Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2021 i Classic American

One of the nicest things about the past couple of months has been the sense of at least a partial return to normality, as Covid restrictions have relaxed. I never knew a haircut could be such a treasured experience… or going to the pub for that matter. Likewise, getting in one of my cars and being able to drop the top, put the car into Drive and head out for a random drive has been a real joy. Sunny days are here again and that will hopefully mean, for many of us, time behind the wheel or at car shows or just tinkering around with our four-wheeled friends. If anything, there should be a renewed appreciation of our American vehicles – classic or modern, as the past year and a…

It’s amazing what you can find for sale in Classic American’s private classifieds section. We spotted this 1962 Mercury Custom and had to investigate it further. We spoke to Ian Birks, who submitted the ad on behalf of his friend Ian O’Connor, and found out some more details from him: “Seen here are some ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures. Briefly it’s a 1962 Mercury Comet Custom two-door post car with a 140cu in/2.3-litre six-cylinder engine and manual ’box (effectively it’s the rarer Mercury Division version of the Ford Falcon). It was imported from California in 2011 and is UK registered (119 YUM) and has been barn stored since 2014 due to ill health, so the MoT has expired. “It will need recommissioning and some cosmetic attention but should run and drive…

I’ve been contributing to Classic American since 1999, when editor Ben Klemenzson decided to take a chance on an aspiring young writer with a passion for Detroit Iron. It’s fair to say that cars are in my blood. Some of my earliest recollections revolve around cars. I vaguely remember that when I was a little over two years old, regular shopping trips with my mother in Limassol, Cyprus, always involved sitting in a car park for half an hour at my insistence and every time we went anywhere, I was always paying attention to the cars I saw. Although my father was in the RAF and we were lucky enough to live in different places around the globe, I always remember that it was American cars that left the biggest…

The Ford Mustang is surely the number one, most evergreen example of the all-American car. From its Lee Iacocca-inspired inception on April 17, 1964, right up to its current nostalgia/retro look, the Mustang has always been with us. Whether you want a good-looking convertible, a sleek fastback or just a plain two-door sports coupe, the Mustang has always been able to accommodate (in fact there's a whole supplement dedicated to it this month). The Mustang created the ‘pony car’ class of American automobile with its sports car appearance, coupe models with long hoods and short trunks, performance-oriented engines and looks to die for. This new style inspired offerings from other manufacturers, including the Camaro, Javelin, Challenger and the third-generation Barracuda. These cars battled out the 1970 Trans-Am racing series on…

We have been busy at the garage over the past few months with lots of interesting problems to solve. We have had everything from Mustangs, Corvettes and even a ’32 Ford hot rod with an interesting electrical fault. Each time we are constantly learning and our team is building a reputation for quality workmanship. Workshop update We recently had a customer book his 1965 Mustang into the Carrot Town Garage workshop, as he was unable to drive the car above 50mph without it vibrating. He was struggling to find someone to diagnose it, having taken it to several other garages. Our classic car technicians test drove the car and sure enough a vibration hummed through the car like a wave at 50mph. Our initial thoughts were that it could be…

It was on February 20, 1954, and at the famed Detroit Auto Show, that the Mercury Monterey XM-800 Dream Car made its public debut. Promoted in factory literature as being low, long and clean, it was said to be an experimental model that featured many plausible and possible advantages for the not-too-distant future. The car was designed in 1952 (in the Mercury Pre-Production Studio) and at one time the early clay mock-up was called the Javelin prior to it being given the XM-800 identification. A major emphasis of the car’s appearance as designed was that of having a fresh, new and smooth-looking presentation, along with a low centre of gravity and futuristic overall styling. Because the car was created strictly as a show vehicle, the decision was made to construct…

SHOWS 2021 JUNE 20 BEAULIEU ROD & CUSTOM The south’s biggest hot rod and custom event features hundreds of cool, colourful, custom cars, live music and hip entertainment throughout the day! Hot rods, customs, American muscle, chops and bobbers will be among the hundreds of vehicles on display. You can expect a stunning display of American motors from local club sponsors, Solent Renegades. There will be a wide range of entertainment taking place throughout the weekend. Live music will feature throughout the day from The Bandits and Company B. The Vintage Pop-Up will be chock-a-block with a variety of high-quality vintage traders celebrating decades of all things vintage. It will be an opportunity to purchase unique items from the 1920s. Please note, the Vintage Pop-Up will be an outdoor trading…

