Cash for Clunkers legislation threatening old car hobby.

From SEMA: SEMA Call To Oppose Federal “Cash for Clunkers” Program Diamond Bar, CA. December 29, 2008: Washington lawmakers are drafting a large economic stimulus package to help create jobs and rebuild infrastructure. They want to include a nationwide scrappage program which would give U.S. tax dollars to consumers who turn-in older cars to have them crushed, as a misguided attempt to spur new car sales. The lawmakers need to scrap this idea. The stimulus package is being drafted...

30/12/2008

Caddy And A Half

We were recently putting together coverage of the Semi-Annual Little Rock Fall Antique Collector Car Auction put on by Bud Ward’s Auction Company for Hemmings Motor News, and we just had to share one of the more interesting vehicles to cross the block: Lot 719, a 1959 Cadillac Series 62 four-door that had been de-roofed and continental-kitted to amazing effect. Under a rather tent-like vinyl top, this convertible sported a rear windshield, like in the dual-cowl luxury phaetons of olde....

23/12/2008

Circle of Death

We revisited the Antietam-rivaling bloody saga of Langhorne Speedway in the June 2007 issue of Hemmings Motor News. This book was already well into its long gestation period at the time, and now it’s just coming into print. “Langhorne! No Man’s Land” will, guaranteed, stand enduringly as the definitive history of this supremely intimidating track. It’s still spoken of in whispers, Luca Brasi style, going on 40 years after it staged its final racing event. The...

15/12/2008

Car One: America’s first retail sale

With sales of some makes down as much as 85 percent in November, I thought I’d look back at where it started, more than 110 years ago with the first known retail sale of an automobile, from Winton, in Cleveland: The story is told how in March 1898 Robert Allison, a mechanical engineer from Pennsylvania, came to Cleveland and inquired his way to the Winton Motor Carriage Company, which was found with some difficulty. On reaching the shops he declared his purpose as prospective purchaser...

11/12/2008

companies that used Continental engines - the complete list

So I’ve been getting a bit of guff from some Hemmings Classic Car readers regarding my recent article about the history of Continental engines (see HCC #51). Not over the facts or the tone of the article, but over the omission of certain car manufacturers that used Continental engines. Space limitations (we only had four pages for the story, after all) forced us to curtail the list to just a representative few, but we have no space limitations on this here World Wide Internet, so we...

10/12/2008

Creativity and the Car Guy

Being the writer who has the pleasurable assignment of finding new automotive artists to profile each month in Hemmings Classic Car’s popular Auto Art column, I often receive submissions from people who are interested in sharing their creations with our readership, or those who want to introduce me to a favorite artist of theirs. Such was the case with a letter I recently received from Jim Krumm of Toledo, Ohio. Jim sent along some photos of his own auto art, and while this one piece...

05/12/2008

Cheer up, Detroit! Henry Ford has the answer

While researching my Hemmings eWeekly item for this week, I think I stumbled on the solution to the domestic automakers problems: Hear that, George? When…if…Rick Wagoner and Alan Mullaly finally make it to Washington in their Escape, just spin around, touch your nose and the economy fairies will make it all go away. Here’s a question: Given that they’re not on dollar-a-year salaries yet, and their combined annual incomes are around $25 million, that means this...

03/12/2008

Chrysler: We’ll gladly pay you in 2012 for $7 billion today

The season of giving to the Big Three continues as Chrysler says it’s jonesing for $7 billion from you and me before the end of the year to help stave off financial ruin. The company hopes it could begin paying off this proposed loan by 2012. There’s definitely nothing shocking in the news release from Chrysler below, well, except that it appears to be the transcript of some sort of Hamlet-like soliloquy delivered by Robert Nardelli: “To go belly up or not go belly up, that is the...

03/12/2008

Carmakers failing to learn history are doomed

Hey Messrs. Wagoner and Nardelli: Looking for a plan that will make the American people want to float you a loan? Hmm… now let’s see, where did we put that plan…? Oh that’s right it’s here! And here! After Lee Iaccoca cajoled congress into forking over a loan to bail out Chrysler, the company paid off the $1.2 billion three years early, not by building high-profit-margin Escalades with Tony Soprano-sized leather seats and illuminated, air-conditioned drink holders, but by building...

24/11/2008

Crew-cab curiosity

Last week, our Editorial inbox contained an e-mail from Georgia resident Josh Thornton, who presented us with something of a Holmesian mystery that we’re inviting you to help resolve. Josh is seeking historical information on the Ford F-100 pickup depicted here, which he describes as a 1965 model, or ideally, somebody interested in restoring it. As he tells the tale, the F-100 was originally built by Ford, with a four-door cab, for his great-grandfather, who then owned the local Ford...

12/11/2008

car forum poetry - stoplight ode

Spotted on the MustangWorks.com forum: Red, thou art my companion. Hasten now your quickened metamorphosis to Green that I may conquer all who dare abide there beside me. May they be left thither behind burnt black.

11/11/2008

check it out, we’re launching video classifieds

If you didn’t happen to see the mention in today’s Hemmings e-Weekly Newsletter (you do have the free newsletter subscription, don’t you?), we’re now starting to offer the option of uploading video to your classifieds in an effort to help sell your car or, alternately, to help you get a better idea of the condition of the car you’re thinking of buying. Oh, and no, McGean’s not selling his Camaro; that’s just a sample vid. So give it a whirl, and keep...

