Classic American January 2018

HOT ROD LINCOLN '55 Capri

THE ULTIMATE CLASSIC AMERICAN GIFT GUIDE 9-PAGE SPECIAL

'73 BUICK ELECTRA

S ' E G D O D D E G N I W R O I R R WA NEC SHOW REPORT

CARS ★ CARS ★ CARS

CAPE HORN TO ALASKA PAN-AMERICAN RELIABILITY RUN

Big, bold & beautiful

TIPS FOR THE PERFECT RESTO'

Ben Klemenzson

Image: Matt Richardson

Viewpoint

PERFECTLY (EXTRA)ORDINARY

Another Car of the Year finals at the Classic Motor Show has come and gone and that marks the official end of the car show season for Classic American magazine, at least until next spring. You can read about this year’s event on page 81 and see which car was selected as the winner. It’s never an easy task and sometimes I think it would just be a lot easier to spin a roulette wheel… although that wouldn’t be terribly scientific! The nub of the issue is that judging restored cars and original cars is always going to be problematic; however, there are very few cars which haven’t undergone some element of restoration, especially when they are getting on for half a century old.

I remember having an ‘animated discussion’ with a finalist several years ago as to whether the paint on his car was original or not; he was adamant it was, I was certain that – at the very least – it had been relacquered… and that, ladies and gentlemen, is another problem area in the whole process. Often an owner will take as gospel what the previous owner/vendor has told them about the vehicle, even though it defies logic or even if they have somehow got

it mixed up or misunderstood, or even worse, been misled.

One thing that is very pleasing to me personally is the appreciation people do seem to be having for original cars, ones that haven’t been restored and may even have a bit of – that dreaded word! – patina. The feedback we’ve had on the magazine over the past few years is that readers are particularly keen on seeing cars which they could imagine themselves buying and running. Well, there are plenty of those in this month’s magazine, from the mid-Eighties Mercury wagon, to the Lincoln Capri or the Seventies Buick Electra – none of these are big buck motors in the sense of Hemi Daytonas or Shelby Mustangs and boy, as we all know, you get a hell of a bang for your buck with classic American cars!

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9-PAGE SPECIAL

Contents January 2018

Regulars

Features

06 12 14 16 18 20 22 30 53 56 69 100 102 106 110 112

24 32 39 45 61 75

News Letters Across the Pond Muscle Car Files Here to Obscurity Subscription Offer Back Issues CA Shop Scale Autos Reviews Tech Events Discoveries Service Directory Drive Buy Private ClassiďŹ eds

1955 Lincoln 1969 Dodge Daytona 1973 Buick Electra 1985 Mercury Wagon Christmas Gift Guide Project Beauty Pala

Events 81 NEC 87 P-15 Picnic 88 Solent Renegades Show 90 A&M News 93 Cape Horn to Alaska

93 87

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Classic American

News

’67 MUSTANG GT FJ CAR OF THE YEAR 2017

The 2017 Footman James Car of the Year competition was won by Laura Meek’s 1967 Ford Mustang GT fastback. It was chosen at the final heat of the competition after Laura, husband Ross and their children Oliver and Bethany made a spur-of-the-moment decision to drive down from Nottingham to the Prescott American Autumn Classic held at the prestigious Prescott Hill Climb, home of the Bugatti Owners Club and set in the beautiful Gloucestershire countryside. Despite some appalling weather forecasts for the weekend, the weather for the most part behaved itself and the Mustang was awarded the prize at the close of play on Sunday.

Ross celebrates with the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain.

Laura already had commitments over the finals weekend, but husband and chief mechanic Ross was on hand to collect the trophy on her behalf, as he also had his own ’67 Mustang fastback on display on the Mustang Owners Club of Great Britain stand. With its Firestone Wide Oval tyres and immaculate engine bay, laser-sharp Editor Ben Klemenzson hands over the trophy to Ross with Footman James’s Julia Attwood.

Sorted fo or Christmaas?

