M1 Momentum Issue 4 Spring / Summer 2024

THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF M1 CONCOURSE

ISSUE 4

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WELCOME TO ISSUE NUMBER FOUR OF M1 Momentum – the first of 2024. We’ve got an incredible year ahead of us, but I’d like to first look back at 2023, a year that really established M1 Concourse as somewhere special to visit.

I don’t think any of us here at M1 Concourse could have imagined when we started out that we’d host such a wide range of vehicles, or hold such a variety of events. We’ve had drift cars, Le Mans winners, restomods, vintage Indycars, bicycles and six-wheeler GMC Motorhomes, and hosted awards, charity galas, vehicle anniversary celebrations and more.

And the people! So many enthusiasts from so many walks of life, world-renowned car collectors, famous race drivers… they’ve all been to M1 Concourse during 2023.

There have been countless remarkable moments, but some of the most spine-tingling have been: seeing the Callaway Corvette crew reuniting to pay tribute to the late Reeves Callaway (led by Reeves’ son Peter driving the team’s first-ever Le Mans race car, Freida); seeing some of the gems from the Roger Penske car collection being unloaded for the American Speed Festival; hearing IROC legend Jay Signore being interviewed over the PA; and many more.

So can we match that in 2024? I know we

Welcome

M1 MOMENTUM

can, thanks to your enthusiasm and support.

Already we’re planning spectacular features at August’s Woodward Dream Show – including 60 years of the Pontiac GTO, drag racing’s fliptop Funny Cars and a celebration of 1964 music – and the American Speed Festival in October.

I am also excited to announce that we now have a partnership with the renowned NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina. It will be bringing some of the greats of NASCAR to M1 Concourse over the next few years, starting in October with the American Speed Festival.

This is a massive coup for M1 Concourse.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame is a huge, globally important institution, which celebrates the full history of this exciting and storied form of motor sport. The sight and sound of classic stock cars on our track will be quite something.

It’s not just about the headline events, though. M1 Cars & Coffee, Cars Under the Stars and our track days have grown beyond all expectations, as more and more of you discover and experience M1 Concourse – and don’t forget that you can join our M1 Concourse Car Club for extra benefits.

We can’t wait to see you again during 2024.

Tim McGrane, CEO, M1 Concourse 5

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MOMENTUM ISSUE 04 SPRING/SU MMER 2024

CONTENTS UPFRONT

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All about M1 Concourse – the ideal automotive destination

16

M1 Concourse events diary – what’s in store for 2024

18

Captured on Camera Memories of some recent M1 events

22

News New NASCAR Hall of Fame partnership

26

News Introducing the latest names to join M1 Concourse

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Preview Cars & Coffee meets planned throughout the year

30

Preview Looking ahead to the Woodward Dream Show

32

News How Aircraft Studio Design is working with M1

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34

Report American Speed Festival

40

Report GMC Motorhome at 50

42

Report NACTOY Awards

F E AT U R E S

76

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Dream Garage Units 98/99

56

Corvette and Ferrari NART Le Mans racers

68

New-Car Track Test McLaren 620R

76

Cover Story Pontiac GTO hits its 60th anniversary

88

Kissel Kar collection

96

Return of the Ramchargers

100

Flip-top Funny Cars

110

Gordon Murray interview

118

Local History Cartercar, Flanders, Olympian and Friend 7

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MOMENTUM ISSUE 04 SPRING/SU MMER 2024

CONTENTS USEFUL

122

Local Knowledge Pontiac Transportation Museum

124

Desirables Products

130

Desirables Books

132

Desirables Watches

140 134

Buying Guide Aston Martin V8 Vantage

140

Automobilia Vintage Hot Wheels timepieces

144

Track Tips Data logging

146

Parting Shot GTO on the line

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M1 MOMENTUM

F E AT U R E N A M E

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W H O T O C O N TA C T

The official magazine of the M1 Concourse www.m1concourse.com 1 Concourse Drive, Pontiac, MI 48341-2216

248-326-9999

Timothy P McGrane Chief Executive Officer tmcgrane@m1concourse.com

Brian Baker Director of Festivals & Events bbaker@m1concourse.com

Bill Lee Director of Sponsor Partnerships blee@m1concourse.com

Mike Roberts Director of Hospitality mike@m1concourse.com

Bruce Rothschild Director of Event Sales brothschild@m1concourse.com

Keith Bonn Director of Track Operations & Facilities keith@m1concourse.com

Anne Sloney Executive Administrator asloney@m1concourse.com

Jennifer Ruks Experiential Festivals & Events Manager jruks@m1concourse.com

Joe Pope Operations Manager joe@m1concourse.com

John Hoover Special Project Manager jhoover@m1concourse.com

Austin Fietsam Car Selection & Event Specialist afietsam@m1concourse.com

Shelby Harris Merchandise & Membership Administrator sharris@m1concourse.com

Meghan Lenard Event Center Sales mlenard@m1concourse.com

Lisa Molzon Motorsports Club Administrator lmolzon@m1concourse.com

Ken Burch Events Coordinator kburch@m1concourse.com

Dan Fuoco Digital Marketing Coordinator dfuoco@m1concourse.com

Jonathan Petrous Marketing Project Coordinator jpetrous@m1concourse.com

Richard Powell Graphic Designer rpowell@m1concourse.com

Nathan Roeske Client Services Coordinator nroeske@m1concourse.com

Marc Molzon Lead Driving Instructor marcmolzon@m1concourse.com

Robert Simmons Beverage Manager rsimmons@m1concourse.com

William Kneal Sr Facilities Technician bkneal@m1concourse.com

FA C I L I T I ES Aiden Haverty

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Aiden Lusk

Alex Curry

Cory Gardner

Eriq Tallmadge

SPONSORSHIP

AMBASSADORS

MERCHANDISE

https://m1concourse.com/sponsorship

https://m1concourse.com/ambassadors

https://shop.m1concourse.com

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M 1 P R I VAT E G A R A G E S A L ES

C H EC K E R E D F L A G C H A L L E N G E

https://m1concourse.com/carclub

Mitchell Associates LP 248-885-2603

lydia@checkeredflagchallenge.org

THE GREATEST

VICTORY LANE OF ALL All of the biggest families in NASCAR under one roof. Bring your family to the NASCAR Hall of Fame and make new memories in our racing simulator and pit crew challenge or get up close with the iconic cars along Glory Road. With over 850 artifacts and 50 interactive exhibits that span generations, everyone will find something for the scrapbook.

THIS IS OUR SPORT. THIS IS OUR HOUSE.

nascarhall.com NASCAR ® and NASCAR Hall of Fame ® are registered trademarks of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, Inc. © 2024.

F E AT U R E N A M E

2 0 2 4 S P O N S O R PA R T N E R S

PUBLISHER M 1 M O M E N T U M I S T H E O F F I C I A L P U B L I C AT I O N O F M 1 C O N C O U R S E , P R O D U C E D B Y H O T H O U S E M E D I A

Business inquiries Geoff Love geoff@hothousemedia.co.uk

Editorial David Lillywhite david@hothousemedia.co.uk

Advertising Sue Farrow sue@flyingspace.co.uk Lifestyle advertising Sophie Kochan sophie.kochan2010@gmail.com Managing Editor Sarah Bradley

Art Director Peter Allen

Rob Schulp rob@flyingspace.co.uk Accounts Jonathan Ellis accounts@hothousemedia.co.uk Design Debbie Nolan

Printing Buxton Press

Magazine Operations Coordinator Elaine Briggs elaine@hothousemedia.co.uk © Hothouse Publishing Ltd. M1 Momentum and associated logos are registered trademarks of M1 Concourse. All rights reserved. All material in this magazine, whether in whole or in part, may not be reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any form without the written permission of M1 Concourse and Hothouse Publishing Ltd. Hothouse Publishing Ltd uses a layered privacy notice giving you brief details about how we would like to use your personal information. For full details, please visit www.magnetomagazine.com/privacy.

M1 Momentum is published biannually by Hothouse Publishing Ltd on behalf of M1 Concourse. Great care has been taken throughout the magazine to be accurate, but the publisher cannot accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions that might occur. The editors and publishers of this magazine give no warranties, guarantees or assurances, and make no representations regarding any goods or services advertised in this edition.

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ABOUT M1 CONCOURSE The perfect Michigan destination for events, conferences, track days, driving tuition and much more

M1 CONCOURSE IS AN 87-ACRE PREMIER destination for car enthusiasts and spectators.

Nestled in the heart of Pontiac, Michigan, this unique facility draws visitors nationwide to experience the adrenaline of its high-octane offerings and community-centric events.

At its forefront, the state-of-the-art, 1.5-mile M1 Circuit has been professionally engineered to ignite the passion of both seasoned and novice drivers. With 11 challenging turns, a 30foot width and a 30-feet elevation change, it is a testament not only to track design but also to safety. The extensive run-off areas, Armco and advanced barrier systems provide peace of mind for those pushing limits on the asphalt.

Yet M1 Concourse is more than just a track; it

is a cultural hive for automotive pursuits. Its signature events include the American Speed Festival, Woodward Dream Show and Cars Under the Stars, each celebrating automotive heritage in a unique way. From car shows and coffee meets to grand festivals and balls, M1 Concourse is the hub for anyone whose heart races at the sound of a revving engine.

Beyond the track, the multifaceted Event Center and Pavilion are architectural gems providing an elegant backdrop for social and corporate gatherings. They are complemented by the top-flight Prefix Performance Center, where cars are meticulously tuned, ensuring they perform at their best on and off the track.

For those who wish to marry their livelihood

with their lifestyle, M1 Concourse offers private garages, allowing members to safeguard their automotive treasures. The M1 Motorsports Club nurtures a community of enthusiasts, creating a shared space to revel in the joys of car ownership and camaraderie.

M1 Concourse’s dynamic blend of luxury, performance and community has cemented its place as a distinguished automotive enclave. It pays homage to Michigan’s rich automotive history by providing an unparalleled venue, where the legacy of motor-driven excitement continues to thrive. Here, the spirit of the automobile is not merely observed; it is lived.

More details at www.m1concourse.com.

MOMENTUM NEWS

Dates for the diary 2024 From the regular Cars & Coffee meets to major events on-track and off, we’ve lined up a packed calendar for 2024. Which will you be heading to?

AUGUST 16-17 APRIL 2024

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05

M1 Concourse Open Track Day

M1 Cars & Coffee (all sponsored by Golling Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram) Ford, Lincoln and Mercury.

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08-17

M1 tour to Monaco Historic races, and Maranello car factories and museums

M1 Concourse at Road Racing Drivers Club Legends Dinner, at Long Beach GP

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M1 Concourse Car Club Members’ Track Day M AY 2 0 2 4

04

M1 Cars & Coffee

JDM and Asian brands.

Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride

M1 Concourse Car Club Members’ Track Day

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M1’s Monaco Formula 1 and Indy 500 viewing party

31-Jun 02

Detroit Grand Prix – NTT IndyCar Series and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 16

M1 MOMENTUM

EVENTS DIARY

JUNE 2024

06

Cars & Cigars Smoke Detroit

08

M1 Cars & Coffee

General Motors brands.

08-09

M1 Concourse collaboration with Selfridge Air National Guard Base Open House and Air Show

14-16

EyesOn Design at the Ford House, with Vision Honored gala dinner at M1 Concourse

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M1’s 24 Hours of Le Mans ‘Start thru Dark’ official ACO-USA viewing party

15-16

09

16-18

14

SEPTEMBER 2024

Collector Car Appreciation Day

M1 Cycling Classic with Cadieux Bicycle Club

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Northville Concours d’Elegance

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Yankee Air Museum Thunder Over Michigan Air Show AUGUST 2024

03

M1 Cars & Coffee

Hot rods, customs and street rods.

04

M1 Concourse Car Club Members’ Track Day

NASCAR Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway

07

M1 Cars & Coffee

Supercars and European marques.

09-10

Old Car Festival at The Henry Ford/ Greenfield Village

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Automotive Hall of Fame Induction Awards OCTOBER 2024

03

Drive and Dine Tour/Motor Grille welcome reception

09

03-06

Detroit Invitational Wings and Wheels at Yankee Air Museum

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25-26

16-17

04

Motor Muster at The Henry Ford/ Greenfield Village

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Teen Street Skills

29

M1 Concourse Open Track Day

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Cars Under the Stars Fireworks Spectacular J U LY 2 0 2 4

06

Sick PowerFest presented by M1 Concourse

M1 Concourse Open Track Day

Woodward Dream Show, Dream Parade and Cruise In

Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Pontiac GTO, all things 1964 and the Funny Car era of drag racing in association with the Quarter Mile Foundation.

JULY 14

American Speed Festival

Celebrating classic stock cars – in association with the NASCAR Hall of Fame.

Speed Ring (performance runs and track demos – day one) and M1 Private Garage Reveal

05

Speed Ring (performance runs and track demos – day two) and Checkered Flag Ball

06

Speed & Style Classic Car and Race Car Show

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M1 Cars & Coffee

Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth and all Mopar brands.

M1 Cars & Coffee

Antique, vintage and classic.

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EVENT REPORT

ABOVE Celebrating the Prefix Performance Center’s official opening at M1 Concourse; please just swing by for more details on the facilities and services it offers.

RIGHT AND BELOW The 2024 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year (NACTOY) Awards were broadcast from M1 Concourse in January.

Captured on camera From anniversaries to awards, safety campaigns to cycling, here are just a few images of a busy itinerary here at M1 Concourse

THIS PAGE Whether you are a fan of horsepower or pedal power, there’s something for everyone at M1 Concourse. The American Speed

Festival keeps the adrenaline running with a superb selection of historic race machinery, while the Cycling Classic celebrates the bicycle.

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ABOVE AND LEFT Happy birthday Porsche! We marked the iconic sports car brand’s 75th anniversary with fun and activities, and the chance to experience new and classic cars.

BELOW Meanwhile, the GMC Motorhome celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2023.

The revolutionary ‘house on wheels’ RV returned to its roots at M1 Concourse.

M

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CM

MY

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CMY

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RIGHT We’re proud to support MADD’s longrunning Tie One On For Safety campaign, to remind everyone that drinking and driving never mix.

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M1 MOMENTUM

N A S C A R H A L L O F FA M E

THE NASCAR HALL OF FAME, THE recognized home for honoring NASCAR’s legends, evolving history, celebrated heritage and family-oriented traditions, is partnering with M1 Concourse to highlight historic stock car racing at the American Speed Festival.

The new partnership will include additional classic stock car classes on track at the 2024 event, which is set to take place on October 3-6. This new class will feature several historic race cars selected from the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s permanent collection.

Now in its 15th year of operation, the Hall of Fame is an essential and enduring part of the NASCAR community, race fan experience and Charlotte region. Much more than a museum, it gives avid NASCAR fans, automotive enthusiasts and those looking to learn more about the sport a dynamic and hands-on under-the-hood experience. Using engaging interactives, rare and priceless artifacts, unique race cars and compelling videos, it puts visitors in the center of the action, be it on the dirt tracks of the 22

MOMENTUM NEWS

NASCAR Hall of Fame The home of historic stock car racing has formed an exciting new partnership with M1 Concours

WORDS TOM JENSEN P H O T O G R A P H Y N A S C A R H A L L O F FA M E

M1 MOMENTUM

1950s or the high-tech shops teams have today.

As a steward of the sport, the NASCAR Hall of Fame relates stories that span the sport’s history of more than 75 years. Within the walls of the Hall, there are numerous must-see exhibits. By delivering superior and memorable guest experiences, as well as providing inspiring educational and public programming, it is a key destination for racing fans.

At its heart is the Hall of Honor, where those sitting at the highest level of the sport are enshrined for their accomplishments. Each year the NASCAR Hall of Fame inducts a new class, which can include drivers, team owners, crew chiefs, industry pioneers and many more. As of January 2024, 14 classes have been inducted – and, for those pioneers and legends of the sport, it’s the highest honor of their professional lives.

Every inductee’s story is as unique as their career, and you can learn about all of them under one roof. Each member of the current inductee class is honored with their own exhibit, featuring

a signature car or display along with select artifacts and a 360º video presentation. This gallery is changed out annually when a new class comes in. An interactive touchscreen directory allows guests to see photos and memorabilia of every historic inductee, dating back to the facility’s opening in 2010. For many of those enshrined, it is literally a life-changing event.

“As soon as I got inducted, everybody treated me differently,” said Rusty Wallace, a member of the Class of 2013. “Everybody was nicer… kinder. Now they refer to me as Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace, not just Rusty Wallace.”

Ray Evernham, a three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion crew chief, used to watch his heroes race as a kid, before becoming a hero in his own right as an adult. Inducted in 2018, he said: “All of a sudden, you’re considered one of them. As the kid growing up… you still have a tough time believing you’re in their world.”

The Great Hall, the largest exhibition space in the museum, is where cars and artifacts are used to create timely exhibits that reflect

THIS SPREAD Now in its 15th year of operation, the NASCAR Hall of Fame showcases the sport and brings a shot of racing adrenaline to Charlotte, North Carolina.

M1 MOMENTUM

milestones, anniversaries and major topics about the sport. These incorporate NASCAR’s first season of 1948, top teams such as Petty Enterprises, Team Penske and Richard Childress Racing, and star drivers including Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. Great Hall exhibits typically are updated annually.

Glory Road is the NASCAR Hall of Fame’s premier car display. It is visible both inside and outside the building, and places the cars on a sweeping curve with progressive banking that reflects the tracks on the NASCAR circuit.

Changed every three years, its current focus is celebrating NASCAR’s 75 years of racing.

Glory Road: 75 Years showcases 18 vehicles.

The NASCAR race cars date from the early 1960s to Austin Cindric’s 2022 Daytona 500-winning car. The Glory Road exhibits cover eight different NASCAR classes, seven decades and six automakers.

Collectively, the drivers represented on Glory Road have won a huge 55 NASCAR championships and more than 700 races. You 23

THIS PAGE Glory Road’s sweeping curve currently celebrates NASCAR’s 75 years of racing. Other attractions include the Pit Crew Challenge, the annual induction ceremony and historic race artifacts.

can learn more about each of the cars and their drivers through interactive displays, which include history, competition records, photos and 360º views of the inside of each vehicle.

The Inside NASCAR gallery gives a hands-on experience that immerses guests in the sport.

They can participate in a Pit Crew Challenge, where teams compete to be the fastest to jack a car up, replace a tire and fuel up a tank. Digital timing makes things that much more intense.

Visitors can also test their skills as a driver

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M1 MOMENTUM

by getting behind the wheel in one of the Hall’s signature attractions, the racing simulators: eight full-sized car bodies with steering wheels, pedals and a computer screen linked to iRacing software displaying every NASCAR oval track. Up to 15 people can compete at once, in this thrilling experience attraction.

Automotive enthusiasts get a true underthe-hood experience, using virtual reality and touchscreens to explore the powerplant, systems and design features of the current NASCAR Cup Series car. Strategy, broadcast and track interactives give guests a further appreciation of the complexities of the sport.

For history buffs, Heritage Speedway, on the top floor, is an essential stop. The largest artifact is an actual Wilkes County, North Carolina moonshine still built by Junior Johnson. And that’s just for starters. Also on display are the first NASCAR race trophy from Daytona Beach in 1948, the first two NASCAR championship trophies from 1948 and ’49, Lee Petty’s trophy and driving outfit from the inaugural 1959 Daytona 500, along with the actual photo used to determine the winner, to name only a few of the hundreds of artifacts.

How important is the NASCAR Hall of Fame?

Team owner Richard Childress (Class of 2017) put it this way: “There’s so much history there throughout the years, going all the way back to Bill France Sr, who was the founder of NASCAR. So many great drivers, crew chiefs, owners and engine builders… There’s just so much history at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.”

For more information, see www.nascarhall.com.

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N E W FA C E S

FROM LEFT Bill Lee, Jennifer Ruks and Brian Baker have joined the team.

MOMENTUM NEWS THERE ARE THREE NEW FACES AT M1 Concourse for 2024, with two directors added to the leadership team. Brian Baker is director of festivals and events, and Bill Lee is director of sponsor partnerships, while Jennifer Ruks joins as experiential festivals and events manager. Be sure to say hi on your next visit.

