Posted by Daniel Strohl - Studebaker Indy car at Mt. Washington Hillclimb. Photo by the author. Officially, nobody ever called it by such a derisive term. The cars built under its stipulations never won a race. Its reign only lasted half a dozen years. But the so-called "junk formula" that the Indianapolis Motor Speedway implemented during the 1930s brought with it some of the most memorable racing the speedway had ever seen, one reason the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance created a class just for junk formula cars. By the time Indy dr... Read On>> 
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1940 Willys coupe Posted by Daniel Strohl - Yes, we know, plenty of folks are itching to turn this 1940 Willys coupe for sale on Hemmings.com into a gasser, just add fiberglass body and go. But the cowl-forward condition it's in now - similar to how many cars were delivered to coachbuilders at one time - opens the door to much more creative directions: fastback, roadster pickup, proto-Jeep, boattail, you name it. What sort of body would you put on it? From the seller's description: Nothing else is available unless shown in the photos or listed here. Complete... Read On>>
Lime Rock Historic Festival Adds "Tin Top" Class Posted by Terry Shea - Images from 2012 Watkins Glen SVRA Vintage Grand Prix. All photos by the author. Saloon racing is the European equivalent of our stock car racing, though they make just as many right turns as left ones, too. Often called touring cars, these popular sedan racers (of the two- and four-door variety) have featured exciting, close-quarter action for decades. Lime Rock Park recently announced that it will be including a "Tin Top" class for its upcoming 34th annual Historic Festival, scheduled for September 1-5, 2016. ... Read On>>
Honda launches "Serial One," an ongoing documentary on the restoration of the first U.S. N600 Posted by Kurt Ernst - Photo by Jeff Koch. In 1969, Honda introduced its first U.S. market automobile, the N600 sedan. Developed from the Japanese market N360, the N600 underwent an extensive testing program in the United States prior to release. In 1967, 50 N600s were assembled and shipped here for evaluation, including serial number N600-1000001, the very first Honda automobile imported into America. Now owned by Honda specialist Tim Mings, the historically significant car is undergoing a full restoration, documented on the website S... Read On>>
SCTA returns to Mojave for mile-long event Posted by Daniel Strohl - Photo courtesy SCTA. It's too early to tell whether the Southern California Timing Association will get the chance to head back to Bonneville this year, but it has at least been able to secure a return to the Mojave Air and Space Port for a bit of early season land-speed racing next month. After SCTA officials canceled Speed Week last year, they quickly arranged an alternative event at Mojave, the site of the biannual Mojave Mile speed trials. Though nowhere near as long as Bonneville's courses, which start at... Read On>>
Nevada, 1980s Posted by Daniel Strohl - While on the hunt for photos of his first Buick Apollo, Joe Essid came across a photo he thought would be of interest to our carspotters. The photo is captioned only with "MGM Grand Hotel, Nevada, Oct. 1980" by his mother (that's his father, Big Joe, in the foreground); Joe believes it could have been taken in Reno. "Dad was a very talented card player, but he reported that he lost all the money in Reno that he made in Lake Tahoe," Joe said. "Dealers at the Blackjack table were simply that much better." What do you ... Read On>>
This Day in Automotive History | 3/18/1858: | Rudolf Diesel born, Paris, France | | 3/18/1927: | Sir Henry Seagrave breaks 200-mph barrier | | 3/18/1933: | Studebaker goes into receivership. |
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Week in Review Thursday, March 17, 2016 Govt. researcher: EPA had never permitted, prohibited race car conversions Posted by Daniel Strohl - Still from House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology video. In a hearing on the recently introduced bill crafted to exempt competition vehicles from the Clean Air Act, a government researcher called to testify noted that the issue boils down to a "difference in interpretation" between the Environmental Protection Agency and the Specialty Equipment Market Association and that, before last year, the EPA had never explicitly addressed the concept of race cars built from street cars. Brent Yacobucci, an en... Read On>>