If the answer’s “N No”, then turn to page e 61, where we’ve gath hered together a whole e host of ideas for Chris stmas giftts for the Classic Am merican fan in your life… or even inspirational idea as for you to ask loved one es for this holiday period. O Of course the best gift of all a would be a subscription to Classic America an, which comes with a fre ee T-shirt… … but then, we wo ould say that, wouldn’t w we?!

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panels and an underneath you could eat your dinner off, this big block S-code 390 FE-engined ’Stang was a worthy winner. We look forward to sharing this marvellous machine with you next month, so make sure you don’t miss out on the February issue and our in-depth look at what it takes to produce a Footman James Car of the Year!

Don’t get caught out!

Now is the season of office parties, family get-togethers, going out, carrying on and generally just behaving like we live in Sodom and Gomorrah for two weeks...

Well, maybe not quite, but it’s indisputable that for many folks overindulging in alcohol is a hallmark of the Christmas period and for that reason, drink driving, whether deliberate or accidental, is a very real problem.

You’re nearly three times more likely to be breathalysed in December than at any other time.

Police tested 89,138 drivers on the UK’s roads in December 2016, accounting for a fifth of all tests carried out across the year. Seven per cent (5869 drivers) tested positive (or refused to take the test)*. If you’ve been to a Christmas party or festive family meal, it’s easier than you might think to have residual alcohol in your system the next day and a third of all breath tests after an accident are conducted in the morning (between 7am and 1pm)**.

Those nice folks at AlcoSense supplied us with an AlcoSense Pro breathalyser to use – the Pro enables the device to be calibrated to different countries’ limits. That may be a particularly useful feature if, say, you are travelling to countries in Scandinavia, where even tiny traces of alcohol the following day could make you subject to prosecution.

The AlcoSense Pro also has a ‘blow coach’ which shows your blow pressure and volume live on screen, making it easy to blow just right every time. If you have a positive result it will even show you how long it will take until you are

clear of alcohol and an alarm to re-test at that time. There are over 40 country destination alcohol limits pre-programmed, so you can use it when driving between Scotland and England over the festive season, for example, or for holiday road trips year round.

It’s really easy to use and this pocket-sized device uses a superaccurate sensor used by several UK police forces, and a colour screen which clearly shows whether you’re over the drink-drive limit. The backlit blow tube receptor is perfect for use on dark mornings or evenings and the readings are automatically finetuned according to the temperature.

The AlcoSense Pro is manufactured according to the ISO13485 standard, the benchmark in medical device quality systems and AlcoSense offers an aftercare annual re-calibration to check and maintain accuracy levels year round. * Home Office: Breath test statistics – police powers and procedures, year ending March 31, 2017 ** Department for Transport: Reported Breath Tests and Breath Test Failures, 2016 The AlcoSense Pro retails for £149.99 and is available from Halfords online and in-store, Boots in-store or directly at www.alcosense.com

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CLASSIC CHEVY News TRUCKS ZOOM IN POPULARITY Classic American

It appears that the popularity of classic Chevy pick-ups is reaching new heights. Over the last few years, a growing number of Fifties, Sixties and Seventies Chevrolet light trucks (especially modified ones) are setting record prices at stateside auctions.

In the last decade, no fewer than nine custombuilt Chevys have sold for more than $100,000 at Barrett-Jackson.

According to Craig Jackson, CEO of Barrett-

Jackson, vintage trucks, especially Chevrolets, have been gaining popularity with collectors, to the point they are rivalling muscle cars: “What’s interesting is collectors are looking for very different vehicles – the most collectible muscle cars are numbers-matching survivors; the most soughtafter vintage trucks are full custom builds, and buyers are looking for both unique design elements and highquality craftsmanship.”

‘Quicksilver’, a 1957 Chevy 3100 sold for $214,500 at Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale auction in 2016. It features a 650bhp 540cu in big-block V8 and custom reshaped body panels.

CORVETTE ZR-1 RETURN

The legendary ‘King of the Hill’ Corvette is back.