Brian is an automotive historian, designer, speaker and educator, who brings decades of experience and vast knowledge of motoring heritage to his new role. He spent 25 years as a General Motors designer of concept and production vehicles in Europe and the US, and rose to vice-president of design for American Specialty Cars (ASC.) He’s a past president of the Society of Automotive Historians chapter in Detroit, too. A keynote speaker and host for automotive conferences in India, Japan and North America, he was also a docent at The Henry Ford, vice-president of education at the Automotive Hall of Fame and, most recently, director of collections and education at the National Corvette Museum.

Bill is an accomplished sales and marketing executive with a proven track record of leading organizations, driving partnership revenue and creating new opportunities for sports and entertainment venues and live-event properties.

He’s led the sales for over 1000 events – from motor sports to Broadway – playing an array of stadiums, arenas, theaters, casinos and performing arts centers across the US. Recently, Bill was the chief revenue executive 26

New additions at M1 Concourse Top newcomers bring their superb industry knowledge to further enhance the overall M1 Concourse experience

M1 MOMENTUM

and co-creator of a leading-edge live event sponsorship format featuring actors from legacy shows and ratings juggernauts on ABC, CBS, AMC, HBO, The Disney Network and Nick. His experience, performance and industry standing have led to executive positions at Olympia Entertainment, Champions on Ice, SMG Worldwide Facility Management and more. His extensive sponsor and promotional partnership credits include Cadillac, Chevrolet, Ford Motor Company, Volvo, Starbucks, TNT, NBC and The New York Times.

Jennifer brings a wealth of eventsmanagement experience to the team. She’s worked as a consultant with Well House Event Management, and was previously corporate event manager at Bentley Motors America. She has delivered high-quality events overseeing all aspects of planning, sponsorship negotiations/ fulfillment, budgeting, execution and evaluation.

Jennifer will oversee the running of the evergrowing event portfolio at M1 Concourse.

“Brian, Bill and Jennifer are great additions to our talented team,” said CEO Tim McGrane.

“All three have strengths that will enhance our automotive selection, events and sponsorship initiatives – and, most importantly, the overall M1 experience – for everyone who visits. We have an exciting show schedule for 2024, filled with everything from power and speed to classic design. We invite the community to join us for these one-of-a-kind events, shows and festivals, truly befitting of the Motor City.”

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M1 CARS & COFFEE

EVENT PREVIEW THE M1 CARS & COFFEE MEETINGS ON the first Saturday of every month*, from spring right through to fall, have grown beyond all recognition to become Michigan’s largest automotive hook-ups of their kind. That’s some achievement in this car-centric area. Not only that, but USA Today placed the monthly events in the top five of its Ten Best Readers’ Choice list of national car shows.

If you’d like to come along, then all we ask is that you reserve a spot for your car by filling out a very simple form on the website. It will take just one minute to complete – and places are, of course, completely free of charge.

Remember, too, that M1 Concourse Car Club members get arena parking, putting them right in the center of the action. A typical M1 Cars & Coffee now attracts around 1000 vehicles, so you can be guaranteed to come across some that you’ve never seen before – and the atmosphere is electric.

The meetings, which run from 8am to 11am, start the weekend in the best way possible,

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M1 Cars & Coffee F I R S T S A T U R D AY OF THE MONTH

Come to Michigan’s biggest event of its kind – but please register on the website first

among fellow enthusiasts. They are family friendly and, don’t forget, there’s no cost.

Every event has a theme, with selected vehicles matching that displayed in the arena.

However, all other classic and collector cars are also welcome at every M1 Cars & Coffee, which is sponsored by Golling Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram. The themes for 2024 are as follows: April 6 – Ford, Lincoln and Mercury May 4 – JDM and Asian brands June 8 – General Motors brands* July 6 – All antique, vintage, and pre-war classic marques August 3 – Hot rods, customs, street rods September 7 – Supercars and European marques October 12 – Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth and all Mopar brands*

PHOTOGRAPHY M1 CONCOURSE

Come along to find out why we’re so excited about these meetings. We can’t wait to see you.

Please register your vehicle for Cars & Coffee at www.m1concourse.com/cars-and-coffee.

FROM ABOVE Cars & Coffee attracts a fantastic variety of vehicles, and is totally free to attend. A great way to kick off your weekend – but please reserve a spot for your car first.

*June and October C&Cs are on second Saturday of month, due to other events at M1 Concourse.

M1 MOMENTUM

Golling Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Of Bloomfield Location: 2405 S Telegraph Rd, Bloomfield Hills, MI 48302-0256

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W O O D WA R D D R E A M S H O W

FROM LEFT The Woodward Dream Show is a prelude to the Dream Cruise, and will feature 500 collector cars. The GTO’s 60th anniversary will also be celebrated.

EVENT PREVIEW THE 2024 WOODWARD DREAM SHOW, presented by Comerica Bank, will take place on Friday and Saturday, August 16-17, 2024 as a prelude to the world-famous Woodward Dream Cruise on adjacent Woodward Avenue.

This year, our Woodward Dream Show will celebrate the cars, the music and the times of the year 1964. One of the features of this tribute will be a display of 60 special examples of the Pontiac GTO. First launched for the 1964 model year, the GTO is considered by many to be the first American muscle car, which – due to its performance and affordability – quickly helped launch the muscle era and established the model’s legendary status.

On Friday, August 16, Pontiac GTOs will take over the Woodward Dream Show at M1 Concourse for an unforgettable 60th anniversary celebration. Examples from each generation of models built from the first year of 1964 through to the final year of 2006 will be an integral part of the show.

In association with the Quarter Mile Foundation, the event will also showcase the 30

Woodward Dream Show A U G U S T 1 6 -1 7, 2 0 2 4

This year’s event, which celebrates the year 1964, is somewhere fabulous to gather ahead of the Woodward Dream Cruise

PHOTOGRAPHY M 1 C O N C O U R S E / S T E V E L A G R EC A

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evolution of the Funny Car, with a display of dragsters from altered-wheelbase cars to matchrace flip-tops. There’ll be a cackle fest, too.

On Saturday, August 17, we’ll start the day with our second annual Woodward Dream Parade, with cars leaving M1 Concourse and heading to downtown Pontiac for a group photo of some 200 vehicles on Saginaw Street.

The Woodward Dream Show at M1 Concourse will have a total of over 500 vintage, classic and special-interest show cars and hot rods from all years on display across the two days. The 30 different classes will range from Traditional Customs and American Performance, to European Classic and Supercars, with awards given in each category.

There will also be a People’s Choice selection and other special recognition awards.

In addition, there’ll be a Family Fun Zone, remote-control cars, food trucks, an Insider’s Garage Symposium and more. Tickets start at $25, or $10 for under-17s. Under-sixes go free.

To enter a car or to buy tickets, please visit www.woodwarddreamshow.com.

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AIRCRAFT STUDIO DESIGN

MOMENTUM NEWS

Aircraft Studio Design This Italian design consultancy has created a special livery for the M1 Concourse Radical SR3 WHAT LINKS A PROLIFIC DESIGN AND engineering studio in Modena, Italy with M1 Concourse? The answer is staring you in the face – Aircraft Studio Design has applied its skills to the livery of M1’s Radical SR3 track car, with stunning results.

As the name suggests, the company is best known for livery designs for private jets, light aircraft and even radio-controlled ’planes.

However, there was never anything to say that its talents couldn’t be applied to automobiles, too. And when you look more deeply into what Aircraft Studio Design does, it doesn’t take long to realize that its portfolio goes a long, long way beyond liveries alone.

For us, one of the most interesting projects at Aircraft Studio Design is its automotive, aeronautical and nautical-themed artworks.

Our favorites, predictably, are the IXOOST exhaust manifold artworks, but there are also sound systems based around the rear bodywork of current Lamborghinis, distinctive trophies, custom pens and much more.

All this is the brainchild of Aircraft Studio Design founder Mirco Pecorari, an Italian designer with a love of aircraft in particular.

He says: “My passion has always been imagining unique flying forms and making airplanes beautiful. This led me to create thousands of drawings. I started publishing part of my collection, with the nickname of McPecos, several years ago. I couldn’t be anything but an aircraft designer, so my passion became my work. My sketches took life in hundreds of liveries, aircraft and scale models.”

You can see more of Mirco’s stunning work at www.aircraftstudiodesign.com.

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FROM TOP Aircraft Studio Design has created the artwork for the M1 Concourse Radical SR3, alongside IXOOST exhaust manifold pieces and livery for private jets.

WORDS D AV I D L I L LY W H I T E PHOTOGRAPHY AIRCRAFT S T U D I O D ES I G N / WILKENS PHOTOGRAPHY

M1 MOMENTUM

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The collector car scene is vibrant, forward thinking and essential. Magneto is not a magazine that reflects only times gone by, but celebrates the historic car movement in the here and now. The best events, the technologies that are driving innovation in restoration, the personalities and the ever-changing market for buyers and sellers.

Keep informed and entertained with a subscription to Magneto - the quarterly magazine for those with a serious passion for collector cars.

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EVENT REPORT

American Speed Festival Third annual staging was a rare opportunity to witness probably the greatest selection of race machinery ever seen at an event of this size

W O R D S D AV I D L I L LY W H I T E P H O T O G R A P H Y M AT T H O W E L L

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A M E R I C A N S P E E D F E S T I VA L

OF ALL THE EVENTS THAT TAKE PLACE at M1 Concourse, the biggest is the American Speed Festival, which made its third running at the end of September 2023.

The car line-up for the festival was nothing short of stunning; it was probably the greatest selection of machinery ever seen at an event of this size, with celebrations of Americans at the Le Mans 24 Hours, in the race’s centenary year, 70 years of the Corvette and 50 years of IROC. There was also an evocative tribute to Corvette legend Reeves Callaway, who passed away several months earlier, in July 2023.

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway brought along its 1965 Le Mans-winning 250 LM – the final Ferrari victor at La Sarthe until last year, remember – and The Henry Ford allowed a rare appearance outside of the museum of its Le Mans-winning GT40 MkIV. In period, the 1967 car was prepared by Shelby American and driven to victory by AJ Foyt and Dan Gurney, marking the ultimate US team victory. Another Ford 24 Hours participant, the 1965 GT Competition Prototype Roadster – the only GT Roadster to race at Le Mans – also appeared.

Sticking with the Americans at Le Mans theme, in 1965 the 250 LM was entered by 36

PREVIOUS SPREAD Corvette SR-2 and drift cars were star attractions.

THIS SPREAD Gas-turbine Lotus 56 STP sounded like nothing else on the track; Peter Callaway led tribute to his father; Jay Signore chats with author Matt Stone.

Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team (NART), driven by the US’s Masten Gregory along with Jochen Rindt.

With no official Maranello entry, the NART outfit would take overall victory for Ferrari, marking the first victory at Le Mans for a midengined car. Although Chinetti had won the Le Mans 24 Hours as a driver three times (Alfa Romeo 1932 and 1934, Ferrari 1949), and his NART’s 1965 win would be the ninth overall victory for a Ferrari, it would be another 58 years before another Prancing Horse would take the checkered flag at Le Mans.

At the festival, the 250 LM was accompanied by a surprising NART Le Mans veteran, the 1968 Corvette L88 that ran in the 1972 24 Hours. You’ll find a feature on the two cars further on in this issue of M1 Momentum.

The history of Americans at Le Mans, and Corvettes in particular, started with the Briggs M1 MOMENTUM

Cunningham three-car team in 1960. Two of the three Cunningham machines from that year – the famous No. 3 that finished first in class and eighth overall, along with the No. 1 team car – were in action at the festival thanks to specialist Kevin McKay and to George Haddad. They were joined by many more of the most important Corvettes ever made, including the SR-2 concept and the 1962, 1964 and 1967 Le Mans entrants.

To add to this were no fewer than seven Callaway Corvette race cars, representing seven generations of the famous company’s creations, including its much-loved 1994 Le Mans entrant, ‘Frieda’. They starred in a thunderous tribute to Reeves Callaway – the first time so many Callaway race cars have gathered at a single public event, thanks to Charles Wicht and John Kyle II. Many members of the Callaway team attended the American Speed Festival for the tribute, including Reeves’ son Peter (driving Frieda); the designer of all Callaway race cars, Paul Deutschman; the head of the Germany-based Callaway Competition race car development and build team, Ernst Wöhr; and many more – some of whom last worked

for the team back in the mid-1990s.

Penske dipped into its amazing collection for the Porsche 911 RSR driven by Mark Donohue, Emerson Fittipaldi and Richard Petty in the inaugural season of the International Race of Champions, or IROC as we now know it. It was just one of several iconic machines brought along by Penske, which also included Mario Andretti’s IROC championship-winning 1979 Camaro, the Dale Earnhardt Sr championshipwinning 1995 Dodge Avenger and Al Unser’s Camaro, plus other examples from Roger Penske’s unfeasibly successful history.

One of the festival’s most special guests was IROC co-founder, and the heart and soul of the program from its founding in 1973 thru 2006, Jay Signore, who was interviewed several times.

Meanwhile, M1 Concourse head track tutor and US racing legend Johnny O’Connell took Bill Warner’s 1977 IROC No. 7 Camaro – driven between 1977 and ’79 by Al Unser Sr, Mario Andretti, Jacky Ickx, David Pearson, Gordon Johncock, Neil Bonnett, Cale Yarborough, Rick Mears and Bobby Allison – for some demo drives, and announced that it was quite possibly the loudest car he’d ever driven.

In fact, Johnny was one of the two 2023

‘US racing legend Johnny O’Connell was one of the Master of Motorsports recipients, along with Ford Performance for its achievements at Le Mans’ M1 MOMENTUM

Master of Motorsports recipients: not only is he the most successful GM factory driver, he also achieved a class win and fifth-place finish at his first Le Mans, in 1994, driving the Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Joining the newly formed Corvette team, O’Connell piloted a factory ’Vette on ten occasions, producing an astonishing eight podium finishes, including three class victories in 2001, 2002 and 2009.

Johnny was presented with his award by Herb Fishel, former executive director of GM Racing and the man who was responsible for the launch of the Corvette factory racing program.

The other recipient was Ford Performance, for its historic achievements at Le Mans that started in the 1960s with the victorious GT40s, and continued with its triumphant return in 2016 with the GT. Receiving the accolade on behalf of Ford Performance was Jim Owens, Mustang GTD brand manager – and the award was further recognized with a parade of 36 Ford GTs on the M1 circuit on the Saturday.

The Master of Motorsports prizes were awarded during the Checkered Flag Ball fund-raising event. The evening supports M1 Mobility, an initiative created by Checkered Flag Challenge, M1 Concourse’s philanthropic 37

American Speed Festival 2023 awards

component, in partnership with the Pontiac Community Foundation. Its mission is to provide multi-tier transportation solutions to ensure the people of the City of Pontiac have access to community programs and services.

Most of the invited cars took part in track demos on the Friday and Saturday, interspersed with drives of some of the models belonging to the owners of the 255 private garages. Joining the action were classes of Vintage Indy cars, classic sports and race machines, rally and drift cars and supercars, while the large Event Center also hosted activities throughout the three days.

On the Sunday, the event evolved into a more leisurely – although still exciting – show, with over 200 cars together with a line-up of collector, classic and special-interest machinery for all to enjoy up close. The day also featured seminars and an automotive artists’ exhibit that included students from the College for Creative Studies Transportation Design Dept.

The Americans at Le Mans seminar included Johnny O’Connell and Herb Fishel (Corvette), Roger Bailey (Ford 1966) and Andrea Robertson, 38

ABOVE 1969 Lola T70 MkIIIB was one of the stars of the event, thunderously lapping the track during its sessions; the new Prefix Performance Center was kept busy with tune-ups and tire changes.

who along with her late husband David, and codriver David Murray, with their privately entered Doran Ford GT-R in 2011, became the first and only husband-and-wife team to finish on the podium at Le Mans, with a third place in the GTE-Am category. Andrea would also become the first woman since 1931 to make the podium.

Throughout the weekend there were also crowd-pleasing drift-car demos, kids’ activities and a parachute drop-in by a husband-andwife pair who between them have completed 10,000-plus jumps. An amazing event – and with even better plans for this year, we reckon the festival is on track to make it really big.

We’d like to thank all the participants for their involvement. Under glorious skies, we had an excellent event – and we’re already setting the themes for the next one, on October 3-6, 2024.

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Class 1 – Americans at Le Mans: 1960 Cunningham Corvette No. 3 – Irwin Kroiz Class 2 – Chevrolet Corvette Race Cars: 1994 Callaway LM Corvette ‘Frieda’ – John Kyle, Fort Lauderdale, FL Class 3 – IROC: 1974 Porsche 911 IROC Mark Donohue – Penske Collection, Phoenix, AZ Class 4 – Ford Performance: 1965 Ford GT Competition Prototype Roadster – Dana Mecum Class 5 – Vintage Indy: 1968 Lotus 56 Turbine STP – Bruce Linsmeyer Class 6 – Sports Cars and Endurance Race Cars: 1964 McLaren M1 – Dean Sellars Class 7 – Supercars: 2003 Saleen S7 – Clark Harris, Bloomfield Hills, MI Class 8 – Rally and Drift Race Cars: 1980 Plymouth Arrow – Zach Tompson, Waterford, MI Class 9 – European Sports Cars: 1958 Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk3 – Peter Heydon, Ann Arbor, MI Class 10 – Chevrolet Corvette: 1967 Chevrolet Corvette – Ron Turner, Waterford, MI Class 11 – Mopar: 2015 Dodge Viper – Ted Gray, Waterford, MI Class 12 – American Classic: 1957 Ford Ranchero – Terry and Jan Hawke, Sterling Heights, MI Class 13 – Import Classic: 1966 Jaguar E-type Series 1 Roadster – Conrad Foster, Plymouth, MI Class 14 – American Performance: 2013 Shelby Mustang GT500 – Jerry Tignanelli, Shelby Township, MI Class 15 – Import Performance: 1995 Porsche 911 – Alan Klien, West Bloomfield, MI Class 16 – Muscle Car: 1970 Pontiac GTO – Dick Winkle, Pontiac, MI Class 17 – Pony Car: 1969 Shelby Mustang GT350 – Larry Rogers, Rochester, MI Class 18 – Hot Rod/Custom: 1953 Ford F-100 – Paul Grabski, Sterling Heights, MI Class 19 – Motorcycle: 1954 Pony Cycle Motor Scooter – Terry Hawke, Sterling Heights, MI City of Pontiac Award: 1963 Pontiac Grand Prix – Howard Kay, Grosse Pointe Park, MI People’s Choice Award: 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix No. 42 Mello Yello NASCAR driven by Kyle Petty – Michael Haislet, Fenton, MI Car Selection Committee Award: 1966 Corvette L88 Penske – George Haddad, Fort Lauderdale, FL Chairman Award: 1977 Camaro IROC – Bill Warner, Jacksonville, FL M1 Momentum Magazine Award: 1964 Ferrari 250 LM – IMS Museum, Indianapolis, IN Master of Motorsports Award: 1981 March 817 Can-Am – David Nikolas, Pontiac, MI

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EVENT REPORT

GMC Motorhomes We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the GMC Motorhome, as the revolutionary ‘house on wheels’ RV returned to its roots

W O R D S N AT H A N C H A D W I C K PHOTOGRAPHY M1 CONCOURSE / A A R O N R U D M A N ( B LU E P U F F I N M E D I A )

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M1 CONCOURSE HAS PLAYED HOST to many groundbreaking vehicles, but last October we welcomed 80 GMC Motorhomes back to the very place where they had first rolled off the production line, 50 years before.

M1 Concourse is built on the site of the old Rapid Motor Vehicle Company commercial truck factory, which had been established in 1906 and was taken over by General Motors in 1909. Old Plant 1, otherwise known as Pontiac West, was the scene of many fascinating ideas over the years, but perhaps the most revolutionary was the GMC Motorhome.

Launched in late 1972 for the 1973 model year, nothing quite like the GMC Motorhome had ever been seen before in the RV market. At the time, rival models were upright, square boxes, whereas GM’s take was sleek, smooth and boasted wraparound glass. Available in various guises at between 23 and 26 feet long, it was also a much more manageable size for the burgeoning owner market. The body, crafted from glassfiber and sheet aluminum, was hardwearing, versatile and relatively lightweight.

