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Good News Happens Twice in Classic Car World

Two of America's greatest car museums made news last week, almost as though they were working in tandem (it was just a co-incidence). The Petersen Museum in Los Angeles announced that it has received the stunning gift of $100 million from Margie Petersen and the Margie & Robert E. Petersen Foundation to continue and grow the famed museum founded by the late Robert E. Petersen. The gift, announced by the museum’s board of directors, is comprised of a substantial unrestricted financial gift, a matching challenge, the 300,000-square foot building that the Museum has occupied since it opened in 1994, and an important collection of cars assembled by Petersen during his lifetime.

“I am fulfilling a vision that Mr. Petersen and I shared and planned to do someday,” Margie Petersen said in announcing the gift. “I am so happy that this day has come and that I can launch the museum into a new era of growth and expansion. “While I expect the resources of the museum to be available to the world, this gift is especially designed to the benefit of the Los Angeles community where we made our lives together.” One of the Crown Jewels of the Margie and Robert E. Petersen Collection is the 1925/34 Rolls-Royce Phantom I (above), known as "The Round Door Rolls."

Call it serendipity if you like, but as that incredible gift was being announced the operators of the LeMay Museum, ACM, informed us that the Tacoma, Wash., project, built mostly through philanthropic funding, will have its grand opening on May 19, 2012. True, that's more than a year away but this is really more than a car museum. Starting with the cars that Harold LeMay had collected for his own amusement, and then for the public to visit on special occasions, the 9-acre campus will have 15 galleries housing up to 500 cars, trucks and motorcycles from private owners, corporations and the LeMay collection, which amassed a Guinness Book of World Records total of more than 3,500 vehicles in the mid-‘90s.  “Harold never met a car he didn’t like,” says Nancy LeMay about her late husband. (Note how, in both instances, it's the ladies who continue their husband's legacy. Bless them for understanding and appreciating car love.)

“We’ve managed to build a museum (which began construction in June 2010) during difficult economic times when nearly everybody said it couldn’t be done,” says ACM President and CEO David Madeira, who has been at the museum’s helm since 2002.  “I’m proud to say we are creating ‘a destination’ in addition to a museum, which we project to annually attract 425,000 visitors and result in $34 million for the local economy.”

The above news has caused me to wonder if a grand museum tour might be organised in 2012, beginning in Vancouver, BC, with stopovers at the LeMay Museum, one or two interesting collections along the way, and terminating at the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles. Or, because not everyone owns a classic, doing it by rail. As a train enthusiast as well as a car lover, that's my idea of a genuine good time. Any takers?

Bristol Cars, Not Dead Yet Thanks to Frazer-Nash

Last week's auto news was especially sad for anyone who appreciates fine cars with an important history. Even when those cars were rarely seen outside their home market. I'm talking about England's Bristol Cars which, after many decades of manufacture, was forced to declare bankruptcy. The good news, however, is that Kamkorp Autokraft has bought the company, saying it intends to blend the Bristol Cars tradition of building beautiful vehicles with the alternative-energy knowledge amassed by Frazer-Nash.

Now there – Frazer-Nash – is another great name with roots that go back to pre-WW2 days! What's more, this esoteric mix of sports car and racing brands also includes BMW, at least indirectly. You can even add to the mix British sports car manufacturer AC, whose Ace eventually became the Cobra. It all began with the BMW 328 of the late 1930s, an iconic sports car capable, in Mille Miglia racing form, of 250 km/h, and powered by an advanced 6-cylinder engine. When the war ended the rights to build the engine (plus, indirectly, Fritz Feidler, BMW's leading engine designer) were picked up by the Bristol Aeroplane Company of England. Bristol had created, among others, the Beaufighter twin-engine night fighter, and after the war began manufacture of civilian airliners. Keen to diversify its activities, the company formed a joint venture with AFN Ltd, makers of Frazer Nash cars and British importer of BMWs before the war.

While Frazer-Nash concentrated on limited production of sports/racers Bristol developed what has been described as "bespoke vehicles for the well-to-do." It did, however, enter LeMans in 1957 with a rather bizarre looking finned coupe. A broken experimental crankshaft brought that venture to a halt. In more recent years the company, now in private hands, concentrated on luxury 4-seaters of conservative design along with a modern and very fast sports car named, appropriately, the Fighter. Bristol's most recent model, the Series 6 (above), a true retro car, started life as a classic V-8 Bristol, which was then stripped back to each individual nut and bolt, before being rebuilt to better than new condition. Every component was refurbished to a concours standard or replaced.