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1972 AMC Javelin SST Posted by Daniel Strohl - A great candidate for a rolling restoration or a driveable dream, this 1972 AMC Javelin SST for sale on Hemmings.com falls somewhere on the spectrum in between gnarly AMX and basic six-cylinder around-town car. The best thing about it, though, is that it had an AMC lover taking care of it for a few decades and it runs and drives after coming out of a years-long hibernation. From the seller's description: Family selling this classic car as my father just passed away. Hasn't been driven in approx. 15 years, until the... Read On>>
Collector car bargains cross the block in Kansas City Posted by Kurt Ernst - 1977 Chevrolet Camaro Z28. Photos courtesy Mecum Auctions. Last weekend, Jerry Seinfeld's Porsche and Volkswagen collection made headlines when 16 (of 17) cars offered at auction in Amelia Island sold for a total of $22 million. At the same time, a very different automobile auction was being held by Mecum in Kansas City, and while the most expensive car still traded hands for $210,000, the bulk of the cars offered were priced within the realm of affordability for collectors of more modest means. 1979 Vol... Read On>>
Peter Lyons offers an insider's look at "How Japanese Cars Changed the World" Posted by Kurt Ernst - 1958 Toyota Toyopet Crown, in left-hand drive. Photo courtesy Toyota Motor Corporation. When the first Toyota Toyopet Crowns landed on the docks in Los Angeles in the late summer of 1957, no one on hand realized they were watching history unfold. Six decades later, Japanese automakers are well entrenched in the U.S. market, with Toyota, Honda, Subaru and Nissan (and formerly, Mazda and Mitsubishi) all currently operating manufacturing plants on U.S. soil. The reach of the Japanese auto industry goes well beyond t... Read On>>
The Sceptre, the Cruiser, and Brooks Stevens's radical plan to save Studebaker Posted by Daniel Strohl - Photos and images courtesy Milwaukee Art Museum. By 1963, Studebaker as a carmaker had run out of options. Bleeding cash, facing stiff competition, and with no new products in the pipeline, the only question observers asked was when - not if - the company would shut down its auto plants. But Brooks Stevens believed he could turn it all around and, in the process, redeem himself as a car designer. Stevens, then in his early 50s, had of late made an impression at Studebaker with restylings of both the Hawk and t... Read On>>
Lakewood, California, 1950s Posted by Daniel Strohl - While poking around for more on the Lakewood Center photo that appeared in a recent LA-centric carspotting post, we came across this one and had to believe we'd already used it; the colors and the packed parking lot are total gimmes for selecting carspotting photos around here. But a search through the carspotting archives didn't turn anything up, unless we'd previously misidentified the location, so let's have at it. What do you see here?... Read On>>
Wednesday, March 16, 2016 The Aguila has landed: Frank Kurtis's final road racing car finds a new home Posted by Kurt Ernst - 1962 Kurtis Aguila. All photos by Darin Schnabel, courtesy RM Sotheby's. By 1962, legendary builder Frank Kurtis was winding down his automotive business, but a request from Texas racer Herb Stelter seemed like one last shot at motorsport glory. Stelter wanted a car he could race fenderless in Formula 366 events, or with fenders in sports car classes, and the Kurtis Aguila (Spanish for "eagle") was born. Just three chassis were built, and only one was road raced; last Saturday, Stelter's former 1962 Kurtis Aguila... Read On>>
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1970 Datsun 510 Posted by Daniel Strohl - There's a little bit of work left to be done on this 1970 Datsun 510 for sale on Hemmings.com, but that's nothing compared to the restoration work the seller's already completed, from floor and rocker replacement to a head rebuild - pretty much everything necessary to turn it into a solid, running and straight car. From the seller's description: I bought the car 6 months ago and did everything needed to be a turn-key car. It has the original L16 with the Hitachi carb rebuilt, the original 4-speed and differential... Read On>>