General Motors has announced that a new ZR-1 will debut as a 2019 model, reports Huw Evans…

Powered by a new LT5 6.2-litre V8, derived from that used in the current Z06 and C6 ZR-1, this latest powerhouse is rated at a whopping 755 SAE certified net horsepower and 715ft-lb of torque, aided by a massive positive displacement (and intercooled) supercharger (with 52% more capacity than that used on the Z06’s LT4 V8). For the first time ever, ZR-1 buyers will have a choice of transmissions – a seven-speed manual or an eight-speed automatic with paddle shift.

A special ZTK performance package will be offered that includes specific chassis and suspension tuning, front splitter and Michelin Sport Cup 2 tyres; new aerodynamic pieces, including a specific nose section that improves cooling and downforce; a carbon fibre ‘halo’ hood that showcases the engine, along with aero extensions and the option of two stanchion-mounted rear wings.

A special Sebring Orange design package will be offered on the ZR-1, which is reportedly capable of reaching a top speed of more than 210 mph. It goes on sale next spring.

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No missing this ’Vette.

GAS RONDA 1926-2017 Gas Ronda, star of the Sixties California drag racing scene, dies aged 91.

Gaspar Ronda, born August 25, 1926 in Hollister, California was nicknamed ‘Gas’ at an early age – long before he ever raced. Suffering from polio as a child, Ronda was strongly encouraged by his mother to use his legs, strengthening them by getting him to learn to dance.

After serving in the navy during World War Two, Ronda worked at a garage and learned to paint cars, but at the same time also became an instructor for the famous Arthur Murray dance schools. His success in dancing led to him opening branches of the schools in San Francisco and Oakland, and winning several national dance competitions.

Now making in his own words “good money”, he bought a 1950 Hudson Hornet – referring to it as his “first hot car that was worth anything”. The Hudson led to Ronda becoming interested in drag racing and subsequently winning a number of amateur races with a series of Corvettes, before Ford made him an offer in the early Sixties. “I used to buy my own cars,” explained Ronda during a 2016 interview, “Ford said ‘we’ll take back whatever car you break up,’ then they only charged me a dollar for another car.”

Ronda moved to Southern California and worked for Downtown Ford. He was selling cars for the dealership during the week and racing with their sponsorship on the weekends. After a move to the Russ Davis Ford dealership he piloted a

Mustang funny car.

Gas Ronda.

427cu in Ford Fairlane Thunderbolt, winning the 1964 American Hot Rod Association Top Stock championship.

By 1966 he had progressed to drag racing a Mustang in the new Funny Car division and also campaigned a Mustang Cobra Jet. In 1967 he won the AHRA’s Driver of the Year award and later the 1969 Manufacturers Championship. But in 1970 Ronda was badly burned across a third of his body during a race at the Winternationals in Phoenix when his Mustang funny car’s engine exploded. His severe injuries – and long recovery period – led to his retirement from racing. “It took me just about a year,” recalled Ronda. “It cost so much money to get well, I went back into the dance business.”

In time Gas Ronda opened two bars, the Funny Car Tavern in Azusa and later the Gas House in Covina.

He received the National Hot Rod Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 1993 and was inducted into the International Drag Racing Hall of Fame in 2016.

After previously suffering two strokes, Gas Ronda died of cancer at home in Palm Desert on October 18, 2017.

MR

classic-american.com 9

Brown with those infamous fins.

Classic American

Celebrating the News Edsel’s creator...

Roy Brown Jr (October 30, 1916 – February 24, 2013) was one of Ford’s most important designers and counts the Edsel as one of his most famous creations. Alex Crawford looks back at his remarkable life designing cars long before computers were involved…

N

ever again will the United States or its auto-industry experience an age like the Fifties. Of that great epoch in American history, its designers became as iconic as their creations. Before long they became household names, and the greats each had their signature in history: Harley Earl had his tail-fin, Virgil Exner his ‘forward-look’, and arguably the most famous of all – Raymond Loewy – can, without exaggeration, be credited with shaping design in an industrialised America.

