Classic American July 2015

BAG A BARGAIN!

Our TOP 10 convertibles

1968 Selby

GT350 Super! Smashing! Lovely!

From

The UK’s Number 1 for 27 years

www.classic-american.com

Sweden Meet the

Hudson triples

Finally takes flight!

CURY 1966 MEeR Perfection Park Lan

RVETTE 1965 CO lock Beauty Big B

No. 291 July 2015

£4.40

69

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44 62

104 35 THE HUDSON TRIO

Contents July 2015

Regulars

Features

06 12 14 16 18 20 42 60 87 90 91 94 96 109 112 114 118 130

22 29 35 44

News Letters Across the Pond From Here to Obscurity Muscle Car Files Subscription Offer Classic American Shop Back Issues Discoveries Reviews Project Pony Club & Events News Events & Cruises Tex Drive Buy Service Directory Private Classifieds Next Month & Credits

51 55 62 69 77 80 84 104

Falcon Project 1965 Corvette Hudson Trio 1966 Mercury Park Lane 1955 Pontiac Star Chief 1968 Mustang Shelby GT350 Bargain Ragtops Atomic Dutch Corvette Museum National Hot Rod & Custom Show Amberley Show Palm Springs Modernism Week

51 29 classic-american.com 5

Having set out to buy a Mustang as his first American car, Joe Pumfrey instead came home with a big-block 1965 Corvette and, despite a few problems, he’s loving every minute of it...

1965 Corvette

Words: Mike Renaut Photography: Paul Trunfull

Non-power assisted drum brakes make for strong calf muscles.

C

lassic Corvettes are some of the most collectible cars on earth, especially the big block versions. They are revered and seen as almost too rare and valuable to use. Then there’s this 1965 roadster, owned by Joe Pumfrey.

“It’s a lot of fun to drive,” laughs Joe, “the back end goes easily on roundabouts – especially in the wet – it slides all over the place.”

Yes, Joe drives his Corvette. Regardless of weather, he uses it. “I actually went out to buy a Mustang,” remembers Joe, “I’d never owned an American car before. I had a 1967 Mini Cooper, then a ’68 MGB which I sold to buy a 1970 Triumph Stag. I thought about getting a Jaguar E-Type, but my son said it was an old man’s car!

“The only American vehicles I’d owned were a couple of Harley-Davidson Fat Boys and a 1947 Knucklehead that was stolen. Then I got left some money and thought ‘if I don’t get my dream car now I’ll only end up wasting it on something else’. It was now or never.”

Joe’s cousin lived in North Carolina and Joe visited whenever possible. “He bought a brand new C6 Corvette and let me use it during my visit – that made me want one even more. I went to an auction for a Shelby Mustang, it went for £69,000 – more than I could afford, but a friend said if I was going to pay big money for a Mustang I ought to consider getting a Corvette.

“I looked at a couple of coupes, but he said get a Sixties

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’Vette was originally Ermine white.

Corvette roadster, there only needed to be two or three good days of sunshine a year to make it totally worthwhile.

When I saw how great they looked I fell in love with them.”

Joe’s search lead him to Claremont Corvette (www.claremont.corvette.co.uk Tel. 01634 244444) and world-renowned expert Tom Falconer. “He was brilliant, really helpful. Tom had owned this ’65 for a number of years. Claremont had completed restored the car and it came with a massive folder of history.

“They’d taken hundreds of photos showing the work being done. I reasoned if every part was brand new then nothing could go wrong.” A logical assumption that proved to be not quite the case. “There were a few teething troubles,” laughs Joe, “it overheated and it broke down after I’d driven 10 miles. And apparently it had the wrong alternator that was drawing too much charge. Tom immediately fixed those issues.

“To be honest it was a bit of a pig to drive,” admits Tom. “I’ve driven a few old American cars over the years, but it hadn’t occurred to me that this wouldn’t have power steering – parking is the biggest problem since it’s so heavy at low speed.

