Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2017 i Classic American

The annual Romsey Boxing Day Cruise has become something of a fixture on the American automotive calendar in recent years. It’s a free, (non-profit making) event, for both vehicle owners and the public, but with a charity collection. It’s raised more than £27,000 for various charities over the last 15 years and just over £23,000 for Prostate Cancer UK, who they will again be collecting for this year. Organiser Steve Biddlecombe said “Once again, we have been kindly sponsored by Classic American advertiser Adrian Flux specialist car insurers who have supported the event for some years now and the aim, as always, is for the event to simply be a fun get-together for classic car and bike enthusiasts and the public. “Due to the staggering attendance of 600-plus motors and…

In the old car hobby, there are many of us that want to find that special ‘deal.’ The gem of a car we picked up for a song. Given that these days, the big collector car auctions have caused some vehicles to reach stratospheric prices, fuelled by international TV exposure and an atmosphere that tends to encourage bidding wars, the great thing about old American iron (and the classic car hobby in general) is that there is still something to suit every taste and budget. Okay, so blue chip cars like Tri-Five Chevys, ’59 Cadillacs, 1965-70 Shelby Mustangs, ’69 Camaros and ’70 Chevelles are always hot commodities; but there are plenty of alternatives out there. Add the fact that North America is so vast and Detroit built so many cars…

Classic American gets its Stars and Stripes! It’s the colour – that’s what most people seem to remark on. It’s called Saddle Tan and on a less glamorous car you might dismiss it as beige, but there’s quite a lot of metallic sparkle in there that brings it closer to bronze. It’s an unusual sight on any sports or GT car of the period; red and silver account for most ’63 Corvettes and likewise for many of the Astons, Jaguars and Ferraris around at the same time. But if you’ve ever seen Steve McQueen’s Ferrari 250 Lusso in that lovely chestnut colour called Marrone Metallizzato you’ll know how good some of the more subtle shades can look. The same is true here. David van Haaren did indeed choose this car…

US Automotive is the largest distributor of replacement American auto parts for cars and light trucks in the United Kingdom. Lynn Marshall, Pete Stafford and Steve Trice opened the business in June 1997. Their first task was cleaning and hand painting the 10,000 square foot ex-parcel depot building in Bedford, the next was filling it with hundreds of metres of racks and shelving. “We had all worked together previously and got along well,” remembers Lynn, US Automotive’s company secretary, “and with our combined knowledge we had the expertise we needed. We shipped in two 40ft containers of spare parts, took out advertising in Classic American and visited shows such as Billing and Old Warden. Around that time there were other similar companies starting up, so right from day one we…

As we all know, the weather has a vital part to play in the success of events in this country and sometimes just the threat of bad weather is enough to put people off… and this was almost certainly the case at this year’s Prescott Autumn Classic. In previous years this event, held in late September, has enjoyed beautiful gin clear skies and crisp, cool sunshine. This year it was not to be and the forecast was worse than what actually transpired; however, it was enough to put a lot of people off, even those that had pre-booked to attend with their American cars. It’s perhaps not surprising really; as a community, most American car owners are very fastidious about keeping their pride and joy immaculate and it only takes…

If you’re a regular reader of this column, you may recall our comments on this year’s Hot Rod Hayride and its move to Headcorn Airfield. It would seem that the Hayride management either felt the same way about the site’s shortcomings as we did, or else took note of the general feedback going around afterwards. Either way, the unfortunate news is that the Hayride as we know it is no more, as it will now be incorporated into the Atomic Festival at Sywell Aerodrome for 2018 and for the foreseeable future, and we can’t say we are surprised. While it is already being touted as a great amalgamation of the two events by bringing features of the Hayride to Atomic, we feel it is the established fans of the Atomic…

With the spectre of redevelopment plans hanging over Shakespeare County Raceway for the last few years, the announcement earlier this year that 2017 would be the last year of the Hot Rod Drags meant that many racers and rodders (including us) took the opportunity to head to Shakey for what might be the last chance to run on the strip, making it an absolutely packed weekend. Heavy showers made strip time a hit-andmiss affair, with long queues building up from the fire-up road, right back to the top of the pits, but with only a couple of oil downs, everyone got their chance. But was it the last one? Nobody seems to know, even SCR themselves, and with rumours of possible delays for the developers, both legal and practical, there…

