Home//Hemmings Motor News/July 2024/In This Issue
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024The Height of LuxuryAmerican luxury” as a topic for this issue. But then, people nodding in agreement when I talk, often putting on a forced grin, while slowly backing toward the nearest exit, isn’t all that unusual.Me: “Hey did I tell you how I reorganized the sandpaper drawer in my workbench by the grit number, so that…”Person Looking Like They’ve Mistakenly Wandered Into A Real-Life Scene from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest: “Ha! Ha! Yes, yes… well, it’s been um, fascinating, Mike, but I really need to get going…”It occurred to me while working on this issue that I’ve never owned a full-on, blue-blooded, luxury car. And by that I mean a road yacht from one of the domestic luxury brands that commonly roamed country clubs and boutique shopping destinations during my…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024BackfireI really enjoyed reading about the 1949 Packard Custom Series 22 in the April issue. It brought back fond memories of the 1950 Super Deluxe Eight Series 22 that I acquired in 1975. I lived in Woodland Hills, California, and literally bought it from the estate of a little old lady in Pasadena, California. She had been the original owner. It had sat for many years in her garage and the tires were badly deteriorated, but I managed to slowly drive it home without a problem.She had a single-car garage and had managed to put a few rubs in the paint and dents in the trim entering and exiting. I was able to find replacement trim from a junkyard out in the Palmdale, California desert. Then, I spent many evenings…10 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024British Car Parts Suppliers Moss, Rimmer Bros Announce MergerMoss Motors and Rimmer Bros are being merged by a U.S.-based private equity firm that has announced making “simultaneous investments” in the longtime British car parts suppliers.Moss, with locations in Goleta, California, and Petersburg, Virginia, catalogs more than 50,000 parts for a number of British cars, including MG, Triumph, Austin-Healey, and Jaguar, as well as the Mazda MX-5 Miata. Founded in 1948 by Al Moss, the company in recent years acquired Jaguar parts distributor XKs Unlimited and U.S. competitor Victoria British Ltd. Moss employs 240 people in six facilities across the U.S., the U.K., and France, serving more than 140,000 customers in over 100 countries.Rimmer Bros, based in the U.K., supplies parts for Jaguar, Land Rover, MG, Mini, Rover, and Triumph. Founded in 1982 by Bill and Graham Rimmer, Rimmer…2 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 20241969-’71 Lincoln CONTINENTAL MARK IIISPOTLIGHT: AFFORDABLE LUXURYThe critics may have panned it, the focus group may have given it a thumbs-down, but the Lincoln Continental Mark III was a success by the one measurement that counted: production numbers. Lincoln would build a total of 79,381 Mark IIIs over its 1969-’71 run, stealing customers away from archrival Cadillac in the process.Buyers liked the Mark III. They liked the formal grille that mimicked Britain’s Rolls-Royce. They liked the faux spare-tire hump in the trunk lid that recalled the Continental Mark II. They liked the long hood and short deck, accentuated by the slightly raised panel behind the rear window. They liked it all so well that, in some parts of the country, waiting lists of up to a year developed for the new luxury coupe.Driving the…11 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024The (Almost) Cobra KillerFor reasons dating back to the disastrous 24 Hours of Le Mans of 1955, the all-American Cheetah never got its chance to fulfill Chevrolet’s desire to counter the Ford-powered Cobra that was upstaging- and outrunning-Corvettes on SCCA’s national stage. Undermined by GM’s ban on corporate racing, a makeshift factory stopped building Cheetahs after Chevrolet halted parts deliveries in early 1964, falling far short of the 100-car hom*ologation target.Though the ultimate number is unknown, at least 11 documented Cheetahs were assembled. Two of those at press time are being offered for sale in the Hemmings Marketplace: #002, an aluminum-bodied car from 1964 that was the second prototype built for testing; and the Hurst Special Competition #58 Cheetah, also a 1964 car, that was recently restored by a noted Cheetah expert.With such…7 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024NEW PRODUCTSNOVA UNDERGARMENTSSteele Rubber • 800-447-0849 • steelerubber.com • $411.99/setNew heat and sound deadening sets are available for the 1966-’67 Nova and Nova SS. Each underlayment set is pre-cut and tailored to fit the Nova for easy installation. The pieces are made of a flexible and lightweight foil-faced foam-rubber material that curtails road noise while providing an extra barrier of heat protection. The foil side is made to redirect the heat from the engine bay while the rubber structure reduces both heat and noise. They are effective up to 320-degrees Fahrenheit and are made for long-lasting function and durability. The sets contain pieces to fit the floor, doors, quarter panels, and roof panels. Inquire about p/n 70-4786-88 for more details.CHEVY STRIPESSummit Racing Equipment • 800-230-3030 summitracing.com • $74.99-$179.99/KitNew stencil, decal, and…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024HEMMINGS AUCTIONSHemmings Auctions is our live, online auction site staffed by customer service professionals ready to help bidders and sellers with any questions. A wide variety of classic and specialty vehicles from all eras are up for bid. Auctions run for two weeks, and qualified bidders place their bids electronically. Once a vehicle is accepted into the auction, the seller pays only a $99.95 listing fee. The winning bidder is responsible for a 5-percent fee on all completed auctions. The following are examples of auctions that transpired during the month leading up to press time. