Classic American June 2014

278 JUNE 2014

The UK’s Number 1 for 25 years

www.classic-american.com

brace of buick

beauties No. 278 June 2014

★CLASSIC AMERICAN MAGAZINE★

1970 Plymouth ’cuDa

£4.30

Scale autos cruising cuts mustang 1 concept technical: mopar Vin Decoding

FWD 442!

1960

Olds FouranaDo

Wheels Day american car show season opener

nash metropolitan Small but perFectly proportioneD

Louwman Museum

Dutch auto treasure trove

Dubai Classic

amazing autos of the arabian gulf

42 Don't Forget

Private ads are free in Class Am!

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Contents June 2014

Regulars

Features

6 12 14 16 18

22 ’59 & ’60 Buicks 29 1960 Nash Metropolitan 35 1970 Plymouth ’Cuda Convertible 42 Oldsmobile FWD 442 ‘Fouranado’ 48 Louwman Museum 52 Mustang I Concept 56 Over Here Lost Files 60 Cruising Cuts 65 Wheels Day Show Report 71 Dubai Classic 75 Tech: Mopar VIN Decoding

20 81 84 88 92 94 96 105 112 122

News Letters Tony Oksien Across the Pond From Here to Obscurity Subscription Offer Discoveries Scale Autos Reviews Back Issues Merchandise Events & Cruises Service Directory Private Classifieds Next Month & Credits

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While snooping around the early Sixties Satellite Earth Station at Goonhilly in Cornwall, Classic American came upon two large, mysterious structures of a similar age. What could they be?

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hey look like they belong to the Space Age. That’s not the age we’re in now, when several nations are actually able to go into space at will, but the previous age. Back when only the two massive superpowers could manage a few laps of the planet for a doomed husky or a very brave pilot, and before we ever set foot on the moon.

Back then, anything seemed possible. After all, we’d gone from the first powered flight to firing people out of orbit inside 60 years. When Yuri Gagarin circled the earth, there were people alive

Owners Seamus Moran and Julian Hosking.

who remembered reading about the Wright Brothers in the newspaper. It’s now 53 years since the first manned space-flight, and obviously progress has slowed considerably.

Maybe that’s one of the things that made (and still makes) cars from the late Fifties and early Sixties such outrageous bits of design. If people back then were convinced that 15 or 20 years later they’d all be piloting flying cars and living like the Jetsons, they wanted that fabulous future to start as soon as possible. It could start most easily with the car.

Words: Nigel Boothman Photography: John Isaac

General Motors certainly got the message. We all know how American car styling went further and further into fantasy land as the Fifties went on, but let’s face it: GM won, didn’t it? Think of the 1959 output: the immortal Cadillacs, the batwing Chevys, those Pontiacs that actually managed four tail fins – two above, two below – and then the deeply OTT Oldsmobiles, plus of course the Delta-wing Buicks.

As we peer round the edge of a giant satellite dish at these two almost alien-looking craft, we

try to take it all in. The leaning-over fins of the white ’59 car were not as colossal as Chevrolet’s, but the Buick is a more integrated piece of styling, with the rear end’s upsweeps and central dip echoed at the front of the car, where the angled headlamps wore the severest eyebrows in the motor industry. The brightwork streaks run back from the front corners to the centre of the bullet-like tail-lamps, overlapping with the tail fins, (which begin by the A-pillars) by about 12ft. ❯❯

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1960 Austin Nash Metropolitan

Words: Mike Renaut Photography: Matt Richardson

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ash-Kelvinator president George Mason had been giving the matter a lot of thought. Since before the Second World War he’d felt there were big profits in small cars.

He couldn’t take on the big three (GM, Ford and Chrysler) directly, but because the firms weren’t marketing a small car perhaps that was a niche he could exploit?

Cheap, small cars would lure buyers into

showrooms where they might purchase a larger car. Mason had directed development of the 1950 Nash Rambler, small yet up-market, feature-laden convertible and wagon models that undercut the equivalents from the big three by $50 or more. The public had liked the Rambler – why not make an even smaller version?