Period advertising claimed that not only did

THIS SPREAD GMC Motorhome owners from all over the US traveled to M1 Concourse to mark 50 years since the luxury home away from home was launched.

the GMC Motorhome not look like a box, but it didn’t ride like a truck, either. Key to this was its low-slung chassis, adapted from that of the front-wheel-drive Oldsmobile Toronado. A 455ci V8 provided the power, while air-sprung tandem bogie wheels gave optimum ride quality and interior space; this set-up also allowed for the coach to self-level at pitches.

When production began over at Plant No. 3, the order books were already full – to the point where GM’s interior supplier couldn’t keep up with demand. This led to a backlog of orders, just in time for the 1973 oil crisis to clobber

sales. Bringing the trimming department inside the GM factory helped to improve productivity, but the ingenuity of the designers, marketeers and engineers led to another use for the Motorhome’s essential bones.

The TransMode project allowed the chassis to be used by coachbuilders to create urbanassault vehicles, shuttle buses and ambulances, among other guises. However, there were problems along the way. Oldsmobile had stopped making its 455ci engine in late 1977, which forced GMC to use the smaller 403ci V8 from 1978 onwards – and worse was to follow.

The 1979 Toronado was planned to be a much smaller affair, which wouldn’t work with the Motorhome’s requirements. While GMC staff tried to find ways to help the vehicle survive, through the use of either a different engine or a fresh design, the project was deemed unable to redeem its costs. The dream was over in 1978, with around 13,000 Motorhomes built.

It has persisted in public consciousness, however. More than 9000 are still believed to be on the road today, and 80 made the trip back to the RV’s spiritual home at M1 Concourse to

mark its 50th anniversary. Among them were Henry van White and his wife Sharon.

Relatively recent converts to the Motorhome world, they had owned their GMC for a year.

“I met the fellow who had it before us; he was a mechanic who’d done everything that needed to be done mechanically,” Henry said. “Then he just lost interest, so his wife told him that if he wasn’t going to finish it, to sell it – and that’s where I stepped in. We are absolutely loving it.”

Such devotion is key to the Motorhome’s high survival rate, as Jared Cole, VP of the Eastern Division of GMC Motorhomes International, explained: “The community behind them is what really keeps them going.”

However, for GMC engineer Karl Gross, a speaker at the special event, such survival rates are a pleasant surprise. “Someone asked me: ‘What did you think when you designed this motorhome; did you think they’d be around in 50 years?’” he said. “I was fresh out of engineering college, on my first job assignment; I never once thought about that – but it’s such a pleasure to see all of these still on the road a half-century later.”

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N A C T OY AWA R D S

EVENT REPORT BACK IN EARLY JANUARY THIS YEAR, M1 Concourse hosted the prestigious 2024 North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year (NACTOY) Awards. Following hundreds of hours of research and three rounds of votes, the winners were announced in the Events Center during a press conference co-hosted by the Detroit Auto Dealers Association (DADA) and Automotive Press Association (APA). Setting new benchmarks in their segments, the results were as follows: North American Car of the Year: Toyota Prius and Prius Prime

NACTOY Awards These unique and prestigious national awards were hosted

by M1 Concourse

North American Truck of the Year: Ford Super Duty North American Utility Vehicle of the Year: Kia EV9 NACTOY, which this year celebrates its 30th anniversary, kicked off the awards process back in July 2023 by announcing an initial list of 52 eligible vehicles. At the Detroit Auto Show in September, that list was narrowed down to 25, which were deemed The Best of 2024, and then it was narrowed down again to nine outstanding finalists, which were

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BELOW FROM LEFT The results of the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year Awards were announced at M1 Concourse back in January, with Ford, Toyota and Kia taking the win.

M1 MOMENTUM

announced at the Los Angeles Auto Show.

Over the course of the year, NACTOY jurors spent hundreds of hours test driving, researching and evaluating vehicles on automotive innovation, design, performance, safety, technology, driver satisfaction, user experience and value, leveraging their expertise to cast their votes for the winners.

“Our winners reflect the fact that a modern vehicle must be a combination of style, utility and technology,” said NACTOY president Jeff Gilbert. “I commend our 50 jurors for coming up with some excellent choices.”

Founded in 1994, and intended to recognize the most outstanding newcomers of the year, these are uniquely the longest-running newvehicle awards that are not associated with a single publication, website, radio broadcaster or television station. They are judged by an independent jury of professional automotive journalists from a wide variety of print, online, radio and television media outlets in the United States and Canada.

The votes are confidentially tallied by Deloitte LLP, ensuring that each stage of the cycle is the collective decision of all the jurors.

Votes for the 2024 NACTOY winners remained secret right up until the moment the envelopes were opened onstage at M1 Concourse.

A D V E R T I S I N G F E AT U R E

MOMENTUM NEWS

Exsim VR5 Motion Simulator

Can a digital replica of your car emulate a reallife track experience?

We find out

W O R D S E L L I O T T H U G H ES P H O T O G R A P H Y J A KO B E B R E Y

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I’M SITTING IN EXSIM’S VR5 MOTION Simulator. The purpose of my visit is twofold; first, I am here to experience one of the finest simulators on the market, and find out how it compares to other systems I’ve used in the past.

More significantly, however, this US-made sim – which retails as a full package, with top-ofthe-line components, curved monitors and highend gaming PCs, for $69,995 – is preparing me to drive a real Porsche 911 GT3 Cup on track.

Luckily for me, the VR5 Motion Simulator comes with the perfect hardware for the task at hand. It is designed on a bespoke chassis underpinned by four D-BOX actuators. These are effectively giant dampers that allow the carbonfiber Tillet bucket seat to precisely roll, pitch and yaw in such a way as to mimic the effects of G-forces, track geography and, in the worst case, collisions.

Steering feedback is administered through a Fanatec DD2 direct-drive wheelbase, while Heusinkveld Engineering’s Ultimate Pedals resemble the precisely engineered system you would find in the footwell of a real racing car.

It all looks and feels very high end and tactile, but the true beauty of the hardware is in its scope of customization.

The brakes, for example, can be tuned to require up to 140kg of force, while the throw of each pedal can be precisely adjusted to emulate M1 MOMENTUM

a specific car. This theme continues with the steering base, which can provide up to 18lb ft of resistance and can be fitted with virtually any steering wheel you can think of.

All this top-end hardware is put to work in the Assetto Corsa software via a Digital Twin, which Exsim creates by recording reams of data from the real car, and transplanting it into the virtual world. The idea is to create the closest digital representation possible, right down to the weight of the controls and the ferocity of the gearshifts. The result is seriously impressive.

Other motion simulators I’ve used are too violent and distracting, or just don’t resemble the feeling of a real car closely enough. The motion effect in the VR5 is subtle, and adds a feeling of inertia and a level of feedback that lesser simulators simply don’t replicate.

Now that I’m acclimatised to the VR5, the forecast temperature and wind direction are put into Assetto Corsa for my final stint of the day. This is where the bespoke-tire model comes into its own, because the rubber takes longer to reach its working temperature and grip up. Once the tires are warm, I get into a rhythm and post my best time. Only one question still remains: is it really that close to the real thing?

A week later, it’s time to find out. The butterflies and excitement I feel are something no simulator can replicate, but by the end of the track session, one thing becomes very clear: there is no way I would feel this comfortable in the 911 GT3 had it not been for the simulator. It’s amazing how close the VR5 Motion felt to the real thing; no wonder these are so popular with top drivers such as Max Verstappen and Lando Norris.

Exsim simulators are sold worldwide. For more information, please see www.exsim.co.uk.

THIS PAGE Exsim’s VR5 Motion Simulator lets you hone your skills behind the wheel before hitting a real-life racing circuit. Its realism even makes it popular with top drivers.

WORDS D AV I D L I L LY W H I T E PHOTOGRAPHY M AT T H O W E L L

Jim D’Agostini is living the car guy dream with his M1 Concourse unit, which he acquired only after a chance visit to a local car dealership

DREAM GARAGE

DREAM GARAGE

THIS SPREAD Jim can indulge his passion for all things automotive in his garage, which is a ‘drive-thru’ facility formed from several linked units. “I just love going fast. I’m never scared of going fast in a car. I’m Italian: we all love cars.”

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LEFT The red and black theme runs throughout the luxury garage’s layout, which was designed with the help of Jim’s architect son.

DREAM GARAGE

“I’VE ALWAYS BEEN A CAR GUY,” SAYS Jim D’Agostini – perhaps unnecessarily, seeing as he’s standing in the middle of his glittering shrine to automotive passion. Jim has really been bitten by the M1 Concourse bug, becoming president of the Private Garage Community Association, and his own garage is one of those that really shows what can be done.

Funny thing is, it was only a chance visit to a local dealership that prompted it all.

“I was buying a car at a local exotic automobile dealer in May 2015,” explains Jim, “and there was a presentation being given about M1 Concourse. The salesman said: ‘You’re a car guy; you should listen to this.’

“So my wife Antonina and I wandered over, and I thought it was the greatest idea since the automobile was invented. Then he told me the price, and I thought it was ridiculous – but my wife talked me into going back to reserve a garage. She knew how much it would mean to me – she totally supports my passion. In retrospect, the price was very good.”

He continues: “I reserved one unit, but the bug got a further hold of me and I reserved two smaller garages behind the first one to make a ‘drive-thru’ unit, as the others in that building had all gone. I did the build-out of those three

‘I’m living the dream of the passion for cars that I’ve had since I was a kid. I was born in Detroit; cars were always a part of my life’

THIS SPREAD Decor includes a pedal car and trans casing in the bathrooms, a cards table, and Lamborghini and Ferrari crests in the shower room. Jim’s 1200bhp Challenger is a tribute to his first ’Cuda – and it’s a beast!

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units; then a couple of years later, I approached the owner next to mine to buy his unit 98.

About two months later, he agreed to sell.”

The result is outstanding: Jim’s four units combine into one large, spacious garage with overhead doors at either end – one set facing the interior access road, the other onto the exterior access road facing the track. It makes moving the cars around much easier – which is lucky, because Jim loves to take out his cars.

Some of the most exceptional ones in his collection are able to be stored on the upper floor of the garage, thanks to a slickly installed lift. This has some neat touches – including its upper-floor structural components disguised within a pair of supercharger housings.

The more you look, the more of these clever details you spot – even in the bathrooms. In one, a rare Giordani Racer Ferrari F2 pedal car sits beneath the counter top, with a glass sink submerged into its cockpit. In another, the sink is supported on top of a transmission casing.

And then there’s the steam shower room, in which Maserati, Lamborghini and Ferrari crests have been picked out in mosaics created by an artist whom Jim spotted at a BarrettJackson Scottsdale auction a few years ago.

“My son is an architect,” says Jim. “He used 53

DREAM GARAGE

a 3D CAD system to plan the garage’s layout. A lot of the other garage build-outs cover the metalwork, but all of it here is on show; we highlighted the beams and columns in red. We dropped metal ‘clouds’ from the ceiling with hidden LEDs to highlight certain areas.”

There are several distinct areas, including a huge poker table, a seating area, a dining area, an office with glass walls and – Jim’s favorite – the Cigar Bar, which overlooks the track. “I just sit here with my iPad and phone,” he says.

That’s when he’s not driving his cars. There are plenty to choose from… Jim’s first was a 1970 ’Cuda, which he bought aged 16, and he’s still got that passion, with two examples in the garage: a 1970 All American Racing (AAR) rebuilt as a 496bhp drag car, and a purple ’71, pistol-grip manual, matching-numbers car.

Then there’s the 2011 Challenger that Jim refers to as a tribute to the 1970 ‘E body’ ’Cuda.

Its body has been widened with custom panels, and it’s powered by a 1200bhp supercharged Viper Gen 4 V10, mated to a one-off fourspeed auto and Dynatrack axle. It’s a beast.

Now Jim is building up a Porsche 718 GT4.

“Porsches are so easy. A lot of the guys here run 911s, Cayman GT4s and Club Sports. To use a Ferrari on track, you have to spend so 54

ABOVE Jim’s purple 1971 ’Cuda and, sitting behind, his red AAR reflect his ongoing love of the classic Plymouth muscle car.

‘I never intend to finish the garage. That’s the beauty of these places, you can keep thinking of more things to do’ M1 MOMENTUM

much; a Porsche is run at a quarter of the cost.

I’m working on building up the GT4: it has 414bhp as stock, but I want 510-520bhp.”

The tour continues… The 2016 Cadillac CTS-V looks mean, while the blue C3 Corvette was bought new by Jim in 1980, and now has a 430bhp early LS motor. Then there’s the 2015 Rolls-Royce Wraith, 2012 Maserati GTS, 2016 Ferrari F12 Berlinetta, 2018 Lamborghini Huracán Performante and 2023 Ferrari SF90 Spider Assetto Fiorano with blue carbonfiber interior trim… the list goes on.

“I’m a retired guy living the dream of my passion for cars that I’ve had since I was a kid,” says Jim. “I was born in Detroit; cars were always a part of my life. I had a go-kart, a minibike... I was a dare devil. I just love going fast. I’m never scared of going fast in a car. I’m Italian: we all love cars and speed!

“I didn’t get to play in this playground until 2015. Up to then I just had a few special cars.

M1 gave me the opportunity to add to the collection and enjoy them in a community of car lovers. Now my wife is into it, too – she drives the cars on the track here. I never intend to finish the garage. That’s the beauty of these places, you can keep thinking of more things to do. You don’t want to finish it.”

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The tale behind two decidedly different NART Le Mans racers, which recently came together for the American Speed Festival at M1 Concourse

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THE TWO CARS SHOWN ON THESE pages could not possibly be less alike. One was meticulously hand-built by old-world craftsmen working for, arguably, the most recognized automotive brand on earth. The other, from a manufacturer known for mass production, was built by a bunch of amateur racers from a $600 wreck in a matter of weeks.

They have several things in common, however: they both played a major role in establishing the dominance of Goodyear tires in international racing. They both raced painted in the deep, Ferrari blood red. And they both were entered at Le Mans, the world’s most prestigious motor race, by the competition arm of Ferrari’s US distributor, the North American Racing Team (NART).

Before we tell the story of these two automobiles, we first should first explain what NART was. In the 1930s, a young Italian by the name of Luigi Chinetti was making a name for himself in racing. Most impressively, he won the most prestigious road race in the world – the Le Mans 24 Hours – twice, in 1932 and ’34.

He came to the US in 1939 and, unable to return when war broke out, made it his home.

After the hostilities ended, Chinetti returned to Europe and re-established a connection with a man he’d first met 30 years before, Enzo Ferrari.

Ferrari had started building racing cars, but he needed to support this effort with 58

‘NART helped launch the road-racing careers of the likes of Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby, Mario Andretti and the Rodríguez brothers’

sales of expensive, high-performance road machines. Chinetti convinced Enzo that the market for his cars was North America, not war-ravaged Europe. As a result, Luigi was appointed the US Ferrari distributor.

Car sales grew steadily for Chinetti Motors, and Luigi founded his racing team, NART. The outfit had considerable success all over the world, and helped launch the road-racing careers of the likes of Dan Gurney, Carroll Shelby, Mario Andretti and the Rodríguez brothers, Pedro and Ricardo.

A DECADE OF DOMINANCE

THIS SPREAD The NART Ferrari 250 LM took victory at the 1965 24 Hours – and it unintentionally gave Goodyear its first-ever win at Le Mans as well.

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From 1954 to 1964, Ferrari dominated at Le Mans, winning seven times. But in 1965, the Ford Motor Company came to the race ready to end the Prancing Horse’s victorious streak.

The Blue Oval entered a total of 11 cars: six Ford GTs – including two new 7.0-liter MkIIs – and five Cobra Daytonas. Ferrari answered with 11 of its own machines, incorporating entries from private teams such as NART. The line-up included the new 330 P2, but the bulk of the numbers were the 250 LM. This Ferrari was, essentially, a coupé version of the 250/275 P, which had won Le Mans in 1963 and ’64. By ’65, it was outdated compared with the P2s and GT40s. But Le Mans is a 24hour race, and durability is as important as speed. The origin of the LM’s engine went back

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THIS SPREAD Chassis no. 5893 returned to Le Mans in 1969, and went on to finish seventh at the 1970 Daytona 24 Hours. Highly original, it now lives at Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

to the original Gioacchino Colombo design of the late 1940s, and was well tested.

The car shown here is chassis no. 5893, which was delivered to NART in late 1964. The team entered it for the ‘Kansas City Flash’, Masten Gregory, alongside future F1 World Champion Jochen Rindt. This driver pairing was hardly optimal for an endurance race, however. Gregory had distinguished himself with the ability to jump out of a spinning car an instant before it hit something immovable.

Rindt, meanwhile, was in the early stages of his illustrious career, and was noted for his speed – if not for being easy on machinery. To top things off, the two had agreed to go flat-out in hope of either winning or breaking the car so they could go home early.

In addition to the battle between Ford and Ferrari, there was another conflict waging in mid-1960s racing: a tire war. In the US, it was between Firestone – which would run ads each May proclaiming every Indy 500 had been won on its tires – and Goodyear, which was strong in NASCAR and was looking to make its name internationally. In Europe, the factory Ferraris used Dunlops, while the massive Ford GT program ran Goodyears.

At Le Mans that year, Leo Mehl was head M1 MOMENTUM

of Goodyear’s efforts – which were almost exclusively focused on helping Ford win.

Mehl recounts a “short Italian man” coming by during practice, asking whether Goodyear had tires to fit a 250 LM Ferrari. Not paying much attention to the request, Mehl told him all that was available was some rain tires they did not expect to use, and that he could have them. Mehl did not know the man was Luigi Chinetti.

The race did not start well for Ferrari. The Fords stormed into the lead, showing the power of the big 7.0-liter motors. However, by nightfall problems had started occurring, and by early morning the Ferraris were well in control. Then brake issues began to slow the leaders. With four hours left, the NART team found itself in second place with 5893, wearing Mehl’s Goodyears. In front was another 250 LM, belonging to the Belgian Ferrari distributor Écurie Francorchamps; it was using Dunlops, which were not as rugged as the Goodyears.

Rindt and Gregory continued to pile on the pressure – and then the rear tire of the Belgian car exploded on the Mulsanne Straight, necessitating a long pitstop and relinquishing the lead to the NART car.

Because Ferrari had a contract with Dunlop, 61

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a factory emissary was sent down to persuade Chinetti to allow the Belgian entry to win.

There was talk of discounts on future car orders in return. But for Luigi – who’d driven over 23 hours of the 1949 Le Mans by himself at almost 50 years of age, to score Ferrari’s very first Le Mans victory – winning was everything.

His son, Luigi Jr, later made this observation: “Can you imagine somebody asking the Old Man to finish second? After his drive in 1949?

No, no, no!” Luigi Sr turned down the offer, ensuring the victory for NART – and Goodyear.

Interestingly, because NART was New York based, this was the first US victory at Le Mans, as well as the first Goodyear win. Accidental ‘hero’ Leo Mehl was promoted to head the Indy tire program, and then to Formula 1. Alas, it was the last win for Ferrari for almost 60 years.

This wasn’t the end of racing for 5893. It returned to Le Mans in 1969, finishing eighth overall, and it finished seventh at the 1970 Daytona 24 Hours with Luigi Jr co-driving.

Today, the car is proudly on display at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum.

THIS SPREAD The Le Mans Corvette was built from a damaged 1968 example, fitted with a new Ferman frame and modified to comply with 24 Hours rules.

‘Because NART was New York based, this was the first US victory at Le Mans, as well as the first Goodyear win’

A YANK IN ITALIAN CLOTHING In the late 1960s, a group of racers who worked at Ferman Chevrolet in Tampa began preparing General Motors products for local SCCA racing. Led by new car sales manager Or Costanzo and truck sales manager Toye English, the crew grew to include English’s son Dana, PR rep Walt Thurn and another local car dealer, Dave Heinz.

With early success at Sebring and Daytona, they started getting the attention of Corvette czar Zora Arkus-Duntov. In 1969, Duntov saw that Costanzo was able to special order a yellow Corvette hard-top convertible equipped with the new L88 engine for racing.

Over the next three years, the yellow ’Vette made an excellent showing against much better-funded teams, especially the one run by John Greenwood. In 1971, the outfit went on to win four of the five events put on by the new International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), taking the Over 2.0-liter Championship. Heinz won the Drivers’ Championship, too.