In today's globalised market it is, perhaps, no surprise that Bristol failed. The firm made no effort to sell its cars abroad, never built them with left-hand-drive, and had only one showroom, located on London's Kensington High Street. Hopefully the Kamkorp Group, whose flagship company is Frazer-Nash Research and is involved with developing new transportation technology, can find a way to continue building elegant Bristol automobiles, perhaps making them available to the international market. It would be a shame to lose such a colorful, if sometimes convoluted, brand.

A Rally for Dreamers

Every so often I discover a classic road tour that, if I had the automobile and the money, I'd happily enter. The HERO'S Summer Trial, July 21-23, is just such an event, notable for the roads it covers, the driving tests available to entrants, and the uniqueness of its stopover. HERO is Britain's Historic Endurance and Rallying Organisation and as such, offers its members four fascinating rallies during the year.

The following is from the Classic Driver newsletter, whose editors are far closer to the action than me, sitting thousands of miles to the west: "Like all HERO’s events, the Trial allows you to decide your level of driving commitment, with entrants able to choose between the precision-timed regularities and track-based sprint/slalom tests of the ‘trial’, or, if you don’t fancy throwing your Bentley Continental convertible around the cones, you can simply take the less convoluted tour, stopping at whatever lookout points and places of interest take your fancy."

One of the highlights is that cars and crews get to spend their pre-event day at the Isle of Wight, where they can observe a competition between classic sailing craft in the prestigious Panerai British Classic Week at Cowes. The competition between cars then starts on the island, with tests and regularity sections before returning to the mainland. The rally continues in the New Forest and includes a visit to the Beaulieu National Motoring Museum, likely to be met there with another driving test. After that it's a "gentle journey" to Sussex, finishing with a formal prize-giving dinner at the Spread Eagle Hotel in Midhurst.

My choice of vehicle for the Summer Trial may very well be the classic sports car seen above, which is ideally suited to the narrow, winding roads and would be great fun in the driving events. On the other hand, with so much beautiful countryside to see, I might be inclined to take a more relaxing tour in a vintage Bentley. Ah well, I'm just dreaming, but there could be folks among our viewers with the car and the wherewithal, so consider this a heads-up, giving you just enough time to get your entry in and arrange transportation. Meanwhile I'll rally around the corner to pick up some groceries.

[Photos: Classic Driver]

Elegant Bugatti to Entice Buyers on the Shores of Lake Como

Among my small collection of 1:43 models is a yellow and black 1939 Bugatti 57S Atalante Découvrable, a convertible version of the famed coupe. I've yet to find an image of, nor information on, the exact car, so I'd have to assume that it was very rare. Just over 40 Type 57S chassis were made, almost all fitted with bodies by custom builders, which likely accounts for the rarity. And which makes this 1937 Bugatti Type 57SC Atalante Coupé, to be auctioned by RM at Villa d'Este on May 21, such a delectable buy.

The SC was a supercharged version of the Jean Bugatti designed 57, producing 200 hp and giving a top speed of 120 mph from the twin-cam straight-eight engine. A dry-sump oiling system derived from the T59 Grand Prix car was fitted; power was delivered through a 4-speed manual gearbox. It was one of only two factory cars with superchargers, hence the "57SC" identifier. The vast majority of supercharged Type 57S's, however, were upgraded to "SC" specification later in life.

Once part of the famed Harrah collection, where it was fastidiously restored and maintained, this car won Best of Show at the 26th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in 1976. RM informs us that it is documented by marque expert David Sewell and estimates the selling price at between €3.250.000 and €4.250.000. Hey, if that's a little steep for you we can negotiate a much lower price for my 1:43 Solido Bugatti. Just be sure to include a first class air ticket to Villa d'Este.

New Beetle is Launched But Don't Call it New

Now that Volkswagen has released an all-new version of the New Beetle (and changed the name back to Beetle without the "New") it gives me an opportunity to reminisce a bit about the original, a car for which I and many others maintain a great affection.