Those men who shaped American automotive design in this period of decadence and optimism are inseparable from their successes. Yet equally there are the designers who cannot be separated from their relative failures. Roy Brown Jr. is one such individual – a designer who, despite working on and creating a number of well-known and successful vehicles, is so entwined with the Ford Motor Company’s ill-fated Edsel that it is almost impossible to separate the two.

Roy Brown Jr was born in Hamilton, Ontario before moving to Detroit with his family. Like many of his contemporaries, the auto-industry was a family affair; his father was an engineer for Chrysler. Roy however would work for the other two companies of the Detroit ‘big three’ in his life – GM and Ford. It was 1937 when Brown graduated from Detroit Art Academy and began his work for General Motors, and it was while working for the design studio of the Cadillac division that he would admire the grille of the LaSalle, later to become an inspiration for the contentious vertical grille seen on his Edsel.

Lincoln Futura concept.

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Brown spent time in the US Army before moving to the Ford Motor Company, where his design work would eventually flourish. Working alongside Bill Schmidt and John Najjar, Brown contributed to the 1955 Lincoln Futura, a popular show car that bestowed styling cues to a number of Ford/Lincoln products and eventually spawned, with the creative genius of customiser George Barris, the famous TV series Batmobile driven by the late Adam West.

But it was Ford’s optimistic vision of the Fifties, as displayed in the ‘E-car, that brought for Roy Brown the chromed infamy of which he would be vehemently proud until his death. Placing upon Brown the monumental task of birthing a vehicle to sweep away the Oldsmobiles, Pontiacs and Buicks enticing middle market buyers, Ford demanded a car so individual that it would be totally distinctive and unlike anything else on the road.

To achieve this, Brown rejected tail-fins for a flat rear deck, and with his colleagues devised a vertical grille that eschewed horizontal trends of the time.

Notwithstanding the enthusiastic motoring press, the car did not prove the big hit Ford had hoped.

An economic downturn, mated to puns, criticism, a nationwide trend towards smaller cars, and a lack of faith from Ford President Robert McNamara, led the company to pull out of the E-car project before the end of the decade. Its only remnant – the Edsel Comet – orphaned and eventually rebranded as the Mercury Comet, proved a huge success.

Brown was deeply affected by the failure of the Edsel marque. As with many of those who worked on the project, he was banished to the foreign markets. Brown was transferred to England where he worked for Ford of Europe. In an ironic turn of events, Brown was then to design the Ford Cortina saloon in 1962, which became the manufacturer’s best-selling vehicle in Great Britain, and soon became the country’s best-selling car in the Seventies.

Brown is also credited with design on the Consul and Zephyr models.

Following this success, his career returned him to Detroit, where he assisted in the design of the Econoline van. He continued

Brown was involved in the design of the Cortina.

as an executive designer in the Lincoln Mercury Division until 1974. Throughout his life though, Brown was proud of the Edsel, and despite its reputation, defended it vehemently: “There is not a bad line on the car,” he said in 1985. He drove a convertible Edsel Pacer into his nineties, and continued throughout his retirement to lecture, paint, and espouse the need for ‘another Edsel’. Fans of his work would be unlikely to disagree, and will continue to admire him for his devotion to design, passion for his work, and loyalty to the Edsel even through its most difficult times. “Good design is always contemporary,” he noted on some sketches in 1991. Roy Brown passed away on February 24, 2013, at a hospice in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the company of family. He is survived by his wife and four children from a previous marriage. ★ Ford had high hopes for the Edsel.

Classic American

Mail CAN ANYONE HELP? Dear Classic American, I’m hoping that you can put me in touch with the right person: I’m helping to run the 2018 St Helier Music and Community Festival on Saturday, June 30 at The David Weir Sports Centre in Carshalton, Surrey.

Our event is in its ninth year and gets bigger each time. The event is free and we have two music stages with live bands and tons of stalls, activities and displays.

