Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2021 i Classic American

As you can see from this month’s magazine, American car shows are back, although with restrictions to maintain social distancing through limiting numbers of display cars and visitors. It’s a challenge for show organisers as if the restrictions are too draconian and allow too few cars or visitors, then the event can end up losing money – it costs more or less the same to put on an event for 12,000 people as it does for 4000 people, yet obviously the income from the latter will be considerably less. There’s also the knock-on effect with other associated businesses, such as caterers and other traders. No one wants to set up in a field and then barely sell enough to cover their costs to be there. Fingers crossed we’re still working…

Last July I reported on the Thruxton Thriller historic race meeting. While the racing was thrilling, the atmosphere certainly wasn’t as there weren’t any spectators. Almost a year on and the crowds were back. The sun was shining, people were enjoying the racing, they were having picnics on the grassy spectator banking, wandering around the paddock licking ice creams and looking at the race cars. It was lovely to see folk smiling and laughing without face masks. Attendance numbers were limited but you’d hardly notice. Even in normal times, Thruxton’s historic meetings are never that crowded, which in my book makes for a rather pleasant day out and the ticket prices won’t dent your wallet either, especially as children aged 15 and under get in free. This year’s event was…

Lincoln-Mercury got in on the pony car act a couple of years after the Mustang launched with the 1967 Mercury Cougar. In its initial guise it was assembled at two of Ford’s factories, the Dearborn Assembly Plant (DAP) up to 1973, within the huge Ford Rouge Centre housing six build facilities and on the West Coast at the San Jose Assembly Plant in Milpitas, California until 1970. Thereafter, Cougar production switched to the Lorain Assembly Plant (LAP) in Ohio until 1997. The brand-new 1967 Mercury Cougar was unveiled to the public on September 30, 1966 and within days Motor Trend magazine made it their Car of the Year. The Cougar was really the product of a marriage of two of its cars; firstly the Thunderbird, with its image, style and…

Dear Classic American, I enjoyed the Yank Buyer’s Guide as featured in your July issue. As someone who has often admired American iron from afar, but never been brave enough to dip my toe in the water with ownership, it made for fascinating reading, especially the breadth of content in terms of era and type of vehicle. Truth be told, I think I’d need a barn to put all the cars in I liked from your selection. The only thing I take issue with was the price guide, specifically the prices quoted for Ford Mustangs, as a first-generation Mustang would seem to me to be the logical place for a novice like me to start: they’re compact enough to fit in my garage, parts availability is great and they’re easy…

After a relaxing coffee break last year (between lockdowns,) we were amused to be complimented by a passer-by with the words “Nice Jag mate!”, following a busy morning’s photoshoot around Kew, West London. The admirer had mistaken the sleek Greyhound mascot on the bonnet for the Leaping Jaguar, but owner Derek diplomatically corrected the enthusiast very gently. We were not far from Lincoln’s former original Art Deco headquarters on the Great West Road (A4), opposite the famous Firestone factory buildings, both now sadly demolished, though this car even precedes the establishment of that Thirties location and also the Dagenham complex. The Lincoln Motor Company was founded in 1917 by Henry Leland, to manufacture 6500 Liberty V12 Aero Engines for the war effort, but when the contracts ended, he was left…

With Covid restrictions now relaxing here in the UK, VW Breakout was a blast of a weekend and actually seemed something like ‘normal’. British bank holiday weekends are typically characterised by awful weather, but for the first time in a long while, the weather was glorious, which just made the weekend even better – after such a long winter, it felt like summer was finally here. Most people arrived on Friday to set up, with some racers doing Run What Ya Brung to get some test runs in; it was certainly the ‘breakout’ from winter and lockdown that we all needed. It was good to see so many people on and off track excited about the summer to come. Saturday saw four qualifying rounds for all of the invited race…

Lots of car shows have been going ahead, admittedly with some changes in light of the Covid pandemic. The London Classic Car Show is no exception; an indoor event that usually takes place in February, but this year was moved outdoors to the spectacular location of Syon Park in West London and over the weekend of June 25-27. The event worked surprisingly well, although there were a few hiccups, hardly surprising since it’s the first time it’s been held outdoors and at this location. You can read a report on the event in next month’s magazine, but we were able to shoehorn the results of the Classic Car Auctions event that took place there into this issue, just as we went to press. The results were keen, with plenty of…