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions, email the Hemmings Auctions team directly at auctions@hemmings.com.1977 DATSUN 280ZReserve: $27,000Selling Price: $29,715Recent Market Range: $25,000-$44,000The selling price of this late 280Z was a bargain when the sum allegedly…8 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024Teach to Learn“My flight instructor was a 70-some-thing-year-old retired monk.”Anyone who has spent time with me behind the wheel in traffic in the past may have come away with broad exposure to the sounds of bitter vitriol from a judgmental middle-aged man, hell-bent on assuaging his fragile ego, bested by the seemingly willful ignorance of people I can only generously describe as “fellow motorists.” Driving a German car, having spent plenty of time with Italian and Korean friends, having taken several years of French in school, and marrying a native Spanish speaker, I often treated my passengers to a rather cosmopolitan cacophony of cursing during my more spirited moments of motoring selfishness.But that’s in the past, I promise you. Now on the cusp of training the next new driver in our house,…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 20241908 Mitchell Wins AACA ZenithA 1908 Mitchell Model G, owned by Charles E. Allen of Rochester Hills, Michigan, won the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Zenith Award for 2024. The honors were announced during the AACA’s Annual Grand National event in Charlotte, North Carolina, on April 5.This top prize, awarded annually since 2016, recognizes the most carefully detailed and authentic concours restoration of a motor vehicle as evaluated by AACA Senior Master judges and knowledgeable guest judges. Every vehicle eligible for recognition by the AACA, from the earliest to the latest that’s met the club’s rolling 25-year criteria, can be nominated to participate in this prestigious program.This car was purchased for $25 by Charles’ father (then just 14 years old) and grandfather in 1939. The Allens didn’t begin restoring the car until circa-1980, when…2 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 20241909 Pierce-Arrow 6-36-UUMore than a century ago, luxury motoring in America was defined by Packard, Peerless, and Pierce-Arrow — the “Three Ps.”Pierce-Arrows were typically priced the highest and, in the company’s heyday, built to incredibly high standards using the very best materials. Buffalo, New York-based Pierce manufactured the best vehicles possible and let old-money buyers come to them, rather than engaging in price wars with other marques.The car featured here is a 1909 Pierce-Arrow 6-36-UU, first featured in the March 2011 issue of Hemmings Classic Car and owned at the time by the late Robert Evans. This classic made the field at Pebble Beach in 2016 and is the epitome of Pierce’s devotion to quality dictating cost. New, it was priced at $4,175 — that was at a time when wages averaged…4 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 20241993-’95 Porsche 968Though the front-engine cars that began emerging from Zuffenhausen in the 1970s were some of the best Porsches ever produced, it’s taken decades for them to win the respect they deserve. Even today, after the factory has fully embraced its transaxle era, values of the 924, 944, 968, and 928 have lagged those of the rear-engine 911.Still, there are some trans-axle cars that have caught the attention of collectors. One of those is the 968 Club Sport, a not-for-North America variant created just as Porsche’s great front-engine adventure was winding down.Introduced for 1992, the 968 was the last and best of the transaxle line. It offered more power and refinement than the outgoing 944, as well as distinctive looks that borrowed from the V-8-powered 928 coupe, the 911 Turbo, and…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 20241976 ZAZ 968In the early 1990s, there were two cars on the global market sharing the model name “968.” One was a Porsche sports car from Germany; the other originated about 2,400 kilometers east of Stuttgart. From behind the Iron Curtain came the ZAZ 968, an inexpensive people’s car built between 1972 and 1994. This 1976 example is one of a scant handful residing in the U.S., and it turns heads and inspires questions everywhere it goes.While ZAZ was a postwar Soviet creation, its factory complex was founded in the late 1800s to make farming implements. It was rebuilt in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic city of Zaporizhzhia after World War II and continued producing combine harvesters until 1959. At that point, the Zaporohets Communard agricultural machinery works were retooled to build…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024BOOKS AND LITERATURETYRRELLBy Richard JenkinsEvro Publishing quartoknows.com800-328-0590ISBN 9781910505670 $120The late Ken Tyrrell was part of the vanguard of British garage owners, as they called themselves, who stormed into Formula 1 from the early 1960s forward with a plethora of ground-shaking designs that ended up turning F1 away from front-mounted engines. The gentle, bespectacled Tyrrell joined John Cooper, Colin Chapman, Sir Jack Brabham, and John Surtees in this loose group, and was marvelously successful, winning three World Championships with Sir Jackie Stewart, who contributes the foreword to this exhaustive and important work of motorsport history. This hardcover volume, the result of hundreds of interviews, runs to 464 pages and encompasses 450-plus images, mostly color.Tyrrell was a determined innovator, as this book makes clear, including his wildly successful efforts to bring Matra into Formula…2 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024An Alfa by Any Other Name“Most of us would much rather imagine ourselves somewhere west of Laramie than in the rush-hour