classic car

  Ah, Iola Old Car Show and Swap Meet. The meeting point of every car-obsessed person in the Northern section of the Midwest. For a weekend, the tiny town of Iola, WI is lit up with gleaming chrome and trailers full of rusting vintage Cragars, wheels, bumpers, and any other automotive item you could need. A full-fledged car show, a giant swap meet, a car corral, and an auction all packed into one three-day-long event that attracts thousands of men carrying their reluctant wives and the occasional genuinely interested woman. There are Dodge Chargers, Kaisers, BMWs and Duesenburgs, and all of them are interesting to anyone who loves cars. Its almost impossible to resist coming each year. Of all these cars, you'd think that the most interesting would be some classic Ferrari of Duesenburg, but this July it wasn't so. This year, the car that stole the show wasn't a car featured in multiple magazines, not a historic Bonneville racer, but a 1998 Chevy Cavalier.

  Yep, you heard that right. Walking among the many drivers for sale in the Car Corral section, near the end of my day in Iola this July, I was pretty bored and feeling kind of down. We had just been by the auction section, where the economy had lead to only one out of 10 cars we saw go up on the block sold. All of the cars I was around were drivers, with the top price being around $50,000 for a '57 Corvette, and I was going to leave in about half an hour. I was heading back to the swap meet section when a crowd obscuring a car caught my eye. The crowd was larger than the one around the featured driver Auburn/Cord/Duesenburg collection, larger than the one around the custom '54 Kaiser Manhattan featured in Hot Rod Magazine, and larger than the one around the highest-mileage car in the world, a Volvo P1800 coupe. I rushed over to see what all the fuss was about. Was it a used Bugatti for sale? A Fiat 500 with an Enzo motor? As I got closer I saw the truth. It was a Cavalier, decked out in custom gear making it a rolling tribute to Chevrolet coupes. It had '54 Corvette headlights and grille, '57 Bel Air-style rear fenders, '63 Corvette split-window rear glass, Impala hints and more. It's powered by an unknown motor, hopefully a V-8, with a nice blower on it, and it was being offered for an amazing deal of $4,000! Thats 5 different cars with a total value of $301,692 for just $4,000. No, just kidding. I wouldn't buy it either, but it does make for a good conversation.

  When we Americans think of Mercedes-Benz, a picture of an E-Class or an SLR Mclaren comes to mind almost invariably. Here in the gas-guzzling U.S. of A, Mercedes-Benz is a maker mid-size and large premium sedans, coupes, roadsters, and SUVs, but the picture is very different in Europe. Mercedes-Benz makes a total of four models that we don't have here in the US, and all of them are very different from the Benzes we know and love.

  Across the pond in the land where Diesel compacts rule the roads, Mercedes-Benz offers two sub-C Class compact cars, a compact coupe (an evolution of the demised C230 coupes that were offered in the US for a few years), and a minivan. There there is also the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter and other commercial vans. Does the name sound familiar? If you consider the fact the MB was partnered with Chrysler, the truth comes all too clear if you didn't know already. Yep, our "American" Dodge and Freightliner Sprinters are really a re-badged Germans that avoided pesky taxes by being shipped in parts to the US and assembled here with the manufacturer of choice's badge slapped on the front. Ah, badge engineering.

  But enough about that, lets move on to the models that are sold as passenger cars, as the Sprinter is only a civilian car in a customized camper form. There are two compacts in the MB lineup that aren't here in the US, the A-class and B-class. The A-Class, a small premium hatch that comes in 3 and 5-door forms starting at a bad space-to-dollar rate of $21,453, is the epitome of a crowded-city luxury car. It has sold in huge numbers, almost 2 million since its launch in 1999, and if it was brought to the US it may become a toy for the obsessively rich to have when they're trying to look environmentally conscious. The problem, though, is that they packed the car so full of technical features for a car its small size that they met their price point way before they could focus on a full-luxury interior. The result is an interior that resembles the configuration of the Volkswagen Jetta with the leatherette package, with hard, but not low-quality plastics in some places and leather in others. The exterior, like some other Euro MB products, has not switched over to the new, more mean-looking grille yet, so it looks relatively out-or date from the front, even though a recent facelift made it more modern from the side. With power ranging from 140 to 193 HP, the A-Class is not something for speedy runs or people like Jay Leno and the Sultan of Brunei (though I wouldn't be surprised if he had one), but its more of a car for relatively well-off city-dwellers that can't stand cloth seats.