On a nice sunny day we generally attract more than 3000 local residents. I would love to invite a local American car club to come and display their amazing vehicles.

Who would be the best person to contact regarding this..?

Gary Milsom gazmil@live.co.uk If you think you can help Gary with a display at the event he’s involved with, drop him an email!

DIY CADILLAC Dear Classic American, I thought you might like these photographs of a pink Cadillac I found outside the Paradise Restaurant in Sarigerme, Turkey. Apart from a couple of Sixties vintage Jeeps, I didn’t see any interesting ‘real’ American cars while we were on a two-week holiday there this month.

Des Penny Blaydon Gateshead And why not? 2 out of 10 for accuracy, but 10 out of 10 for shocking pink paintwork!

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Email us at: email@classic-american.com or write to: Classic American Magazine, PO Box 99, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6LZ

STAR

Letter

SAFETY FIRST Dear Classic American, It was interesting to see comments on the proposed abolition of MoT tests for older cars in the December 2017 issue of Classic American (no.

320). Obviously the situation is still developing, but I do have a couple of quick thoughts: Historically, when your car passed its MoT test, you received a certificate which was a legal document; in recent years (as I understand it) the pass is logged on a Government computer which forms the official record, while the ‘certificate’ is just a receipt and a reminder and has no legal standing (though still accepted when buying a tax disc at a Post Office!).

Most of us would agree that a periodic check of a car’s condition is still essential even if no longer a legal requirement, and presumably MoT test stations would be happy to do this in the usual paid-for

way. However, what sort of certificate could we expect?

Would the computer record still be logged for voluntary tests?

We need to have something available in case of insurance disputes or when the car changes hands – but what?

Your correspondent Danyel Mills asked about such things as red rear turn signals no longer being checked at MoT time. As I understand it (again), cars used on British public roads always have to meet UK vehicle regulations appropriate to their age and type, MoT test or not, and the police can do roadside checks at any time. There are fixes for lights, such as fitting yellow LEDs inside red lenses, which shine orange to the outside; no idea about the legality.

Also, you mentioned modern cars with fancy tail-lights and how to repair them. Historically, cars used regular filament bulbs which had a limited lifetime

so easy bulb replacement was essential (though American ones last much longer than European ones).

Those fancy modern ones looking like neon tubes use LEDs which should last the lifetime of the car; if they fail to light, it’s probably due to the driver unit (controls the current and brightness, may be replaceable separately), but the main risk looks like breakage from a minor collision – lots of money to repair, as you say.

Chris Drewe Chelmsford Essex And indeed Chris, it’s that very topic, the expense of repairs to modern American cars, that Huw Evans has turned his attention to in this month’s column. We’re still at the early stages of figuring out exactly what a safety test may constitute… it’s certainly something we’ll be looking at in an upcoming issue.

The face is familiar...

Dear Classic American, In an old piece of furniture bought at an auction in the London area, I found the attached small photograph of a Forties or Fifties (?) car and owner. I thought it might be of interest to your readers, if anything, to solicit identification of the model.

I presumed it would be a British car, but on closer inspection the registration 81-744 (?) seems to have Nova Scotia written above the number, so possibly the car is Canadian or American and the owner resided in Canada and posted the photo back to friends or relatives in the UK? If by weird chance anybody thinks they have a connection with the photo, I’ll be happy to post to them the original.

A 1936 Buick? We reckon so...

Gianfausto Woods-Freschi Kensington London Well, there’s a thing. We reckon it is a Buick, possibly a 1936

model, and it does indeed say Nova Scotia on the licence plate. Ah, if only these pictures could talk. Get in touch if this car or picture rings any bells…

Huw Evans

Across

the

pond

Unfixable cars Growingg vehicle complexity p y is causingg all kinds of issues for the auto industry.

2015 Jeep Grand Cherokee (Photo: FCA)

R

ecently I attended a collision repair industry convention. During the event, one of the key speakers discussed the increase in severity for repairing cars following accidents. For those not familiar with the term, severity is the amount of loss associated with the average insurance claim.