Being a writer and photographer for Classic American has opened up doors and taken me places I could only ever have dreamed about. I think I’m the magazine’s longest-running regular contributor, having started in 1991 with a feature on Lesley Diss’s Buick Special – so, I reckon that’s 30 years! I’ve met Sir Stirling Moss, Ron Hickman (designer of the Lotus Elan and Black & Decker Workmate, who also owned a Cadillac V16), Mark Knopfler, Nick Mason, Jay Kay, Phil Hill, Christian Horner, Adrian Newey, Sir Charles Chadwyck-Healey, Michelle Marsh and Rob Walker, to name but a few movers and shakers in their field. Just as importantly, I’ve also met thousands of ordinary enthusiasts, the catalyst being their passion for ‘Detroit Iron’. The very first American car that I drove…

Blame Ralph Nader for the emergence of car safety as a selling point over, you know, something sexy like horsepower. It’s hard not to. His explosive book Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile exposed the motor industry’s apparent disregard for the well-being of those driving its wares; that its products crumpled like beer cans in accidents; that they didn’t handle as well as they might; that the bottom line counted for more than the lives of their customers. The irony is that this exposé probably wouldn’t have been so widely publicised had Detroit’s Big Three not tried to smear the crusading lawyer (and so ineptly). His work directly (and indirectly) led to the implementation of improved safety standards, but only after Congress and the major…

Welcome to part two of Classic American magazine’s guide to the colourful and diverse world of classic American automobiles; more specifically those built between the years 1949 and 1971. The object of this exercise is to showcase no less than 50 classics for your visual delight. Hopefully, they are portrayed in a way that will whet the appetites of newcomers to the classic American scene here in Britain, as well as capturing the imagination of our ever-growing band of regular readers. It could be that you belong to the latter group and are disappointed that we haven’t featured your favourite model in these instalments. If so, you will not be alone. There are countless American classic cars that we would like to have included, but to do so we’d have…

We had already made plans back in January 2020 to travel to California to take in the Grand National Roadster Show etc., when we received an email from our expat friend in Pomona, Tony Thacker, inviting us to a special reception evening at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Beverley Hills. Tony has been resident in California and involved in the hot rod scene there for more than 30 years, so usually has his finger on the pulse of anything cool going on there. The Petersen has had somewhat of a makeover in recent months, with dynamic new displays designed to broaden its appeal and keep things fresh. The invitation was to a preview reception for a new exhibition opening in the museum, dedicated to showcasing the car collection of one…

This time last year we were in the thick of the first lockdown, my wife Liz and I were shielding and we hadn’t been out the door since March, so I had plenty of time to tinker with the Charger in the garage. On the Sunday last year that was supposed to be Brooklands, I kept the garage door firmly shut. Fast forward a year and a small amount of normality returned and I was in touch with Brooklands about the possibility of running the show this year. Darren, from Darren Graham Photography, kindly designed a flyer for the show – just in case it did. After a few discussions, Brooklands confirmed that the show could go ahead, but with restrictions and some differences compared with the last 17 years.…

The Thirties was a period of extremes, with a bottomless gulf between the exceedingly rich and the unbelievably poor. Following the 1929 Wall Street Crash, those who had retained their riches became increasingly out of touch with those on the breadline. The fortunes they spent on luxury cars, for example, beggars belief. Cadillac catered for these well-heeled patrons and developed fabulous automobiles that only the so-called ‘old money’ and film stars could afford. Their V16 was the top of the line in luxury and power. With its unique engine, basically two inline eight-cylinder motors sharing a common 45-degree crankshaft, each half with a dedicated fuel supply and exhaust, the Sports Phaeton cost around $6500 when the minimum wage was 25 cents an hour. That’s in excess of $110,000 in today’s…

