Innehållsförteckning för February 2020 från Classic American

Kit includes: 1 Heavy duty printed Snow Foam bottle. 2 Adjustable foam nozzle (Snow Foam Lance) for thick snow foam action. 3 A roll of PTFE tape 4 Pressure washer adapters x 3 included (Karcher, Nilfisk, Bosch). 5 Meguiar’s Ultimate Snow Foam Xtreme Cling Wash 946ml. Snow foam is apparently the on-trend car cleaning method of the moment and Meguiar’s kit contains three different adapters for three of the most popular high-pressure washers (Karcher, Nilfisk, Bosch). And while setting it up might seem initially a bit of a complex and time-consuming exercise, once it’s done, it’s effectively set up for life and the speed with which it covers a vehicle in the snow foam is remarkable. We had the whole Classic American Jeep covered in less than three minutes! If…

Welcome to this month’s column. I hope you find the contents interesting as I will be unveiling Chrysler’s most expensive muscle car ever built – a stunning 1971 Plymouth GTX. There is a remarkable story behind the car’s production, as I will explain… This car is the holy grail of all 1971 Hemi B-Bodies in existence today, so not too much to live up to! So, what makes this GTX so special? It’s what we call the ‘sticker’ price, which shows the dealership it was sold from and the shipping address, but most important is the listed code option details and of course the total price of options ordered with the car – in this case a whopping $6592.75, which in 1971 was one helluva price to pay for a…

John Miller has a taste for unusual Mopars. “My first American car was a 1955 Chrysler New Yorker four-door,” said John. “I’d got into them through Corgi and Dinky Toys – American cars were always more colourful than the models of British ones, then model kits bought by uncles. I later sold the scale models to buy the full-sized New Yorker. After 22 years of ownership that included restoring the New Yorker, I sold it in late 2014. Then I was on a mission to find my dream car - a 1955 Dodge Custom Royal Lancer. I’ve always liked the design of the 1955/56 Dodge, especially the dashboard. “I wanted a four-door because that’s easier for taking passengers,” continued John, “and in 2015 I spotted a Hemmings advert for a…

When you’re at an impressionable age, movies can be very influential. Dave Christmas had wanted a Plymouth Road Runner since he saw one in a film when he was aged 14. “Although when I was seven I wanted a Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am,” recalls Dave. “I bought the Trans Am toys and model kits, and then, aged 14, I saw a movie called Brewster McCloud. I was fascinated since it featured an orange car with a flap on the bonnet going up and down. Years later, with the benefit of the internet, I discovered it was a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner. I had pictures of the car on my screensaver at work and, again, bought the die-cast models and plastic kits of Road Runners, although I’d never seen…

The new, eighth-generation Chevrolet Corvette delivers many impressive statistics. But none is more remarkable than the one with the dollar sign in front of it. Persuade an American dealer to sell the base car at its official MSRP list price – unlikely for several months at least – and it will cost just $59,995 (£47,230). This for a mid-engined 483bhp sports car with performance that gets it close to supercar territory. Bargain is an overused term, but it’s hard to think of any better way to describe the C8. Of course, there is no chance that any Corvette would ever officially reach the UK with the direct sterling equivalent of that price tag. Context is everything here, and in the US that means the entry-level C8 is cheaper than the…

Vendor: D Mills, Letchworth, Hertfordshire Telephone: 07767 824224 Price: £49,900 There’s a popular current trend with classic car owners nowadays, which is to restore a car that retains all of its classic period looks and charm, but to upgrade the running gear to make it much more user-friendly to drive. This month’s Drive-Buy feature very much fits into that category and also includes a personalised bespoke interior as well. It’s all been very carefully thought out and tastefully transformed, making this Bel-Air a ‘Best of Show’ winner on a number of occasions. The Bel-Air was purchased in the US from American Dream Machines of Demoine, Iowa, around three years ago, in a fully finished and resto-modded condition. The work is believed to have been completed around 10 years ago and…

