Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2017 i Classic American

Summer’s over… apparently. It’s not the first time I’ve been left thinking: “Wow, was that it?!” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, despite being cooler, I think we get nicer weather here in the UK now in September and October than what are traditionally considered to be summer months and as we all know, our beloved old American cars love gulping up that lovely, fresh cool air and run beautifully in these cooler climes. This month’s magazine reflects how many shows take place in July now – in fact I seemed to have spent just about every weekend in July at shows and events up and down the country. I’m not a big fan of running show coverage several months after it’s occurred, hence the glut of…

Once upon a time, full-size cars ruled North American roadways. They were the bread and butter of sales for Detroit automakers and every brand or division had at least one fullsize model in its roster –even economy-minded American Motors. And why not? They were the perfect machine for cruising America’s interstate highway system, they had room for six or more, glided along on soft suspension and offered lazy endless torque from a range of V8 engines under the hood. Full-size cars in many cases represented half if not more of each brand’s entire sales volume during the Sixties and Seventies. In fact, the Chevrolet Impala holds the record for singleyear sales volume of a single model – more than one million units! Today, however, things are quite different. Full-size cars…

1959 Pontiac Bonneville “What is it?” I looked around, no one there. A second time, now more insistent. “What is it?” I looked down. A serious-looking five-yearold stared back at me. “Oh sorry, didn’t see you down there. What do you think it is?” Visibly irritated by this needless prevarication, he replied: “Is it a car?” “Yes, it’s a car.” “It doesn’t look like a car.” “What does it look like?” No answer. Instead, he set off on a slow walk, 18ft 4in down one side, 6ft 7in across the end and the same around the other side till he ended up back where he’d started. Like a Pebble Beach judge that had shrunk in the wash, he took a deep breath and made his final pronouncement... “It looks like…

North Weald, Essex July 23, 2017 Last year’s 25-year anniversary celebration of the Damn Yankees and their Summer Slam show, which was blessed with balmy sunshine, was always going to be a hard act to follow. And true to form the British weather was, at best, unpredictable and unsettled in the run-up to the event. Luckily for chairman Gary Hall, it seemed a lot of punters decided to brave the forecast and turn up – at least for the morning, if nothing else. The day started bright, sunny and sure enough plenty of cars rolled on in. As in previous years, John Price’s (or ‘the voice of Santa Pod’ as he’s also known) dulcet tones were heard across the PA system as punters trickled in, parked up and pottered about,…

Santa Pod Raceway, Northamptonshire July 14-16, 2017 After June’s blistering heatwave, the weather had turned a tad more unsettled by the time Dragstalgia rolled around again in mid-July. This now-established nostalgia festival of UK straight-line racing at Santa Pod has, for many, become one of the most eagerly awaited dates of the year, and a few summer showers weren’t going to deter racers, or spectators, from having a good time. The action started at midday on Friday, (which, as it turned out, was the driest day of the weekend), and the fire-up road was soon full of muscle cars, hot rods and competition cars, all anxious to test the strip conditions for the weekend and dial their cars in accordingly. Drag racing by nature always fields a wide and wild…

Among classic Ford Mustangs, the 1965 Shelby GT350R must surely rank as one of the most desirable. Just 36 true examples were ever built, meaning that only a select few have had the chance to own and enjoy one. Today however, that is changing. Original Shelby group members Peter Brock, Jim Marietta and Ted Sutton have come together, forming a company known as the Original Venice Crew (OVC). The name, which pays homage to Shelby American’s days at the Venice, California workshops where early cars were built, is being put behind a series of 36 continuation Shelby GT350Rs, built from original 1965 Mustang shells with the full blessing of both Carroll Shelby International and the Ford Motor Company. Each of the cars will feature a competitionprepped iron-block V-8 (the standard…