In 1972 the team, now owned by Toye and Dana English, and renamed Race Enterprises and Development (RED), once again entered Daytona and Sebring, the car painted with a ‘Rebel’ flag scheme in a poke at Greenwood’s ‘Stars and Stripes’ design. ‘Marietta’ Bob Johnson, a driver from that town in Ohio, joined the outfit to drive with Heinz, replacing Costanzo. At Daytona, Leo Mehl was again to play a role in the fortunes of a racing team.

Goodyear’s competitor for passenger tires, BFGoodrich (BFG), was introducing a new line of street radials, and it had sponsored Greenwood’s Corvettes, dictating that the radials be used for racing. Mehl held a meeting before the Daytona race for several other Corvette teams, including RED. He told them Goodyear was going to supply them with some ‘experimental’ radial tires, with no markings on them. If one of the teams managed to beat the BFG Greenwood Corvettes, they would get Goodyear sponsorship for the year.

RED did indeed beat the BFG Corvettes, securing the Goodyear sponsorship. At Sebring

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THIS SPREAD Against the odds – accident damage, technical issues, treacherous weather – the NART team car was the first Corvette to cross the finish line at the 1972 Le Mans.

a month later, Heinz qualified ten seconds quicker than the BFG Greenwood Corvette, and won the class, coming in fourth overall.

Goodyear realized the huge PR opportunity it had for its new street radials, and it asked RED whether the team wanted to go to Le Mans. Of course it did – but there were two problems.

The application to enter the race had been due to the organizers of the 24 Hours months before – and the Rebel Corvette was not eligible in its current configuration.

Leo Mehl resolved the first issue. As Walt Thurn tells it: “Mehl knew that Luigi Chinetti had four entries, one for a reserve car. He went to Chinetti with two options: Option A is you can go to Le Mans with four cars and no tires; Option B is you can go with three cars and

‘It would be easier to just build a new car, so we found a wrecked 1968 Corvette down in Miami for $600’ M1 MOMENTUM

with tires. And that reserve became our entry.”

Dick Fritz, NART team manager at the time, suggests a different scenario, saying: “Duntov and Chinetti were very good friends. In fact, Duntov had sponsored him for his US citizenship. If Duntov had asked for the entry, I am sure Luigi would have gladly helped. But they were also competing in the same GT class as us. Rather than helping them, we considered the Corvette our competition.”

Dana English remembers the second quandary the team faced: “We had done so much modification to the Rebel car that it wasn’t legal under FIA rules. This was March, and the race was in June. We figured it would be easier to just build a new car, so we found a wrecked 1968 Corvette down in Miami for $600 that had the front end knocked off it. We ordered a new frame from Ferman, and started doing all the modifications the rules allowed.

“Duntov sent us some bits – transmission, suspension parts and a special 2:56 rear end – and we took parts off the other car to use. We barely had time to paint it Ferrari red with NART stickers, and take it to the Golden Gate Speedway in Tampa to do some laps, before we shipped it to France.”

After the usual problems in tech inspection (no spare tire, which they fixed by taking one 65

out of their rental Peugeot), and learning from Tony Adamowicz how to take the kink flatout, Heinz was getting his lap time down to a competitive level on a circuit he’d never driven.

Things were going well in practice, until Marietta Bob took the car out and skidded on a banner that had come loose and blown onto the track. “He hit a barrier and just knocked the front end off, so we had to scramble really hard to get the nose fixed and go through inspection,” says Dana English. “It seemed the French people were trying to reject us. But we showed it was fixed by jumping on the nose.”

While all this was happening, the Ferrari factory team announced it was withdrawing from the race, so the reserve entry for the Corvette suddenly became firm. “We started the race, and ran well for the first hour or so,” says English. “At the first pitstop, we realized we were having problems refueling. It was taking three or four times as long to fill the 32-gallon tank. We finally found that the fuel cell had shifted forward in the accident and pinched the vent hose. So, I just cut it – which was illegal, but no one knew.”

Despite treacherously wet conditions – Goodyear had to hand-cut rain grooves in the 66

ABOVE Both wearing Ferrari red livery, the Italian and American NART Le Mans racing machines were brought together for last autumn’s American Speed Festival at M1 Concourse.

‘1972, and the Corvette racing under the NART banner, was without a doubt a case of all the stars lining up correctly’ M1 MOMENTUM

street radials for the team – the Corvette moved steadily up the field, reaching eighth overall after starting 53rd. With the BFG Greenwood Corvettes out, things were looking good for an excellent finish. Then disaster struck.

As Heinz was entering the Mulsanne Straight, smoke came out from under the hood and the car stopped. Some wires had shorted, but Heinz was able to get the Corvette back to the pits. Repairs were made and the car rejoined the race, but any hopes for a top place were over. The team ended up in 15th, sixth in GT – but the first ’Vette to cross the finish line.

“Zora Arkus-Duntov was there with us, and he was all excited since this was the first time a Corvette had finished at Le Mans in ten or 12 years. He was beside himself – really, really happy,” remembers English.

The NART Corvette continued to be raced until the mid-1990s, when owner Mike Yeager sent it to Kevin Mackay at Corvette Repair to be returned to its Le Mans glory, as it appears in these photographs.

Summing up the experience of 1972, and the Corvette racing under the NART banner, Walt Thurn reflects: “Without a doubt, it was a case of all the stars lining up correctly.”

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able recent t c e ll o c t s o em nt ed, one of th ck exciteme n o ra t k c d e n b a n d u a s f ro ter three days o d When the win e id v ro p – he 620R McLarens – t AREN ID LI W O R D S D AV

L LY W H I T E

PHOTOGR

APHY MCL

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MCLAREN 620R

‘There was never a moment at which the 620R felt anything less than planted through the fast bends’

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LEFT Race-bred 620R uses many 570S GT4 parts, while the 610bhp twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 is actually even more powerful.

THIS IS HARDCORE. THIS IS THE modern supercar that’s as much race as road, with everything good and bad that entails. It is loud, lairy and hard-riding, but it’s also more engaging than any other McLaren Sports Series supercar. It’s the 620R: basically a roadlegal version of the 570S GT4 race car – but with more power – that was made in limited numbers from January 2020.

‘My’ car, resplendent in McLaren’s signature Papaya Orange and shouty graphics, was waiting for me at San Francisco airport, as my personal transport to Sonoma Raceway, north of the city. I know, hard life. But after a dawn start and an 11-hour transatlantic flight, the sight of the thinly padded carbonfiber bucket seats, and the sound of an extremely raucous V8 powerplant, was perhaps not what I needed. Or maybe it was…

The 620R started up loud from cold, sat at a high, noisy idle for a few seconds and then settled down. A little. Still it vibrated and throbbed through the carbon tub, though.

That would be the downside of the race-spec engine and transmission mounts. In this car, the race harnesses had been tucked away; with stock inertia belts too, I wasn’t even vaguely tempted to unravel the harnesses for the 50-mile drive to Sonoma.

This is a journey that can take anything from an hour and ten minutes to… well, the sat-nav when I left was saying an hour and three-quarters, but the truth turned out to be more than three hours due to ever-building rush-hour traffic on this Friday night. Seemed the optional (on the 620R) satellite navigation wasn’t great at monitoring traffic, although it M1 MOMENTUM

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MCLAREN 620R

was easy enough to use. As with most McLarens, the 620R had a seven-speed semiautomatic gearbox, which could be left in auto or paddle-operated. Unlike most of its stablemates, though, the transmission’s whirrings could clearly be heard, despite the equally unusual thrashings of the V8. There was no carpet and little soundproofing in this carbon tub – and it showed.

Call me a lightweight, but while working through the unforgiving San Francisco traffic over equally unforgiving surfaces (California was still suffering its budget-deficit potholes), I decided to leave the transmission in its automatic mode. With the Powertrain dial on the center console set to Normal, throttle response was surprisingly gentle, slow even, so initially the 620R did not feel especially fast.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the urge came to try the 620R in different modes. In a McLaren, that means pressing the Active button and playing with the two dials: H for Handling and P for Powertrain.

It seemed wise to leave the already hard suspension in the Normal setting at first, but turning the Powertrain dial to Sport instantly sensitized the throttle response and added a satisfyingly hooliganistic ‘crack’ to the exhaust between shifts. In case you are wondering, the ignition is cut momentarily on every upshift, leaving a little unburnt fuel to then ignite noisily as the ignition returns. Fear not, it isn’t the obnoxious bang that so many modified cars are currently emitting,

‘An uncompromising road car and ballistic track weapon. It would be awesome at M1 Concourse’ 72

but I found it noticeable and entertaining.

By the time the traffic cleared, daylight was long gone, so the last section of the drive past Sonoma circuit to the hotel was more wearing than it would have been in daylight. It was noticeable how alive the 620R felt on the twisting roads, though. It seemed a shame to have to park the car up for the night, however much my aching back disagreed with that sentiment.

Next day, with the sun shining, the 620R once again fired up with more drama than any of the many McLarens parked nearby (turns out I’d kind of gatecrashed a McLaren 60th anniversary customer event…), and the 20-minute drive to the circuit was everything I had hoped it would be. No traffic! Great roads! Sport mode engaged!

The car park at Sonoma was a mixture of gravel and bumpy grass, but my jet-lagged, sleep-deprived brain remembered McLaren’s neat nose lift just in time. A flick of the column stalk undoubtedly saved that low front splitter.

A few hours later, it was time for the McLaren 60th track parade. My first time around Sonoma, but I assumed it’d be a slow trawl behind a pace car – and it was, for a couple of laps. And then it got faster, and faster, the Senna in front of me accelerating hard out of the corners, with me working hard to keep up.

Once I’d realized these McLaren owners were taking no prisoners, I switched Handling and Powertrain into Track mode – which stiffened and sharpened the car’s responses some more – and strained my body and brain to learn the lines of this unfamiliar circuit.

I hadn’t initially understood just how close to a race car the 620R is. The suspension is all 570S GT4, with solid top-mounts (rather than rubber) for the lightweight two-way manually adjustable coil-over dampers, which feature 32 clicks of adjustment per corner. The anti-roll bars are stiffer, the brakes are carbon ceramic as standard, and the wheels are lightweight centerlock alloys (19in at the front, 20in at the rear).

As for the twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8, it’s able to run more power than the GT4 race car it’s based on, producing 620PS, or 610bhp if you prefer your units in horses. That makes it good

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ABOVE AND OPPOSITE Strippedback cabin features thinly padded carbonfiber bucket seats, plus race harnesses in addition to inertia belts.

It can be a noisy, rough ride – but it’s never unpleasant.

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ABOVE Papaya Orange paint, bold graphics and full GT4-spec aero do more than hint at 620R’s abilities.

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for a 2.8-second 0-60mph sprint and a 200mph top speed. And I’ve not even mentioned the aero, which is full GT4 spec as well – complete with an adjustable rear wing.

I must confess I hadn’t fully appreciated the extent of the aero until after I’d driven in both track ‘parades’, Saturday and Sunday. If I had, maybe I would have been braver; but then again, maybe I wouldn’t. There is a skill:dangerof-crashing-in-public ratio that I was keen to stay on the right side of. As it was, there was never a moment at which the 620R felt anything less than planted through the fast bends of the Sonoma circuit, even when skimming over the curves and braking hard into the top hairpin.

In between those two parades, there was a tour through Napa Valley wine country, which turned out to be about as far removed from the track driving as it’s possible to be, although still entertaining. Quickly separated from the main group due to unfortunate stop-light sequencing and some dubious navigation, a four-strong group of us nonetheless followed the set route along narrow, bumpy mountain roads and through picturesque towns. When we stopped for fuel near the end, the driver of the McLaren behind me jogged over, saying: “Oh man, I felt bad for you with that suspension; it looked like M1 MOMENTUM

you were really being shaken around.”

But in fact, I wasn’t. Yes, it was a noisy, rough ride, but it never felt unpleasant, and the joys of accelerating out of the corners and then returning to the track without changing any of the set-up more than compensated anyway.

And after that second track session, I grabbed my bags and headed for the airport, this time without the heavy traffic. It felt epic.

Just 350 620Rs were made. I really hope they are all used as they should be – as uncompromising road cars and ballistic track weapons. They’d be awesome at M1 Concourse.

Many thanks to Velocity Invitational – please see www.velocityinvitational.com for more info.

‘I switched into Track mode, and strained my body and brain to learn the lines of this unfamiliar circuit’

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It’s been 60 years since the iconic GTO kicked off the muscle car revolution and changed everything for Pontiac.

Here’s its story W O R D S N AT H A N C H A D W I C K

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“EACH ENGINEER HAS A MAGICIAN IN his soul,” John DeLorean, one of the key protagonists in the origin story of the Pontiac GTO, memorably once said.

Wind back to 1963, and Pontiac – well, more pointedly, the guys whose job it was to market the brand – had a significant problem.

A corporate edict had come down from General Motors’ management that forced all its divisions to comply with the voluntary ban on motor racing, which had been suggested by the Automobile Manufacturers Association six years earlier. The federal government had been nudging makers to take heed when cautious voters complained about speed and accidents, and road-car capabilities had grown inexorably in the post-war era.

For a performance-oriented brand such as Pontiac, this posed a significant problem – it was truly an era when ‘win on Sunday, sell on Monday’ really did hold true. Without essential Sunday stardust sprinkling into showrooms, how could the marque thrive?

The answer came via three people: Russ Gee, Bill Collins and DeLorean himself. The last of these may later on gain infamy in the mainstream with his self-named car, but his mixture of engineering knowledge, business acumen and marketing chutzpah (for himself, as much as for the products) led to a meteoric rise through the American automobile world.

Although his career started at Chrysler and was accelerated via his work on Packard’s Ultramatic transmission, it was the Pontiac GTO that made him a megastar.

The idea was simple: if Pontiac’s cars couldn’t fight on track, let them brawl on the street – thanks to young, affluent customers behind the wheel of a machine with a big engine in a relatively small body.

Pontiac had already seen the benefits of such an idea with the first-generation Tempest – in particular, the LeMans option package with the ‘326’ V8. This powerplant actually measured 336ci, but GM forbade any compact from having an engine larger than the Corvette’s 327ci V8, hence the LeMans being marketed as a 326. With a healthy 260bhp

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE Early incarnations of the potent Pontiac established the GTO legend, which was to continue – on and off – for another four decades.

RIGHT John DeLorean was chief engineer on the development of the highperformance Tempest GTO package in 1964.

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on tap, the concept appealed to customers, and the LeMans option accounted for 50 percent of all Tempest sales.

With a new Tempest on the way for the 1964 model year, DeLorean, Collins and Gee saw the opportunity – and the necessity – to build on this success. GM had demanded that all the A-platform cars be standardized between Chevrolet, Oldsmobile and Buick; Pontiac needed something special to stand out from the corporate herd.

It all came together quickly when, during one of their monthly Saturday meet-ups at the Milford Proving Ground, the trio happened to be running the rule over a prototype 1964 LeMans. Collins, an engine specialist, proposed installing the 389ci motor from the full-size Grand Prix, because it would fit under the hood of the smaller Tempest without major modification. DeLorean immediately saw the marketing potential – and, at that point, the GTO legend was set.

The team still had to get around GM’s edict that vehicles must have ten pounds of vehicle weight per cubic inch of displacement – something the GTO clearly ran foul of. They discovered a useful loophole, however; if the engine could be offered as an option package, rather than as a distinct model in itself, then it was ‘full power ahead’.

It was a lot of power, too – 325bhp, which even in base form meant the newcomer could crack 0-60mph in under seven seconds and carry on to 122mph. Those who specified the optional Tri-Power three-carburetor option saw the figure rise to a mighty 348bhp. Pontiac proposed that 5000 GTO packages would be sold, but this turned out to be a wild underestimation. No fewer than 30,000 GTOs found homes in the first year alone.

The GTO wasn’t perfect, though. The engine may have been suitably high performance, but much of the rest of the car… wasn’t. The brakes were stock Tempest items, and there was no power steering. There was, however, a choice of a three- or four-speed manual transmission, or a two-ratio automatic. The new Pontiac came in convertible, hard-top and coupe 79

RM SOTHEBY’S AND THE GM ARCHIVES

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RIGHT The superstylish 1967 GTO convertible gave performance fans wind-in-the-hair motoring with plenty of muscle.

bodystyles, too – oh, and it sported just about the coolest badge in the world.

The name itself came from the Ferrari 250 GTO, and what started as US car guys paying reverence to Maranello’s track warrior ended up with marketing gold. In March 1964, Car and Driver depicted a war between Europe and US iron, with the writing team conceding that while the Maranello marvel was probably faster around a road course, the Pontiac’s sizzling 0-100mph time of 11.8 seconds would have old Enzo beat in a straight line.

Of course, it didn’t really happen – well, not for another 20 years – but the home-grown GTO’s immense power gave it hitherto-unseen prowess on two-lane blacktop. It was a sensation that truly kick-started the musclecar wars – even if the Car and Driver GTO happened to be fitted with a 370bhp Super Duty 421 engine tuned by Royal Pontiac. Oh, and it broke during the test…

None of this mattered – the GTO became an icon of youthful performance. Some say 80

‘The battle for performance was on, and the American automobile landscape would never be the same again’

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it was the original muscle car, a phrase that entered the Merriam-Webster Dictionary in 1966, although the Oldsmobile 88 Rocket V8 was arguably the first. Nevertheless, the battle for performance was on, and the American automobile landscape would never be the same again. Other GM divisions followed suit with the Chevrolet Chevelle SS, Oldsmobile 442 and Buick Gran Sport before the year was out, and Chrysler, Ford and AMC were not far behind.

Pontiac did not stand still with its development of the GTO – for 1965, the car got a new hood scoop and rear facia, along with stacked headlamps. Performance was further improved, with the base engine offering 335bhp, while the Tri-Power option now kicked out 360bhp.

In 1966, Pontiac offered the GTO as a model in its own right, with curvier styling and raised fenders. The manufacturer soon reaped the rewards – 96,946 GTOs found homes in this, the car’s most popular year. As a final flourish

RM SOTHEBY’S AND THE GM ARCHIVES

ABOVE AND RIGHT Original 389ci V8 was at its most potent in 348bhp Tri-Power form. Pontiac GTO’s ’60s production line provided real jobs for real people.

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for the first-generation model in 1967, engine capacity was upped to 400ci, and three different carburetor options were offered in lieu of the now-banned-by-GM triple set-up.

The most potent boasted 360bhp. Helpfully, four-piston caliper disc rotors were finally made available – but only as an option. The three-speed Hydra-Matic automatic gearbox joined the list of extras as well.

While Pontiac pretty much had the musclecar market to itself in 1964, by 1968 every month seemed to witness the arrival of yet another faster, even more powerful rival. In response, the second-generation GTO was given a complete makeover: the newcomer was shorter in length and wheelbase, but heavier, with more power to play with courtesy of the 350bhp 400ci motor in standard form.

You could also choose from a 360bhp engine package, as well as the Ram Air II option that offered a 041 camshaft, roundport exhaust and free-flowing cylinder heads; the official horsepower remained the THIS SPREAD The Judge was designed to take the fight to the Road Runner, but the Plymouth won out over the GTO in the sales chart for 1969.

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same. Unofficially, however…

The big change was the way the car looked – it sported a new fastback style that leaned into the streamlining-revival era at GM. Pontiac’s signature stacked headlamps were abandoned in favor of horizontal units, although hidden lights were an option. Another major innovation was the body-color Endura front bumper, which was designed to absorb impacts without permanent damage. Pontiac even advertised the bumper’s abilities by hitting it with crowbars – which seems like sacrilege to us looking back today.

The new GTO set quarter-mile times of less than 15 seconds at between 97mph and 98mph, according to Hot Rod and MotorTrend magazines, although the model’s poor ride and tendency for understeer divided critics. This didn’t stop MotorTrend naming the Pontiac its 1968 Car of the Year, and 87,764 GTOs found homes in the first 12 months.