The Metropolitan was introduced in March 1954. Mason had been buying and testing a

large number of European cars and scooters at his home since 1948. His idea was a small car like the European imports, but with a luxury feel the foreign cars lacked – and that sold for under $1000 (later amended to $1500.) It would be impossible to produce the entire car domestically so Nash searched for a European company that could build it using existing mechanical parts leaving Nash to produce body tooling. ❯❯

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Tin worm’s made a visit.

Wiring nightmare.

Drive train out!

Doors look solid.

In primer.

Anglo American agreement

An existing partnership with Donald Healy had resulted in the British-built, Nashpowered Nash-Healey sports car. Austin’s A40 model came with a 73cu in straight-four engine and the model sold reasonably well in the States, it made sense to base the Metropolitan on Austin parts.

On October 5, 1952 a deal was announced; the UK firm of Fisher & Ludlow produced the bodywork, the running gear and final assembly was by Austin. Tooling costs were astonishing cheap: $197,849.14 on mechanical and for bodywork $820,626.80. Aside from the sealed beam headlights and windscreen wipers all the Metro’s components were British made, but all the engineering took place in Detroit.

Nash felt a four-speed transmission would be ‘unsettling to prospective buyers’ so the A40’s four-speed box had its bottom gear blocked to make it a three-speed. The mildly modified A40 engine produced 42bhp and hit 60mph in 21 seconds, top speed was around 70mph. The Metro was available as a hardtop coupe for $1445 or convertible at $1469 (a Beetle cost $1425 but was considerably slower). Within four months more than 8000 were sold – dealers ran out of initial stock within 48 hours. With first year sales of 13,095 the cute Metropolitan had outsold all imports except Volkswagen.

Sales dipped to 9068 examples for 1955 while a mild revamp for April 1956 saw the 1500 model with a price increase of $100 and the 90cu in Austin A50 engine offering a heady 52bhp. This was essentially the same

engine fitted to the MGA sports car, high compression heads, dual SU carbs and an overdrive transmission could turn a Metro into a reasonably quick machine. Nash even built a performance version with stiffened suspension.

Ludlow & Fisher had built more strength into the sheet metal than was originally specified and hand finished them to a high degree. So aside from trapped salt water being hard to clean out of the faired over wheel arches the Metro proved easily as rust-resistant as any car of the time.

It wasn’t all plain sailing though. Some owners burst brake lines by topping up the Girling system with American mineral-based brake fluid, long distance drivers found wheel bearings wore and Metros shared a problem with their bigger Nash brothers of jamming in gear when transmission lever arms went out of line. Door locks broke, meaning doors could fly open during sharp turns, or lock an owner out of the car. Plastic tail-light bezels and interior switches cracked, or even melted, and some cars suffered sheet metal vibration in the rear.

However, most roadtesters and owners were impressed. With sales often exceeding expectations of 10,000 a year, Nash was happy to listen to

Even by European standards the interior is cosy!

customer comments and make improvements.

More comfortable seats, better door locks and quarter vent windows were added. Eventually, in 1959, an opening bootlid was included – previously access to the luggage area was by folding down the tiny rear seat.

There was no typical buyer but Nash discovered with surprise that rather than budgetminded motorists, many purchasers were affluent and bought a Metro as a second car – usually for the lady of the house – vital now so many families were moving to the suburbs. Later they were popular as cheap student transportation.

With the A50 engine Metropolitans were quick enough for freeway use, reliable and entertaining to drive – most happily clocked up over 100,000 miles with little more than regular servicing.

By 1959 AMC was ready to pull the plug since an all-new Nash Rambler was coming and the Metro was direct competition. Ironically the recession of 1958 contributed to record sales of 22,309 for the ’59 model year. The last Metro rolled off the Austin line in June 1960 but the model was still available through 1962 until the last 1265 had sold – models without a bootlid were $47 cheaper.

73cu in four cylinder engine.

Words: Richard Heseltine Photography: Ford Motor Company

Before the Mustang was the Mustang I, a remarkable looking concept car that bore no relation to what was to become the best selling American car of the Sixties… or did it? Richard Heseltine investigates…

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s we all know by rote, the Ford Mustang instigated the pony car wars. It was an instant hit when introduced in 1964, its record-breaking sales success catching everyone off guard. The thing is, it could have emerged somewhat different to the Ford Falcon-based machine we all know and love. For starters, the first car to wear the Mustang nameplate was

Mustang I was strictly a two-seater.