16/10/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 16

This appears to be orderly, well-behaved parking outside a Roman post office. Clearly, there is something wrong here. Something very, very wrong here. Was May 22, 1960, when Cushman took “Post office,” some sort of holiday? Is this a War of the Worlds scenario? Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital Library Program, used by permission.

29/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 15

From the opposite side of the Maginot Line, Cushman visited Paris in the spring of 1960. On May 10, he took “Rue Chanoinesse,” a spectacularly evocative shot of the 4th arrondissement in Ile de la Cité, the historical heart of Paris. Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital Library Program, used by permission.

26/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 14

Charles Cushman made a number of trips to Europe and the Middle East in the early and mid-Sixties. As usual, he was concerned with architecture and the human landscape, and in Europe, it looks as though that meant he was interested in the integration of the automobile into the urban environment. He visited Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom; coming from California it must have been mindboggling. “Watzmann in distance” comes...

25/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 13

It sure looks as though Cushman actually took this one from the drivers’ seat of a car. He took “Across Union Square from Geary & Stockton’s” in San Francisco on June 16th, 1954. According to our model year economic theory, the city’s doing all right. San Francisco is the most enduring theme in all Charles Cushman’s work, clearly his true love. Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital Library Program,...

24/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 12, Cushmanmobile Mk. II

The Cushmanmobile Mk. II makes its first appearance in the second week of June, 1940, in a series taken in L.A. Cushman seems mighty pleased with it, and features it by itself in a number of similar slides, such as “New Zephyr in Elysian Park, L.A.,” taken on June 14. He was clearly a dedicated FoMoCo man, and it was a long time before he got tired of taking pictures of it. We sure hope 54 P 934 didn’t get scrapped. Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection,...

23/09/2008

cranky newspaper columnist lumps all old cars and junkers in the same category

Andy Rooney, watch out. Paul Muschick of the Allentown, Pennsylvania, Morning Call seems to be auditioning for your spot. Then again, not even Andy flies off the handle at such little provocation. It seems Paul spied a story about a motorcycle accident, discovered that Pennsylvania doesn’t have the same safety regulations for older cars that it does for newer cars, and decided that, well, that’s just not fair. No one’s checking the brakes, tires, lights, bodies and other...

22/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 11

It’s the same today–the farther you get from the centers of industry and employment, the older the cars get. Tucson, Arizona, was so far off the beaten path in 1940, it might as well have been 10 years earlier. Cushman took “Indian Grandma + little papoose” on a Saturday afternoon in February, in what was probably downtown Tucson. There probably aren’t many people around today who remember those days, but if you can help identify the spot–or recognize your...

22/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 10

In October of ‘38, Charles Cushman and the ‘38 Ford Cushmanmobile (Mk. I) were in Montana; by November, they’d made their way to Indiana. No wonder he only kept it two-and-a-half years. Here it is in the Wabash Bottoms, “where Tall Corn Really Grows:” Grand Chain farm, Posey County. Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital Library Program, used by permission.

19/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 9

The original Cushmanmobile, the ‘38 Ford, makes another appearance in this photo from October 1, 1938. Cushman obviously wasn’t afraid of steep grades, unpaved roads or early-season Donneresque snow, because this one is titled “Red Lodge Hwy in Autumn.” It was taken near Cooke City, Montana, on the way to the Bear Tooth mountains. Plus, Bonus Vintage Road Grader Action! Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital...

18/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 8

In March of 1944, Charles Cushman began work in the War Department’s Chicago Ordnance District, where he was responsible for conducting contract termination work. As Indiana University Archives bio says, “At this point, with the exception of what may be gleaned from his images, virtually nothing is known about Charles’ career and life.” Glean what you can from one of the first photos of his Chicago period, “2222 So. Dearborn–Old Capone GHQ,” taken on...

17/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 7

While the 1942-1944 gap in the Cushman Collection suggests he was in the service, Charles Cushman was actually a WWI-era Navy veteran, (although he never saw combat). Instead, he was the senior liquidator-at-large for the federal Office of the Alien Property Custodian, which apparently kept him sequestered at Area-51, providing plans for Vogon Destruct-O-Rays to McDonnell-Douglas, or so we presume. Shortly before his war work commenced, he made a trip to New York. The change from the white...

16/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 6

It looks as though Cushman made a swing through the upper northwest in ‘55, hitting places north of his home in San Francisco. Klamath Falls, Oregon, lives up to its vertiginous name in his shot “Looking South down 6th St in very late afternoon-toward city center,” from June 15, 1955. Heavy cars…manual drum brakes…fun. Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital Library Program, used by permission.

15/09/2008

Cars in Kodachrome, 5

Cushman’s photos for ‘55 were heavy on long views of San Francisco and the bay area, but he did catch “A couple of natives and a jeep” at Zabriskie Point on March 22, 1955. Photos copyright Charles W. Cushman Photograph Collection, Indiana University Archives / Digital Library Program, used by permission.

12/09/2008

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