For the 1969 model year, the car was revised again, with the most powerful option being

‘The Judge upgrade model included the Ram Air 400 engine, Rally II wheels, Hurst shifter, decals and a spoiler’

the Ram Air IV, which featured high-flow exhaust manifolds and cylinder heads, a highrise aluminum intake manifold, a larger Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel carb, a highlift/long-duration camshaft and many more tweaks, to deliver 370bhp and 445lb ft. Pontiac also launched The Judge, an upgrade model designed to take the fight to the Plymouth Road Runner, which had arrived the previous year.

So-called after the ‘Here Come da Judge’ comedy routine on the Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In TV show made popular by Flip Wilson, The Judge included the Ram Air 400 engine, Rally II wheels, Hurst shifter, decals and a spoiler. However, the tide was turning – despite selling 72,287 in the 1969 model year, the GTO’s sales were overtaken by those of the Road Runner and Chevrolet Chevelle SS396.

Pontiac struck back for the 1970 model year, with a number of visual and mechanical enhancements. A rear sway bar was added and the front end was stiffened, in a bid to reduce lean and understeer; variable-ratio

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RIGHT 1970 brought a number of visual and mechanical enhancements, with a rear sway bar and stiffer front end to improve handling.

ABOVE AND LEFT The 310bhp 455 Super Duty model – as had graced the cover of HiPerformance Cars in April 1973 – never made it to market.

The decline of the GTO had set in...

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power steering was also an option. A new engine came via the 455 HO unit, which didn’t add much in the way of power (officially), but ramped up torque to 500lb ft at 2700rpm.

Although slower than a four-speed Ram Air GTO over the quarter-mile, this variant was far easier to own and use, allowing for smoother running at low speeds.

However, perhaps the most controversial option of all was the Vacuum Operated Exhaust (VOE), which reduced back pressure via a switch on the dashboard. While it was said to improve power and performance, the key change was increasing exhaust noise to screen-shattering levels. It was offered only until January 1970, and a memorable ad titled ‘The Humbler’ showed a young GTO driver intimidating others at the drive-in with his rumbling VOE-equipped car. GM management was so alarmed by what it saw, it ordered Pontiac to not show the advert again after a single appearance – and the division was told to cancel the option, with 233 cars so-equipped.

This represented the high-water mark for

‘The VOE was said to improve power and performance, but the key change was increasing exhaust noise to screen-shattering levels’

M1 MOMENTUM

the GTO. Soon after, GM started to enforce a reduction in compression ratios across all its divisions, with a view to reducing power.

MotorTrend did record a 455ci model cracking 0-60mph in 6.1 seconds and the quarter-mile in 13.4 seconds, but it wasn’t enough to arrest a sheer fall in sales numbers, with little more than 10,500 of the potent Pontiacs sold in 1971.

This virtually halved a year later.

A 1973 reskin of the A-body, with Colonnade hard-top styling and heavy-handed chrome bumpers front and rear, saw sales drop still further. By this point, the GTO nameplate had returned to being ‘just’ a trim option, this time on the LeMans and LeMans Sport Coupe. Worse was to come…

However, it could have all been so different.

Pontiac announced the 455 Super Duty engine, rated at 310bhp and 390lb ft, at a time when other manufacturers were shrinking power.

A so-equipped prototype GTO graced the cover of Hi-Performance Cars in April 1973, and was loved by the editorial team – but the then-new general manager of Pontiac, Martin 85

RM SOTHEBY’S

P O N T I A C G T O AT 6 0

P O N T I A C G T O AT 6 0

J Caserio, was horrified, believing the firm’s future lay in fuel-efficient and safer cars. The Super Duty program was halted, and the variant was never sold. Just 4806 GTOs found homes in the 1973 model year.

With the mid-1970s fuel crisis prompting interest in so-called compact muscle cars such as the Plymouth Duster 360 and Ford Maverick Grabber, for 1974 Pontiac attached the GTO nameplate to the Ventura. Under its hood lay a 200bhp 350ci V8 motor, and according to MotorTrend it only just managed to crack a sub-ten-second 0-60mph time. Although sales improved slightly, the GTO badge would then lie dormant for 25 years.

Fast forward to 1999, and the hallowed GTO name finally appeared once again, attached to a concept car displayed at the Detroit Auto Show. Hopes were high for a revival, but the next production model came from a far-off outpost of the GM empire.

It all happened by chance: former GM North America chairman Bob Lutz found himself reading a Car and Driver review of Australia’s Holden Monaro. At the time, Holden was a part of GM’s global realm, and the magazine was so enamored with the Monaro’s performance that it queried why the car wasn’t sold in the US. Lutz and other GM executives test drove the Holden, and were similarly amazed. A plan was set forth – revive the GTO name with a Monaro for the US. Lutz’s dream faced many hurdles, however – GM’s stodgy corporate structure mainly – which meant the car took far too long to appear in the US. In the end, it finally rocked up for the 2004 model year.

Power was initially courtesy of a Chevrolet Corvette-sourced LS1 V8 motor benchmarked against a 1964 GTO for exhaust sound. Gear shifting came from either a six-speed manual transmission or a four-ratio automatic, and peak performance meant 60mph was a memory after five seconds, with the quarter-mile run 86

‘It turned out to be the last throw of the dice for Pontiac coupes; four years after the GTO’s demise, the brand would cease to be’ M1 MOMENTUM

dispatched in a mere 13.9 seconds.

More was to come in the 2006 model year, with a 364ci LS2 engine capable of 400bhp and 400lb ft. This propelled the GTO past the quarter-mile in 13.3 seconds, having flicked by 60mph in 4.8 seconds. All-out, the GTO could crack a top speed of 180mph.

Sadly, it wasn’t enough to encourage sales in the manner Pontiac hoped for. Against a target of 30,000 cars per year, the brand sold 40,808 over four years, and with airbagdeployment standards changing there wasn’t the business case to adapt the GTO. GM insiders believed that what was a cool design in 2001 was left behind by more aggressivelooking neo-muscle cars of the era, such as the Ford Mustang and Chrysler 300.

Meanwhile, the strength of the Australian dollar against its US counterpart also made the model somewhat expensive.

The GTO has, however, found its niche in the hearts of many. It turned out to be the last throw of the dice for Pontiac coupes, because a mere four years after the model’s demise, the brand would cease to be.

The architect of the legend, John DeLorean, would pass away before the last Pontiac to bear those three letters finished production. In his final conversation with the vice-president of the DeLorean Motor Company, which restores the famous but flawed car that bears his name, John said GM “had too many bean counters and not enough engineers”.

Which brings us back to where we came in.

While a new GTO is unlikely, we can only hope engineers are still allowed to weave their magic.

RM SOTHEBY’S

THIS PAGE When it came to sales figures, the final iterations of the GTO sadly didn’t live up to the model’s hallowed name.

The 2006 version was to be the last.

WISCONSIN’S FINEST...

IN MICHIGAN Ron Hausmann’s garage at M1 Concourse houses a surprising collection of cars from a oncegreat American marque

WORDS D AV I D L I L LY W H I T E PHOTOGRAPHY M AT T H O W E L L

TUCKED AWAY IN ONE OF THE M1 Concourse private garages is a collection of cars that’s far, far away from anything else you’re likely to see in the area. You might catch a glimpse of them occasionally – but if you do, will you be able to identify them? I mean, how many of us have even heard of Kissel Kars?

Ron Hausmann knows all about them, though. He grew up hearing about Kissel Kars, because they were built in Wisconsin, where he spent his formative years. And now, of the 150 examples that still exist, he owns ten, most of which he keeps in his garage at M1.

“Everyone knows the likes of Duesenberg, 90

Stutz and Mercer,” he says, acknowledging that Kissel Kars aren’t the usual choice.

“But Kissel Kars were built for Wisconsin winters, so they’re real brutes – rugged and tough, and made for farmers to maintain with a hammer and a screwdriver. If the engine is all there, it will run.”

That’s not to imply that they’re basic or crude, however. Kissel Kars may have been tough as old boots, but they were also glamorous and innovative, often introducing features, such as electric starters, well ahead of their rivals – and their story is fascinating, if brief. It starts with Louis Kissel, the son of a M1 MOMENTUM

Prussian immigrant who settled in Wisconsin in 1857. He was one of many Prussians, and later Germans, who emigrated there during the second half of the 19th century, attracted initially by the cheap agricultural land.

Louis and his four sons (Adolph P, Otto P, William L and George A) were nothing if not resourceful, forming a partnership that opened the Kissel Hardware Store, Hartford Plow Company, Kissel Manufacturing Company and Hartford Electric Company. Later, Otto incorporated the First National Bank of Hartford, but it was the Kissel Manufacturing Co that started the automotive connection,

KISSEL K AR COLLECTION

THIS SPREAD The yellow 1923 Gold Bug Speedster Model 6-45 is the star of the collection, with its Hollywood Option package including ‘outrigger seats’. The light blue 1918 Model 6-38 Gibraltar All-Year Sedanlette – which Ron restored from the ground up – comes with a separate hard-top.

initially making gasoline engines for other firms.

The next logical step was complete automobiles, and in 1907 the Kissel Motor Car Company produced its first Kissel Kar. In the years that followed, it made around 35,000 cars, taxis, hearses, firetrucks and trucks, before going bankrupt in 1931 (the family bounced back four years later with the West Bend Company, manufacturing outboard motors).

Ron’s collection effectively documents the breadth of automobiles created by Kissel. He’s been restoring Kissel Kars since he retired several years ago. “I’m self-taught, and a pretty good carpenter,” he says. “Paint I can do, too, but it’s better to have that done professionally.”

The star of his collection is the 1923 Kissel Gold Bug Speedster Model 6-45, the most famous of all the Kissel Kars. In period, actor Fatty Arbuckle and aviator Amelia Earhart were among the famous owners of Gold Bugs.

Ron’s car was first sold in Hollywood, and was owned by William Ruger Sr, the firearms tycoon of Ruger Firearms. It later passed into the hands of Andrew Kissel (no connection to Kissel Kars), a New York criminal who was infamous for his involvement in the ‘milkshake murder’. He was subsequently stabbed to death, and the car was seized by the Feds – which is how Ron was able to buy it in 2006.

The Gold Bug has the sought-after Hollywood Option package of nickel-plated bar bumpers, exhaust cutout and E&J headlamps, as well as Kissel’s famed ‘outrigger seats’, which pull out from either side of the bodywork for fearless, or perhaps foolhardy, passengers.

This example is the most glamorous of the M1 MOMENTUM

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RIGHT Spot the interloper: in the foreground, top left, is Ron’s first-ever automobile, a 1927 Chevrolet he bought in 1967 while he was still a high-school teenager. It still has a place in his heart, however, as the genesis of his car-collecting passion.

Kissels, but the one that Ron has put the most work into is the light blue 1918 Model 6-38 Gibraltar All-Year Sedanlette, which he restored from the ground up… and he spent the most time on the bit furthest from the ground – the removable hard-top. We say ‘removable’, but the roof is made from heavyweight carved oak.

“Kissel advertised that two men could transform the hard-top into a convertible,” says Ron. “I think that is hyperbole, since it takes three or four men to safely and carefully lift the top off, and several hours to undo the trim, windows, windshield and anchorage points.”

It was the hardest of all the cars to restore.

Every piece of the hard-top’s wood frame had rotted. It took eight years to complete, having been bought in 2011 as part of a large collection of derelict Kissel 6-38 parts and chassis components in Bath, New York.

Seven years later, Ron found a junked 1918 Roadster in rural Boise, Idaho with a correct 6-38 engine in excellent condition.

From these two unpromising donors, he built the Sedanlette with the correct removable wood top, featuring slide-down glass windows – the only such hard-top in existence.

In contrast, the similar 1919 Gibraltar AllYear Seven Passenger Touring Model 6-38 is completely original, bought in 2013 from a collector in Ontario, Canada. Little is known of the car’s early history – unlike the green 1921 Sport Tourster 6-45 sat next to it.

This Tourster, the only survivor of its type, is believed to have covered a mere 14,700 miles, but it led an eventful early life in Chicago. It was bought new by one Walker Pine, who was rumored to be associated with the Mob. In 1922, Walker was driving the Tourster when he was caught in a hail of bullets. He survived, but a gunshot struck his hip. Walker was forced into hiding – and the car was secreted away in a house for more than three 92

‘They’re real brutes – rugged and tough, and made for farmers to maintain with a hammer and a screwdriver’

KISSEL K AR COLLECTION

ABOVE Garage ramps display Kissel automobiles ranging from a 1919 Gibraltar All-Year Seven Passenger Touring Model 6-38 through to a 1927 Model 8-65.

decades. When the Kissel was found in 1960, it had just covered just 9000 miles – and it still has a bullet hole in the bodywork.

The dark red 1923 Brougham Opera Sedan Model 6-55 next to the Tourster also spent years in storage. It was discovered in 2010 in Fort Meyers, Florida in good mechanical and internal condition – but the wood structure wasn’t so impressive, harboring 30 hornets’ nests. Ron decided to fully restore it, stripping it right back to the chassis and replacing all the wood.

Two further Kissel examples sit in the area above these cars. In the center, a highly original, unrestored 1924 Victoria Coupe Deluxe Model 6-55. “So ugly, it’s cute,” says Ron – and perhaps that explains the German words “der elephante witz” (the elephant joke) painted on its rear. He has owned the car since 2012, but is still none the wiser as to the meaning.

Next to the Coupe is a 1927 Model 8-65 that, when found by Ron in Kansas City in 2009, was owned by the granddaughter of company founder George. The original eight-cylinder has been superseded by a Buick engine, but Ron has since located a correct Kissel unit.

The subject of replacement parts brings up 94

the question of just where Ron sources spares.

“Well, Kissel owners are a motley crew of old, white-haired guys,” he laughs. “We need to know each other. We make parts, or we spend 20 years driving around the country trying to track them down.”

In fact, he has bought up several spares cars over time, which he keeps in his ‘dirty shop’ away from M1 Concourse. Kissels were often used stripped down as farm trucks or static powerplants, so occasionally parts will still turn up in barns and sheds.

Ron doesn’t work on the Kissels at his M1 garage, preferring instead to keep that

‘We Kissel owners make parts, or we spend 20 years driving around the country trying to track them down’ M1 MOMENTUM

location clean. He’s got one car at the paint shop at the moment, another at the engine shop, and he’s currently finishing a fantastic World War One army truck at his dirty shop.

You might also have spotted an interloper in our photographs: on the top left of the storage ramps is Ron’s first car, a 1927 Chevrolet Two-Door Coach bought in 1967 when he was a teenager still in high school. When he moved away from Wisconsin in 1971, he left the Chevrolet in a barn, and he didn’t pick it up from there until 2005.

“I’m done collecting now,” he states. “All but two of the Kissels run; it is a chore keeping them all going.” Now he is planning to have fun with them, exercising them around the M1 Concourse site, although not on the track itself (“they drop oil”, he explains) and sharing them with his grandchildren “who love them even more than my kids do”.

The garage at M1 has made it easier to enjoy the Kissels, he says: “When you’ve got ten cars, where do you put them? And you want to be with other car guys – that’s what it’s all about.”

For more on Ron’s collection of automobiles, see www.kisselsandclassiccars.com.

WORDS G A R Y KO Z LO W S K I

PHOTOGRAPHY M1 CONCOURSE / STELLANTIS ARCHIVE

M1 MOMENTUM

RETURN OF THE RAMCHARGERS This once-iconic name had been dead and buried for nearly 20 years – but now the Detroit legend has been revived, helped along by a historic gathering at M1 Concourse

THIS SPREAD The Ramchargers’ most legendary race cars in period included the white and candy red-striped Dodge Dart, whose appeal to young petrolheads helped reposition Chrysler-branded automobiles in the performance market.

THE RAMCHARGERS STARTED OUT AS A group of Chrysler engineers in the 1950s, who shared a love for the then-new sport of drag racing. Each had their own home-altered hot rods that they tinkered with after work and raced on the weekends. They soon realized that a bunch of cars, each with one handful of money, could only be ‘so’ competitive. But one car, with a lot of handfuls of money, stood a chance of doing something much more productive.

A 1949 Plymouth was purchased. An iconic name was conjured up. And a legend was M1 MOMENTUM

born. After breaking records on the very first night out with the (now-named High & Mighty) Plymouth, the group of men turned that early success into momentum to close out the 1950s with a very dominant race car.

By 1961, the Ramchargers had secured ink on paper with Dodge, and began successfully campaigning a 1961 Dart with a 413. While developing countless new innovations for drag racing, the team was breaking records, winning events and rapidly becoming the name in Super Stocks. For 1962, it was the new, lighter generation of Dart that the team had acquired from Chrysler to modify and race, and Dodge had already begun to pay tribute to its success – the 413 Maximum Performance engine was now named the Ramcharger 413, which was displayed boldly on each valve cover.

Come 1963, there were two Darts, easily identifiable in white with seven vivid candy apple red stripes running from the windshield to the rear of the trunk, and a matching ‘Ramchargers’ in 16in letters down the sides.

Many other incredible cars would make up the family photo album of candy red-striped, white Dodges over the next six years. Before the Ramchargers, the average buyer of a Chrysler-branded car was 55 years old. Within a few short years, even though styling remained vastly unchanged, that buyer’s age was cut almost in half, at the same time securing a gigantic 38 percent of the market for 97

performance car sales, while holding onto a mere 13 percent of the overall new-car market.

So, the Ramchargers laid the tracks for Mopar to become the icon that it is today. As time went on, developments continued to rise, and records continued to fall. The crew can be credited with the NHRA’s first passes to break the 9.0-, 8.0-, 7.0- and 6.0-second quarter-mile barriers.

Engines such as the Max Wedge, 426 Hemi, 440 Six Pack/Six Barrel, 340 Small-Block and 340 Six Pack/Six Barrel, as well as the crossram intake, tuned-length exhaust headers, tunnel ram intakes, W-2 cylinder heads, altered wheelbases and acid-dipped race bodies, are just a few creations born of the Ramchargers.

By 1967, the group of engineers and parttime racers had scored more accomplishments than any other team or group before them.

At that point, most of the original members felt they’d proven all there was to prove, so most of them retired from the group. The members of the dragster team, however, continued to move forward, racing deep into the 1970s.

They piloted Top Fuel dragsters, Funny Cars, a Challenger for the all-new Pro Stock class... and still never let go of their roots in Super Stock, running a couple of ’Cudas and a Duster, as well as a Dart Sport Super Gas car in the latter half of the decade. Other branches also began sprouting during this time: a machine shop; professional engine building; and the famous Ramchargers Performance Connection speed shops around the Detroit-Metro area.

The retail stores marched on for new generations of racers and hobbyists, continuing to evolve by supplying the masses with the parts and expert advice needed to build their own muscle and race cars. In 2005, however, with mail order taking over and the internet becoming a very difficult store to compete with financially, it all came to an end. The last remaining flag bearers of the brand, Dick Skoglund, Leroy Palarchio and Sam Messina, decided they’d reached the traps at the end of the retail dragstrip, and pulled the chutes.

The stores were closed, and the name and trademarks were purchased by an enthusiast in Michigan, but then lay dormant for what seemed to be a depressing eternity. Enthusiasts constantly checked up on the website (which was very stripped down), just hoping to see some sort of development. A new store. A new car. New merch. Anything. But nope, it just sat there idling and never leaving the staging lane.

Fast forward 15 years. Mike and Lora Wagner, 98

FROM TOP The Factory Stock Showdown Challenger has its heritage in the Ramchargers’ original High & Mighty 1949 Plymouth – and it’s all thanks to this iconic group of Chrysler engineers from the 1950s.

local Michigan racers and Mopar collectors, who’d licensed the rights years before in order to stripe and letter their NHRA Top Eliminatorwinning 2009 Challenger Drag Pack in the legendary Ramchargers livery, found themselves in a fortunate position to rescue the brand and team that Mike has loved his whole life. They acquired the brand and its trademarks, and set out on a quest to revive the once great name.

It started slowly; as with discovering a barn-find Hemi ’Cuda, the Wagners began to blow the dust off the brand, start the rebuild and make it known. Securing licensing for toys, models and merchandise, brands such as Hot Wheels, Greenlight, Auto World and many others began putting miniature candy-striped M1 MOMENTUM

Dodges and Plymouths out to the people.

Today, Mike surrounds himself with a small band of volunteers who believe in the Ramchargers brand, and who recognize its importance to the automotive and racing worlds.

This new crew, just like the guys in the early days, dedicate as much of their after-work free time as possible (sometimes more than they should) to help bring everything back to life.

