Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Classic American

Regular readers will have been surprised by Ben Klemenzson’s last ever welcome page in our December 2025 issue, announcing that he was stepping down as editor after almost 30 years on the magazine. I don’t know many other writers or editors who have worked on one title for so long, which means it really does seem like the end of an era. Rest assured, though, that the future is bright. If my name rings a bell, it’s probably because you’ve been reading Classic American for a few decades! I’ve been editor of various car mags over the years, but my very first editorship was with Classic American way back in 1995… which means that what I laughingly call my career has now gone full circle. It’s a funny old world.…

Serial American car collector John Thorpe was initially on the hunt for a late ’50s Buick until he spotted this stunning and rather rare 1958 Oldsmobile Super 88 J-2 Tri-Power, boasting a 312bhp, 371cu.in V8 and an array of unusual features. We last met John around three years ago, not long after his purchase of a highly original second-gen 1960 Ford Thunderbird in Adriatic Green. Back then, his impressive collection already contained a ’57 Thunderbird and a ’64 fourth-gen version, as well as a 1956 Oldsmobile 88 two-door sedan (323cu.in) in bright red. “My ’56 has always been a great car and has served me well, so I wasn’t planning on buying another,” admits John. “What I really wanted was a ’57 or ’58 Buick Special or Century, and I…

The 1930s witnessed a major change in the way cars were shaped, if only among the more exotic end of things. While production models for the most part continued to appear upright and square-rigged, adventurous couturiers chafed against convention. Nothing was seemingly off limits. Bulbous outlines, wheel spats, and chrome accents that bordered on jewellery became evident, with the French and Italian coachbuilders to the fore. However, it wasn’t a European designer that popularised these developments and thrust them into the mainstream. It fell to a second-generation American coachbuilder to shape the future. It is hard not to wax lyrical about Harley Earl’s contribution to automotive design, not least because he was arguably the first professional car stylist in the accepted sense. He was also a trailblazing studio chief. Prior…

The NEC Classic Motor Show 2025 proved to be the usual must-see finale of the season, with a total of 72,738 visitors heading to Birmingham over the three days of the event. For fans of US iron, however, it was the Classic American stand that once again provided the biggest attraction, along with the various American vehicle clubs exhibiting in the same hall. As ever, the 2025 event marked the final of the Classic American Car of the Year contest, which this year was co-sponsored by Kingstown Shipping and Vintage Tyres – and brought a fascinating and varied lineup of cars competing for the coveted title. Judging took place throughout the event, but in the end it was Geoff Mitchell’s immaculate 1961 Chrysler Newport that took the top prize of…

WRANGLER V8 SPECIAL After previously announcing the demise of the Hemipowered Wrangler 392, Jeep owner Stellantis has backtracked by unveiling this – the 2026 Wrangler Moab 392, with its US list price of $81,990 being exactly $20,000 less than the previous model. The Moab 392 is the first model in Jeep’s ‘Twelve 4 Twelve’ series of special editions, with a new one making its debut on the 12th day of every month for a year as part of the marque’s 85th anniversary. As the name suggests, this 392 is built as a tribute to Moab, the off-road area in Utah that has hosted the famous Easter Jeep Safari for the last six decades. Under the Moab 392’s hood is the familiar 6.4-litre V8 in a 470bhp state of tune, plus…

Just about any US motorsport event in the home country is bound to offer a visitor from the UK a spectacular experience. And that’s certainly the case with the National Hot Rod Association’s rolling roadshow, which covers the length and breadth of the USA from March through to November, with 2025 having an impressive 20 events. It’s a heady thrill for lovers of American cars and motorsport, and drag racing represents its very essence. It doesn’t take much to get hooked on NHRA events… so, grab the sunscreen and comfy shoes and get your motor runnin’! In this feature, we take a dive into the Northwest Nats – or to give it the full nomenclature, the Muckleshoot Casino Resort NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, Seattle, Washington. It’s held in…

We’re back in New London, Minnesota, this month for another visit to Windy Hill Auto Parts. Although it’s smaller than it once was, the yard still holds thousands of vehicles, many of them classics. Remarkably, the site isn’t fenced off at all, but with the owner living on-site and the gates open 365 days a year, it seems security isn’t a concern. From this vantage point, you’re seeing less than a quarter of the yard’s vast sprawl. This Pontiac Catalina four-door sedan enjoyed a respectable working life, staying on the road from 1968 to 1980, which wasn’t bad for an era when cars were often scrapped before reaching 100,000 miles. Just a few years ago, this view would have been packed bumper-to-bumper with old metal. The thinning numbers are a…

I admit it... my love-affair with the C5 Corvette started on the rebound. You see, I’d just walked away from an Italian beauty and was feeling down. Let me explain. I’m a lucky man – my wife, Caroline, is a classic sports car enthusiast who, when she spotted a Ferrari California at a recent auction, liked what she saw. I was less smitten. I used to race a Ferrari many years ago and ran a 308 GTS QV as my daily driver in the ’80s, but I’d not entirely forgotten the eye-watering annual service bills. But I am grateful to Ferrari that the shape of its 275GTB turned me on to the similarly gorgeous lines of the C3 Corvette. Even today, anyone looking at exotica from any country should surely…

The DNA that constitutes a muscle car of the ’60s often reads like this: 327cu.in four-barrel V8, four-speed manual transmission, bucket seats, console, posi-traction rear end, dash tach, and redline tyres. This could be an accurate description of a welloptioned mid-1960s Chevelle, but in this case applies to a muscle car outlier… or Rebel. A Rambler, to be precise. Ken Norman is a bit of a collector car rebel himself. I guess you could say that about anyone who collects AMC products. It was a company with its own way of doing things, and there is an obvious attraction there for enthusiasts who appreciate things that are… well, different and out of the mainstream. Norman caught the AMC bug at a young age and has an impressive collection of ten…

Separate items of equipment handy to have in your car include a power bank to revive a mobile phone, a torch to illuminate an engine bay, a tyre inflator, and a jump-start to enable an engine with a flat battery to get going again. As individual items, they obviously take up a fair amount of space, which explains the range of products on the market that can multi-task. But just how effective are these all-in-one devices – and would we recommend them? They’re certainly popular, with sales starting to really take off in the last year. This is partly thanks to advancements in battery technology, whereby a lithium-ion or lithium-polymer battery has the capability to boost a 12V vehicle battery to enable an engine to start whilst also being sufficiently…

Last year I introduced ICM Holdings, a Ukrainian model kit manufacturer that’s well-known to model aircraft builders and military modellers. It continues to produce a wide range of plastic model kits, despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and more recently has introduced a few vehicle kits in 1:24 scale – including the Ford Model Ts that we reviewed in the September 2025 issue. The Ford Model A was a logical successor, and ICM now produces three versions of the four-door Standard Phaeton soft-top. ICM is taking the sensible – if cautious – route with its automotive models venture by reissuing the Model A kit with minor variations – the first version with the canvas top up, and the second with it folded. A third variation, described as a ‘Gangster Car’,…