The company behind some of the UK’s best-loved classic car shows, Cheshire Auto Promotions, is delighted to announce that after two years of working with events organiser Mortons Media Group, it has sold its business to the Lincolnshire-based firm, publisher of Classic American. The three car shows, Stars & Stripes, Classic & Performance Car and Passion for Power, held at Tatton Park, Knutsford, near Manchester, will pass over to the Mortons events team with immediate effect, ready for the 2018 season. The shows were started by longtime car enthusiasts and friends Edgar Milner and Stuart Holmes and have been a labour of love for the duo over the last 30 years. Fromhumble beginnings in 1987, they have developed the shows into three of the biggest events of their kind in…

Magnaflow, the industry leader in catalytic converters and performance exhaust systems, unveiled a Chip Foose-built ’32 Ford hot rod at the 2017 SEMA Show in Las Vegas. Chip’s latest creation features a period-correct supercharger mated to a Flathead Ford engine, pushing exhaust gases through a set of custom 180-degree Magnaflow headers. Honeywell Garrett twin-turbo ’64 Dodge Polara on show Over on the Honeywell Garrett (global leaders in performance turbochargers) stand, they unveiled a unique 1964 Dodge Polara built for fabricator and bike builder Jesse James. Honeywell Garrett teamed up with the Roadster Shop to create a twin-turbocharged, Hemi-powered Polara featuring custom Forgeline monoblock wheels and Nitto NT05R tyres sitting on a custom Roadster Shop Fast Track chassis. WHERE’RE THE CRUISES?! If you’re wondering what’s happened to Classic American’s cruise section,…

Hello, and welcome to another column aimed at the muscle car enthusiast. This month is an open discussion regarding the Government’s decision to exempt any vehicle over 40 years old from taking the Ministry of Transport test (MoT). For a few years up to now, pre-1960 vehicles have been exempt from the MoT. I feel that this course of action is correct for cars and motorbikes of this era. But, for the Ministry of Transport to push back the date of manufacture with MoTs not being required to a rolling 40-year figure is quite something. From May 20, 2018 most 40-year-old vehicles will not need a valid MoT certificate to be used on public roads. However you still need to keep the vehicle in a roadworthy condition and can voluntarily…

Plexiglas was first commercialised in the late Thirties and General Motors, through their Pontiac Division, decided to use the innovative new technology to showcase their new production car for 1939 at the New York World’s Fair. It was a Deluxe Six four-door touring sedan. It is believed that two or possibly three were actually built for the 1939-1940 model years. Using transparent body panels on an otherwise production car provided a unique see-through ‘X-ray’ appearance, and, with this new form of plastic never having been seen before by consumers, viewing this vehicle at the Highways and Horizons pavilion was certainly something to be remembered by all those who saw it. It also made its way into the pages of National Geographic and Popular Mechanics magazines; however, seeing it in person…

This year’s Car of the Year competition has run from April to October, with a total of eight heats. The final heat was held at Prescott and despite the ‘mixed bag’ weather, Laura and Ross Meek drove her stunning 1967 Ford Mustang fastback down from Nottingham. This beautiful pony car boasts a big-block S-code 390 motor, four-speed top loader gearbox and Equa-lock diff. The original buyer opted to delete the rear fold-down seat, but did select power-steering, tinted glass and an AM radio. The car appears to have been ordered new in Nebraska, staying with its original owner through college and into the Eighties, ultimately being taken off the road and stored for 10 years, before being restored and coming to these shores in 2003. The contest winner was revealed at…

Looking forward to next year, the Vintage Hot Rod Association, ever on the ball, have announced the dates for their events for 2018, kicking off with the Vintage Nationals, once again at Santa Pod Raceway on the weekend of May 5-6. At the end of the following month is the sixth running of the increasingly popular Amateur Hot Rod races at Pendine Sands; June 30-July 1are the dates for that one. Then a month later, the VHRA will once again be hosting the strip action at the Atomic Festival, already mentioned elsewhere on this page. Finally, their members-only event, GOW!, follows over the August Bank Holiday weekend. The club will also be attending plenty of other events over the year, so if you see them, go over and have a…