In 2021, a group of former Ramchargers store employees assembled for a one-time reunion. One of them then got together with Wagner, and began to arrange a gigantic celebration. With 2023 being the 65th year since the inception of the Ramchargers (starting in 1958), and also the 60th anniversary of the candy stripes that everyone recognizes and loves (first used in 1963), the new team agreed that the time had finally come to make a run at officially relaunching the brand.

After almost two years of planning, the official Ramchargers 65th Anniversary Reunion came together at the 2023 Woodward Dream Show. The display had numerous original Ramchargers former race cars (which have never been seen together before), as well as nine original team members for a meet and greet and a symposium. They were on stage for more than an hour and a half, bouncing stories back and forth. There will most likely never be an event such as that again.

Now, former Don Schumacher Racing crew chief, Gen III Hemi guru and multirace winner AJ Berge has become the official driver of the new Ramchargers NHRA and NMCA Factory Stock Showdown Dodge Challenger. The future for Ramchargers looks amazing: they have no plans to stop at just a couple of race victories and a few toy cars.

The Wagners and their team’s mission is to put the brand and the name back on top. And back in the blazing, vivid, white and candy red livery. The future is so much brighter when you can envisage it in color...

This August’s Woodward Dream Show is set to pay tribute to flip-top Funny Cars. We take a look at how these wild drag machines came into being

IN AUGUST, M1 CONCOURSE WILL ECHO to the sounds of flip-top Funny Cars – arguably some of the wildest motor sport creations ever.

Their conception was just as mad, after Texan Jim Lytle Jr came up with the fascinating notion of putting an airplane engine in his drag car. Not just any airplane motor, but an Allison V-1710, which would usually call a North American P-51 Mustang home, among others.

In the early 1960s, Allison engines were in ready supply. Lytle found one with a left-hand crankshaft rotation, and placed it into his 1934 Ford Tudor’s hand-made chassis. After the outfit’s first run culminated in the clutch exploding halfway down the strip, he made his own multi-disc unit – believed to be the first such item designed specifically for drag racing.

Big Al, as the car was called, was too unwieldy – other drivers refused to race it – so Big Al II was born. The steel body was used as a pattern for a lightweight glassfiber replacement, but with a one-foot roof chop that left Lytle’s head popping out of the top, surrounded by a cage.

Big Al II would run only three times before Lytle sold it on, yet its effect was seismic; with the chassis and drivetrain altered for optimum performance, but with a super-lightweight body that looked ‘sort of’ stock, the marketing potential was high. Mercury staffers, who saw Big Al II compete at the 1964 Winternationals, would develop a Comet flip-top ‘Funny Car’ for 1966, as a way to head off Chrysler’s rumored radical developments for the season.

The car was built around a chromoly tube chassis with a ’glass body, resulting in a 1700lb weight. Powered by an 80 percent mix nitromethane-fueled SOHC 427 Cammer engine, this 1000bhp machine could hit 180mph in the low eights. Although two crashed to an early end, an 86 percent win rate put the Comet on the map, unleashing a new breed of flip-top Funny Cars. Here are a few of our favorites.

WORDS N AT H A N C H A D W I C K PHOTOGRAPHY ED J USTICE JR

RIGHT Ed McCulloch on course for victory at the 1972 Winternationals in the Revellution Dodge Demon.

FLIPPING HECK, IT’S A FUNNY STORY

F L I P -T O P F U N N Y C A R S

ABOVE Jack Chrisman (pictured here in a Mustang) was key in the development of the Funny Car. When given a Mercury Comet, he refused to race it – he wanted a blower installed.

Chrisman then took it to Bill Stroppe’s shop, where he had his wish granted. At his first race at the 1964 US Nationals, he smoked the tires halfway down the track. He ran a factory-backed Comet flip-top for the 1966 season, winning his first race; it’s believed to be the first time a Funny Car topped 180mph.

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RIGHT David Sien and Cecil Lankford’s Brand-X Funny Car became infamous for catching fire during Jon Asher’s test for Super Stock & Drag Illustrated.

The rods came out of the block just off the line on his final attempt: “It was still hauling ass as far as I knew,” Asher later said.

LEFT One of the biggest characters on the Funny Car scene, Gordon Mineo raced from the 1960s until the 1990s.

LEFT Gary Burgin, otherwise known as the Orange Baron, set the national record at 6.72sec at Lions Drag Strip’s 1972 Grand Premiere. The slight fly in the ointment was that he finished the race upside down on the guardrail, after a collision with Joe Winter. He’s pictured here in the Braskett & Burgin Funny Car at NHRA Ontario in 1972.

BELOW Don Cook – pictured just by the front fender – and his Damn Yankee, driven

by Ron O’Donnell.

BELOW The Mister T ’Vette, driven by Vic Morse, and the LA Challenger, driven and owned by Marv Eldridge, at Irwindale.

The latter was an early member of the Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Funny Car Stars, which toured the US match racing. It had previously worn a Plymouth Road Runner body in 1969, when owned and driven by Fred Goske.

ABOVE Mickey Thompson’s monocoque Ford Mustang launches at the Lions Drag Strip in Southern California.

BELOW Funny Cars soon became hot TV property – here Steve Evans interviews Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme.

ABOVE Larry Derr’s Glass Rat injected Funny Car, which used an extended AMC Javelin body, takes on the Irwindale strip.

RIGHT The Plymouth Barracuda of Big John Mazmanian, driven by Rich Siroonian, takes on Roland Leong’s The Hawaiian (1970 Dodge Charger), driven by Larry Reyes at the 1970 NHRA Winternationals.

Reyes and Leong took victory that year, the first time a Funny Car champion was crowned.

M1 MOMENTUM

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ABOVE Tom ‘The Mongoose’ McEwen helped to revolutionize drag racing through marketing, alongside Don Prudhomme. The Mattel-backed Hot Wheels sponsorship deal elevated drag racing to new levels of professionalism.

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LEFT Funny Cars grew in popularity enormously, to the point when Skoal tobacco got involved in 1981. The Hawaiian Tropic/Skoal Bandit car made its debut at the Winternationals, although the contract was not renewed for 1982. According to legend, the Skoal Bandit NASCAR team boss Hal Needham and his mink-wearing wife Dani came to watch, and were covered in the fallout from a startline burn-out – much to Dani’s dismay.

M1 MOMENTUM

NIKOLAS MOTORSPORT

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ABOVE At one time the loudest Chevy Funny Car in the nation, King Camaro featured a 427 engine with Arias pistons and rods, Donovan valves, Howard cam, Leffler blower, Mallory ignition and Jardine headers. However, most importantly, it had two magnetos and 16 spark plugs.

The heads were raised on a pair of machined plates to change the flow of fuel into the combustion chambers.

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RIGHT Dave Sebring’s Chevrolet Vega-based Tree City Shaker brings the smoke to Dragway 42 in West Salem, Ohio some time in the early 1970s.

RIGHT Mickey Thompson’s Mach 1 experimented with airfoils in the roof and the hood, but technical officials ruled these ineligible – the thinking being that the car’s body couldn’t be lifted in an emergency, but also because they provided too much downforce and the engine was burning its pistons. Here it is prior to the aero additions – later, it can be seen with holes in the hood.

That’s Mickey in the background.

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WORDS STEVE CROPLEY PHOTOGRAPHY J O H N B R A D S H AW / F O X S Y N D I C AT I O N

Gordon Murray will receive the EyesOn Design Lifetime Design Achievement Award at M1 Concourse in June this year

‘I THINK I’M A BIT UNUSUAL…’

G O R D O N M U R R AY I N T E R V I E W

GORDON MURRAY WAS DESTINED to become an engineer, even though neither he nor his family realized it in his early years.

Born in Durban, South Africa, Murray lived until he was 15 in modest circumstances: a family of four in a single-bedroom flat. Money was so tight that conventional toys were out of the question, so aged eight or so, young Gordon’s idea of fun was to mock up spaceships and submarines with creatively arranged blankets and dining-room chairs, and then invite neighborhood friends to enjoy them. He soon became known as “the inventor on the block”.

When he won a course of drawing lessons in a school competition, his teacher spotted an obvious technical ability (his sketchbooks were filled with well informed sketches of cars and airplanes), so she suggested that he study technical drawing. This was the true beginning of everything.

It soon seemed natural for him to move to Natal Technical College (his graduation project was a complete engine design), and by the time he was 20 he had designed his first car, lower and lighter than a Lotus Seven, which he raced for a couple of years.

By 23, he had decided that his career would

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‘His cars were awarded five F1 manufacturers’ titles and 50 Grands Prix for Brabham and McLaren over two decades’

THIS SPREAD GMA T.33 provides the backdrop as Gordon Murray explains to Steve Cropley how his earliest career in art segued into engineering and design.

M1 MOMENTUM

advance better if he was based in the UK. By 25, he was chief designer at the Brabham Formula 1 team (owner Bernie Ecclestone summarily fired the rest of the design staff).

And by 28, he had been made technical director, running the whole operation.

Murray’s ascent soon became even more dramatic: in an F1 shark pool containing luminaries such as Colin Chapman and Frank Williams, his cars were awarded five F1 manufacturers’ titles and 50 Grands Prix for Brabham and McLaren over two decades, until winning became almost routine.

Next came a 1990 plan to launch a McLaren road car company, whose first product was the seminal F1. Two Le Mans 24 Hours wins for the race version followed. Then, in 2003, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren arrived.

Frustrated by corporate control, Murray left in 2007 to establish his own firm, Gordon Murray Design. The move led to an expanded Gordon Murray Automotive (GMA) outfit, able to bring ideas into reality.

A wide range of imaginative concepts and processes has resulted, many for secret clients.

The latest headline-grabbers under Murray’s own name are a pair of lightweight, brilliantly

Murray on Mundy

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still draws and paints for fun), but he believes the link isn’t strong; most engineers would have trouble drawing a stick man, he reckons.

Yet any student of his work will soon notice the care that he takes with the look of things: products, parts, badges, signage, logos, corporate identity...

“I think I’m a bit unusual, in that the aesthetics of what we do matter so much,” he says. “The mechanical components of the T.50 – even the stuff people never see – are made to look good. They’re engineered first, but we also make them attractive.”

Now into his 70s, Murray is very conscious of the fact that newer engineers face unprecedented challenges in building the electrified, connected, autonomous, hackproof and yet great-driving and desirable cars of the next 30 years. But he’s fundamentally optimistic, noting that “engineers work best M1 MOMENTUM

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packaged V12 supercars in the F1 mold: the T.50 ‘fan car’, and the slightly cheaper and slightly simpler, yet no less desirable, T.33.

For all of his achievements, Murray has always taken a very practical view of the purpose and status of engineering. “It’s a means to an end,” he says. “I didn’t get into this job to be an engineer. I did it because I needed a car that would help me become a racing driver. If I hadn’t done it myself, I would have had to pay someone else. Don’t get me wrong – I love the whole process. But the idea comes first, and the engineering gets me there.”

He sees a similarly clear distinction between innovation and engineering: “Innovation can occur during an engineering process, but that’s rare. You innovate at the idea stage; engineering is the tool you use for making it real.”

So, how does engineering align with art?

Murray began his earliest career in art (and he

Gordon Murray has known about the achievements of Harry Mundy since his early years, and was awarded Autocar magazine’s Mundy Award in 2022: “It’s a name I’ve been aware of right through my career – a bit like, say, Keith Duckworth, because he was an engine guy, and that’s where I started in the first place.

My final-year project in Natal was to design an engine – all the theoretical stuff, and every nut, bolt and washer.

I loved engines, and so did Harry.”

Mundy was for eight years from 1955 the most distinguished technical editor Autocar has ever had. In the year Murray was born, 1946, Harry was working in the BRM design office on the extraordinary 600bhp 1.5-liter V16 engine, whose amazing design, high power and serial unreliability are well known.

His contribution isn’t well documented, but he’s believed to have worked on the gearbox, and to have tried to persuade his superiors to embrace a V8 design on the grounds of reduced complexity. “It looks like Harry might have had a point,” says Murray, citing his own preferences.

“People see me as an innovator, and I’m proud of that, but deep down I’m a pretty practical guy. I like simplicity.”

THIS PAGE Murray holds former BRM and Jaguar designer and Autocar technical editor Harry Mundy in high regard: “I loved engines, and so did Harry.”

JUNE 14 – 16, 2024 | GROSSE POINTE SHORES, MI

EyesOn Design at Ford House The world’s only car show focused exclusively on design.

2024 THEME:

Design Masters: A Lifetime of Design Achievement Lifetime Design Achievement Award: Gordon Murray, Executive Chairman, Gordon Murray Design Honorary Chairman: Bill Warner, Founder, The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance Grand Marshal: Tim McGrane, CEO, M1 Concourse Poster Artist: Nicolas Rousselet, Gallery Momentum

Learn More: EyesOnDesign.org

Formula 1 after the ICE age

RED BULL RACING

Murray makes no pretense about how much he enjoyed F1 in what he calls the “Castrol R and flaming exhausts” era – but he has no doubt the sport will continue in some form when there are no longer piston engines.

“I suspect the move to hybridization may have come too soon,” he says.

“F1 could have put on a better show for a little longer with conventional turbo engines. But I’m very biased.”

Murray predicts “something of a dead period” as F1 embraces racing with batteries and hydrogen fuel cells for a while, but then a new golden era.

“They will probably stagger into an electric age,” he says. “But the hope will come from a new group of young engineers who were brought up with electric cars, were driven in them as kids and had one as their first car.

They will see a way to bring back the romance of racing. We have to put our trust in the next generation.”

THIS PAGE Murray reckons the F1 industry will rise to post-ICE challenges, predicting a new golden era as the knowledge of the ‘electric generation’ kicks in.

under the most pressure”. He cites as an example the way his predecessors perfected the radar system just in time to help protect Britain in World War Two. One of his concerns, however, is that modern car creation leads people to follow one discipline for long periods. “Younger designers can find themselves working on front suspensions for five years at a stretch,” he says.

“It’s understandable, because the job is so complex, but it does make you wonder how we will identify tomorrow’s leaders. To be the best, they need wide experience. Some of the best cars were ‘one person’ creations: the Alec Issigonis models, or Dante Giacosa’s Fiats.”

One solution for ambitious young engineers is to spend time at small, agile and immersive companies where training is a priority. Murray practices what he preaches: GMA runs apprentice and postgraduate programs, and the morning after our interview, he was scheduled to lead a regular three-monthly business update for all employees.

We pause over one last burning question: can Murray really view the forthcoming EV era with the same enthusiasm as the ICE age in which he has been such a trendsetter? “I have lived through a fantastic era,” he answers. “An age when some of the most beautiful, emotional and noisy cars were built. And with our V12s, I’m M1 MOMENTUM

‘I have lived through a fantastic era, when some of the most beautiful, emotional and noisy cars were built’ still doing my best to keep the last flag flying.”

But the future offers even bigger, better challenges. “At GMA, we have our own EV program, because we’ve looked at what others are doing and we’re pretty sure it’s all wrong. It can’t be correct to routinely have 2.5-ton family cars, yet everyone’s piling into it the way OEMs do. We think there’s a better way.”

Murray isn’t ready to reveal much right now, except that his first EV will be one most can afford. “We’re still signing deals with partners, and we have plenty to do,” he says.

“But all the engineering will be our own. The project entails a bit of crystal-balling, but if we hit our targets, we really believe it will change how people think about EVs.” The EyesOn Design ceremony takes place at M1 Concourse on June 14. See www.eyesondesign.org.

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ABOVE Byron Carter, inventor of the friction transmission used exclusively in the Cartercar, and an early model.

LOCAL HISTORY

CARTERCAR, FLANDERS, OLYMPIAN AND FRIEND BY 1908, THE AREA THAT EVENTUALLY became the M1 Concourse ‘Triangle’ was firmly established in vehicle-making history.

The northern section had become the home of the successful Rapid Motor Vehicle Company.

Rapid, however, caught the eye of William C Durant, who started buying stock. By 1909, he’d gained control of the firm. Rapid subsequently became a General Motors subsidiary. But to the north of The Triangle, and in the southern section, vehicle history was also being made.

Byron Carter, who once ran a bicycle shop in Jackson, Michigan, had built a gasoline car as early as 1899. Yet his first marketable vehicle was a steam-powered Stanhope, manufactured in 1901 by the Michigan Automobile Company of Grand Rapids. In 1902, he formed the Jackson Automobile Company with two partners. It manufactured steam cars – named Jaxons – and gasoline ones called Jacksons.

A year later, Carter applied for a patent for a “friction-drive transmission”. When the directors refused to fund the development of

Michigan’s automotive ‘Triangle’ – today the home of M1 Concourse – continues to thrive as companies grow and technology develops WORDS C A R O L EG B O

M1 MOMENTUM

his invention, he left the company.

In 1905, he formed the Motor Car Company, and after receiving financial backing in Detroit he moved everything there. The firm sold 101 friction-driven cars in 1906, and 325 in 1908.

That November, the name was changed to the Cartercar Company, and it was relocated to Pontiac. This was after the purchase of the Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works plant, and the consolidation of the two companies. The Pontiac carriage manufacturer had been one of the leaders in the city’s early carriage business.

Its plant was located just northwest of The Triangle, along the railroad tracks.

The move to Pontiac appears to have been prompted by several factors, including the need for more capital and additional factory space. An October 1908 Detroit Free Press article quoted an additional reason from Cartercar president Frank Caughey: “We will be very closely allied with the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company, manufacturer of commercial vehicles. Some of the same men are interested 119

LOCAL HISTORY

in both companies, and we will work together.”

Sadly, Byron Carter died of pneumonia at his home in Detroit on April 6, 1908. Only 45, he left behind a widow and three children. General manager Randall A Palmer took up the work of designing the Cartercar chain casing, and soon the firm and the friction drive caught William Durant’s eye. Adverts claimed the car had: “A thousand speeds – No clutch to slip – No gears to strip – No universal joints to break – No driveshaft to twist – No bevel gears to wind and howl – No noise to annoy.” Durant felt the unit had great potential, and so General Motors bought the company on October 26, 1909.

Things changed, however. By 1910, Durant was gone as head of GM, and the Cartercar had not lived up to sales predictions. Despite this, GM continued with several models, including touring cars, roadsters, coupes, sedans and even trucks. By 1915, production was limited to just roadsters and tourers, and then the Board of Directors opted to stop building Cartercars altogether after 1916. Durant, of course, then returned, but the Cartercar did not.

the south end of the city, until they make a visit to the spot. Nothing could so well illustrate the ‘Flanders spirit’, as the manner in which this new project has been gotten under way.

While others would still be considering preliminaries, this group of men has put up substantial, solid-brick factory buildings and has some of them ready for operations.”

The complex was impressive, but the firm soon became overextended. Orders for 3000 Flanders vehicles had been taken, yet fewer than 100 were actually produced. By 1913, the company had gone into receivership, and the buildings were put up for public auction.

MICHIGAN DROP FORGE The Flanders forge was purchased in 1914, and its name returned to Pontiac Drop Forge. In 1916, its assets were bought and the name was changed to Michigan Drop Forge. In 1923, an explosion badly injured five workers; operations ceased in 1924, and in 1925 the forge became part of Wilson Foundry & Manufacturing.

FLANDERS MANUFACTURING COMPANY

PONTIAC CHASSIS COMPANY AND OLYMPIAN MOTORS

In late 1910, Walter Flanders incorporated the Flanders Manufacturing Company. In 1908, the former Ford Motor Company production manager had become president and general manager of the EMF Company, which was then acquired by Studebaker in 1910. His new corporation brought together five businesses: Pontiac Motorcycle Company; Pontiac Drop Forge Company; Pontiac Foundry Company; Vulcan Gear Works, which moved from Detroit to Pontiac; and Grant & Wood Manufacturing Company of Chelsea, Michigan.