My enthusiasm goes back to the day I began work as associate public relations director of Volkswagen Canada, a wonderful job as the company was also Canadian distributor for Porsche. Until then my enthusiasms were mainly limited to British economy cars, for they were all I could afford; I was certainly aware of the claims being made for Volkswagens but had no experience driving them. Naturally I was expected to buy a VW as my company car, which I was pleased to do, for new vehicles had not yet been part of my lifestyle. To this day I can remember my boss, Dr. Hal Albrecht, walking me out to a gleaming blue Beetle and handing me the keys. It was dark by then and the paint shone with a depth and richness that would have been appropriate on a Rolls-Royce. As for closing the doors the legend was true: so airtight was the car that it was easier to shut them with the windows opened a crack.

At first, driving was both a shock and a delight. I wasn't accustomed to the oversteer of rear engine handling, nor the whir of an air-cooled fan coming from the back. But the 4-speed manual gearbox absolutely lived up to the old cliché, "shifts gears like a knife through hot butter." That Volkswagen Beetle (and the Porsche that followed) spoiled me for life. It became the measuring stick by which I would judge all manual transmissions. Of course the Beetle was short on performance, having been designed for economy, not speed, but I soon rectified that by installing an Okrasa-modified engine, along with a few suspension mods. Our family car also became a race car, competing in modified touring, quick enough to win me a class championship. That's the car above, in a hillclimb, where it also outperformed the others in its class.

The Beetle's rear-mounted engine certainly had its drawbacks, among them the fact that it eliminated the conventional trunk. Luggage space was, instead, up front, under the hood. More room than you might expect but useless for really large objects although additional carrying capacity existed behind the back seat. What the public relations and advertising people did, however, was turn disadvantages into "plusses." Thus we boasted of superior traction in sand and snow: with a decent set of snow tires the Beetle actually had better traction than cars twice its weight. We reminded consumers that, having no radiator, the air-cooled engine couldn't freeze, boil, or run out of coolant. We raved about the Beetle's all-independent torsion bar suspension, offering the elusive combination of good ride and roadholding.

Nowadays the industry talks about cars sharing platforms but the Beetle's really was a platform to which the body would be welded. The resulting combination was so well-sealed that a Volkswagen could float for up to half-an-hour. Some fortunate souls were saved by that feature and a handful of others capitalised on it through stunts and demonstrations. We didn't advertise this; word of mouth did it for us. Unfortunately air-cooling didn't generate much cabin heat so it took the Beetle a long time to warm up though eventually the interior would be comcfortable (I can testify to that from driving in winter rallies). Owners complained about the negative effects of crosswinds, insisting that the body's flat sides could cause the vehicle to blow off course. My response was that North Americans were in the habit of casually steering with one hand and therefore didn't react fast enough.

Remarkably the VW Beetle continued on for several years (longer in other countries) with updates like a curved windshield, coil spring suspension, a larger 1600 c.c. engine, and a new name: the Super Beetle. When the last car came off the line it could claim to be the world's most popular car, based on the numbers manufactured since it was re-launched after WW2. Years later it would be born again as the New Beetle, albeit a Golf under the skin.

The 2012 version, looking decidedly more rakish, has a flatter roof, a less bulbous shape, narrowed windows and a sharp crease along the side. VW says the changes will have more appeal to men, who spurned the previous model because women liked it (what fools we males be). It now comes with a navigation system, a significantly larger trunk, more luxurious materials and ambient lighting. According to the company the design is based not on the New Beetle but on the original. Hmmm... isn't that ("based on the original") what they said about the New Beetle back in 1998? As well as an upgraded, 170-horsepower, 2.5-liter gas engine, VW will offer a sportier, 200-horsepower, turbocharged gas engine and a fuel-efficient diesel. I look forward to driving one but I'll never stop loving that blue beauty of many years ago.

At Last: The Station Wagon Becomes a Classic

It's been a long time coming but the station wagon is about to be given classic car status. Hemmings has created a special category for 1950s wagons at this year's New England Concours d'Elegance. Several outstanding and rarely seen ’50s wagons are scheduled to be on display at Stratton Mountain Resort in Southern Vermont on Sunday, July 17.

