Thursday, February 25, 2010
You seem to come across the less-desirable Chevelle models a lot in the Midwest, such as the six-cylinder and base V8 cars, but it's not every day that you find one that goes for up to $71,000 or more at auction just sitting abandoned at a business that is used daily. Yet here was a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396 with tons of much sought-after options, just sitting at Airpro heating and cooling, rusting in the cold while the employees of the building next to it heat peoples' homes. An odd thing about this is that the car is just down the street from Big 3 Performance in Green Bay, which specializes in customizing GM performance cars of the Sixties, including the recently-released Jim Wangers Edition 1968 Pontiac GTO.
The entire staff of Airpro always seems to be out on heating emergencies or whatever they fix, so I never got any owner info on the car, but I can bet that the same person who owns the car also owns the wrecked F150 monster truck next to it. The car seems to be relatively solid except for the left rear fender and part of the right floor, and most of the interior pieces are there. It would be a very good candidate for restoration or customization, and hopefully it will find a good home or be restored by its current owner. In its current condition alone it should be worth a couple grand at least, but once it is restored it will be well worth the investment. I sent an e-mail to Airpro so make sure you stay tuned for updates on the car, but for now, just admire it in its rustiness.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
This week I took a little business trip to Baltimore. At the Hertz counter I was handed the keys to a new Corolla. I figured if I got pulled over I could claim sudden unintended acceleration. Bonus!
I don’t care much for the styling. Somehow they found a way to make it look just plain, kinda slab-sided, and somehow rinky-dink. So anyway, I’m obviously going to be stylin’ around town.
I open the door, go to climb in and bash my leg on the end of the dash assembly protruding into the door space, something I then proceeded to do over and over again through three days. Obviously a behavioral and/or coordination problem on my part.
I pulled out of the rental car place onto the main drag and up onto 195. The immediate driving impressions were:
- The car was nice and quiet at highway speed, and
- There was no, and I mean absolutely no, on-center feel.
Hit a truck rut, shoot to the left. Too much road crown, swoop to the right. No road feel whatsoever. How can I possibly simultaneously cruise, talk on the cell, and tune the radio in this thing if I always need a hand on the wheel? But seriously, this thing was stupid numb and required constant attention.
Then I hear on the radio on the way back to the airport yesterday afternoon that Toyota is considering recalling Corollas for some kind of power steering problem. Go figure.
I don’t care much for the styling. Somehow they found a way to make it look just plain, kinda slab-sided, and somehow rinky-dink. So anyway, I’m obviously going to be stylin’ around town.
I open the door, go to climb in and bash my leg on the end of the dash assembly protruding into the door space, something I then proceeded to do over and over again through three days. Obviously a behavioral and/or coordination problem on my part.
I pulled out of the rental car place onto the main drag and up onto 195. The immediate driving impressions were:
- The car was nice and quiet at highway speed, and
- There was no, and I mean absolutely no, on-center feel.
Hit a truck rut, shoot to the left. Too much road crown, swoop to the right. No road feel whatsoever. How can I possibly simultaneously cruise, talk on the cell, and tune the radio in this thing if I always need a hand on the wheel? But seriously, this thing was stupid numb and required constant attention.
Then I hear on the radio on the way back to the airport yesterday afternoon that Toyota is considering recalling Corollas for some kind of power steering problem. Go figure.
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Usually cars as rare as the Dual-Ghia are lovingly restored or in perfect original condition, and almost all of them eventually end up at multiple Concours events, but occasionally one comes along that has slipped through the cracks of fanatical attention. Some of these cars were left to rot instead of being pampered, and sometimes they deserve to be left that way. This 1957 Dual-Ghia, being sold by Hyman, LTD or St. Louis, Missouri, is one such vehicle. It will probably be bound for full restoration, but the car deserves, even if never driven again, to remain in this condition as a piece of art. The car is amazingly intact with even the original convertible fabric still in place, which goes to prove the workmanship of Dual Motors and Ghia, and it should be kept the way it is for the sake of the odd beauty it has in its weathered condition.
I couldn't get any info from Hyman about how they came to acquire such a car, but it appears that it was stored indoors somewhere where most of nature couldn't get to it, such as a shed or a garage of a deteriorated old mansion on the outskirts of Vegas, where this car was born to cruise. The original Dodge V-8 seems to be completely intact, if a little dusty, and the interior is missing side panels but nothing else. The car has 40,000 (or 140,000, though not likely) miles on it, which means most of the major parts should be original to the car. The important part, the coachbuilt Ghia bodywork that tends to be expensive to replicate, seems to have only surface rust except some areas around the rear fenders, and is free of any major dents. Overall, for $39,500, a new owner could make a profit off of restoring it, as most of the unique pieces are in good condition, as well as the mechanical systems. But that, as mentioned before, is not the point. Whoever buys this car should put it on a stand as-is or clean up the motor and use it as a cool conversation piece at exotic car shows among the many restored Dual-Ghia's you'd see at a Vegas exotic car show or a Concours.
For those of you not familiar with the Dual-Ghia, it was largely influenced by the 1954 Dodge Firearrow III, Firebomb, and other Ghia-built Chrysler concepts of the Fifties. Motivated by a Dodge D-500 V-8, it was a hot performer for the time, and the body, designed and built by Ghia in Turin, Italy, was a knockdown. Original plans called for 150 units per year, but the company lost money on every one built and after creating 117 cars, 13 of which were prototypes and 2 of which were hardtops, Dual Motors ended its partnership with Ghia in 1958, two years after building its first car.
So will somebody restore this rare Dual-Ghia? Or will some relatively affluent person come along that has the mindset of barn-finders everywhere and keep it the way it is as a beautiful piece of Italian craftsmanship in deteriorated condition?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Remember in February when The Baltimore Sun did a report on the fastest road-legal car in existence? If you click on the title of this post you will.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
On a never-ending search for a project car (before I found my Datsun, of course), I ran across an ad for a car you don't see often from a brand that always seemed to change names, and decided to check it out. If for some reason you haven't read the title of this post, the car was a 1961 Rambler American Custom Convertible, part of the second generation of the American series. This car was noted for its quirky styling and its economy, mopping up the Compact class of the Mobil Gas Economy Run in late 1960 with an average of 28.35 MPG over a 2,000-mile course. At a NASCAR-sponsored event called the Pure Oil Economy Trial the car managed an amazing 51 MPG, which is still a very good number today, not that you'd get that in daily driving, though. This generation had a run from 1961 to 1963 and included sedans, wagons, coupes and convertibles in four trim levels: Deluxe, Super, Custom, and the top-end Custom 400, which was only available as a convertible and for some reason, instead of a coupe, a four-door sedan.
Anyways, when I got to the place with the car at it, an abandoned radiator shop in Green Bay, I couldn't tell what trim level it was at the time because A: It was under quite a few tarps, B: It was deteriorated beyond any hope, and C: Who in the world actually can tell the trim levels apart on a 1961 Rambler American? The car had too much rust for my liking and was lacking a motor, so I didn't consider it much. The cost of parts would have bankrupted me for such a relatively rare and worthless car.
Though it wasn't for me, I hope somebody bought it, as I saw it loaded onto a trailer a few weeks later. Hopefully it was headed to a heated garage somewhere, not a scrapyard. Remember, if you want to see any of your personal finds on The Car Blog, just email us at carnut1blogspot.com@gmail.com and we'll post it if it's worthy.
Monday, February 1, 2010
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