grown nearly 85 percent in the last five years, and Ford wasn’t about to miss out on a slice of that pie. Ranger was ready to go. The standard ’19 Ranger, now considerably bigger than the long-lived compact truck that shared its name here in the States, will come standard with a turbocharged 2.3-liter EcoBoost four. Power hasn’t been announced, but we suspect Ford might trade…

Once upon a time, you could actually order the car you wanted in the manner that you wanted it. Most of us remember the time and lament its passing; it was a time of seemingly endless possibilities and potential. Far from the anodyne three-level option tiers you get with modern cars, you could get all kinds of weird combinations at the stroke of your salesman’s Bic Crystal: a blue exterior with a green interior, station wagons with four-speed-manual gearboxes, individually selected power assists for any number of functions from brakes to door locks to trunk releases. There were also bewildering arrays of choices of powertrain options, with the ability to mix and match engines and transmissions seemingly at will. Obviously, some combinations weren’t recommended, some weren’t allowed, and others just…

Talk to Tim Winnie about his 1969 Dodge Dart Swinger 340 and the word “luck” comes up about as much as any other in the conversation. From the way he found it, to the parts that found him, to the incredible way the car was reunited with its original engine block, the luck never seems to run out when it comes to Tim’s Swinger 340. Let’s start with Tim’s somewhat unusual timing with his purchase of the Dart. The Jeannette, Pennsylvania, resident regularly attended the late-summer swap meet south of Cleveland in Canfield, Ohio. In late September of 2001, it’s safe to say, the mood to play with cars was rather muted by the attacks in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. But Tim and a friend thought it a good…

ENGINE By 1987, Ford’s 5.0L engine had made a name for itself apart from its earlier 302 origins. The ’87 engine used roller lifters on a steel camshaft, forged pistons, and new-design “E7TE” cylinder-head castings “borrowed” from the truck engine program. It made 9.2:1 compression and was fed by a sequential electronic-port fuel-injection system, managed by Ford EEC IV electronics, which also controlled the ignition. The intake manifold had separate upper and lower plenums, 19-lb/hr injectors, and a single-blade throttle body measuring 60 mm. From 1987 to ’88, a manifold absolute pressure (MAP) type system was used; starting with ’89 models, mass-airflow management took over. Starting at some point during the ’91 run, forged pistons were changed to hypereutectic. TRANSMISSION Ford started using Borg Warner’s T-5 manual five-speed in 1983,…

The gap between road car and race car seems to be ever widening. Professional racers, of course, were early adopters of specialty equipment to give them an edge over, or just to keep pace with, their competitors. Amateur racers held out longer but have been similarly swept up into an equipment arms race that has left the average spectator with little inkling that the machines on the track have anything to do with the mundane transport that will take them home after the race. That evolution probably explains, at least in part, the attraction of older race cars. Looking at the two cars on these pages, it’s not hard to see their Ford heritage. The 1928-’31 Model A and 1932-’34 Model B four-cylinder cars were so common, robust, and full…

2018 MOTORSPORT HALL OF FAME OF AMERICA CLASS INDUCTED What do “Lil’ John” Buttera, Carl G. Fisher, Jeff Gordon, Howard Hughes, “Flyin’ Fred” Merkel, U.E. “Pat” Patrick, and Bob Tullius have in common? Previously, the ambiguous answer was “motorsports,” but on March 13, the seven formed the class of 2018 at the 30th-annual Motorsports Hall of Fame of America (MSHFA) induction ceremony. The seven honorees come from six different disciplines, prompting MSHFA President Ron Watson to remark, “Howard Hughes and Jeff Gordon in the same class—that is probably the best example we’ve ever had to illustrate the breadth of our inductee roll.” John Buttera (better known as “Lil’ John” Buttera to his followers) needs no introduction to drag-racing fans, as the constructor’s dragsters, Funny Cars, and pro stockers were campaigned…

The original owner ordered this car to get what he wanted, because you couldn’t get a Monte Carlo SS 454 with a four-speed. So he outfitted it like a Monte Carlo SS, just without the SS 454 option: bucket seats, dash with gauges, console, Rally wheels, heavy-duty suspension, all of it. Someone did a frame-up restoration on it, then it was in Louisiana for a while. The maroon and Saddle was a killer color combination. Basically it’s an oversized Chevelle. They made fewer than 600 big-block four-speed Monte Carlos for 1970, and I’ve never seen another one.…

There are few things in this world that I’m more passionate about than old cars and travel. Old cars are in my blood… always have been, and always will be. And chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve been similarly afflicted. Travel, too, seems an innate part of my makeup. I’ve always been curious about what lies just beyond the horizon, and what possibilities the journey between here and there might hold. Whenever I have an opportunity to jump in a classic car and burn gas and rubber on my way to getting to wherever I’m headed, there’s very little convincing needed. My travelling companion is also my life companion for the past 45 years, LaRae. She’s great company, and always ready for another adventure. Our trusty ’66 Chevelle two-door…

At one time or another, we’ve probably all been guilty of putting off a job that needs to be done until it becomes absolutely necessary. Over the last few months, I’d noticed that the stopping power of my GTO’s power drum brakes had been dropping off. Slightly more pressure, along with a little more time to actually stop, was required. But, since the car still braked well enough, I sort of forgot about the issue, thinking I would get to it soon. Well, “soon” became longer than soon ought to be, and I realized that my lack of action was imperiling both my car and me — brake failure could cause both of us serious contusions. I asked a friend who is a muscle-car aficionado, and who happens to be…

HMM PRODUCT TEST: MPT DEFEND RUST INHIBITOR Here in the Northeast, rust is a way of life, as we constantly fight the battle with corroded fasteners while trying to keep the stuff that hasn’t yet succumbed to the oxidation process from doing so. MPT Industries offers a broad line of lubricants (as well as auto- and marine-finish detail products), and recently sent us a sample of a new product it has developed for the cause. MPT Defend is a lubricant and corrosion inhibitor, as the label proclaims, and the company explained that it is also solvent free, and engineered to adhere to metal parts to protect them from moisture and caustic substances like road salt. We’re told it can be used on rusted metal to stop the process, and that…

Mid-January in Scottsdale, Arizona, means only one thing: It’s collector-car auction week. For more than a week, this patch of Southwest desert is transformed into a hotbed of gavel action, spurred by bidders and spectators from all corners of the globe. One could argue that the automotive smorgasbord is a venerable barometer of the health of the hobby, if not in total sales in dollars, then certainly in terms of volume. Leading the charge into this collector-car cornucopia is Scottsdale-based Barrett-Jackson, which held its 47th-annual event on January 13-21 at WestWorld. Their docket was impressive: 1,721 automotive lots, more than 1,100 pieces of automobilia, and 10 charity lots. As is typical of all Barrett-Jackson sales, 99 percent of the lots, no matter the genera, are offered at no reserve, making…

May 3-5 Vicari Auction Nocona, Texas . . . . . . . . . . . . 504-264-2277 May 4-5 Vintage Torque Fest Car Show Dubuque, Iowa . . . . . . . . . . . . 563-588-1406 May 4-6 Lawrence Swap Meet Lawrence, Kansas . . . . . . . . . . 785-843-2222 May 4-6 Rhinebeck Swap Meet & Car Show Rhinebeck, New York . . . . . . . 845-876-3554 May 5 Wells Spring Car Show Wells, Maine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207-985-9287 May 6 Sumter Swap Meet Bushnell, Florida . . . . . . . . . . . 727-848-7171 May 10 Hemmings Cruise-In Bennington, Vermont . . . .…