One car that really caught my attention at the Mopar EuroNats this year was a 1969 Mustang, as it appeared to be a righthand- drive model which immediately flagged up ‘interesting’ in my brain. So I tracked down the owner, who gave me a full explanation of the fascinating story behind this Ford. Ritchie Penn from Royston, Hertfordshire is the eighth keeper of this beautiful Mustang which was first registered in London with a 1972 number plate, hence the ‘K’ suffix letter, although the car came to the UK in July 1969 having been built at the Ford assembly plant at Newark, New Jersey, US. There are rumours that this Mustang actually appeared on the Ford stand at the 1969 Earls Court Motor Show in London (although this is yet…

When we met the proprietors of Iconic Creations at a car show, they made us feel old. As middle-aged men, we’re used to finding fellow enthusiasts of a similar age and older. But discovering guys in their mid-twenties with a busy and successful classic car business was unusual, to say the least. Ben Pearce and Aaron Percy met four years ago through their respective partners. Ben worked in property, negotiating and managing the build of new houses for a large firm. Aaron did his apprenticeship with the North American Motor Company in Farnborough at 18 and later moved to a hot-rod specialist in Chichester. A couple of years later they decided to go into business together and they’re now rapidly building an empire: they’ve continued an interest in property while…

Stansted Park, near Portsmouth July 21-23, 2017 The scenic 1800 acres of Stansted Park near Portsmouth played host to the Victory Wheelers Rod and Custom Car Club as they celebrated their 40th anniversary in style. This was the club’s third year at Stansted, but previous events had been one-day affairs. This year was a three-day event with on-site camping, entertainment in a large marquee, traders and catering. On Friday evening rockabilly band Catballou got everybody in a party mood. Just as well, as Saturday was a wet and soggy drive out to Goodwood Motor Racing Circuit. Club chairman Mick Mears said: “That ended up with people needing paddles rather than engines.” The same evening, back at base camp, they celebrated the forming of the club with a ‘Back to 1977’…

Bedford, Bedfordshire June 2-4, 2017 This year’s Classic Corvette Nationals were held from June 2-4, and not at the usual location of Woodgreen at Godmanchester, but at the new location of the Sharnbrook Hotel, just outside Bedford on the A6. The hotel is the venue for many car shows throughout the year and owner Ciro Ciampi is a total petrolhead, and the man behind organising the shows. On arrival, I was thinking: “A hotel’s an unusual location for a car show,” but once you parked up and started walking about the site it became clear that it’s a perfect location. The 4.5-acre plot is plenty big enough to host hundreds of cars. The Corvette show was loosely arranged in model/year order running from the gorgeous C1s at the top of…

Baby Grand Jeep’s had quite a bit of success with the Renegade and has now launched the Compass as a serious foray into the lucrative and booming small SUV market. Readers that remember the previous generation Compass which was on sale from 2011 to 2015 will be pleased to hear that this is an altogether different beast, poles apart from the old Compass. Whereas the previous generation car aped the look of its elder sibling Grand Cherokee badly, the new Compass wears the Jeep family design well. Based on the smaller Jeep Renegade platform (which in turn is based on the Fiat 500X), the Compass is a few inches longer – 150mm to be precise – and offers more space than the Renegade in most areas, including the boot, which…

The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery, returns to Birmingham’s NEC for this year’s season finale from Friday to Sunday, November 10-12. The UK’s biggest and best celebration of the classic motoring community will see 2500 stunning classic cars and motorbikes on display. Around 250 of Britain’s best motoring clubs will showcase rare and exciting marques ranging from pre-war through to retro classics, American muscle cars to Japanese performance, European elegance to Great British sports cars and many more. Meguiar’s Club Showcase will once again crown the winner of this year’s search for the best of the best from the classic motoring club scene, with 16 finalists from various club events held throughout the year. The new Wheeler Dealers line-up of Mike Brewer and Ant Anstead will host the…

