Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2023 i Classic American

Jim Wangers, one of the most notable names to be connected with the muscle car craze of the 1960s, died on April 29, 2023, in California. He was 96. For many years Wangers was known as The Godfather of the GTO, a title he earned while working as a marketing executive at Pontiac’s advertising agency, MacManus, John & Adams. But prior to this Wangers had gained a wealth of automotive marketing experience that was used to push Pontiac up the leader board to be one of America’s most desirable car brands. Wangers was born and bred in Chicago and one of his first jobs was as a copyboy and then sports editor for the Chicago Daily News. A career as a journalist was not what he wanted, but his path…

From here to obscurity It was the muscle from Brussels; a Ford Mustang with a legendary name attached that nevertheless flew below the radar. The car pictured here was conceived by Claude Dubois, a Belgian car dealer and racer whose on-track exploits stretched to a class win in the 24 Hours of Le Mans among other triumphs. He was a works driver for a variety of marques, and also a concessionaire for the likes of de Tomaso and Shelby American. He rounded out his circuit career at Zandvoort in 1967 with an outright win aboard a Cobra, and reckoned that he imported as many as 150 Shelby products of all kinds up until 1970. That same year saw Ford end its association with Carroll Shelby, much to the…

I have a confession. I’ve been a Classic American photographer since 2005, and in those 17 years have shot, sat in and ridden in literally hundreds of American cars. I’ve been to America many times, driven Route 66 and even got married in LA. But I’ve never owned an American car − until now. Now, you might wonder what caught the eye of someone whose job it is to stare at classic cars all day and across the decades of fenders, fins, chrome, fuselage body and malaise-era excess. There have been many temptations, but the model which summed up America in one car for me was the Crown Vic, specifically the 1998-2011 ‘whale’. A car so ever present, it’s almost part of the background. A car which movie makers just…

If there’s one thing guaranteed to divide opinion in this scene, it’s the question of modifying classic cars. One side will point out, rightly enough, that building hot rods has been a part of American car culture since the days of the Model T, and that allowing creativity to flourish makes the scene more interesting. The other side maintains, also quite rightly, that original cars are scarce and must either be preserved or lose their historic value. As the supply of original cars gradually diminishes, it’s a problem which is only going to get worse, but there are ways around it for now. If you want to build a unique, period-style hot rod without compromising the originality of a historic car, you have only to import one of the thousands…

1. Last year I spent an afternoon exploring Desert Valley Auto Parts’ Black Canyon, Arizona site. There were more than 1000 classic cars in this amazing yard, most of which dated back to the 1960s and 1970s. Although it stocks a complete mix of marques, there seemed to be an abundance of Cadillacs, Lincolns and Imperials, so that’s what I’m going to concentrate on here. We’ll feature a broader selection next month. If the distinctive rock formation in the background looks familiar, that’s because you may have seen the yard on Discovery Channel’s Desert Car Kings. It was presumably chosen because of its amazing selection of rust-free vehicles, like this 1971 Cadillac Series 75 Fleetwood. 2. If you’re looking for parts for a 1970s Lincoln Town Car, then you need…

1958 Chevrolet Impala – £46,480 Of most interest to CA readers is this 1958 Impala. Initially we thought it might have been the very same car that won Car of the Year almost 20 years ago; however, it appears it only came into the UK 17 years ago, so apparently not. It’s described as having been displayed on the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which speaks volumes about its condition. The odometer shows 13,000 miles and while the vendor is quite confident that this could be the true mileage, one would hope there was paperwork to authenticate that. The car was purchased in America back in 2006. It features a 283cu in V8 engine and is painted in Tropic Turquoise. 1974 Jeep CJ-5 – £18,000 This 1974 Jeep CJ-5 has undergone…

Across the pond In conversations I have among industry pundits and fellow enthusiasts, there seems to be more and more talk about classic cars becoming ever more sought after. I think a big reason for that is the current political push towards battery electric vehicles and the fact that today, cars and trucks are becoming more and more homogenised. When I was a kid, I could identify just about every make and model of car on the road, today it really is tough to tell many of them apart. Look, there it goes, another battleship grey or silver crossover utility vehicle, with a gaping grille, high waistline, lower body cladding and roof rails – was it a Honda, a Hyundai, a Chevrolet, or a Ford? Who knows? I feel…

John was born in 1942 and grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. His father was a motor sport fan and, conveniently, there were several racetracks within striking distance of home. As kids, he took John and his younger brother Lyman to watch the racing. Over the following years, John really fell in love with racing and also the history of the sport. In 1957, he pestered his father to go and watch the 500-mile-long sports car race at Road America, Elkhart Lake. There, he witnessed Phil Hill in his Ferrari take the win with Carroll Shelby’s Maserati in second. He was blown away and that very day 15-year-old John decided that all he ever wanted to do was become a race-car driver. After starting out and doing well in go-karts, John…

Craig Norman Breedlove was the first person to set land speed records of 400, 500 and 600 miles per hour. Born March 23, 1937 in Los Angeles to Hollywood studio executive Norman and showgirl Portia, the young Breedlove grew up in LA. Aged 13 he convinced his parents to buy him a rough 1934 Ford three-window coupe for $75. Over the next four years he fixed it up, then in 1955 he ran it to 152.80mph on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Graduating from Venice High School he found work as a welder and firefighter until, partly inspired by JFK’s 1961 inauguration speech, Breedlove became determined to win back the land speed record for America. He took the lead in designing a suitable vehicle in his father’s garage and in 1961…

This year’s Wheels Day was blessed with warm sunshine and no precipitation whatsoever – it must have been dryish in the days leading up to the event too, as the boggy, muddy conditions seen in previous years were all but absent. It felt like there was even more variety of cars than in previous years, with lots more European stuff, classic mostly, including plenty of Volkswagens, as well as a number of rods and customs thrown in for good measure too. There were also lots of cars for sale and this being the first major event of the year, maybe folks decided this was as good an event as any to kick off their sales campaign. Interestingly, a rather nice gun metal silver/grey 1965 Buick Riviera spotted the previous year…

Revell 1951 Henry J Gasser As is often the situation with plastic kits, this month’s featured model is not new. Revell first produced its 1951 Henry J Gasser-style drag racer back in 1968. It returned as a street racer in 1984, was remarketed as a dragster in 2006 and its most recent incarnation arrived in 2021. The Henry J was a curiosity, offered to a somewhat apathetic post-war America when wartime restrictions were relaxing and veterans had more dollars in their pockets compared with the pre-war Depression years. Nevertheless, in 1949 the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation received a Federal Government loan to produce a cheap and cheerful car for the masses, much like Ford’s Model T decades before. The sentiments were honourable, the price of the resulting compact car was a reasonable…