It's Back!

Cad, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Rumors of the old rusty Cadillac's demise were premature. It seems that the owner hooked it up to a tractor and pulled it around to the back of the barn, to facilitate the harvest season. It's now parked back out front, in almost the same spot as before.

Incidentally, it seems that in the meantime the owner has painted some greyish-blue primer onto some of the rustier spots, particularly on the hood and roof. So....is the restoration finally starting?

Fading Glory

Fading Glory, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

So, I've bored a number of you with photos of this old rusting Cadillac sedan, parked picturesquely in front of a barn in rural Illinois. It sat there for at least five years, probably longer, occasionally moving around a bit as the owner moved his boat in and out of the barn. I've literally shot thousands of photos of this car, stopping whenever I happened to drive past, sometimes testing out some new gadget or technique I picked up. Seriously, though, four digits.

Anyway, long story slightly longer, I found out earlier this evening that the old Caddy's gone, leaving behind a rectangle of bare dirt in the lawn. I can only hope that the owner finally got around to restoring it, but most likely he sold it on.

What's to become of Fading Glory? I've no idea, but I leave you with this, the last photo I took of her, back in May.

Alflaska

Juliet, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A genuine Alaska vanity plate that says "ALFA" on it, on an Alfa Romeo racing car. I believe that the plate is original to the car, which kind of blows me away. Aside from the fact that I like continuous history on old cars, I find it interesting that anyone had an Alfa GT in Alaska. It had to have been just about the only one in the state!

A/FX

A/FX, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Factory Experimental was an offshoot of the Showroom Stock class. These were usually cars with prototype engines and other equipment combinations that weren't available from the factory. A/FX cars were even wilder, featuring altered wheelbases that pushed the center of gravity around for better traction. Wild cars.

Little Mouse

Little Mouse, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Launched in 1937, Fiat's original 500, the "Topolino" (Italian for "Little Mouse") was just about the smallest car you could build and still call a car. Powered by a sub-600cc four pot motor, the Topo put Italy on wheels, and remained in production in one form or another until the 50's. This is the classic earlier "Type A" style, which despite it's diminutive size was still an elegantly styled car. Well, until you chopped the body off and put it on an altered wheelbase drag chassis with a big V-8 sticking out the top.

That's one thing they don't talk about in the Fiat history books-the Topolino's racing history here in the States. Along with old American Bantam roadsters and English Ford Anglias, the Topo was a popular Altered and Gas class drag racer, due entirely to it's tiny size, which combined a low weight with a small frontal area to make a nice racing platform. Though plenty of genuine cars were chopped up, many of the Toplino Altereds were made with fiberglass replica bodies, like this mid sixties example.

Fun fact-you can still buy 'glass Topolino bodies today.

Buick

Buick, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A big toothy Buick Roadmaster, about a '53 or so.

Low

Low, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Didn't we do this last week? Anyway, here's another beautiful chopped custom, this one a '49 or so Mercury Eight. The first postwar Mercs to both have all-new styling as well as being significantly different from current Fords, the '49 Eight was immediately popular with the custom car crowd, both for it's style and it's V-8 engines. Some of the most famous customs were Mercury Eights, including Sam Barris' original '49, as well as the legendary car of Bob Hirohata. The Eight just looked good however you reworked it, from mild to wild.

This one features a lot of the classic touches-a chopped top, a new grille and bumpers, flipper hubcaps, rounded hood corners, and the removal of the original badges and logos. I also love the color-it's very subtle, like a lot of the earliest customs were, and is suitably elegant.

Chop

Chop, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Chopped, channeled, nosed, decked, Bellflowers, two tone, chrome, teef.

Willys

Willys, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

...and a Ford Mainline. That Willys is a classic old school gasser style hot rod, too. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen an actual stock Willys. They're all hot rods!

AMX/3

AMX, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The perennial small fry in the US auto market, the American Motors Corporation was always trying new things to garner attention. From unusual styling cues to wild paint jobs, AMC usually marched to a different drum, often out of necessity. The last of the independent American auto manufacturers, AMC was often underfunded and kept models in production far longer than the Big Three did. But, when they splurged, they did it right as evidenced at the '70 Chicago Auto Show.

The AMX was AMC's sports model, a two seater muscle car with lean good looks and big block power. But a lesser-known car was the AMX/3 show car, a mid-engined exotic that clearly aimed higher than AMC's usual competition. Originally an engineless fiberglass show car, American Motors placed an order for 30 runners, contracting with Italian sports car manufacturer Bizzarrini. Using AMC's 390 V-8 and an OTO/Melara four speed transaxle, the running AMX/3's featured steel bodywork and a few detail changes to the styling, but remained true to the show car's Italianesque exotic looks. Road testing was done by none other than BMW, which declared the 3's platform to be one of the stiffest they'd tested, with neutral handling and plenty of power.

Sadly, costs escalated and the 30 car run was ended after a mere five examples left the Bizzarrini factory. They are rare, highly prized, and absolutely gorgeous.