Mustangs have proved to be the most popular of US muscle cars with UK thrill-seekers, according to new data. The research was conducted by leading driving experience provider DrivingExperience.com, which allows petrolheads to get behind the wheel of a range of American V8s. Mustangs are the most popular American muscle car for Brits to drive, with the iconic pony car making up a third of all the company’s muscle car bookings – despite there being a wide range of other American vehicles available, including Corvettes, Camaros, Torinos, Dodge Chargers and KITT and Smokey and the Bandit Trans Ams. Indeed, the company’s Ultimate Mustang Experience with Hot Lap, which lets petrolheads drive three awesome V8-powered Mustangs – such as a 1965 Shelby Mustang GT350, a 2005 Ford Mustang GT500 and an…

Its shape is instantly recognised the world over. Few cars are as coveted or as celebrated as Ford’s original Mustang. It’s been featured on everything from postage stamps, to artwork, to clothing and furniture. Today, Ford’s design team continues to draw inspiration from the crisp original design first penned by Joe Oros, L David Ash and Gale Halderman and a Mustang arguably wouldn’t be a Mustang without the gaping grille, twin-cowl dash treatment and signature triple tail-light lenses. But how do the original and late-model versions of Ford’s iconic pony car stack up against each other? For those who are lucky enough, a chance to either own and/or drive the first and latest versions of the Mustang back to back presents the ideal opportunity, but for those of us who…

The clocks are ticking to Classic American’s very own show, Stars & Stripes, held over the weekend of July 3 and 4 in the beautiful grounds of Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire. Now in its fourth year under the management/ ownership of Classic American’s parent company Mortons, Stars & Stripes has become a must-attend event for any American car enthusiast in the UK and is easily reached by motorway from all over Britain. As in previous years, attractions include just about every type of American vehicle imaginable, from pick-ups to hot rods, customs, military vehicles, big rigs, Harley-Davidsons… even Airstreams and amazing American motorhomes. There’ll also be traders aplenty, including some familiar names from the pages of Classic American, including North Hants Tyres, Farm Fresh Trucks and Gliptone leather care, so…

UK fans of the popular Discovery Network show Fast ’n’ Loud will be able to see the head ‘Gas Monkey’ himself, Richard Rawlings, in the flesh when he attends the Petrolheadonism LIVE show this September. A new car show to add to everybody’s calendar, Petrolheadonism LIVE is the brainchild of Italian-Englishman Ciro Ciampi from Bedfordshire, and Rawlings is coming over to add some star power to what promises to be a top-end show. “With more than 1000 cars on display from Supercars to classics, Americans to the highly modified and the ‘interesting’, it’s going to be quite an event!”, said Ciro Ciampi. “Plus, there’ll be a £50 million Hypercar enclosure literally in the shadow of Grade II-listed Tudor-Gothic mansion, Knebworth House.” Knebworth is famous as the venue of some gigantic…

We are sad to report the death on May 2 of Bobby Unser, one of America’s greatest, most charismatic and forthright racing drivers, at the age of 87. Bobby was part of the famous Unser dynasty. His father Jerry, brothers Al, Jerry and Louie and Uncle Louis all lived for racing, especially the challenging Pikes Peak ‘Race to the Clouds’ hill climb which they dominated for very many years. They raced anything with wheels on any surface and Bobby declared that: “Winning is a matter of pride. It’s the way our family was raised.” This in spite of his older brother Jerry, who was 1957 USAC Stock Car Champion, being killed in practice for the 1959 Indy 500 at the age of just 26. Bobby was born in Colorado Springs…

To label the Buick Wildcat as being obscure is perhaps disingenuous, but it remains underappreciated in concept car lore. While not one of General Motors’ show-stopping greats, it wasn’t without influence. Created under the aegis of styling czar Harley Earl, it was one of a raft of custom-built machines that participated in GM’s travelling Motorama extravaganza in 1953 which kicked off at New York’s Waldorf Astoria in January of that year. It subsequently headed to Chicago, Miami, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas and Kansas City. The Wildcat was certainly seen by large numbers of people, if nothing else, which was rather the point of the exercise. According to promotional material of the period, this two-seater convertible was a: ‘…trial flight in glassfibre and steel’. It was also billed as being…