“At high speed the front end lifts and the drum brakes – which are non-powered – can make life interesting. It was so very different to the Stag that I almost took it back. The clutch was very stiff too, until the mechanism broke and it jammed in fourth gear on the way to a car show…”

But that was six years ago and Joe has had time to get used to the car: “Once all those little niggles were sorted out I really fell in love with it. To be honest having not owned one before I wasn’t sure what to expect.”

AT HOME WITH

THE HUDSONS HUDS Hudson Trio

Words: Nigel Boothman & Erik Stigsson Photography: Erik Stigsson

For one man and his family, there’s an under-appreciated American marque that’s meant a lifetime of love for old cars. Meet Europe’s greatest Hudson fans.

O

ne encounter with a rusty old car can shape the rest of your life. If you don’t believe it, consider the case of Mats Nordqvist, from Hedesunda in Sweden. More than 30 years ago he came across an unloved 1948 Hudson, which promptly became loved when Mats bought it and began a lengthy restoration.

This naturally led to contact with Hudson enthusiasts in the USA, and that in turn led to the purchase of a ’53 Hudson Hornet coupe in 1989. From there, things started to snowball, so that a quarter of a century on, there are more than 20 Hudsons in Mats’ big garage.

As time went by, Mats developed a particular fondness for Hudson convertibles from that classic 1948 to ’54 period. They’re rare, thanks to a mixture of low initial sales – 86 in 1948, 589 in 1949 – and other factors like the unit-body construction that inevitably meant lots were claimed by corrosion or accident damage.

Add to this the relatively low profile of the marque in the collector scene and you can understand why owning one (never mind three roadworthy examples and two more in restoration) is a bit special. ❯❯

Correct straight-8 installed.

Hood ornament.

Interior was retrimmed in correct leather.

They’re great looking cars, though. Hudson’s design team under Frank Spring stole a march on everybody in 1948 with that simple, modern styling that made the leap to the ‘full width’ look in one go, doing away with proportions that GM and Chrysler carried into the Fifties.

Check out the opposition and you’ll see bonnet lines much higher than the front wings, which themselves had a descending line through the front door, all of it echoing a prewar look. Ford caught up in 1949 with the ‘Shoebox’ models that are perhaps wrongly credited with introducing modern streamlined design.

Power came from Hudson’s Super Series in-line flathead engines, a six of 262 cu in, and rather bizarrely, a smaller 254cu in eight-cylinder version that made slightly less power, but did so in a more refined manner.

Transmission was manual as standard with (for the first couple of years) optional overdrive, Vacumotive automatic clutch or the full Drive-Master automatic clutching and shifting system. The high-spec convertibles came as standard with ‘antique grain maroon leather’ and the eightcylinder versions had hydraulic power windows.

All in all, they were very desirable cars, especially when you consider their reputation for being ‘roadable’. This

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1948 HUDSON COMMODORE EIGHT CONVERTIBLE

Production: 65 units.

Price new: $3138 Body: Convertible Engine: Straight eight on 254cu in Power: 121bhp Gearbox: Three-speed with overdrive Options: Cover over front window, door guards, radio. Tank guard, fog lights

appealingly American word translates roughly as ‘nice to drive, particularly with respect to handling and security of roadholding’. That low-slung look created by the lack of a separate chassis certainly dropped the centre of gravity, which helped.

The car’s look stayed contemporary for six seasons, altering by 1954 only in the treatment of the front grill, the tail end of the rear wings and some side trim. The first one Mats found, a 1951 model (the immaculate dark red car in our pictures), had received further modification to the front-end – it had been run over by a train.

Yes, really. Mats heard about the car in the early Nineties, when it was still languishing in a junk yard in Washington State. The accident had apparently happened when it was nearly new.

What Mats did next illustrates how little choice there is if you want a ’48-’54 Hudson convertible: “It was not so smart, but I still bought the car,” Mats tells us. “When it finally came home to Sweden most of my friends told me it was impossible to get a nice car out the junk I’d brought all the way from America.”