Gary Hoonsbeen, authority on Curved Dash Oldsmobiles, dies at 77 Posted by Daniel Strohl - Photo courtesy Oldsmobile, via Steve Moskowitz. Driving a Curved Dash Oldsmobile across the country when it was new took skill, mechanical aptitude and courage. Driving a Curved Dash Oldsmobile across the country in more recent years still took skill, mechanical aptitude and courage, and one of the few living men qualified for that task, Gary Hoonsbeen, died last week at the age of 77. Born in Black River Falls, Wisconsin, Hoonsbeen began tinkering with old cars at the age of 14, though not with the antiques w... Read On>>
Open Diff: When are parts just parts? Posted by Kurt Ernst - Pandora, my 2000 BMW R1100R. Photo by author. Spring came early to Vermont this year, and with 60-degree temps in the forecast, I opted to wake Pandora, the name I've taken to calling my oft-troublesome 2000 BMW R1100R, from her winter slumber. Thanks to the use of a smart charger, the battery was up to the task, but the lumpy idle reminded me I should have been more careful about draining the fuel in the tank last fall. With a fuel-filter change and throttle body synch already on my "to-do" list, I wasn't partic... Read On>>
Volkswagen marks six decades of building buses in Hannover Posted by Kurt Ernst - The Hannover plant in 1959. Photos courtesy Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. On March 5, 1955, Volkswagen broke ground on a new factory in Hannover-Stoecken, Germany, and just over one year later, on March 8, 1956, the first Hannover-built Type 2 Transporter rolled off the assembly line. Sixty years later, on March 9, 2016, the Historical Museum of Hannover debuted a new exhibit entitled The Bulli builders, which commemorates both the Volkswagen van and its lasting impact on the regional economy. Building t... Read On>>
South Charleston, West Virginia, 1973 Posted by Daniel Strohl - Like many photos taken for EPA's Documerica series, this one of South Charleston's downtown area - specifically Seventh Street, looking east, which we came across on Jim and Chester's Garage - uses a loooong lens to juxtapose a thriving downtown with, likely, the reason for that downtown's fortune: a now-demolished heavy-polluting industrial plant located along what is now known as Brownfield Way. What do you see here?... Read On>>
Tuesday, March 15, 2016 Concept Styling: A pair of prototypes are scheduled to attend the 2016 Hemmings Motor News Concours dElegance Posted by Matt Litwin - 1958 Dual-Ghia 400 Coupe prototype; image courtesy of Fred Kanter. Whether you want to believe it or not, the Fifties and early Sixties were a mystical era of automotive design. The sights and sounds of multiple science fiction mediums were quickly being thrust into reality by the brightest engineers, who were heeding the needs of the nation's leaders to stay one step ahead of our neighbors. It was the rocket age, and while flying cars were still dreamy schematics and movie magic, that future-is-now influence was be... Read On>>
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS 454 Posted by Kurt Ernst - A while back, we ran a piece on the 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo sale brochure, and it generated a surprising amount of discussion. Much of it was centered on the highest-performance variant, the Monte Carlo SS, which, in 1970, came equipped with a 454-cu.in. V-8 that produced 360 horsepower and 500 pound-feet of torque. If you missed your chance to own one back in the day, or if you wish you had another, this 1970 Monte Carlo SS 454, for sale on Hemmings.com, may be the car you've been waiting for. Said to be a ... Read On>>
One of four built, 1953 Muntz roadster jets to $205,000 sale at Amelia Island Posted by Kurt Ernst - 1953 Muntz Jet roadster. Photos by Brian Henniker, courtesy Gooding & Company, unless otherwise noted. Earl "Madman" Muntz was renowned as a used-car and cheap-television pitchman, but even his salesmanship couldn't change the fate of his Muntz Jet convertibles and roadsters. Built from 1951 until 1954, somewhere between 394 (Muntz's own claim) and 198 (today's generally accepted number) examples were produced, but of these, only four were true to Frank Kurtis's original two-seat, short-wheelbase roadster d... Read On>>
2016 Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance - The 21st year of concours greatness Posted by Richard Lentinello - The powerful, innovative and very fast Corvettes built and raced by John Greenwood were given the honor that they have long deserved. There were seven Greenwood Corvettes on display. Photos by author. "Amelia," as it is so lovingly referred to, is one of those rare automotive events that, after you attend the first time, you will want to come back to every year thereafter. To the cognoscenti, it's as important and enjoyable as Hershey and Pebble Beach, but a bit more relaxing. Everyone is so friendly and approach... Read On>>
