1,600 miles by M.G.

Readers of Sports & Exotic Car might remember that last fall, Mark McCourt and I took my Spitfire down to Ohio for the America’s British Reliability Run, an 800-mile, two-day rally to raise money for charities that help sick children. We couldn’t make the run this year, but one of last year’s entrants, Mike Seesan, did. Mike, of Massillon, Ohio, made the run in his turbocharged 1973 MGB, and, aside from the leaks from the top and the ignition switch failure …. Oh,...

27/10/2008

15 ways not to meet yourself coming the other way

In all our print publications, and this blog, we keep some serious editorial distance from the advertising side of the business. But Hemmings is fundamentally car classifieds, and with all those old cars advertised, interesting stuff comes up from time to time. When we talk about it on the blog, however, that doesn’t mean we’re saying, “go buy this.” It just means we think its neat. Anyway, there’s some stuff hanging around right now that I think is neat, just...

11/09/2008

2010 US Grand Prix? Maybe

We’ve heard continuing rumors of F1 returning to the US for a couple of years, and it’s clear that the manufacturers, Honda in particular, are hot to race in their largest single market. Here on the East Coast, Watkins Glen gets mentioned, although Indy’s Tony George has openly stated he’d love to have it return to the Brickyard, already host to MotoGP. But according to Keith Collantine, it’ll be a coastal location, not the heartland: America has dozens of racing...

10/09/2008

50 years of DAF

Raise a glass today to the 50th anniversary of the DAF Variomatic transmission! While Hub vanDoorne’s vanDoorne Automobiel Fabriek as a company dates back to the early 1930s (and as a truck producer to 1949), it wasn’t until 1954 that Hub and his brother Wim had the idea to drive a car with belts or [...]

07/02/2008

0110001110101001 (digital Hemmings Motor News on its way)

In the world of collector-car classifieds, everybody follows the most basic rule of “You snooze, you lose.” A whole lotta other collectors are looking for the same cars you’re looking for, and the sooner you can get your copy of Hemmings Motor News, the better chance you have of scoring. Good news, then, that we’re [...]

24/01/2008

158 mph in the boss?s car on an Alabama evening

In researching an upcoming story for Hemmings Muscle Machines about the 1971 and 1972 AMC Javelins that the Alabama Department of Public Safety’s State Troopers used, I spoke with Trooper Tim Butts, who drove a 1971 Javelin as a rookie trooper, based out of the Opelika post. “I was impressed with the way it handled; [...]

10/10/2007

1960 BMW 507TS Series II

If you look in any book, it’ll tell you BMW built the 507 from 1956 through 1959. Except for the 1960s, of course. ‘Spent the day last week with the last 507, one of two from 1960, and possibly the only one that’s never been apart. The owner claims BMW shot it together with the Z8 [...]

09/10/2007

1960 all over again.

The AMC channel has produced a new show for this summer called Mad Men about the Madison Avenue advertising business of the early sixites. The show tries to stay spot on in their use of period “artifacts” as props and that includes the cars featured in their outside shots. Isn’t that an early fifties Hudson in [...]

29/09/2007

69 years in a Model A? Pfah. Try 78

Read with interest the recent New York Times article about Clarence Cleveland Curtiss, the Shelton, New York, man who still owns and drives the 1929 Model A Tudor sedan that he bought as a 15-year-old in 1938. An amazing feat to keep a car (and to keep a car running) for close to seven full decades ...

23/08/2007

2007 New England Concours d?Elegance - the video

So we got this newfangled camera that takes moving pictures. And you don’t have to crank the reel along by hand either - it does so automagically. So we figured why not capture some of the magic of last weekend’s New England Concours d’Elegance with the thing? We even took some time to interview a [...]

27/07/2007

2007 New England Concours d?Elegance - class and award winners

American 1900-1915 (A1) First - William Alley, 1914 Locomobile Berline Second - Clifford Hay, 1911 Penn American 1916-1931 (A2) First - Paul McCollam, 1930 Ford Model A Fordor sedan Second - Richard Dayton, 1928 Buick sedan American 1932-1942 (A3) First - George Simone, 1940 Packard 120 woodie Second - William Mackey, 1932 Detroit Electric CCCA Classic 1925-1948 (A4) First - Nick Caso, 1936 Auburn Second - [...]

23/07/2007

2007 New England Concours d?Elegance

Not to toot our own horn, but the inaugural New England Concours d’Elegance went off without a hitch this past weekend. Perfect weather, beautiful cars and some of the nicest folk we’ve met. We’ll have more photos up later on today, but for now, the coolest T-shirt (besides the ones we were selling) that I [...]

23/07/2007