Dear Classic American, I thought you might be interested to learn about my grandson Vinnie, aged three. On the subject of the debate about ‘nature vs nurture’, I can promise you that this is definitely a case of nature… He is certainly not unusual in that he is a car-mad kid. But consider the fact that his parents are not; and the fact that he’s ‘all about American cars’ (as opposed to most-any other vehicle), this absolutely has to be in his DNA. Okay, his ‘gwangwad’ (granddad?) has an ‘Impala car and has a library of American car books and Classic American magazines. And okay, when he visits, he has to go to see the Chevy in the garage, (as well as watch numerous YouTube videos on Yank tanks). But…

If you believe all that you read, the internal combustion engine is facing extinction inside the next few decades. We will all be driving electric cars. The thing is, the US has been a hotbed of research into battery-powered vehicles since the Fifties, with the grandiosely named Electric Fuel Propulsion Company of Troy, Michigan, being to the fore since its inception in 1966. That said, while most electric cars have historically looked like upturned wheelie-bins, this enterprising firm took a rather different approach. The firm’s first product, the Electrosport, was trumpeted as being the first mass-produced electric car ever made (there are dozens of rivals for the title). It was, in essence, little more than a battery-powered AMC Hornet and, despite considerable press coverage in period, it failed to find…

Santa Pod Raceway, Northamptonshire July 28-30, 2017 The men of Mopar gathered once again for the annual Mopar EuroNationals held at Santa Pod Raceway, Northants over the last weekend of July – it’s a date now firmly cemented in any muscle car fan’s diary. Despite a gloomy forecast, as has been the trend for this summer’s shows, an excellent time was had by all as the rain stayed away during most of the daylight activities and then proceeded to chuck it down in the evenings – in fact the only casualty was the cancellation of the ‘Burn Out’ contest. The track opened at midday with the majority of cars running in the Top Sportsman qualifying rounds, although many of the run-what-youbrungers took advantage of a less busy drag strip, while…

Words: Tom Shaw Images: HR Syndication: Fox With all the ways we can sound off these days – online forums, YouTube, social networks, and so on – opinions are flying. And with the electronic buzz buzzing along at an all-time high, there’s plenty of discussion about muscle cars and their achievements on the dragstrip. Some of it is woo-hoo celebration. Some chatter has been dubious about the very quick ETs that the faster cars regularly run, primarily in the US at the Pure Stock Drags. “They didn’t run that fast when they were brand new,” is how the sceptical talk often goes. “How could they run faster now?” It’s a fair question, worth asking and answering. Old magazine tests are considered by many to be the gold standard of muscle…

2014 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Models of Jeeps are popular at the moment, with Greenlight Collectibles offering several, new and old. This 2014 1:43 scale Wrangler Unlimited reflects the more sophisticated, less utilitarian, modern approach to off-roaders. A long wheelbase four-door, with convertible rear roof, its Copperhead Pearl paint is smooth and evenly applied. It has transparent front and rear lights, a bumper-mounted winch, a deep water snorkel exiting the bonnet and a rear-mounted spare wheel. This has a prominent Jeep emblem. Detailing is limited to silver wheel nuts, sidelights and tow hitches. It’s attractively packaged and retails at £18.99. Return of the Sixties Surf Rods The Sixties were the golden years for show cars, as professional hot rod shops, amateur builders and model kit manufacturers alike competed to create the…

Malibu Vendor: Mike Webb, Kelvedon Hatch, near Brentwood, Essex Telephone: 07711 500276 Price: £22,995 Chevrolet Chevelles are not a particularly common sight on our shores, more’s the pity, as their muscular two-door coupe styling is very appealing, plus they offer plenty of interior space, not to mention some very useful boot space too. Our Drive-Buy Chevelle Malibu was supplied new to Cosmo Maggio in New York and was imported to the UK just over a year ago from West Virginia. First impressions are extremely good – the bodywork panel gaps are impressive and both doors shut with ease, not requiring a slam, just merely using finger and thumb. SPECIFICATION Engine: 350cu in V8 Power: 245bhp@4800rpm Torque: 350ft-lb@2800rpm Transmission: Three-speed automatic MoT: July 2018 Mileage: 79,475 Vendor Mike Webb has had…