The station wagon is usually overlooked at classic car shows, simply because it was regarded as a utilitarian vehicle and therefore short on glamour, to say nothing of exclusivity. Today, few manufacturers include wagons in their lineups; American automakers offer none. You can blame that on the minivan which, for active families with two or more children, is far more versatile. Still, there are those who'd rather the "van" look, drive, and feel like a car and these 50s wagons remind us that manufacturers could deliver style and elegance in a practical package. Just look at that beautiful 1956 Oldsmobile up top as an example.

News of this concours category reached me just as I was thinking about the popularity of 2-door station wagons, or rather the lack of same. When manufacturers did offer one it was usually meant for buyers seeking a lower bottom line and yet, as with coupes vs. sedans, the 2-doors often had a sportier appearance. I suspect they were less popular for the very reason station wagons were created in the first place: roominess and convenience.

However if you were an enthusiast with a small family and could only afford one vehicle, chances are you wished for that magical combination, a sports car designed like a station wagon. And nobody did it better than General Motors with its sensational "Nomad" Motorama Show concept of 1954. Based on the Chevrolet Corvette the sports-wagon is still revered today, even by GM designers who teased us a few years ago with a new Nomad concept car. In spite of rave reviews that one never went beyond the show stage, unlike the original that inspired a popular, though far less exciting, production version (above). I suspect that spectators at the concours will be treated to at least one of these, and possibly more.

Entries are still being accepted so if you own a stock-spec show-quality wagon and would like to showcase it at New England’s premier concours, then please contact the folks at Hemmings. Send photos of your wagon for review to: rlentinello@hemmings.com.

Colorful New Book Brings 100 Years of Indy 500 Racing to Life

When promoter Carl Fisher opened his 2-1/2 mile track in 1910 he said "We're talking about the greatest automobile race ever put on anywhere on the face of the earth. Everything connected with it is going to have to be bigger and better than ever before –  or we'll miss the boat." Fisher was looking ahead one year to when the first Indianapolis 500 took place. This was to be an extraordinary event for its time: It ran 500 miles from start to finish on an enclosed track with two long straights, two short ones, and four moderately banked turns. 3.2 million bricks paved the surface. The first race took almost seven hours to complete. 80,000 spectators showed up. And Indianapolis became "the center of the motor racing universe."

The legendary race is now 100 years old. Its birthday is being honored in many ways in many places, though none more appropriate than "Indianapolis 500 a Century of Excitement," a new book by Ralph Kramer that celebrates the track, the drivers, the teams, and the many extraordinary characters who populated the event and helped make the race what it is today.

It can't have been an easy task, packing 100 years of racing into 255 pages, but Kramer has done it superbly, most notably by including hundreds of black-and-white and colour photographs. Nevertheless it is more than a collection of images, for each page is accompanied by text that chronologically relates the Indianapolis Speedway's racing history a decade at a time, while revealing much we may not have known about the competitors and their cars. The author certainly writes with authority: he grew up just 50 miles from the track and after working in the auto industry became director of the Speedway's Hall of Fame Museum from 1995 to 1998.

I was fascinated by the changing technology, for the Indy 500 has fielded an amazing variety of chassis and engine configurations throughout its long history. Everything from turbines to turbos to diesels to stock blocks was raced with varying degrees of success. Even front-wheel-drive had its day and, of course, the switch to rear engines, led by the Europeans and backed by Ford, created a revolution that brought the roadster era to a close.

Kramer may have been tempted to downplay the dangers of the Indianapolis Speedway but he chose instead to tell it like it happened. The truth is that 67 people have died at the Indy 500, including 47 drivers, 14 mechanics, 4 track personnel and 8 spectators. Many of the crashes were horrific to watch, nevertheless press cameras frequently caught the action or its aftermath. The author includes several such photos, for racing accidents are a reality that's hard to ignore. Indeed, there was a period when it seemed that someone died every year and as you read through the pages you may pause to question the rationale behind those races. Thankfully the safety of both cars and track has improved to the point where the risks, though they still exist, have been greatly minimised.