1930 STUTZ SERIES M BOATTAIL SPEEDSTER The Stutz Motor Company was largely responsible for producing some of the most desirable American sports cars of the pre-war era. The car manufacturer campaigned its first production vehicle at the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 1911, after only five weeks of design and build. This gamble paid off as the car finished in 11th place and thus created the advertising slogan, ‘Stutz – The Car That Made Good in a Day.’ This immediate success set the company up to design and produce more competitive models in the years that followed and paved the way for the iconic Bearcat model, a sports car that stayed in production until 1925. In 1929, Stutz introduced the Series M and referred to the model as the most European…

Sad news has reached the Classic American offices that the American Auto Club International has ceased operations due to issues with holding its annual shows. Chairman Brendan McCarth told Classic American: “Sadly, the AACI will be no more. It’s mainly due to Pure Leisure Group changing their event contracts going into 2020 and beyond. Without going into great detail, if we went with their proposals, we’d be effectively working to make money for them while we slowly watched the club go bankrupt. “As you know, we have always done it for two reasons and two alone. To keep it going, if I hadn’t done something it would have died back in 2008. But also to raise money for the charity When You Wish Upon a Star. It’s like putting something…

NSRA Supernats dates Probably the biggest hot rod event on the calendar in the UK, the NSRA have released the dates for the 2020 Supernats, to be held, as ever, at Old Warden Park, near Biggleswade in Herts. August 6 to 9 are the dates to save, but booking doesn’t open just yet, so you’ll have to wait until May if you want to pre-enter this very popular event. As usual you’ll be able to attend with your car on the Sunday only, but it might be an idea to get there early if you are planning to go as space was definitely at a premium last year, with late-comers directed into a second field adjacent to the main show area. Holman & Moody … and Valley Gas Anyone who…

Arguably one of the biggest reasons for owning a piece of iconic Detroit steel is due to the fact it has a V8 engine under the hood. Traditional, 90-degree American V8s have an utterly distinctive sound, plenty of low and mid-range torque and make cars and trucks equipped with them very satisfying to own and drive. Today, you’d be forgiven for thinking that just about every single car and light commercial that rolled off a stateside assembly line during the golden era (loosely defined as between 1954 and 1972) had a V8 nestled between its fenders. The situation tends to often be exacerbated by the types of cars and trucks you tend to see at shows. Most are often either original, highly optioned examples (which came with V8s to begin…

TOP TAILGATE Dear Classic American, I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed last month’s ‘Tailgate Party’. Although I know a lot of the featured vehicles weren’t station wagons in the strictest sense, it was great that you were able to salute what was once the staple of American highways from sea to shining sea. It’s amazing to think the only station wagons you’ll see on American roads today are either Subarus or Volvos! There is a small, but loyal band of wagon lovers in this country and we all know how eminently practical these vehicles are, whether it’s for lugging stuff for a camping trip, sleeping in the back out of the rain on said camping trip, or for towing or as even a tow vehicle at the…

Each year in Alberta, Canada, Scott Newstead and his friends play a game in preparation for the long, harsh winter to come. Their mission is to find a daily driver to get them through to spring. “It’s kind of a test to see how much poverty you are willing to endure,” Scott says. Points are awarded for eccentricity and dilapidation. Scott is a serial rescuer of post-war metal doomed for the crusher. His yard is lined with humble, base model cars up to 1960. “It’s a one-to-one scale diorama of an abandoned, Sixties used-car lot,” Scott jokes. They serve as the backdrop for his anarchic YouTube channel, Cold War Motors. Think Frank Zappa and Hunter S Thompson wielding spanners. “Most people don’t get it,” he freely admits. You could say…

Hitch & Tow CJ5 Jeep and Teardrop Trailer It’s clear that Greenlight Collectibles’ Hitch & Tow combinations of a vehicle and trailer have captured the imagination of the buying public, given that this neat set is one of Series 16. Here we have a 1:64 scale die-cast Jeep CJ5 coupled with a two-berth teardrop trailer in matching colours. The Jeep, in metallic green, with light beige wheels, has an unusual half-length hardtop, much like those early Land Rovers had, which covers the two front seats, but leaves the rear area as a short pick-up bed. The doors appear to be semi-rigid vinyl and I presume would unclip in good weather. The CJ5 has chunky wheels with neat, narrow whitewalls and a spare, rear-mounted over the tow hitch. The lights and…

