Hemmings Classic Car December 2024

“Any time we visited him, or vice versa, we usually got a spirited ride in that ole La Salle and we would take turns ‘riding shotgun’ up front.” IF YOU’VE NOT GUESSED by now, I grew up in a car-centric family. Every one of my parents’ vehicles, domestic and import alike, ended up with some sort of zany story permanently etched into its paint. I’ve already mentioned the Mercury Grand Marquis that was annihilated after a few thousand miles of travel, the Chevy Blazer that was mysteriously ingesting fluids at an alarming rate, and the MG Midget that my dad somehow managed to rev up far enough to attain yet another moving violation. Not to be outdone, Mom pushed a pair of turbo units to utter failure in her 1985…

ARAN LA’S FATHER, Vien, compares the path to success with climbing a steep hill. If you do the hard work early enough in life, he says, the rest can just be an easy downhill journey. Aran, a Londoner and presently 10 years old, is doing the hard work now. He’s a seasoned automotive artist and an international traveler, and his works never fail to impress. When we sat down with him in July 2024 just ahead of the Copshaholm Concours in South Bend, Indiana, he told us he’s already booked through February 2025 with client work. “I want to make it my career,” Aran says. He’s even branching out. “I’m already designing my own cars.” He also counts Moroccan-born Spanish-American automobile designer Frank Stephenson as a friend. Stephenson has worked…

MY DAD ALWAYS SEEMED to have more vehicles on the road than he needed, which undoubtedly was how I got the car bug. A dairy farmer who took over the historic 1793 family farm in Central New York when he was 16, Dad grew it into an operation that provided a source of income for a family of four. It also paid for new farm equipment, the taxes, and put two kids through college, all thanks to milk from 34 cows. That magic number was the limit of cow stanchions in the 1800 barn, as there was no room for extra cows or spare time to change them out if more were available to milk. From sunup to sundown, he worked on the farm, as well as drove a school…

EMAIL YOUR THOUGHTS AND COMMENTS TO: mlitwin@hemmings.com WHILE READING THE September 2024 issue of Hemmings Classic Car, I came across page 56. On the bottom of this News Reports page, I noticed Jersey Jams with a nice photo of several old oil cans and a Sunoco banner. This is a photo of all of my cans for sale at last year’s Englishtown, New Jersey (Raceway Park) vendors market. Please see the attached photo of me and my first car, a rare 1942 Dodge Deluxe fourdoor sedan. I still own this car, as I became the second owner in 1966 (58 years ago). At that time, I started to collect parts for this and other cars I bought over the years. This will be my 58th non-stop yearly visiting the Hershey,…

1959 CADILLAC COUPE DE VILLE Few cars can turn heads and spark conversation like a 1959 Cadillac Coupe de Ville. This restored example, which sold as a Make Offer listing, featured striking two-tone paint and a split leather/cloth interior. Photos and videos showed a Cadillac that seemingly remained in fine shape, with unmarked Seminole Red paint and minor chrome pitting; the interior exhibited a bit of wear in the front compartment, and a modern CD stereo was hidden in the glovebox while the original remained in the dash. A Vintage Air A/C system shared the engine bay with the rebuilt 325-hp, 390-cu.in. V-8 and four-speed Hydra-Matic. The seller added a dual-master brake cylinder for safety, perfect for hitting the road. Reserve: $50,000 Selling Price: $54,705  Recent Market Range: N/A 1935…

The idle daydream of many a car person involves having a time machine and going back to when their favorite car was new, to order it just the way they’d want it. Of course, even back then, it wasn’t always easy to make one of those à la carte purchases. Take our feature 1961 Chrysler Newport. It was ordered new at Century Chrysler in Brooklyn, New York, with a Borg-Warner T-85 three-speed manual. “The Newport and the Windsor came with the three-speed on the floor as standard equipment,” says owner Peter Pellicani, recalling the day, May 24, 1961, that he and his father–then-36-year-old Frederick, who was a sheetmetal worker at the Brooklyn Navy Yard–went to order this car. A day he and his father recalled many times in subsequent years.…