Making its debut race appearance at this year’s Goodwood Revival was a huge white NASCAR-inspired 1959 Ford Thunderbird owned by good ole boy ‘Billy Bob Shepherd’ and raced by him and hot shoe ‘Tommy Lee Kristensen’. Well that’s what was written on the roof. We are of course referring to well-known Mustang dealer and historic racer Bill Shepherd and nine-time Le Mans 24 Hours winner Tom Kristensen, who was keen to enter into the spirit of the occasion. The car is a replica (almost) of that raced by John Beauchamp in the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500 – and what a story that was. NASCAR was formed in 1947 and had gone from strength to strength under the leadership of 6ft 5in ‘Big’ Bill France, who had been organising the racing…

Obscurity and Peter Stengel went hand in hand. According to the man himself, he was a car designer and coach-builder, but his resume was a slender one. Strictly speaking, his name appeared often in the motoring media from the Forties to as recently as the early Nineties but, as far as we can ascertain, most of his designs existed only on paper. This is one of the rare exceptions, and even then it was built by British craftsmen. Stengel’s background is shrouded in mystery. According to some sources, he was the heir to a banking fortune. His first car design, or rather the first to be built, was a fabulous two-door Mercury coupé with a removable roof section. It was built by legendary customisers, Coachcraft Ltd, in 1941. While Stengel…

Anyone who visits the Goodwood Revival in a vehicle that’s included in the rolling 40-year tax exemption should apply to park in the Revival Car Show field. Not only are you right next to the entrance, you soon find yourself surrounded by more than a thousand classics of all origins, styles and values. American vehicles are always well represented, indeed it seemed as though there was at least one 1964-’70 Ford Mustang in every row. The boggy conditions didn’t seem to cause serious bother, but they did give a mud-spattered look to some otherwise glamorous cars. Every visitor should take time to wander through the car park, where it’s impossible to avoid a game of ‘pick a favourite’. Here are some of ours. 1958 Cadillac Coupe de Ville Snapped as…

It was 60 years ago – on Monday, September 4, 1957 – that the Edsel was finally unveiled to the public. Sixty years since that famous car began its almost immediate descent into the history books as a black mark on the Ford Motor Company’s name. Infamous as the car may be, today it has a dedicated fan base. And while those in the UK who cherish Ford’s famous ‘E’ car weren’t able to celebrate together on the day, there were plenty of Edsels to be seen earlier this year in what was once again the country’s largest gathering in recent years. The so-called Hot Rod Picnic, one of the country’s most exclusive car meets, had its third iteration in July, and many readers will recall last year’s gathering, which…

Kind weather conditions – sunny spells with no rain – made what is for some classic car owners the last show of the season a good one. The annual Sywell Classic Pistons and Props show, held at Sywell Aerodrome, Northamptonshire, and sponsored by Footman James, is less prop than piston compared with previous years, but it still has visiting aircraft flyovers, as well as the regular displays from the Blades Aerial Display Team, the Breitling Wingwalkers and the Yakovlevs. At £22 entry fee for adults (with or without a classic car) and £10 for children it can prove to be an expensive day out, but the show does offer a great deal for all ages, and variety is the watchword. The vintage theme is still strong here, with numerous vintage…

Vendor: Tony Rudd, Felsted, Essex Telephone: 07816 878892 Price: £14,995 This month we’re featuring an extremely sound, solid and original Corvette C3, one that hasn’t been mullered at all. Indeed, this C3 is remarkably original in almost every respect, which for a 40-year-old car is becoming rare. Not much of the C3’s history is known other than it has had one previous owner in the US and was imported to the UK from Michigan in May 2017. The white paintwork is in excellent condition. There are one or two minor blemishes and a minuscule area of crow’s feet just behind the driver’s door, but the paint is very solid, no signs of blistering or flaking anywhere and definitely no remedial work required. The previous owner in the US has had…