With the intent of building motorcycles, automobiles and associated parts, Flanders quickly began work on new factory buildings in Pontiac, in the southern section of The Triangle. The Michigan Manufacturer & Financial Record of 1910 described these events: “Few people in Pontiac realize how rapidly work has been pushed on the group of factory buildings known as the ‘Flanders Projects’ in

The rest of the Flanders buildings were purchased by the Pontiac Chassis Company, which had been organized in 1915. Its founders included RA Palmer, former general manager of the Cartercar Company. In 1915, Automotive Manufacturer described the firm’s plan: “To build for the automobile trade chassis minus bodies and tires. The customer receives the chassis in this form, mounts his own design of body and top, puts on tires, and then sells the completed car under his own name. The chassis is built for assemblers only, and it is stated that by this method, the smaller assembler is enabled to produce a car at as low a price as the larger manufacturer.”

The plan for providing only a chassis did not catch on, and the company was in business for just one year. By 1916, RA Palmer had formed Olympian Motors, with the intention of building a whole car. The new firm absorbed Pontiac Chassis, and began to make Olympian

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THIS PAGE “A trouble-proof car” was a bold claim for the Cartercar, which nevertheless didn’t live up to sales predictions. Randall A Palmer was to feature time and again in the early years of The Triangle.

M1 MOMENTUM

cars in the plant. In 1917, when General Motors put the former Cartercar Company factory up for sale, Palmer purchased it and moved Olympian there. He was back where he began.

Olympians were produced from 1917 to 1920.

The brand advertised a “fully equipped” car with “unusual items of extra equipment”.

Models were also available in colors including white, green, blue, red and gray. Ads referred to the Olympian as a “combination of luxury and economy” – a “car for the masses and the classes” – a “car of harmonious proportions”.

In 1920, former GM official Otis C Friend, along with some associates, bought Olympian and formed the Friend Motor Company. This produced Olympians for most of 1920, while the Friend was made in limited numbers in 1921. However, by September, it was placed in receivership and all of its assets were sold.

DETROIT WEATHERPROOF BODY COMPANY After Olympian moved to the former Cartercar plant, five of the old Flanders buildings became home to the Detroit Weatherproof Body Company. These were located in The Triangle along South Saginaw Street, just south of what was then Wilson Street. This company had been organized in Detroit in 1915, and initially specialized in the manufacture of completely closed tops for the Ford Model T. The firm was successful, and it began to expand its line of bodies. Soon its factory on Mt Elliott in Detroit was too small. This prompted a move to Pontiac in 1917. Here the outfit was soon manufacturing more than 150 sedan tops a day, and it began to produce commercial bodies and truck cabs, too.

In November 1918, the Detroit Weatherproof Body Company and the city of Pontiac made automotive history when JV Templeton, a salesman for the firm, and his wife embarked on the first winter motor car tour between Michigan and California. The trip started from the Detroit Weatherproof Body Company’s factory, and ended in Los Angeles. In Volume 28 of Motor West, it was described as follows: “The first winter tourists will eat, sleep and

THIS PAGE In November 1918, the Templetons kicked off their epic drive from Pontiac to the West Coast, for the Detroit Weatherproof Body Company. Early automotive manufacturers in the area also included Olympian and Friend.

M1 MOMENTUM

travel all the way in their car, which is equipped with a Detroit Weatherproof Top. Templeton, who is connected with the sales department, will sign up dealers, and put through new contracts for tops with present dealers.

“Mrs Templeton is an experienced driver, and will pilot the car halfway, while Mr Templeton will cook half the meals – the wayfarers planning to purchase their food fresh from farmhouses along the route – and cook it on a special stove attached to the motor. Two cots, stretching from the rear of the back seat to the front, will be used for sleeping. These will be folded up in the daytime, and will thus occupy a small space when not in use.”

Numerous newspaper articles described the two-month journey, including a Detroit Free Press piece from November 25, 1918, with the headline: “THEIR FIRST SIGHT OF ENCLOSED CAR: Open-mouthed Hoosiers view weatherproof top.” It said of a visit to a “hamlet” in Indiana: “…Old and young farmers and children gathered, the majority expressing utmost wonderment about the enclosed car. The Templetons were just as much amazed to learn that many of the villagers had never seen an enclosed car.”

By 1920, the company had once more outgrown its facilities, and it moved to a large former furniture plant in Corunna. The Pontiac buildings were not vacant long, however, and they soon became part of the Wilson Foundry & Manufacturing Company. Wilson was to become a major part of the vehicle-making history of the M1 Concourse Triangle.

The story of this historic site continues in issue 5.

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THIS PAGE PONTIAC letters came from the division’s billboard on I-75, while even the ladies’ room is suitably themed. OPPOSITE Classic cars will be on display in the new exhibition areas.

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE PONTIAC TRANSPORTATION MUSEUM An exciting new addition to Pontiac will celebrate the area’s unsurpassed history of transportation, and it’s set to open very soon WORDS N AT H A N C H A D W I C K PHOTOGRAPHY P O N T I A C T R A N S P O R TAT I O N M U S E U M

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WHEN IT COMES TO CARS, PONTIAC may be a name that’s synonymous with our corner of the world, but there’s so much more to the area than Pontiacs – or even automobiles.

That’s the thinking behind the Pontiac Transportation Museum, led by historian Tim Dye. Based only a mile from M1 Concourse, and a block away from Woodward Avenue, it’s a celebration of all things two- and fourwheeled to come from the Pontiac area.

“In 2011, my wife and I started the PontiacOakland Museum in Pontiac, Illinois – that’s about the Pontiac and Oakland cars, basically,”

Tim says. “The new museum is an offshoot, and we’ve identified more than 40 companies that made wheeled vehicles in Pontiac, Michigan.”

That history takes in everything from bikes to motorhomes to war machines... “up to the last Pontiac – which we own”. Buggy exhibits include examples from the Standard Vehicle Carriage Company, and Pontiac Spring and Wagon Works – and even a Pontiac Buggy Company sleigh, the only one known to exist.

Other early exhibits include a Cartercar, one of only two extant Olympians, one of five 1908 The Pontiac cars known to exist, alongside

LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

many vehicles showing not only the transition to car production, but the changing fortunes of the auto business, when Oakland was bought

by GM, and the 1926 launch of the Pontiac car.

You can also see two-wheelers. “Whizzer motorbikes were basically a Schwinn bicycle with a motor; during World War Two, Whizzer was the only transportation-related firm that didn’t quit making vehicles unrelated to the war effort,” Tim says. “Women used them to get around to the factories and build war machines.”

One quirky exhibit is the Vixen Motorhome prototype. “Bill Collins, Pontiac’s assistant chief engineer, went with John DeLorean to produce the DMC-12. When that ended, he came back to the area, and started making these motorhomes,” Tim explains. “He built 587, and he gave us the prototype before he passed.”

Further car prototypes include unknown gems, alongside more well known glitterati from the show circuit. Away from the vehicles themselves, the museum houses an extensive library of Pontiac company documents – including key decision meetings, such as the one that led to the GTO Judge. “It’s all in these minutes,” Tim smiles. “It doesn’t get much better than that for insider paperwork.” The plan is for a free flow of items between the museum in Illinois and the new facility.

The museum isn’t only about the past, however. It is looking to the future of mobility, with regard to the autonomous vehicles being developed at GM’s nearby plants, and also at restoration. The current workshop is set up for mechanical work on donated cars, but not paintwork. The plan is to build a dedicated workshop facility, depending on donations, to develop this further. “Over time we want to develop educational programs and other ideas that are good for the museum, and to be part of the local community,” Tim says. Part of that is involving local youngsters in restoration.

However, the main focus is a ‘soft launch’ in May, with around 25 exhibits. “You know that saying, ‘you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time’? Well we’re taking that approach as to how we are working on the museum,” Tim explains. A grand opening will occur in June or July, while the further 50 exhibits and buildings will come later – and there are plenty of opportunities to get involved. “There are lots of volunteer openings, and we are talking about offering memberships, too,” he finishes.

More at www.pontiactransportationmuseum.org.

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DESIRABLES

124 M1 Concourse products 126 New products 130 Books 132 Watches

The freshest ideas for your car cave, from the best books to the most tempting watches, as well as the latest M1 Concourse apparel

W O R D S N AT H A N C H A D W I C K PHOTOGRAPHY M1 CONCOURSE

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Detroit Watch Company ASF

Crafted by the Detroit Watch Company specifically for M1 Concourse, the ASF watch line has been designed to pay tribute to the classic racing stopwatches of the 1960s. Several dial colors are available, and all run the Seiko NH35A caliber with automatic and manual winding. The stainless-steel case is 42mm in diameter, and it is water resistant to 165ft. Cost is $299. shop.m1concourse.com

DESIRABLES

M1 CONCOURSE PRODUCTS

M1 Block Hat by Finn Ryan

M1 Black Polo by Finn Ryan

Designed by Finn Ryan, these cotton twill hats have four colors inspired by the Chevrolet Corvette. You’ll also find a stitched M1 block on the front and under the brim track, plus further M1 branding on the back. They cost $38 each. shop.m1concourse.com

This stylish polo-neck shirt features a custom ‘halfmoon’ insert of the no. 98 Shelby Daytona. Made from black performance pique (95 percent polyester and five percent Spandex), it’s available in Small to XX Large. It costs $65. shop.m1concourse.com

Navy Quilted Vest by Finn Ryan

This stylish quilted vest is great for an extra bit of warmth. Available in male or female fitment, and sizes Small to XX Large, each one costs $160. shop.m1concourse.com M1 MOMENTUM

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NEW PRODUCTS

Tumi Continental Expandable Carry-On

This 55cm carry-on luggage is made from Tegris, a lightweight yet durable material that offers robust strength and impact resistance.

It is customizable with modular accessories that are made to work seamlessly with daisy chains, D-rings and hooks, to make packing easy. It’s available in Blush (below), T-Graphite and Black/ Graphite, and costs $1050. tumi.com

The Outlierman Mulsanne 24 Heures Du Mans Driving Gloves

In honor of the Le Mans 24 Hours, these limitededition gloves feature the iconic colors of the race, and are made from nappa lambskin with contrasting waxed thread. They are available in sizes 7.5 to 9, and cost $415.72. theoutlierman.com

Northern Toboggan Co 1800s

Fancy something completely classical for your snow-based fun?

This hand-crafted design

by Northern Toboggan Co, made in Warroad, Minnesota, harks back to the toboggans of the 1880s with its half-circle design, manila rope knots and linseed finish. The 6ft 126

M1 MOMENTUM

toboggan is designed for up to two adults or three children, and weighs 23lb.

It’s crafted from white ash sourced responsibly from a lumber mill, offering just the right amount of bend and vivid grain patterns.

It cost $795 without a cushion, and $950 with; personalized engraving is available at extra cost. northerntoboggan.com

DESIRABLES

Mopar Graphics RC Cooler

Everyone’s been there – relaxing in front of an onscreen race on a Sunday afternoon, several beers in, when you’ve run out of ice-cold sustenance. This cooler not only rolls around on wheels, but it is remote controlled, too. Designed,

molded and assembled in the US, it can store 30 cans and has a 100ft range. It also features speakers with an auxiliary input, Bluetooth capability and a USB port. You just need someone near the fridge to load it up for you… It costs $602.95. wearmopar.com

Austin J40 Continuation

The story of the J40 goes back to 1949, when the Austin Motor Company set up a not-for-profit firm to produce pedal cars, employing injured Welsh miners to create them.

Now Austin Pedal Cars has re-engineered the iconic design, with a hand-made aluminum body and new billet chassis. $32,000. austinpedalcars.com

M1 MOMENTUM

Clue! Shinola Detroit Edition

The classic whodunit board game has been given a unique downtown Detroit twist, with the layout recalling the most notorious suites and areas

of the Shinola Hotel.

It comes in a white oak cabinet, with delicately painted wooden movers and matte gold-finished weapons. The character cards are hand-illustrated, too. It costs $395. shinola.com

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NEW PRODUCTS

Maisto Tech Ford Bronco Sasquatch This remote-control Bronco can take everything in its stride: hills, stones, mud, gravel and even potholes.

Measuring 43cm long, it’s operated by a Pro Style remote control, and it has a frequency of 2.4Ghz and range of around 115ft. It’s suitable for those aged eight and above. It costs $146.90. fordlifestylecollection.com

Maserati 450S model

This 1:8-scale model depicts the Maserati 450S that Juan Manuel Fangio and Jean Behra drove to victory at the 1957 Sebring 12 Hours. This was a controversial race, thanks to disputes with the FIA over spare-tire rules, the first fatality at the

event, 55-gallon oil drums outlining the track and a massive 86-car entry list.

The 1956 event winner, Fangio had sensationally jumped ship from Scuderia Ferrari to Officine Alfieri Maserati, and won again for his new team – although not without drama; with

Amalgam Ferrari Purosangue

Amalgam’s 199-piece 1:8-scale model beautifully recreates Ferrari’s controversial four-door Purosangue. Each one takes 300 hours to build, and features precisely

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30 minutes to go, a mechanic spilled fuel on Fangio’s seat, setting it ablaze. Happily, a replacement seat was found, and Maserati recorded a one-two finish.

The model costs $1742. maseratistore.com

engineered castings, photo etchings and CNC-machined metal components, using original specifications from Ferrari. $20,795 each. amalgam collection.com

Arthur Sleep Wholecut Loafer in Hand-Patinated Brown Calf

Crafted and hand-polished in London’s Savile Row, these loafers are patinated in dark brown museum calf, with an Italian leather sole. They’re coated in Arthur Sleep’s DryWired Texture Shield water and stain technology, which is a super-hydrophobic and oleophobic durable waterrepellent finish. They can be shipped worldwide at a flat rate, and cost $1125. arthursleep.com

J40 Continuation

The new, limited edition, Austin J40 Continuation presents an exquisite interpretation of the much-loved classic J40 pedal car, combining modern technology with traditional principles to create a beautifully styled and sumptuously finished piece of automotive art Curvaceous all-aluminium bodywork is shaped by hand, bright chrome trim brings a touch of 1950s style,

and the finest, hand-stitched tan leather trim creates a luxurious interior. Its classic looks form a wonderful juxtaposition with the beautifully engineered, modern pedal system which lies beneath Each J40 Continuation is built to order, and 2024 build-slots are now open for reservation. Please contact us to discuss the creation of your brand new Austin J40.

A joy to pedal. A joy to admire. A joy to own Austinpedalcars.com Showroom situated at Bicester Heritage, England - viewings by appointment

DESIRABLES

BOOKS

Lost cars of the 1940s and ’50s

A WILD RIDE: THE MAKING OF VALKYRIE

A story as eye-popping as the car’s acceleration

Back in the mid-teens, flushed with Formula 1 success, Red Bull had a bit of a problem. Adrian Newey, the most talented F1 car designer of the modern age – and, some would argue, of all time – had been offered a double-your-salary deal and a free hand to build the ultimate road car, by Ferrari. To keep him energized in Red Bull colors, Christian Horner called on near-neighbor Aston Martin with an idea – the consummate hypercar, courtesy of Newey.

There are a mere 40 miles between Red Bull and Aston Martin’s respective headquarters in the UK, but as Bart Lenaerts’ compelling narrative in A Wild Ride: The Making of Valkyrie reveals, it might as well have been a galaxy far, far away – there is certainly enough drama here for a blockbuster space opera.

Newey’s pursuit of the ultimate might work within the relatively permissive realm of F1, but building a road car is different. The latter is a land of homologation rules, styling needs and, most critically, budgets.

Red Bull struggled with all of these elements, and as the costs mounted, rancor between the two firms soon built up.

It’s a fascinating tale, backed up with Lies de Mol’s evocative and insightful behind-the-scenes images. Thanks to unprecedented access to all aspects of the Valkyrie’s development process, reading the firstperson testimony of some of the arguments, anguishes and problems as the alternate worlds of Formula 1 and road cars collide can be genuinely difficult to do without wincing.

In the end, Red Bull would withdraw from the project just as the Lawrence Stroll empire began – but the drama hasn’t stopped, with issues with some suppliers and dealers, and rumored troubles with the first batch of cars to be delivered. The book doesn’t touch on these, leaving the story just as the model was finally signed off for production; the truth is, the Valkyrie tale is probably a long way from being over, and further bumps in the road lie ahead.

That shouldn’t dissuade anyone from buying this $129.95, 326-page tome, though. It’s a captivating insight into not only the politics of such a high-profile project, but also the passion, dedication and ingenuity of the engineers and designers who made it happen. waft.be 130

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As the world’s car manufacturers emerged from World War Two, nobody could have foreseen the stylistic sprint to automotive maximalism, primarily from the Americans, in the mid-to-late 1950s. Giles Chapman’s entertaining, 160-page, $38.99 book shines a light on the obscure cars that have either slid out of public consciousness or simply existed as an offshoot of a regional Big Three outpost.

Engagingly written and illustrated largely with period advertising imagery, it’ll certainly provide many ‘what on earth’ moments. thehistorypress.co.uk

Ferrari 330GTC: Elegance and Pedigree

This is one of the more surprising books of the past year. Initial impressions, from the lavish case, hardbound cover and paper quality, is of an art book. However,

delve within, and it’s actually a fantastic warts-and-all resource for 330GTC enthusiasts as well, with how-to guides and precise tech data, plus a chassis-bychassis run-down. Also, interviews with Aldo Brovarone and Tom Tjaarda offer fascinating insight. Maurice Khawam’s 376-page, $575 book is clearly a labor of love, and if you’re a 330GTC lover this has to be a must-buy. makgroupbooks.com

TWR-Porsche WSC95

If you’d told anyone in Jaguar or Porsche during the white-hot days of Group C that the former’s chassis would combine with the latter’s allconquering endurance flat-six to create a dual Le Mans 24 Hours winner, they’d have laughed. But it’s what happened – and Serge Vanbockryck’s $99, 320-page tale brings the story to light with unseenbefore designs and imagery, insider insight and absorbing tech precision. It’s a tale that deserves to be widely told, about a project that, against the odds, saw two unlikely victories. porterpress.co.uk

DESIRABLES

IMAGINE TOO! TOWARDS THE FUTURE Eye-popping visions of a world that never quite materialized

Classic Car Auction Yearbook 2022-2023

One need only to look at the motoring landscape of evermore ghastly identikit SUVs to muse that the future isn’t quite what it used to be.

That’s the feeling you get when reading Patrick G Kelly’s follow-up to IMAGINE! – this 456-page, $150 book is packed full of increasingly eye-widening concepts from the 1940s onwards.

However, it also incorporates vivid hand-drawn advertisements and magazine covers from the period, and it’s here where you get a real feeling of hope and excitement about the future. It’s hard not to view Arthur Radebaugh’s 1950s vision of an expeditionary craft on the moon as something of a gleeful escape – even if, as of yet, the 21st century hasn’t quite panned out that way.

We love the deeply fun features such as the blueprint of The Jetsons’ Space Car, before moving onto the famed Motorama shows. However, it is the stunning paintings and sketches of the cars that could have been which make this volume a true delight. While well known names such as Virgil Exner, Ron Hickman, Raymond Loewy Sr and Robert Henry Gurr feature, the joy of this book is discovering new artists and designers, some working within the auto industry, some on the periphery.

Indeed, several of the wildest creations are from those whose job could mean toiling away in a truck department.

Although the most outlandish styling immediately catches the eye, real depth comes from identifying where elements have ended up in finished designs. Beautiful presentation on high-quality paper really lets the artwork shine; thankfully the publishers avoided the temptation to use matt stock. The paper brings a ‘glisten’ to these images, particularly those from the 1950s through to the ’70s.

The book ends with an engaging look at the toys made during this time. Even though we aren’t living the retro-futuristic dreams with our day-to-day cars just yet, the front-room-carpet Indy 500 has no doubt inspired generations along the way, giving us hope that the future of mobility will stir the soul. This highly recommended and uplifting tome will have you coming back for more. daltonwatson.com M1 MOMENTUM

Now in its 28th edition, Adolfo Orsi’s granular take on the auction world gets more comprehensive every year. The past 12 months have seen an icy wind pass through the market – or so some would have you believe.

However, with the aid of 420 pages of extensive number crunching, the reality isn’t quite that horrifying; take away last year’s post-Covid boom, and the market is still performing well. With more than 10,737 auction cars analyzed, this $109.95 book is a great go-to for those who buy and sell regularly. classiccarauction yearbook.com

Powered

by Gibson

Some of the best ideas are formed around a kitchen table – Lotus, for example. Gibson Technology is another; what began as Bill Gibson building

electronic-management systems at home developed into his firm, Zytek, helping to give the likes of Ayrton Senna the edge on track. This is the story of how Gibson built engines for single-seaters and more, and how it eventually became a giant-killing Le Mans chassis maker.