As the fallen autumn leaves turn to mulch and the ground gets slippery underfoot, the Historics at Brooklands auction house generally migrates its November sale the few yards across the river Wey from its namesake’s museum grounds to the adjacent Mercedes Benz World. While it’s not a large enough venue to accommodate all the vehicles consigned under cover, the majority, including the most valuable, can be displayed and later auctioned in a temperature-controlled environment. Such was again the case on November 23, though thankfully the weather was reasonable and not as inclement as in previous years. Of the 200-plus lots awaiting bidders, only four were American cars, two Fords and two Chevrolets, but they could not have been more different. The blue oval was represented by an attractive 1956 Ford…

It appeared more aircraft than car, but the Feora was a serious project. Remarkably, it was one that was conceived and created by a self-taught designer and builder. Scroll back to the early Eighties, when Chuck Ophorst was a 20-something service mechanic employed in the oil fields of Bakersfield, California. He dreamed up a compact, three-wheeler commuter vehicle that would also be easy to drive and a doddle to park. Working out of a two-car garage in Paramount, a suburb of Los Angeles, he spent 22 months fashioning the prototype which emerged blinking into the light in 1982. Underpinning this brave new world was a tubular chassis that comprised 180 separate pieces welded together. Power came from an air-cooled 175cc Honda ‘twin’ which produced a giddying 22bhp. Suspension was by…

One of the stars of the 2019 SEMA Show in Las Vegas was Chevrolet’s innovative E-10 Concept, which married a 1962 truck with the powertrain from the marque’s Bolt EV. The goal is to show how a possible ‘Connect & Cruise’ eCrate engine could open the door for amateur builders to re-power their classic Chevys with an all-electric setup. The parts aren’t in the GM Performance catalogue yet, but if the truck’s creators have their way, they will be, soon. The E-10 is much closer to a production offering than Chevy’s first effort at showcasing a plug-and-play electric powertrain, the eCOPO Camaro Concept from 2018 (see sidebar). Where that drag car featured a bespoke battery and motor setup, most of the E-10’s technology is lifted directly from the Chevrolet Bolt…

Over the years John Allen has owned a good many vehicles and he’s not afraid to roll up his shirt sleeves and crack on with a restoration or two. However, as the protracted rebuild of his Mustang Mach 1 was well into its 11th year (such was his quest for perfection) he began to hanker for something that was already finished – something he could simply jump into and go cruising. “My mother Edna had sadly passed away in 2013 and had left me some money, which I wanted to put towards an up-and-running American car,” explains John. “I started to surf the net and came across several cars that fitted the bill, but this 1970 Buick Riviera, which had been the subject of quite a bit of customisation work,…

Only six Shelby Cobra Daytona Competition Coupe race cars were built in 1964 and ’65. All six survive today and are worth millions of pounds each. For the first time ever, they were all gathered together, at the 2015 Goodwood Revival, and that event and the detailed race history of them was covered in Steve Havelock’s two-part feature in CA300 and 301 in 2016. Just like the open-top Shelby AC Cobra roadsters before them, oodles of Daytona Coupe replicas have been built, although in most cases the accuracy and quality is questionable. Others may look like the originals, but have been slightly scaled up to make them more comfortable for ordinary folk rather than for the skinny racing drivers they were originally designed around, and they are equipped with the…

1. The Willys-Overland Jeepster was the manufacturer’s attempt to branch into the passenger car market. Only 19,132 found buyers during its short (1948-1950) production run, making this New Mexico junkyard find quite unusual. 2. In 1956, for one year only, the Clipper ceased being a Packard model and became a make in its own right. The thought process behind this decision was to prevent the entry-level car from ruining Packard’s image as a luxury car brand. With a $2586-$3076 price tag, it went head-to-head with Oldsmobile, Mercury and DeSoto. The short-lived marque was discontinued later that year when Packard’s Detroit factory closed. This example, residing in southern California, is a four-door Custom model, and one of only 8708 built. 3. I struggle to tell the difference between 1941 and 1942…