Although we think of the Indy 500 as a predominantly American event, Kramer reminds us that "foreign" input was common during the decades leading up to the roadster era. Indeed, Carl Fisher wanted it that way, for he was eager to give the race an international cachet. In that he succeeded, perhaps too well. During the years leading up to 1930 the European contingent was often dominant as teams from Peugeot, Sunbeam, and Mercedes battled for supremacy with the Marmons, Deusenbergs and Millers. From the 30s through the mid-60s the Europeans, with a few exceptions, stayed home and the Americans took over. Today the race is truly international as drivers from Japan, Brazil, Mexico, Scotland, England and Australia race to the flag alongside their US competitors. Plus, I'm happy to say, at least three very fast (on the track) ladies.

More than anything else, though, Kramer's book is about the people who made the Indy 500 such a great spectacle. And that's the way it should be. From Ralph de Palma to Helio Castroneves, from Jimmy Clark to A.J. Foyt, from Andy Granatelli to Roger Penske; they're all included, along with the track owners, the innovators and even the movie stars that enjoyed a chance to mingle with the stars of motor racing.

I can't even begin, in this brief space, to do justice to "Indianapolis 500 a Century of Excitement," for there is so much to see within its pages. I can virtually guarantee it will become the primary source for researchers; at the same time I can't imagine a better book to have in your hands prior to the upcoming Indy 500. Whatever you think of the event – which may indeed be the "greatest spectacle in racing" but is not necessarily the greatest race – you'll be enjoying it more, knowing all that happened in those past hundred years.

Glenmoor Gathering Honours Designer Dutch Darrin

Among the great American concours d'elegance one that seems to get less publicity yet may be equally deserving is the annual Glenmoor Gathering in Canton, Ohio. Consider, for example, this year's lineup. It will feature a display of early front-wheel-drive cars – including Cord, Ruxton, Citroën and Miller – as well as displays of 16-cylinder cars and vintage British motorcycles. Featured classes will be “Avant Garde: Early Front-Wheel Drive,” “Sixteen Cylinder Motorcars” and “The Automobiles of Darrin,” including a group of 1938-42 Packard Darrin automobiles.

The latter group may well turn out to be the event's highlight, for it salutes the design genius of Howard "Dutch" Darrin. Aside from creating special bodies for Packard, including the elegant Packard Darrin (top), he was the consulting designer for Kaiser. During his tenure there Darrin was given the opportunity to design a radical sports car with a fiberglass body and sliding doors. Relatively few were made, in part due to the technical problems of mass manufacture with the then-new plastic material, but the Kaiser Darrin still looks stunning whenever one is shown.

I would point to the second generation Kaiser as Darrin's greatest achievement for, as I've often written, it is one of America's most beautiful mass-produced sedans. That's it in the middle of the photo below, taken during a TV commercial setup outside a drive-in restaurant in Vancouver several years ago.

It's a tradition at the Glenmoor Gathering to feature a different designer each year and Dutch Darrin certainly deserves the honour when his most accomplished works are assembled as a group for the first time. The concours dates are September 16-18, 2011. Not to be missed if you're an admirer of automobile design at its finest.

[Photos: Glenmoor Gathering, David LaChance, Philip Powell]

When the British Were Number Three. Uh... Maybe

Did a British car company once beat Chrysler Into third place? I was leafing through an article in an old volume of Automobile Quarterly, written by a very knowledgeable journalist, when I came upon the following quote:
 
"The world's third largest automaker in the year 1952 was the British Motor Corporation, which had just been formed through an amalgam of Nuffield and Austin. MG, Morris, Wolseley, Riley and Sunbeam were gathered under Lord Nuffield's banner, while Leonard Lord's firm contributed various Austin models and, of course, they both produced trucks."

Now it's always possible that the writer was correct in his assumption, but I find it hard to believe that BMC ever exceeded, even for a day, the production/sales numbers of Chrysler, which supposedly was No. 3 at the time. (Can you help us with this, Nigel Matthews?)

To be honest I wish it were true. I've been a Brit car fan ever since joining the British Empire Motor Club in Toronto back in ah... the late 50s. Until then, as a Canadian I'd been raised on the fruit of Detroit's best, but once I discovered the joys of responsive steering, precise cornering, and the "feel of the road," I was hooked. I even grew to love the styling of compact cars with fender fins and overdone chrome decor as English and German manufacturers slavishly imitated the American mode. For example, I was fascinated with the latest Humber, a large sedan that Rootes briefly imported into Canada, complete with Detroit-style wraparound windshield.