Mark Cole’s 128-page, $70 book is a fascinating insight into a rarely heralded company that took on the world’s best – and beat them. porterpress.co.uk

Rainer Schlegelmilch: Porsche Racing Moments

Within 25 years, Porsche went from motor sport outsider to the dominant force in endurance racing – and Rainer Schlegelmilch was there to capture it all, from the 550 through to the all-conquering 962.

The car imagery here is magnificent, as you’d expect – who doesn’t love airborne 908s at the Nordschleife? But as is always the case with Rainer’s work, it is the human side that truly hits home, from either side of the paddock wall.

Beautifully realized, this 356-page, $850 book is a treat even for those not under the Stuttgart spell. taschen.com 131

DESIRABLES

Patek Philippe Aquanaut Rose Gold 5261R-001

WATCHES

A complication that isn’t complicated – that’s the thinking behind the Aquanaut Luce Annual Calendar, to give this watch its full name. Patek Philippe’s patented annual calendar means the day/date/month set-up needs only one manual correction, which happens each February. The 39mm 18ct rose gold case and its bezel’s rounded octagonal shapes are contrasted with polished and satin-brushed finishes.

Meanwhile, the blue-gray dial and composite Aquanaut-pattern strap lend an air of sportiness and contemporary chic.

The price is $62,310. patek.com

Tudor Pelagos FXD M2570B/ 23-0001

The Pelagos range is inspired by the timepieces worn by the US Navy.

Waterproof to 200 meters, this 42mm-diameter watch features a titanium case that encapsulates a MT5602 self-winding mechanical movement.

It has a c.70-hour power reserve, and comes with a fabric and a blue rubber strap. There’s a titanium winding crown, plus a

bi-directional rotating bezel in titanium with a ceramic disc; it also has a 60-minute retrograde graduation for navigation by successive stages, and costs $4150. tudorwatch.com

Chopard Alpine Eagle Cadence 8HF

This Alpine Eagle combines the comfortable feel of a titanium watch with an elegant chronometer movement. The 41mm case houses a black dial with subtle orange accents, and the Chopard 01.12-C high-frequency escapement automatic movement allows it to reach a cruising altitude of 57,600 vibrations per hour (8Hz). The price is $20,800. chopard.com

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Montres F.P. Journe Linesport Automatique Réserve

The 44mm-diameter Linesport is crafted from titanium, and features an aluminum-alloy dial with luminescent indexes and numerals, with the seconds counter in white sapphire. It features the M1 MOMENTUM

1300.3 caliber. While the yellow dial pictured here is particularly strident, other color options include Slate Gray, a silver guilloché dial covered in Ruthenium with an 18k rose gold case, and a platinum case with a silver guilloché dial with a blue-mauve contrast.

It costs $84,900. fpjourne.com

VANT V8

The last of the Ford-developed Aston Martins, the 2005-on Vantage is becoming a collectable classic

TAGE BUYING GUIDE

W O R D S J O H N TA L LO D I

PHOTOGRAPHY ASTON MARTIN

BUYING GUIDE

Model history 2003 Aston Martin V8 Vantage concept, styled by Henrik Fisker, first shown at Detroit Auto Show.

2005 V8 Vantage 4.3 appears at Geneva Motor Show. Sales begin in September.

2007 Cabriolet version launched, priced at significantly more than roofed counterpart. Prices of both today are comparable.

2008 New 4.7-liter V8 version appears, with 426bhp. Power of 4.0 model increased to 400bhp.

2011 V12 Vantage launched, with US market forced to wait for this 510bhp, 6.0-liter version.

ASTON MARTIN FIRST TEASED US WITH the Vantage at the 2003 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. This led to a production launch two years later of a car that looked pretty much the same.

It was launched with a new 4.3-liter V8 engine developing an impressive 385bhp, but although the eight-cylinder unit sounded fantastic and was brimming with character, it had to be worked hard in order to exploit its performance. Peak torque didn’t arrive until 5000rpm, and the very top of its power curve came some 2000rpm later.

The issue was addressed somewhat in 2008, with the introduction of a revised, 4.7-liter V8 boasting 426bhp, while the power of the 4.3 motor was increased to 400bhp.

Just before the revised engines came along, Aston Martin also introduced a soft-top variant. The V8 Vantage Roadster was aimed at a different target market, and was pitched as more of a boulevard cruiser – but it was still an epic performance car in its own right.

Today, the V8 Vantage represents terrific value.

Several special editions and specifications 136

were released along the way, but there are three to look out for in particular. The Prodrive V8 Vantage of 2007 consisted of four upgrade packages covering the engine, suspension, wheels and braking system.

In the same year, the N400 (4.3) model was launched to celebrate the car’s successes at the Nürburgring, which had 400bhp courtesy of an ECU tweak. Just 480 examples were manufactured: 240 coupés and 240 Roadsters.

The precise build number reflected how many seconds there are in eight minutes, the time in which the N400 could lap the Nürburgring.

More importantly, the N400 featured upgraded springs and Bilstein dampers, a new alloywheel design finished in unique lightweight graphite-finished aluminum with diamond turning, and – in the case of the coupé – an upgraded anti-roll bar.

On the outside, the N400 included a revised sill design, silver bonnet and side-strake meshes, clear rear lamp lenses and brightfinish grille. Inside, you were treated to perforated black leather seats, micro-spin alloy facia trim and a numbered sill plaque,

2011 Range facelifted with V8 Vantage S model.

Specifications Engine Power Top speed 0-60mph Economy

4.3-liter V8 385bhp 175mph 4.9 seconds 21mpg

Engine Power Top speed 0-60mph Economy

4.3-liter V8 N400 400bhp 177mph 4.9 seconds 21mpg

Engine Power Top speed 0-60mph Economy

4.7-liter V8 426bhp 181mph 4.6 seconds 21mpg

too. A mere 11 convertibles and ten roofed versions came to the US as original imports.

Later on, the 2010 N420 applied similar upgrades to the 4.7-liter car.

In 2011, the V8 Vantage S arrived in showrooms, with a 430bhp iteration of the 4.7-liter V8 powerplant. For this guide, we’ll be focusing on the pre-S models.

ABOVE Coupé available in a variety of power guises. OPPOSITE Roadster cost significantly more when new, but now has price parity with tin-top stablemate.

ENGINE AND GEARBOX The engine, transmission and driveline on manual models are usually bombproof. Other than relatively weak clutches, everything else has proven to be pretty tough.

The alternator belt can squeal when the car is cold, but this can be rectified by adjusting the tensioner; alternatively, a revised pulley kit can be fitted. Ensure that the plastic engine cover is mounted securely, because if it’s loose it can melt on the exhaust manifolds.

While the quad-cam V8 is related to the Jaguar AJ V8 powerplant, it didn’t arrive until 2005, which means there are none of the Nikasil-liner issues that were related to earlier iterations – it’s all fairly straightforward

‘The engine, transmission and driveline on manual models are usually bombproof’ M1 MOMENTUM

stuff. Regular maintenance is the key.

As for the transmission, the six-speed manual gives very few issues even at high mileages, but the six-ratio sequential automatic unit can be troublesome due to software and module failure. Don’t confuse this with the seven-speed automated ’box fitted to 2011-on models, which is usually problem free.

A word of warning: don’t buy a car if the engine has already failed, rare as that may be, because remanufactured motors and gearboxes are currently not supported by the Aston Martin factory. This can cause serious issues if a car needs a replacement.

SUSPENSION AND BRAKES Again, it’s mostly service items that you need to be aware of. There’s nothing that breaks specifically, other than via general wear and tear, but it helps to know exactly what you’ve got, because specifications are quite different.

All cars have independent aluminum double wishbones front and rear, while coil-over dampers work with an anti-roll bar at both ends. On the 4.3, the Sports Pack came with 137

BUYING GUIDE

firmer Bilstein springs and dampers, as well as lightweight forged 19-inch alloy wheels.

With the 2008 arrival of the 4.7, 19-inch alloy rims were standard and there was a range of optional styles up to 21 inches.

The Vantage is heavy on rubber. If driven gently, you might get 20,000 miles out of a set of tires, but 10,000-15,000 is more the norm.

The braking system should last 25,000 miles before you need to start thinking about new rotors and pads; squealing is an indicator that you’ll soon be spending some money.

‘V8 Vantage Roadster was pitched as more of a boulevard cruiser – but it was still an epic performance car’

BODYWORK AND INTERIOR Body repairs can be costly, especially as the car’s shape means it’s prone to stone chips around the front. You may have to wait for replacement panels, too, because Aston only makes them in small batches. Check for the usual signs of accident repairs, such as uneven tire wear or poor panel gaps.

Elsewhere, body-electrical systems cause the biggest issues. Early door modules are common failures, as are the modules for the convertible roof and the transmission. Trim materials are all fairly hard wearing, and unless a car has done a particularly high mileage, most examples are still fairly smart in the cabin.

Which to buy With a budget below $45,000, specialists advise that you opt for a six-speed manual example. And unless you really must have the six-speed automated-shift manual transmission, avoid it; this unit can suffer from module problems. It’s also less fun to drive. The 4.7 is the more enjoyable car on the road.

The N400, and the N430 model (below) in particular, add a grittier edge to proceedings; while not quite featherweights in the manner of a GT3 Porsche, you can certainly feel the endurance-racing breeding.

BELOW Trim is fairly hard wearing, and all but the highest-mileage examples should still be looking smart inside.

Values V8 Vantage 4.3 Concours Excellent Good Fair

$67,000 $54,000 $42,000 $35,000

V8 Vantage 4.7 Concours Excellent Good Fair

$84,000 $68,000 $51,000 $44,000

V8 Vantage N400 Concours Excellent Good Fair

$70,000 $57,000 $46,000 $36,000

All values are taken as averages of a spread of years and mileages.

More on www.hagerty.com 138

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LE MANS CLASSIC & NORMANDY June/July, 2025 8 Day Tour Steve Austin, Owner & Tour Director

GOODWOOD REVIVAL & ENGLAND September, 2025 9 Day Tour

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Website: www.steveaustinsautomobiliaandtravel.com

(503)349-8769

Photo courtesy of GRRC

Email: steveaustin@colton.com

AUTOMOBILIA TELLING TIME IN THE REDLINE ERA The Hot Wheels golden years – 1968 to 1977 – produced some of the most evocative scalemodel automobilia ever seen – and these great timepieces are among the most collectable

WORDS B R U C E PA S C A L

PHOTOGRAPHY A U T O M O B I L I A R ES O U R C E

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WHEN HOT WHEELS WERE FIRST introduced in 1968, they were an immediate hit for manufacturer Mattel. Soon all manner of associated memorabilia was being produced in order for kids to immerse themselves in the world of the tiny ‘Redline’ scale-model cars: lunchboxes, clothing, wallets, temporary tattoos, sticker books, trash cans, an LP, coloring books, comics and even a jigsaw puzzle.

Mattel also worked with children’s watch company Bradley Time to make several wristwatches. All of these came with Swissmade movements, stainless-steel cases and black vinyl straps. Four versions were produced – the first two in 1970, the third in 1971, and the last in 1973.

Version One has a large ‘Hot Wheels’ logo above the center on the face. Black-and-white checkered patterns are printed on the hour and minute hands, and the second hand is white. You don’t find these for sale too often, but prices are still quite reasonable.

Version Two is more elaborate, thanks to its ‘mystery dial’. Two cars are printed on a clear plastic disc that features the second hand; these ‘float’ around the dial as the seconds tick away. The cars are a green ‘Silhouette’ and an unidentified blue model.

The hour and minute hands remain blackand-white checkered-flag style.

Version Three replaces the clear disc with a yellow second hand with two cars attached – a green Silhouette, and the same unidentified

model as before, which is now red. Version Four is called the Diving Watch. Its case diameter is larger, and its outer bezel rotates as needed. The crown is thicker than previously, and there is also a date window. It is by far the hardest Hot Wheels wristwatch to find.

In 1973, Mattel introduced yet another wristwatch; this one featuring the ‘Sizzlers’ logo on the dial. It has the same hands as Versions Three and Four, and the case, strap and all else are the same as on the first three watches. The previously yellow area of the dial is orange/red, with a white ring at the edges.

Sizzlers were an offshoot of Hot Wheels, with small batteries and their own track sets.

Hot Wheels wristwatches are often seen for sale on eBay, but many have non-original or damaged straps, are not working, or have cracked and scratched crystals. Versions Two and Three are most common. Search hard, and you can find a nice, working watch (of the first three versions) for about $100 loose and $200 in an original plastic case.

Version Four (Diving) and the Sizzlers watch are less common; expect to pay $200-$400 or more. All of the watches came in light teal, red or yellow plastic boxes, inside cardboard THIS SPREAD The evocative Hot Wheels wristwatches from the early 1970s featured subtle – and not so subtle – differences as they evolved through their various incarnations. Those that have not been repaired – and which come with their original boxes – boast the highest values now.

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packaging. A good plastic box adds $100 to the value; the cardboard box even more.

In 1974, a mechanical, manual-wind Hot Wheels Pocket Watch, no. 3082, arrived, in a small white box featuring a blue car. This now rarely found piece sells for $300 and up; again, the cardboard box adds value.

Even harder to find is the Bradley Time Alarm Clock. Made in Japan, this has a glass front crystal with a chrome outer bezel and molded yellow plastic back. It features two cars on a clear disc, checkered hour and minute hands, a red alarm time hand and ‘Copyright Mattel 1970’ on the dial, and came in a yellow cardboard box. Expect to pay $800 upwards.

Examine any potential buy very carefully, and be wary: many watches have had their dials replaced, and a lot of fakes exist. Also, please note: Mattel never made a Pam clock, or neon, or other various wall clocks. You will find many online – some are labeled as reproductions, but most are not.

Finally, if you acquire an original timepiece, don’t be upset if it runs fast; Hot Wheels are the quickest little metal cars in the world, after all.

Thanks to Automobilia Resource – more details at www.automobiliaresource.com.

‘Examine any potential buy very carefully, and be wary: many watches have had their dials replaced, and a lot of fakes exist’

THIS PAGE The Hot Wheels Pocket Watch arrived in 1974, and is rarely seen today. Even harder to find is the Bradley Time Alarm Clock, which was made in Japan: expect to pay upwards of $800 today.

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Heated by in-floor radiant heat.

Fully self-service.

Heated by in-floor radiant heat.

Detail Bay with wash equipment.

Heated by in-floor radiant heat.

Detail Bay with wash equipment.

Extended access with 24 hour on-site personnel.

Detail Bay with wash equipment.

Extended access with 24 hour on-site personnel.

Fully secured, alarmed, video monitored with fire suppression.

Extended access with 24 hour on-site personnel.

Fully secured, alarmed, video monitored with fire suppression.

Member lounge with courtesy bar, TV, and fireplace.

Fully secured, alarmed, video monitored with fire suppression.

Member lounge with courtesy bar, TV, and fireplace.

Flexible lease Member loungeterms with available. courtesy bar, TV, and fireplace.

Flexible lease terms available.

Flexible lease terms available.

Call / email to request a quote or take a tour!

Hours:toMonday-Sunday - 5pm Call / email request a quote9am or take a tour!

Call / email request quote or take a tour!

Hours: Monday-Sunday 9am - 5pm 339 to South Paddock a Street Pontiac MI 48342 (248) 385-3630 Hours: Monday-Sunday 9am - 5pm 339 South Paddock Street Pontiac MI 48342 info@paddockvehiclestorage.com paddockvehiclestorage.com (248) 385-3630 339 South Paddock Street Pontiac MI 48342 info@paddockvehiclestorage.com paddockvehiclestorage.com (248) 385-3630 info@paddockvehiclestorage.com paddockvehiclestorage.com

NEVER NEVER AGAIN! AGAIN!

+ 400% additional tire-bearing surface +from 400%this additional surface speciallytire-bearing designed cushion from this specially designed cushion to avoid the tire flat spot phenomenon. to avoid the tire flat spot phenomenon.

+400% since 2009 tire cushion sets since 2009 tire cushion sets

www.altairego.it www.altairego.it

info@altairego.it info@altairego.it

ALTairEGO cushions sets offer a tire-bearing surface ALTairEGO cushions sets offer a tire-bearing surface + 400% greater + 400% greater than when the car is parked on the ground, thanavoiding when thethe cartire is parked the ground, thus flat spoton phenomenon. thus avoiding the tire flat spot phenomenon.

3 lines of products, Comfort, Showster and SToraway.

3 lines of products, Comfort, Showster and SToraway.

17 specific models to respect the car’s curb weight, 17 specific models respect thetocar’s between 800 kg / 1800tolbs and up 4000curb kg /weight, 8800 lbs. between 800 kg / 1800 lbs and up to 4000 kg / 8800 lbs.

Automotive brands represented here remain the property of their respective owners.

Automotive brands represented here remain the property of their respective owners.

Track tips Data logging High-tech kit isn’t just about cutting lap times – it can make you a better driver overall W O R D S N AT H A N C H A D W I C K PHOTOGRAPHY ALAMY

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THE DAYS OF INSTINCTIVE RACING DRIVERS ARE long gone; the time when a hot-shoe could jump into a car, bang in some quick times and return to the hospitality area without breaking a sweat is a thing of the past. Every aspect of the car, lap, track and driver is broken down into data, and the best in the game can visualize their performance through code and graphs just as quickly and intuitively as nailing an apex.

There are several options for track-day enthusiasts, from dedicated hardware through to mobile phone apps. We’re focusing on systems that can be adapted to a road car – if you have a dedicated track or race machine, a bespoke set-up might be more appropriate.

If you’re taking your first steps into data logging, $400-$500 will buy a system that offers logged timing, GPS, accelerometer and gyro data with a screen. The Aim Solo 2, for example, has 2000 pre-loaded tracks for easy comparison.

It can also be used for point-to-point and drag races, and precise 0-60mph timing.

A jump to $700-$800 gets something that plugs into your ECU and lets you monitor what’s happening, either in real time or later on. This shows where you can use your car’s inherent characteristics to improve cornering strategies, and can also warn of mechanical issues.

The next stage is to blend a camera with a data-logging set-up. Several action units are available, and data can be overlaid from your logger in real time via video-editing software.

However, for $1200-$1400 Aim’s kit M1 MOMENTUM

automatically matches the data to the visuals, with the option of additional camera inputs.

This can be transformational; while a track map and graphs provide the hard data, having this mapped onto an image allows you to plot your improvements with real-world markers, making everything much more instinctive.

The Racelogic VBOX is an option, too, with highly accurate Delta-T and Delta-V predictive lap-timing algorithms. There’s also more scope for customization within the Motorsport Performance Box Touch (c.$900), while, if you want no distractions, the screenless VBOX Sport (c.$400) lets you download your data later on.

Mobile apps include the TrackAddict, which is free but its more advanced features require purchases. It uses the phone’s GPS to record track positions and display lap times, split times, predictive times and more, and to record video, and overlay data and graphics for sharing. You can also plug in an external receiver, such as the VBOX Sport, to provide more accurate GPS positioning, and connect to Bluetooth adapters that will log data from your car’s ECU. Other apps, such as Harry’s LapTimer, have more, extra-cost flexibility. The Grand Prix version ($28) lets you compare two video laps side by side, as well as remote control multiple GoPro and Sony cameras.

However, having the data is one thing – analyzing and transforming it into real results is another. The human touch via an instructor is still the best way to improve your skills.

GET READY FOR FLYING SEASON! BOOK NOW to take an Air Adventure ride on one of our four historic aircraft.

Fly on the B17, B25, C47 or the Huey from May to October. Act now, these historic flights sell out fast!

YANKEEAIRMUSEUM.ORG/FLY

Photos courtesy of John D’Angelo

Building what drives you forward

AUCH Construction

Pontiac, MI

248-334-2000

auchconstruction.com

PA R T I N G S H O T Assembly-line workers attend to a 1968 Pontiac GTO, most of which were built at the Baldwin Avenue plant, just four miles from where M1 Concourse is now. No robots in sight! The GTO’s 60th anniversary will be celebrated at the Woodward Dream Show, August 16.

PHOTOGRAPHY G M A R C H I V ES

WWW.M1CONCOURSE.COM