  The B-Class, introduced in 2005 and updated in 2008, is based on the A-Class architecture. It was originally intended to go on sale as the Base Benz in the US, but plans were scrapped for that and it is now sold virtually everywhere but the US, including Canada. The B-Class starts at $27,648, and like the A-Class it virtually dwarfs the price of everything else in its category. It's like a minivan shaped compact with regular doors, which MB calls a Multi-Activity vehicle, mimicking BMW's weird names such as Sport Activity Coupe for the X6. Interestingly, the higher-priced and larger B-Class has less power than its smaller brother, with rates ranging from 94 (!) to 190 Horsepower, which is at best 3 less than the A-Class' ratings. There's not much more to say about the B-Class because its essentially a more expensive A-Class with more space, more modern looks, and less power. The interior is slightly higher-rent with more leather and less plastic, and it has room for some cargo even with kids inside, which says a lot in Europe.

  Next up is a car you may know from a few years back, with the C230 coupe, a try by Mercedes-Benz at launching one of their cheaper models in the US. It started at around $25,000 in 2003, and they sold well for what they were, a cheap Mercedes-Benz. After that one venture, MB pulled the coupe out of the US and its now only sold overseas, where it is known as the CLC-Class. It now starts at $28,211 in current exchange rates, making it the cheapest and smallest MB coupe in Europe, as opposed to the $48,050 E-Class Coupe here in the States. There have only been minor changes since the C230 was taken out of the US with a minor refreshing including the new-style grille and wheel options, and the rear shape remains in its quirky half-hatchback form. The refreshing was to hide that its still based on the last-gen C-Class sedan, so the mechanical aspects of it aren't exactly thrilling and up-to-date. In fact, there is a new CLC-Class scheduled to be coming soon to replace the current coupe. The interior has leather as an option, but the overall quality is good. The horsepower ratings go from 120-268, a margin of 70 horsepower over the compacts.

  The last car that Europe gets we may not want at all. You see, this is basically a giant, boxy, Japanese-style minivan. Called the Viano, this van scraps the (insert letter here)-Class naming system, and for good reason. This is a completely different Mercedes-Benz than we know. I mean, how do the words "Mercedes-Benz" and "minivan" go in the same sentence? Yet again, it worked in Wisconsin for Buick, why shouldn't it work in Europe for Mercedes-Benz? Any Minivan that starts at $36,514 has to be luxurious and up to date, right? Well, according to Whatcar.com, it's very flexible for different types of families, with two wheelbase and three body length options, but "It's an expensive option, whose van roots show through in some areas. The engines are noisy and it's not easy to use the car’s full versatility, as the seats are heavy if you want to remove them." The horsepower ratings, though you'd hardly look at that in a minivan, range from 116 to 258, and of course the material quality is superb, but it's not anywhere near the most versatile and smart option in a minivan.

  You've seen them prowling the streets, wincing at how fast their rubber will shed and how much ride quality, or lack thereof, it has. Old Monte Carlos, Caprices, Crown Vic's, Chevelles and more, all wearing at least 20-inch rims, with many sporting 23-inchers and some wearing up to 35s.  This trend is always both coming into style and going out of style at the same time in different places, and currently its a growing trend in the upper Midwest. These cars, as you probably know, are called Donks, with huge wheels and custom paint being the main features of the cars.