Now much older and supposedly wiser, I still love those cars, though I rarely see one and never, sadly, a Humber Super Snipe. Perhaps few remain on this side of the Atlantic and none in the USA because Rootes, so far as I know, neglected to import this handsome 6-cylinder Detroit clone south of the border. While the rest of you might swap your wives for a few laps in a Ferrari, I would do the same to drive a Super Snipe. Just to learn what it felt like to be a mid-level detective in a period English television series.

Sarasota Classic Car Museum Has the Cars, Lacks Style

You're visiting Sarasota, Florida. You enjoy collector cars. You're looking for something to do. In which case I can recommend the Sarasota Classic Car Museum, located on Highway 41 a few yards north of the airport entrance. Look closely, though, for the museum is not well sign-posted, nor does it have examples parked outside to stimulate your interest. (The Lamborghini in the photo was that of a visitor, a guy who likes to go fast but not on public roads. He was headed for Sebring for some track day fun.)

Inside, I'm happy to report, you'll find a large number of antiques, classics, and special interest vehicles. Beatle fans will discover cars once owned by John Lennon, though none as unusual as the "Yellow Submarine" Rolls-Royce limo based in Victoria's British Columbia Museum. Paul McCartney's special Mini sits alongside, a reminder of the days when those lovely little cars were given custom treatments by several builders. Among the rarest gems is a 1923 Jowett phaeton, a diminutive 1928 Austin Brooklands racer (below), and a prototype Dodge Viper coupe. Muscle car enthusiasts won't be disappointed, for there are several desirable examples on show.



During our visit an E-Type was being wheeled into place next to a totally modern XJ220 supercar, as part of a unique Jaguar display. Hopefully the museum owners will soon be able to add other Jaguar road models, including sedans, to a display that has superb potential.

Wandering around the premises will lead you to a showroom of vintage automobiles for sale. It was closed when we were there but a peek through the glass hinted at some fascinating opportunities for collectors. The museum also has a small display of models and literature and even some antique pianos. It's a casual place where you're free to wander at leisure; the management and staff are both friendly and helpful. Having said that, I hope the owners won't be too annoyed (I'd like to return some day!) if I add a few suggestions as to how this museum could be improved.

To begin, the exterior is bland and uninviting. And, as suggested, a rotating display of one or more vintage autos would certainly attract passing drivers. The interior needs a total renovation for it has no style, no warmth, no excitement, no sense of history. It could do with a serious renovation by professional interior designers. Cars  are placed too close together. A few dioramas (I saw only one) would add much to the historical significance of vehicles that represent, not just the cars, but the environment in which they operated. Similarly the signage should be more accessible, placed higher and better lit. Indeed, good lighting is a weakness in some areas. Without it any museum can seem depressing. And finally, the lobby has as much charm as a mausoleum.

A very rare 1923 Jowett

Now that I'm in this deep I may as well comment on what seems to be an almost total lack of marketing. Auto museums, if they're to be really successful, need to be marketed and advertised. They need to be seen as part of the community, not just on a list of tourist "to do's." They should be an education resource for kids from local schools, with conducted group tours by museum management plus visits to the classrooms themselves. Parades, festivals, even open-air markets present an opportunity to meet the public and further encourage museum visits. Active public relations with frequent news releases are essential to grow the business. I'm not claiming that none of the above has been done but my brother Alan, a long-time resident of Sarasota and a car guy, says he's never seen nor heard of such happenings.

As an example of this lack of publicity we only learned a few hours after it had ended that a gathering of 180 privately owned collector cars had convened in the museum's expansive parking area that very morning. Neither Alan not I had spotted a word about the event in the Sarasota newspapers or tourist brochures. We would certainly have been there to join in the fun and chat with car owners.

Yes, it's easy to be critical, and even easier to make proposals with other people's money, but the Sarasota Classic Car Museum (second oldest in the nation) has great potential for its owners, the community, and the classic car fans who would visit in greater numbers if these suggestions were followed. Meanwhile, if you're in the area, do yourself a favour and pay the museum a visit. After all, it's the cars that count.

[Photos: Philip Powell]