Dreams Of A Shinier Yesterday

Dreams Of A Shinier Yesterday, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

It's that Cadillac again.

Deuce

Deuce, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The 1932 Ford coupes and roadsters are the quintessential hot rods. They started becoming popular lakes racers just before the Second World War, but interest really blossomed postwar. They were cheap, plentiful, looked good, and could take a variety of engines from the stock 4-bangers and flathead V-8's to Red Ram Hemis. Suitable for street or strip use, the Deuce quickly became a legend.

Farm Fresh

Chevrolet, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

The term "barn find" has come to mean some sort of old car that's been sitting, forgotten, for a number of years, to the point where nobody's sure where it is or how long it's been sitting. But they're not always in barns anymore-garages, warehouses, old gas stations, and garden sheds are all typical hiding places.

Sometimes, though, you get a literal barn find. This '62-ish Chevrolet coupe has been sitting for a good long time, in a ramshackle grain crib in rural Illinois. I have no idea if this is a rare car, with a big block and a four speed or something, but the skinny tires sort of make me think it's packing a straight six and a three on the tree. Nevertheless, this would be a neat car, restored. Whether it could be I don't know.

Valiant

Plymouth Valiant #1, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Originally it's own make within Chrysler, the Plymouth Valiant was the company's entry level range, and had a full range of models. Originally available only with a six cylinder engine, the Valiant was Chrysler's first unit-construction car since the pre-war Airflow.

I spotted this one on a side street in Chicago a few years ago. It was clearly still in regular use-I only saw it the one time in my neighborhood-and I never did get a decent shot of the whole car.

Hydra-Matic

Hydra-Matic, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Dreamy, rusty, stately, vintage-y, Olds Hydra-Matic.

Ten Thousand Lakes

Ten Thousand Lakes, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

Another edition of Out Of State Plates! This is a vintage Minnesota plate, originally issued in 1965, and currently screwed to the back of a Shelby Cobra. Note the vintage '67 registration sticker in the corner.

Swindler II

Swindler II, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

We've talked about gassers once before, I think, so this week I'm just going to share a couple of shots of one of the most famous gassers of all time. The Stone-Woods-Cook team, along with "Ohio George" Montgomery and "Big John" Mazmanian, eventually came to both rule and define what made the perfect Willys gasser.

Owned by Fred Stone and Leonard Woods, Jr., and driven by Doug "Cookie" Cook, this car set numerous records in period, and won hundreds races during it's career. The team also was a rarity in the mid sixties, being one of the few racially integrated teams in racing. Owner Tim Woods (it was his son Leonard's name on the door, added to help keep young Lenny interested in the sport and out of trouble) was a succesful African-American businessman in the Los Angeles area, and formed a drag racing team with Fred Stone, a manager at his construction firm. Plenty of competitors had no idea that Woods was black, and in the end it really didn't matter as the team's results so often spoke for themselves.

Cadillac Dreamland

Cadillac Dreamland, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

A new(ish) picture of an old friend.

Lola

Lola, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

One of the legendary names in motorsports, Lola built cars for many formulae, including F1, 2, 3, 5000, Atlantic, and various USAC and Indy Car series. But they were probably best known for their sports cars-Lola's original GT was the progenitor to Ford's GT40, and the company was successful in endurance racing through much of the sixties.

The T70 was probably Lola's most successful sports car, and the hot setup in the early days of the Can-Am. The car's first major win came in 1965, with Walt Hansgen's win at Laguna Seca, and John Surtees went on to win the '66 championship running his own Chevrolet-powered example. Within a couple of seasons the McLaren M6 became unbeatable, despite improvements to the Lola (including a coupe version). However the T70's low(ish) cost and reliability helped it remain a popular racing car until the early 70's. They remain so today in historic racing.

This is a '67 Mark III spider, and was photographed this past summer at Road America.

AAR

AAR Cuda, a photo by William 74 on Flickr.

One of the good guys in motorsports, Dan Gurney had a long and varied career behind the wheel. Starting off with hot rods on the dry lakes and drag strips of southern California, Gurney soon moved on to sports cars with varying success. His big break came in 1957, when he finished second in the inaugural Riverside Grand Prix at the famed California track that would eventually become synonymous with Gurney's name. This led to a factory drive at LeMans with Maserati, and by 1959 he was in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari.

A true all-rounder, Gurney went on to race in sports cars, endurance racing, stock car racing (he owned the Grand National event at Riverside, his home track), the Trans-Am, and of course on the Grand Prix circuit. He drove for BRM, Brabham, Porsche, and finally with his own Eagle, manufactured by All-American Racers (or Anglo-American Racers for the GP project).

The AAR Grand Prix project ended soon after that historic win in 1967, but AAR continued to manufacture cars for domestic series, such as USAC and Formula 5000. The company also lent it's name and expertise to Plymouth, for it's Trans-Am challenger, the 'Cuda AAR.

This is a genuine Trans-Am car from the early 70's.