Not worth keeping around to restore: the "murder AMX" Posted by Hemmings contributor - I don't know how many of you believe in ghosts, or care, but sometimes there is a story worth telling. This '73 AMX Pierre Cardin is known as "the murder AMX," as its owner was killed in a garage, body dumped in the car and thrown in the bayou. Three guys were convicted of the murder in Harris County, Texas. I owned it in the late 1980s and bought it from the widow. It has several big caliber bullet holes in it. When I got it home, I was freaked out by the car, which smelled of blood. I sold it 1-1/2 hours after... Read On>>
Hartford, Connecticut, 1950s and 1960s Posted by Daniel Strohl - The location for all four of today's carspotting photos: Hartford's Main Street, conveniently given away by the presence of the Crown Theater, which we've seen before in the photos supplied to us by Joe Sokola, and Dailey's Super Market, which resided across the street from the theater. The dates: a little more difficult to pinpoint. Typically, movie theater marquees offer some help, but in the photo below, we can only presume the version of The Last Days of Pompeii playing at the Crown is the Sergio Leone version, ... Read On>>
Monday, March 14, 2016 1952 Pegaso Z-102 Cupola takes Best in Show Concours de Sport at Amelia Island Posted by Kurt Ernst - 1952 Pegaso Z-102 Cupola. Photos by Richard Lentinello, unless otherwise indicated. Best known for producing trucks and buses, Spanish automaker Pegaso also built high-end sports cars from 1951-'58. The exact quantity produced (believed to be 80) remains something of a mystery, but only two "Cupola" models, with a distinctive and oversize rear window, side exhausts and partially skirted fenders, were ever built. Of these, chassis 0102 150 0121, a car first shown at the 1953 New York Motor Show, is the sole surviv... Read On>>
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1941 Ford Mechanix Illustrated Special Posted by Daniel Strohl - Who knows how many backyard tinkerers built MI Specials from the plans distributed by Mechanix Illustrated and old used Fords, but it's always neat to see another one turn up, mostly for the little variations that came from all the myriad interpretations of the plans. True DIY aesthetic at work here. This 1941 Ford Mechanix Illustrated Special for sale on Hemmings.com apparently needs only a windshield to hit the road. From the seller's description: This is an original MI sportster as originated from the 1951 Mec... Read On>>
Perhaps the world's first hybrid, an 1896 Armstrong sells for $483,400 at Amelia Island Posted by Kurt Ernst - Ask fair-weather enthusiasts to name the first hybrid automobile, and the answer is likely to be the Toyota Prius, which debuted in the Japanese market in 1997, or the Honda Insight, which hit the market in 1999. Those with a broader automotive knowledge may cite the 1901 Lohner-Porsche Semper Vivus, but the 1896 Armstrong phaeton hybrid, which sold for a fee-inclusive price of $483,400 at the Bonhams Amelia Island sale on Thursday, March 10, predates the Semper Vivus by approximately five years. Harry E. Dey... Read On>>
Chattanooga Cruise-In set for April 2 Posted by Mike McNessor - An aerial view of the event. Photos by Tommy Lee Byrd. Tennesee's Chattanooga Cruise-In started out several years back as an informal open house at Coker Tire headquarters and Honest Charley Speed Shop, but has grown into a full-fledged scene, drawing upwards of 1,500 cars and 10,000 spectators. Any Hemi-powered Mopar convertible will be a crowd draw, and this '66 Dodge Coronet convertible that attended the 2014 event was an exceptionally nice example. Kevin Gill brought out a very special Model A... Read On>>
The Lady is a Champ: Indy Racer Lyn St. James drives a classic Italian GTO and talks about her past and present endeavors Posted by Hemmings contributor - By William Hall. Photos by the author and Tom Heinrich. Lyn St. James climbs into the cramped cockpit of the 1964 Alfa Romeo TZ 1 and takes a few moments to familiarize herself with the instruments and switches. She wants to know everything; she explains that her learning process is visual as she methodically programs herself for driving. We are only going for an hour-long spin on desert roads in this borrowed race car, but the preparation is the same as if she were back on the grid at the Indy 500. Of all the... Read On>>