Love overcomes everything as we all know. Only (!) 20 years later a perfect red Hudson stands outside the house

ry Park Lane Tony Coltman’s very blue 1966 Mercu g line of American convertible is the latest in a very lon his favourite so far. cars he’s owned, but it might just be

U

late to have lived through the nfortunately for me I was born too ing grudgingly accepting of grow rock’n’roll era in a postwar Britain . all things American ic, initially found most American mus The conservative adults of England then American back and y flash too little a n fashion and its brash desig or car dealers (some still are!). motors tended to be driven by spivs , was stunning 1966 Mercury Park Lane this of er own Tony Coltman, the the raced emb fully and years no spiv. He simply lived through those cars at reasonable prices: “I passed opportunities to buy some beautiful Buick McLaughlin,” says Tony my driving test in 1959 in a 1937 Canadian car that I paid £40 drive hand right a was proudly, “it for at £1 per week. ❯❯

WILD HORSES Kevin Shadbolt bought this Lime Gold Mustang GT350 convertible sight unseen simply because he liked the way it looked in photos; we’d say he has great taste.

O

kay, let’s get the big question out of the way first: is this a genuine 1968 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 convertible? I wasn’t sure when I first saw it, but some checking reveals it is a clone. It was unlikely to be real anyway, owner Kevin Shadbolt bought it advertised as a ‘tribute car’ and the amount he paid would have made it the deal of the century for one of Mr Shelby’s chosen few.

Let’s get something else clear. This car looks, sounds and performs like a Shelby. It has most, if not all of the correct pieces and with only 404 GT350 convertibles built for the ’68 model year, it’s as close as most of us are likely to get without a lottery win or a time machine.

“I bought it as a Shelby replica,” says Kevin, “I didn’t want to spend £120k plus on a real one. I got it from RK Motors in Charlotte, North Carolina and was buying in good faith based on some photos. I’d always

1968 Shelby GT350 convertible

Words: Mike Renaut Photography: Matt Richardson

wanted a Mustang and I initially saw a Mustang station wagon someone had made, that was sold before I could buy it. Then I saw this one. I was up against another buyer from Australia.

“I’ve always liked American cars,” continues Kevin, “my dad had Buicks and always had big cars. My first yank was a Chrysler with the push-button transmission, that was a lovely car with a big bench seat. After that I had an AMX Javelin – a right hand drive one.

“I used to go up to the Chelsea Cruise and I had mates with other nice cars, Roadrunners and so on. When I was 27 I bought a Rolls-Royce and got into Jags for a few years, but now I’m back into the Americans.”

Kevin doesn’t just love cars either, his home backs onto a river where as well as a cabin cruiser, a stunning 1947 Chris Craft. ❯❯

Full width tail-lights like the Mercury Cougars.

But back to the cars… “I wanted a Mustang, I quite fancied the fastbacks because of Bullitt and I liked them in green. I also liked the colour on this one – black interiors are a bit boring, but I thought the brown upholstery was really cool.”

Running an imports company meant Kevin had no problem getting the Mustang into the UK, in fact the only trouble he’s had was when he went to collect the car. “I bought it in August 2012 and the blokes at the storage place were saying how much they loved it, but

when I went to drive it home it wouldn’t start. It turned out there was no fuel and the battery was flat. I think both were drained before shipping.

“But it was really good and was a four-speed manual like I’d hoped, we immediately christened it ‘Sally’ after my sister who died in 1968.” Once the Mustang was up and running Kevin was delighted with it, “it’s one of my few cars where I can get the kids in the back, it’s powerful too, it will pull away in fourth if you want and it feels good at 80mph – it’s noisy but it sounds great.”

Advertised as a “recent frame off restoration”, which we can well believe, the Mustang has a single barrel Holley with automatic choke atop a 302cu in V8 with Edelbrock Performer RPM heads and intake manifold. The gearbox is a toploader, putting the power back to a 9in Traction Lock differential with 3.50 gearing.

Owner: Kevin Shadbolt.

302 cu in V8 & Edelbrock Performer RPM heads.

Four-speed toploader manual gearbox.

1965 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350.

56 classic-american.com

1968 Shelby Ford Mustang GT500KR.

Carroll Shelby in 1965.

On sale: July 16

Next

Month

1960 Cadillac Hearse

1970 Camaro SS

1955 Luxury Car Comparison

1968 Buick Skylark

1963 Ford Thunderbird

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