CarPort

Steve McManus has a new project. You’ll probably recognize its rather plain face as that of a Jensen-Healey, the final (and probably least happy) automotive venture of Donald Healey. Healey’s greatest fame came from the very successful Austin-Healey that made his name a household word, much more so than the Nash-Healey and predecessors we featured….
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Back in February when we explored the world of sedan delivery automobiles, we made mention of a rumored 1950 Oldsmobile delivery, and found a picture of one on the web. Fred Summers, our resourceful St. Louis bureau chief, remembered he had once seen another, and he’s just sent some photos. One day he was driving….
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Perhaps. The size and shape of the Antique Automobile Club of America’s Eastern Division National Fall Meet have been changing for nearly all the event’s 50-year history. Originally a field event, the swap meet and car show has increasingly been held in paved parking lots. This year vendors from the former grassy White Field were….
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Henry Ford’s interest in self-propelled vehicles was partially born of his dislike for farm work. It’s no surprise, then, that after putting America on wheels with an inexpensive passenger car, the Model T Ford, he started to build tractors. In 1917, with his son Edsel he founded a new company, Henry Ford & Son, which….
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On October 29,1959, Chrysler Corporation entered the compact car sweepstakes with Valiant, intended as a corporate competitor to Ford’s Falcon and Chevy’s Corvair. The Big Three automakers thus served notice that American Motors and Studebaker would not have this new market segment to themselves. In contrast to the rather bland styling of Falcon and Corvair,….
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Autojumble, that is. Inspired by Hershey but not a clone of it, Autojumble was conceived and christened by Michael Ware, now the retired director of Britain’s National Motor Museum, in 1967. Held on the grounds of the Museum at Beaulieu, Hampshire, Autojumble opens for a weekend each September. This year’s event was the fortieth. Smaller….
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Not long after Jill and I were married, it became apparent she should have a car of her own. I usually drove the Rover, and while we also had a Chevy pickup she preferred something smaller, a car that could “turn on a sixpence,” like a Triumph Herald. The Herald had been introduced by Standard-Triumph….
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And a tail tuck. Studebaker introduced the 1959 Lark, its first “compact” model, as THE NEW DIMENSION IN MOTORING. Inspired by American Motors’ success in reviving the 1955 Rambler as the Rambler American, Studebaker sought to crib a maneuver from AMC’s playbook. But Studebaker had to do more than dust off old dies, since all….
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School opened in our town today. Twenty-four years ago, my son Nick set off for his first day of school. After a hearty breakfast, seen off by his mother and younger sister, he boarded Bus 19, a big yellow International. I remember my first school bus, too. As it happened, it was a Plymouth station….
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“Jaguar” means sports cars to most people my age (and for the moment let’s imagine the British pronunciation – JAG-you-ur, three syllables, not JAG-wahr as most Yanks say it). The XK-120 gave great speed (120 mph), thanks to an advanced twin-overhead-cam six-cylinder engine, at a bargain price. The voluptuous E-Type (XK-E in America) aroused the….
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