gridlock of reality.”As you might have heard, Alfa Romeo got itself into a little bit of hot water recently with its choice of a name for its first electric vehicle. Alfa had decided to call the new subcompact SUV the Milano, until the Italian government came knocking. It seems that Italy has a law targeted at Italian-sounding names for products that are made elsewhere, and the new EV is being screwed together not in Italy, but in Tychy, Poland.I know what you’re thinking: Alfa Romeo is an Italian-sounding name! And you’re right. But the authorities didn’t want that part changed, only the bit that referenced the world fashion hub of Milan, where Alfa was…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024Welcome to World of VolvoVolvo Cars and Volvo Group (trucks, buses, construction equipment, marine, financial, and more) are the two largest companies in Sweden. Since 2017, these separately owned firms with common history have been collaborating on a new shared space in Gothenburg that honors the past, present, and future of the Volvo brand at the same time as it gives back to the companies’ home city and its people. It’s called World of Volvo, is located at Lyckholms Torg 1, and it opened to the public on April 14, 2024, 97 years to the day after the first Volvo car left the factory.Replacing the 28-year-old Volvo Museum that celebrated everything produced under the Volvo brand umbrella, World of Volvo is intended to welcome existing enthusiasts, create new fans of the brand and its…2 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 20242011-’14 Cadillac CTS-V WagonSPOTLIGHT: AFFORDABLE LUXURYMany vehicles degenerate into third- or fourth-hand beaters before clawing their way to collectability—assuming they survive the neglect and deferred maintenance along the way. Not so with Cadillac’s 2011-’14 CTS-V Wagons. The newest of these factory hot-rod Caddy haulers turned 10 years old this year and their collectible-status seems more assured than ever.CTS-V Wagon prices have remained stable since 2020, averaging over $50,000 for an automatic-equipped V or $70,000 for a six-speed car, according to classic.com. That puts them near their original $60,000-plus base MSRP. By piling on some options, like the $3,400 Recaro seats, $1,150 UltraView sunroof or $800 wheels, the price of a new V Wagon could’ve increased to more than $70,000, back then.V Wagons were never produced in large quantities—something that’s also in their favor.…3 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024Vintage Luxury on a BudgetSPOTLIGHT: AFFORDABLE LUXURYVirtually since the creation of the automobile, there have been people willing to pay more for something out of the ordinary. Sure, simply getting from point A to point B and back again was enough for most folks, but there were those who preferred to do so behind the wheel of a big, posh, capable vehicle that reflected their refined tastes and financial success.America’s postwar economic boom fed the growth of the luxury car segment. These cars represented the very best that their makers had to offer, with high-quality materials, advanced engineering, muscular V-8s, power-assisted controls, and styling calculated to make heads turn. There was no better way to announce to the world that you’d made it than by parking one of these luxurious rides in the carport.The…16 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024Worldwide Auctioneers, Scottsdale, ArizonaWorldwide Auctioneers offered up an eclectic array of vehicles at its one-day Arizona sale, January 26, at Singh Meadows in Tempe — south of Scottsdale.About 100 vintage cars and motorcycles crossed Worldwide’s block, 49 of which were sold at no reserve. Sixty-four found new owners, for a 63 percent sell-through, and the total haul was $5.6 million. The menu included a mix of Full Classics, modern and vintage imports, postwar American machines as well as ’60s muscle cars.The top earner of the sale was a 1961 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL that changed hands for $1,215,000. It was also one of the cars sold at no reserve.At the number-two sale spot was a 2009 Lamborghini Murciélago LP640 Roadster that sold for $346,000. The open-top supercar was one of just 57 built in…12 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024Big Apple FlashbackFor dyed-in-the-wool automotive enthusiasts, few things are more enjoyable than taking in a car show, and few car shows have glitz and glamour comparable to New York City’s annual New York International Auto Show. Your author took advantage of a media-access day to soak in all the shiny sheetmetal (and aluminum, fiberglass, carbon fiber...) that filled the Jacob K. Javits Center for the 2024 NYIAS, which took place in early April. As I walked around the Javits in the relative quiet afforded by a light crowd of journalists and industry insiders, I couldn’t help but reminisce about the exciting hustle-bustle of this same, public-crowded show I’d attended 30 years earlier. What follows is a Hemmings-style retrospective, for as some of this event’s displays proved, what’s old can be new again.The…7 min
Hemmings Motor News|July 2024PARTS LOCATOR“...the wipers will come on, but not go off until I shut the car’s engine down.”OLDSMOBILE CRUISE-CONTROL AND WIPER STALKQ: I love your monthly Parts Locator column. I have used it many times for our 1959 Chevy Impala convertible (purchased new in March 1959—yes, I’m an OLD car guy) and several other treasures. I am finding it hard to find a replacement switch that controls the turn signals, dimmer lights, cruise control, mist function, and wiper with delay on my 1983 Oldsmobile Regency. The cruise control works now and then, while the wipers will come on, but not go off until I shut the car’s engine down. I am told that I will need a replacement with a three-prong connector, but I haven’t found one that fits that description. Any…3 min