The speaker went on to raise some very interesting points, namely that sales of pick-up trucks and SUVs in the US and Canada are not only far outstripping demand for traditional passenger cars, but they also cost more to repair and those costs are rising.

And a good part of that is due to the increasing complexity of today’s vehicles. Using one example – a Jeep Grand Cherokee – the front clip of a 2015 model contains 42 parts, while its 2010 model year equivalent has 19. Furthermore, the cost of replacing parts on the 2015 model is around $1300 more than the 2010 version. Why? Well, it comes down to features such as parking sensors, cameras, active grille shutters and more complex headlight assemblies. In fact, the average cost of late-model vehicle light assemblies has increased approximately 49% in just the last five years!

And it’s not just cosmetic parts either. The current Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards that require all cars and light trucks in the US and Canada to achieve a fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon (US) by 2025 is adding mechanical complexity like never before. Smaller engines are becoming the norm, with features such as direct injection, turbocharging, cylinder deactivation and increasingly complex valve timing.

These smaller engines also feature increasingly lightweight parts and ultra-tight tolerances, placing more components under greater stress (potentially increasing failure rates) as well as requiring the use of specific manufacture spec motor oils, which cost significantly more than your traditional mineral oil.

When you add additional complexities such as nine and 10-speed automatic transmissions, lighter weight and fully independent suspension systems, not to mention features such as brake assist, radar adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring and lane-keeping assist, today’s vehicles are less like the cars of a generation ago and more like the latest fly-by-wire jet fighter (in fact some of today’s cars make a jet fighter seem like an anvil in terms of electronics – the Chevy Volt has 10 million lines of code, while the Lockheed-Martin F-22 Raptor has just 1.7 million!)

The trouble with all this technology is that while it is making vehicles safer and more fuel efficient (at least from a manufacturer perspective) it’s causing all sorts of problems for the rest of the automotive eco-system. Mechanical service centres are finding it more challenging than ever to fix them, the parts suppliers are having a hard time keeping up with the rapidly increasing number of different components required, while body shops are facing significant increases in the cost of repairs and insurance companies are feeling the pinch with higher severity as we mentioned earlier.

In fact, it’s getting so bad that one mainstream branded sedan which retails for around $55,000 in the US costs more than $20,000 to repair following a front-end collision! At that rate, it simply doesn’t become economical to repair the car. And when that happens, it creates a lose-lose situation for virtually everyone. If the car can’t be repaired, the insurance company takes the loss; the body shop loses business from not having the repair work; the parts suppliers lose business because parts aren’t required; mechanical shops lose business because that is yet another car that is no longer on the road and ultimately, the OEMs lose out because a good percentage of their customers can’t afford to buy

cars because they don’t earn enough money to justify it. Here in North America, the auto industry is a nine-to-one job multiplier; in other words, for every direct job in vehicle manufacturing, nine other jobs are needed to make that possible. And if OEMs make fewer cars, the impact on the overall economy is very significant.

Regulators such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) have been mandating more and more technology into vehicles with each passing year and that is significantly adding to the cost and complexity of the average vehicle. (The latest ruling is the required installation of rear back-up cameras – mandated from May 1, 2018).

This requirement alone is projected to add up to $140 in extra cost to the average car and light truck. Okay, so the ruling is well intentioned; but I can’t help but wonder that the almost draconian view regulators take on adding vehicle safety features could, in the end, price most people out of car ownership. There’s also some interesting statistics that show that despite the increase in safety and driver aid features, the number of fatalities resulting from traffic collisions is actually increasing, not declining.

In fact, according to NHTSA’s own data, the number of fatalities resulting from traffic collisions was 35,092 in 2015, the highest single increase since 1966!). It’s often said that simpler solutions work best. And if both regulators and OEMs were to focus on building simpler vehicles that were affordable and redirect their safety focus to better driver training, the outcome would likely be far more favourable for the auto industry and society as a whole. ★

Huw Evans – news & views from North America