Readers of this magazine don’t need to be told that all classic American cars are quite spectacular in their own way. There are certain individual cars, though, which stand out from the crowd, even on a show field. Brian Wrigley’s 1960 Studebaker Hawk is one such car. The colour, of course, is conspicuous – the autumn gold suggests prosperity, and is a perfect complement for any vista illuminated softly by a low evening sun. However, the same colour on a Cadillac or Buick could be considered vulgar. The Studebaker, which exhibits Raymond Loewy’s European-influenced design ethos, is minimalist and dainty by American standards of the Fifties, and it translates into something resembling genuine good taste. Here is a car that would look equally at home cruising along the Italian Riviera…

Every year Jeep holds its annual Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, which is to off-roading what Wimbledon is to tennis. It’s also a great opportunity for Jeep to test out its new concept vehicles on the off-roading community and this year was no exception, with a bevy of eye-poppingly exciting concepts that caught the attention of everyone attending this year’s event. Classic American takes a look at some of the highlights of this year’s concepts. Jeep Magneto The Jeep Wrangler Magneto concept is a fully capable BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) that is stealthy, quiet, quick and is claimed to be “an unmistakable rock-climbing force”. Jeep brand engineers and designers have created a zero-emission vehicle with Jeep 4x4 capability that provides new levels of efficiency, environmental responsibility and performance on- and…

Yank Buyer’s Guide is Classic American’s two-part guide to the wonderful world of classic American automobiles. We’ll be illustrating the amazing range of cars produced in the US between the years 1949 and 1971, the golden period for Detroit iron. We’ve selected 50 examples in all. Many are undisputed all-time classics, some are our personal favourites, while others were chosen for their special significance, be it styling, engineering or character. But whether you’re a classic American car aficionado or not, we’re sure you’ll have your own opinion about each and every one of these dream machines. They may inspire you to invest in your first-ever Yank, be it a Fifties land yacht, Sixties muscle car or later model. They may help you decide what American car suits you. On the…

Well if you do, Clive Sutton has just the thing. This fantastic re-creation of the 1968 Bullitt Mustang is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK. Utilising a Ford-licensed all-steel 1968 body, the chassis has been transformed to include the fundamental infrastructure behind the brand-new model Mustangs. This includes the brand-new 460bhp 5.0-litre Coyote engine, the Ford 6R90 six-speed automatic transmission, hydraulic-assisted rack and pinion power steering and adjustable coilover suspension system. Although from the outside this Highland Green Mustang may look the spitting image of Lieutenant Frank Bullitt’s iconic ride, there are upgrades aplenty. In fact, you could almost view this as a hybrid of a ’68 Mustang – the body shell, interior… ‘appearance’ if you like – and a brand-new S550 Mustang’s guts: the…

Many of us have no doubt dreamed of getting a Mustang for our 16th birthday but in the case of Edsel B Ford II, not only did he receive a brand-new one as a gift from his father, Henry Ford II, he also got a car embellished with a whole raft of personal touches. The car was built as a 1965 2+2 and came with goodies such as the Hi-Po 271 horsepower, 289cu in V8, four-speed manual gearbox, rally-pack instrumentation cluster and styled steel wheels, with dual exhaust trumpets exiting through the rear valance and special pearlescent white paint with a contrasting blue interior and narrow racing stripes over the hood, roof and rear deck as well as along the rocker panels. Other signature touches included a functional hood scoop,…

Regular CA contributor Keith Harman has irons in many fires. As well as writing for CA, he has also been known to import a few classic vehicles from the US, and buy and sell a few car, truck and Harley parts as well. Then there’s the famous brand of hair pomade with the rather risqué name that he’s been marketing online for the last few years too. Keith was recently in touch to let us know that he now has a new e-commerce website up and running under the name Crossroads Speed Shop to showcase the latest range of Hop Up merchandise from the US, including T-shirts, hats, stickers, etc,. etc. The pomade range is also on there in case your barnet needs post-lockdown attention! Finally, there is also a…

Cost: £249 plus subscription fee from £6.99/month Available from: Skytag/Heritage Insurance Trackers have become quite the big thing in vehicle security in recent years and now some insurance companies, such as Heritage Insurance, have begun to collaborate with tracker operators such as Skytag. Why consider a tracker? Well, a significant number of us have to store our vehicles away from home, due to their size or the fact that they’re being laid up over winter. The prospect of leaving your pride and joy in a barn or lock-up miles away can be a bit of a worry for many owners, so a tracker makes great sense in offering peace of mind, as it alerts you if the vehicle is moved from its designated position and offers live locations of the…