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mid-engined. What’s more, it was powered by a four-banger borrowed from a humble Ford Taurus. But while Mustang 1 may have been only a concept car, and one that went from preliminary sketch to fully functioning car in little more than three months, it cast a long shadow over Ford’s legendary Total Performance programme.

When, precisely, this machine was first mooted remains unclear; 1960 is most people’s guess. It was Ford’s product planner Don Frey who first campaigned for sportier Fords. He could see that archrival Chevrolet was making hay thanks to its small-block V8 which had usurped the old Ford flathead motor as the hot rodder’s engine of choice. It also had the Corvette in its armoury, which had been transformed from a decidedly non-sporting cruiser into a red-blooded road and track star thanks to the insertion of the 283cu in bent-eight in ’55. Ford had the T-bird but, by 1960, it was less of a sports car and more a boulevardier. Frey voiced his concerns to Henry Ford II, car and truck vice-president Robert McNamara, and the firm’s vice-presidents Gene Bordinat (design) and Herb Misch (engineering).

They were receptive to his entreaties, and Ford soon began churning out concept cars on an almost weekly basis.

Most of these were instantly forgettable, but the breakthrough occurred in January 1962 when Bordinat asked competing styling chiefs to come up with concepts for a small sports car. The team of John Najjar, Jim Darden, Ray Smith and Phil Clark, working under senior designer Bob Maguire, came up with the winning proposal. It is at this juncture that the story moved on apace as studio engineer Ray Smith suggested the addition of flip-up headlights, a retractable licence plate, fixed seats, adjustable pedals and a telescopic steering wheel.

All of these features were incorporated into the design, but the completed prototype was just a

Production Mustang bore little resemblance to this initial concept.

mock up and looked set to remain that way. At least it was until the higher-ups decided that they wanted to show the car moving under its own steam at the US Grand Prix meeting at Watkins Glen. The date was set at October 7, 1962; the team had just 100 days to build something fit to be driven on track before the world’s media and the American public. No pressure.

Misch turned to Advanced Vehicles manager Roy Lunn to spearhead the project. The expat Englishman was the perfect man for the job. He had begun his career as an apprentice toolmaker aged 14, and went on to become chief engineer for Jowett in 1949. He also devised a special Jowett Le Mans car and, together with Frenchman Marcel Becquant, won the 1952 Monte Carlo Rally for the Bradford marque.

Two years later, he jumped ship to Ford of Britain, where he played a major role in the creation of the Anglia 105E prior to moving Stateside in 1958.

Lunn, together with engineer Bob Negstad, had little time to waste, their first decision being the choice of engine. The inline precrossflow ‘four’ from the Ford Cortina was considered but ultimately the Taunus’ V4 got the nod. That was due in part to packaging requirements but also because of expected weight distribution issues: it was theorised that using the British engine would result in a 53/47 forward weight bias. With the German unit, it became 47/53. There was, however, the small matter of cooling the engine. Small radiators were placed at either side of the powerplant: the side intakes on the finished prototype weren’t there for show.

Taunus sourced engine was ‘hotted up’ to produce 109bhp.

The car’s chassis was essentially a spaceframe affair complete with an integral roll-bar. All powertrain and suspension mounts were welded directly to the framework. While the underpinnings were being readied in Detroit, the body was shaped and knitted together by legendary metal wielders Troutman & Barnes in Los Angles (although California Metal Shaping of Culver City also rolled out some of the aluminium panels). Ultimately, the body and chassis were united to form what Lunn described

as ‘semi-unitary construction’ with the Rizla-thin coachwork being riveted to the spaceframe.

The outer skins, cockpit surfaces and under-tray formed one seamless whole, while the seat pans, inner wheel arches and headlight nacelles were also bonded into the body. The seats were fixed, while the gearlever, fly-off handbrake and manual choke stood at the forward end of a central floor console.

Lynn’s crew wasn’t above giving the car a few more horses, either. They added a high-lift camshaft, stronger valve springs, a twin-choke ❯❯

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