If you’ve got a son or daughter (or even a grandchild) that’s a budding petrolhead, then this fully working four-cylinder engine would make the perfect gift (shame it’s not a V8, but hey, you can’t have everything!). From the kit they can construct a fully working model of a petrol car engine, with ignition sound and illuminating spark plugs. The model is fun to put together and the kit contains all the tools they’ll need and more than 100 parts to assemble the working model. It comes complete with its very own Haynes Manual, giving clear step-by-step instructions. It’ll also help them discover how internal combustion engines work and there’s even a special augmented reality app available via your smartphone. This creates an interactive experience with the finished model so…

In the world of classic cars and, I’ll wager, particularly on this side of the pond, the age-old argument of factory stock versus modified continues. Most of us, no doubt, are drawn to classic cars and trucks due to the way they look, both their exterior styling and interior features. Yet, depending on the age of the vehicle, its intrinsic value and, often, the condition it was purchased in, can have a healthy bearing on whether we decide to keep it as it is, or restore it to the way it came from the assembly plant, or add some personal touches for both mechanical improvement and aesthetic exclusivity. Really, I think it comes down to personal taste and preference. Traditionally, at many stateside car shows, modified rides tend to outnumber…

For as long as he can remember, 30-year-old Tom Aspinall has had a fascination with American cars, especially those from the late Sixties and early Seventies. “Even my Hot Wheels collection was full of Mustangs, Camaros, Chevelles, Roadrunners and Challengers, to name but a few,” Tom smiles. “I was totally obsessed by them.” Plenty of variety for sure, but there was one American car in particular that always stood out above the rest for Tom and that was the Plymouth Barracuda. “I’ve always been drawn to the ’70-’74 Chrysler E-body, there’s something about its low and wide stance I can’t get enough of,” Tom explains. “The ’70 Barracuda was – and probably still is – the coolest-looking thing I’ve ever seen.” Residing in the North West of the UK, Tom…

While we still may find it hard to appreciate the greed decade, the Eighties introduced us to many things which have since become a staple part of our daily lives – mobile phones, compact discs and cable TV. In terms of automotive technological development (particularly in North America) it was also a time of immense progress and change. Right at the forefront was the Ford Motor Company, which, after having languished in the Seventies, came roaring back with a whole new line of products, many of which were spun off the extremely versatile ‘Fox’ platform, begun with the Ford Fairmont/Mercury Zephyr in 1978. The new-for-1984 Lincoln Mk VII was no exception. Replacing the slow-selling MkVI duo, this new car signalled a change of direction for Dearborn’s upscale division and at…

SHOWS 2021 JULY 8-10 VÄSTERÅS SUMMER MEET Hatton Johannisbergs airfield, Västerås from Thursday 8/7 to Saturday 10/7 2021. Opening hours: Thursday 8/7, 10.00-18.00, Friday 9/7, 08.00-18.00, Saturday 10/7, 08.00-17.00. Admission fee on Johannisbergs airfield: One day: 200 SKR, Two days: 300 SKR, Three days: 400 SKR. Children under 15 years with an adult admitted free. Visitors parking 40 SKR/day. JULY 9-11 DRAGSTALGIA Santa Pod, Northants – the 10th anniversary! A vintage lifestyle weekend dedicated to race cars, bikes and hot rods from a bygone era. Enjoy championship racing with the headlining Cannonball class for supercharged nitro and alcohol-fuelled altereds and funny cars, the Slingshot Showdown, period-correct Gasser Circus, invited historic bikes and lots more. See vehicles from Santa Pod’s illustrious history return to the strip. Plus live music, Jet Car,…

Beaulieu very cleverly realised many years ago that combining their rod and custom show with Father’s Day was a sure-fire winning strategy, as fathers could be treated to a day out of automotive indulgence – and families would go along with it, as it was Father’s Day and why not treat the old man?! Of course, I’m sure there were plenty of participants who weren’t fathers – after all, this was one of the first major events of the year for fans of rods, customs and of course American cars. The relief to be doing something ‘normal’ again, like going to a car show, was almost tangible and despite fairly grim weather forecasts in the week leading up to the event and a grey and damp start, the sun broke…