  People, mainly people in their teens and twenties, see Donks as a trend for them to get instant recognition in cars that would otherwise be seen as crap. For as little as a few thousand dollars, they can have an interesting wheel and paint combo and be recognized as a car god among college students for having a Caprice.

  Donks are frowned upon by the major section of customizer community, and the main reason for this is that the cars may look distinctive, but their performance isn't usually modified except for the occasional custom exhaust system. They are also notorious for having a harsh ride quality due to the low-pro rubber and are not the main choice for more traditional hot rodders.

  Diesel has always had a bad rap. Though everyone knows it got you better MPG, diesels were loud and belched dirty, black smoke forth into the atmosphere. Diesel engines were reserved for large trucks for the most part, and it was seen as antisocial during the oil crisis to have giant, smoke-belching truck. Not to mention that diesels generally made your car much slower, limiting performance by large amounts and were hard to start. It wasn't until the late Seventies that diesels were used in everyday cars such as the VW Golf in America, though even these were slow-selling. Diesel is in for a turn-around ,though, because in the past few years diesel technology has made rapid strides from dirty and slow to fast, clean, and overall, green.

  As Volkswagen Group's recent ad campaign for Audi proclaims, diesel is no longer a "dirty" word. The fuel that we usually associate with Sulfur and Nitrogen smoke have gotten much better. New technology has completely transformed the diesel tech in the last few years, creating cars that are fast, clean, reliable, and fuel-sipping. For example, the Volkswagen Jetta TDI gets almost 50 MPG, has all the comforts of a regular Jetta, is quiet and composed, and is just as fast accelerating. There seems to be almost no downside to a diesel besides its reputation from the past, which is why they have transformed Europe and started in the US.

  So what is "Clean Diesel"? This fuel is actually achieved by producing Ultra-Low-Sulfur Diesel, or ULSD, which cuts the amount of sulfur in the diesel by 98 to 99% compared to the Diesels that all of these used-to-be facts are related to. This also benefits performance, as sulfur clogs the emissions and engine systems, limiting performance and frugality. This means that, with today's ULSD technology, diesel is actually more frugal than hybrid tech, with better performance. So you can have a car with Prius-like MPG and GTI-like responses.

  So you're visiting your cousin Bob who lives in Neenah on Saturday, September 12th? Make sure you come to the biggest event in Green Bay for car fans, an event held on the property of a well-known custom car shop, Big 3 Performance, and Shelby Parts and Restoration, which if you haven't seen on this blog before is a world-renowned Shelby Mustang restoration shop. This car show will showcase everything from a Lamborghinis to Barracudas, with a Dyno available for use and drag racing down the stretch of public road, which is a Wisconsin road so you don't have to worry about bits falling off. Big Three Performance, known for their custom 650hp Mustang, will be the main host of this event, with many judging categories for imports, restored classics and domestic customs. This show will be located at 2215 O'Conor Road in Green Bay, and if you're nearby on the 12th, be there. You can find more info on this show at  http://www.big3performance.com and you can click on the "Annual Auto Show" link in the middle of the page.

I love it when I see a rare car driven hard. From Pacers to Duesenbergs, there will always be the owner who stashes their car in their perfect, dust-free garage and never drives it. I appreciate the other people. I like cars to be driven because, after all, that's what they are built to do.
At Iola Old Car show last year, I saw a small collection of ultra-rare Cord 812s, Duesenburgs, V-16 Cadillacs, and many other rare gems. From about ten feet they looked like everything else in that section of the show: over-shined and never driven. But as I got closer, I saw the little pockmarks, the scars of the road, some mud on the running boards. I also noticed the sign on the hood of one, a Duesenburg I think, that said it was driven all the way to the the show, which was a total of a couple thousand miles for the trip. These cars I thoroughly enjoyed, not because they were in perfect like-new condition, but because they had an owner who used them for their intended purpose. This is my philosophy now, and will be with the Z when it is done. It should be yours, too, if you have a valuable car. The photo of the daily driver '74 Charger is from a Mopar Cardomain blog.