Ford’s big announcement recently was the launch of its all-electric half-ton pick-up. As seems to be practice these days, the Blue Oval is dusting off iconic emblems from the past and applying them to new battery electrics, in the hope that these vehicles will win some street cred. And after the Mustang Mach-E last year, the new electric F-150 is called, wait for it… Lightning. From an enthusiast standpoint, this new Lightning is about as far removed from its predecessor as you could get. Granted, it does have a wallop of torque at zero rpm, thanks to twin electric motors, but it’s designed as an everyday vehicle, not a limited production hot rod. The original F-150 Lightning was a poster child for the revived muscle truck segment in the Nineties.…

More DUKW stories! Dear Classic American, In 1957 aged 13 I was on holiday with my parents in Southport. First day there I set off to look around and found a DUKW on the beach with some enterprising guys offering ‘trips out to sea’ to holidaymakers. “A big ugly machine that drives off the beach into the sea and floats? That’ll do for me!” thinks I. After spending a lot of my time on and off the craft over the next few days my holiday spending money was running low, fortunately the chaps running the show then decided to make me ‘Junior crew member’ so I could ride free of charge as often as I wanted for the rest of the holiday – happy days! Regarding the 1972 Chevy flatbed…

Some of the unsung heroes of the classic car world were the car spotters of the Fifities and Sixties who patrolled the streets finding and photographing unusual cars. They preserved for posterity scenes which many people would just have overlooked, and captured a handful of cars that have all but disappeared completely. One such collection of photographs was advertised in the back of a classic car magazine recently. It exceeded a thousand pictures and was being dispersed, so I was unable to preserve it in its entirety, but I did what I could to keep the American cars together. Sadly, there’s no record of who the photographer was, or where they lived, but it seems the majority of photos were taken around London.…

When I was a little boy my mum used to say: “Those who ask don’t get.” As I grew up I found the opposite to be true. In January 1963, Allen Grant from Modesto, California was a 23-year-old promising race car driver, full of self-belief. During a college break he drove to Carroll Shelby’s workshop and told him: “I want to race for you.” Shelby asked him if he’d raced before and Allen proudly told him that he’d just won 12 out of 14 races in his own, self-prepared AC Ace Bristol, the car upon which Shelby’s Cobra was based. Allen was crowned 1962 SCCA West Coast sports-car champion and Rookie of the Year. Shelby listened and then told him that he didn’t need any more drivers as he already…

It looks like the Mustang price bubble isn’t going to burst anytime soon. A look at the classified pages of Classic American, online ads and traditional auctions proves this point, with amazing asking prices and spectacular sales results. Historics auction house’s most recent event held at Ascot Racecourse on May 15 saw several versions of Ford’s ever-popular pony car go under the hammer, with some very healthy results for the vendors. A 1970 Mach 1 with an estimate of £23-£27,000 hammered at £31,696. Another remarkable result was a 1965 Ford Mustang GT which was estimated to sell for between £33-£42,000 hammering for £51,520. Neither cars were ‘blow you away’ concours condition, so it bodes well for Mustang owners and future owners. Mustangs are a fantastic investment and are outperforming many…

Since its launch back in 1964, Ford’s Mustang has been presented to us in various guises, some better than others, we’ll admit. While everyone seems to hanker for those desirable pre-’73 models of big screen fame, the later variants still have their fans. Launched in 1979, the Fox-body Mustang was arguably a vast improvement on its predecessor, but still a world apart from those ancestors of the Sixties, aesthetically at least. The boxy styling was certainly a major departure for the pony car, wildly different from what we’d seen before - perhaps it was even ahead of its time, which may partly explain its long production run of 14 years. In recent times, popularity of the Fox-bodied Mustang has grown and consequently values have risen to dizzying heights also; only…

Luckily you can pick up a second-hand Bullitt Mustang today for not far off what you would pay for a brand-new GT. These really have held their values and many seem to be swapping hands for not far off what they listed for when new: £48k. It’s easy to see the Bullitt package as a bit of marketing pizazz to jack up the price on a GT with a fancy paint job and the iconic name. However, Ford has actually thrown some serious kit into the Bullitt package. There are the unique 19in black wheels, six-piston Brembo brakes, the MagneRide dampers (a £1600 option on regular GTs), along with special anti-roll bars and a special limited slip diff. The 5.0-litre V8 has been tickled to produce 458bhp and hits 60…