Las Vegas, 1950s Posted by Daniel Strohl - Could've sworn we've already run this photo of Las Vegas's Fremont Street, submitted to us by Facebook reader Nikos Kostopoulus, but it's not coming up in the searches, so let's use it to cap off this week of contributed carspotting pictures. The location's pretty easy to determine - by now we should all know Fremont Street in the Fifties like the back of our hands, right? - so let's focus on the date. What do you see here?... Read On>>
Sunday, March 13, 2016 Four-Links - hybrid 'Bird, Batmobile copyright upheld, City of Salt Lake, slammed 600s Posted by Daniel Strohl - There's no mystery to cars, even modern hybrids: They're just metal, glass, plastic, and electronics, and they can be taken apart and put together in all sorts of ways, as we see from one man's effort to meld a wrecked Prius with a 1967 Pontiac Firebird that defied conventional restoration. * This week's Supreme Court decision to not hear a case concerning the Batmobile means that the famed car is subject to copyright, which means that any replicas have to be licensed through DC Comics. * While the tal... Read On>>
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1968 Ford Country Squire Posted by Daniel Strohl - Never fear, Northeasterners and Rust Belters: Despite the snowy backdrop for the photos of this 1968 Ford Country Squire for sale on Hemmings.com, it hasn't been driven in the snow in at least 34 years and only has a spot of rust to contend with. Of course, one big reason it hasn't been driven in the snow for 34 years is because it hasn't run in that long and would need some underhood attention to return to the road. From the seller's description: I bought the car from the original owner in 2015. 99.999 percent rus... Read On>>
Hemmings Sunday Cinema - 1959 Chrysler lineup, Audi unintended acceleration cleanup, The Stone Killer Posted by Daniel Strohl - As Mac's Motor City Garage wrote this week, 1958's "An Evening With Fred Astaire" was the first television program recorded on color videotape, a feat made possible in part by sponsorship by Chrysler, which took the opportunity to introduce its full lineup of 1959 model year cars. * Anybody who recalls the Audi unintended acceleration scandal of the Eighties is probably amazed the brand was able to bounce back at all. These PR cleanup-duty videos that Tamerlane dug up this week show part of Audi's effort to keep ... Read On>>
Hemmings Find of the Day - 1990 Buick Reatta convertible Posted by Kurt Ernst - Buick's limited-production, two-year only Reatta convertible always struck us as a car that should be more popular than it is among collectors. Though styling is subjective, it's certainly not a bad-looking car, and being a Buick, its ride is comfortable, if not particularly sporting. Yes, Reatta coupes and convertibles had a few issues early on, but by now those have long since been sorted by previous owners. Take this 1990 Reatta convertible, for sale on Hemmings.com, by way of example. One of the 2,132 drop-top m... Read On>>
LAST WEEK'S MOST READFaster than a Corvette? GMC's Syclone sport truck celebrates a quarter-century Posted by Daniel Strohl - Photos by Jeff Koch. Over the years, as the rumors go, plenty of GM-built performance vehicles either got spiked, squashed, detuned, or hush-hushed to protect the Corvette's reputation as the prime speed machine in the General's lineup. Only one of those, however, supposedly, as some say, came from truck brand GMC, the 1991 Syclone, which this year joins the list of small-c classics on its 25th anniversary. While the compact GMC S-15 dated back to 1982, it exhibited about zero difference whatsoever from its co... Read On>>
LAST WEEK'S BEST DISCUSSIONNew bill aims to place competition vehicles out of EPA's reach Posted by Daniel Strohl - Photo by Steve Berry. Claiming that the Environmental Protection Agency's pending race car ruling poses a restriction on personal freedom, four Congressmen this week introduced a bill intended to thwart the EPA's oversight on competition vehicles by specifically excluding them from the Clean Air Act. House Resolution 4715, also known as the Recognizing the Protection of Motorsports Act of 2016, specifically aims to remove race cars from the Clean Air Act's definition of "motor vehicle" and to exclude "any vehi... Read On>> |
