CarPort

Sometimes the most enjoyable museums are where you least expect them. Nashville’s Lane Motor Museum, for example, hides in a former bakery in the Music City. Another of my favorites is Musée National de la Voiture et du Tourisme at Château de Compiègne, about 45 minutes north of Paris by train.

The Musée is not a car museum, per se, as the larger part of its collection comprises 18th and 19th Century carriages and bicycles. The cars number about thirty, but what sets them apart is a collection assembled in 1927, about a third of which are 19th Century cars. They are, not surprisingly, French, and all the pioneer makes like Panhard-Levassor, Gobron-Brillie, Bollée, Delahaye and Georges-Richard are represented. Taking pride of place is La Jaimais Contente (Never Satisfied), the electric racer in which Camille Jenatzy set the world’s land speed record in 1899. There’s a whole room dedicated to the vehicles of Count Albert DeDion, tricycles, quadricycles, vis à vis and cabriolets. Louis Renault’s first car was the 1898 Type A. His company has one, a replica, but Compiègne has a real one, unrestored, and also a 1900 Type C coupe, one of the world’s first closed cars.

From the 20th Century we found a 1904 Clement Bayard, 1907 Reyrol and at the entrance the 1916 Sigma Torpédo of World War I ace Georges Guynemer. Away from the visitors’ areas we were shown a 1908 Hotchkiss Double Coupé, a 1905 Krieger Landaulet Electrique with electric front-wheel drive, and a Citroën Auto-Chenille. Most amazing is the immense steam carriage built in 1882 by Amedée Bollée. With opulent interior and a crow’s nest it was just the thing for a wealthy Frenchman to drive to the railroad station.

Hiding in a corner was an odd little electric van, one of the last automotive projects of Jean-Albert Grégoire. A final irony, on our way out, was discovery of a drain cover from Pont à Mousson, whose automotive heritage includes transmissions for Facel Vega.

I got involved with Hudsons by accident. In the spring of 1974, a friend of a friend showed me a 1939 Hudson that needed rescuing from the woods. It was straight, but the rear window had fallen in, ruining the interior, and the engine had been sitting without spark plugs. However, the crankshaft turned and the floor was sound. $150 later it was mine.

I had bought myself a 1939 Hudson Six, Model 92, a mid-priced sedan. I set out to restore it, and commenced to take the body off. A couple of years later I realized it would be a long time before I could drive it, so we bought Angus, our 1925 Hudson Brougham, in order to have an operable old car. Two decades later all I had of the ’39 was a restored chassis, primed fenders, an engine still apart and a body that needed everything. I decided to sell it. That part was fairly easy,considering that it was a basket case. It had to be partially reassembled to move to its new home, and Victor, the new owner, and my son Edward helped get it ready to travel. Once loaded we made an easy trip to East Haven, about 50 miles to the west.

Victor told me he was going to restore the car, and drive over so I could see it. “Sure,” I thought. “He won’t have much more luck than I did.” O me of little faith! One evening three summers later, Jill and I had gone to a movie. When we returned, our daughter Harriet said “You had a visitor. He said he was sorry to miss you.”

“Who?” I asked. “Victor,” she replied, “and the Hudson.” Fortunately she had her camera at the ready. Victor hadn’t restored it exactly, but the car was operable. It was also loaded to the gunwales, with flags flying. He had sold his house in East Haven, loaded all his earthly belongings into the car and a trailer, put his boat on the roof and scooped up his cat. They were all headed to New Mexico. I hope they made it.

Many moons ago we told you about the Vauxhall imported by GM to sell through Pontiac dealers in the recession-wracked late ’50s. As we hinted, there was a similar program at Buick, where the Olympia Rekord, from GM’s German subsidiary Adam Open AG, was sold as a captive import. If the Vauxhall was important for Pontiac, the Opel was even more so for Buick, whose bejewelled behemoths were clogging dealer lots.

Slightly larger than the Vauxhall, the Opel Rekord was in the American idom, with a slab-sided body, wrap-around windshield and bench seats. Transmission choice was limited to a three-speed column-shifted unit. Also available was a Caravan station wagon. Opel’s six-cylinder Kapitan model, which seems more like a bargain Buick, was, for some reason, never regularly imported.

After Buick introduced the intermediate Special for 1961, Opel popularity waned. For one thing the Special, available as sedan or wagon, offered four doors. For another, an aluminum V8 was standard, with automatic transmission optional and popular. A new Rekord was briefly offered in 1962 before imports ceased.

But, unlike Vauxhall, Opel was not down for the count as far as the USA was concerned. In 1964, the new Kadett model reached our shores. For 1969 it was joined by the Opel GT, an attractive coupe that still has a substantial following. Sales of successive Opel models continued through 1975.

But still that wasn’t the end. For 1976, GM went Japanese for its Buick captive import. The Opel by Isuzu, basically an Isuzu Gemini, was brought to our shores in April 1976. Sales were sluggish, and GM tried to put a better face on it with Buick Opel badges, but customers weren’t fooled. Imports of Isuzus continued, but the Buick badge was abandoned after 1979. Opel’s best American year was 1959, with nearly 40,000 cars sold. It was the fourth place import that year, behind Volkswagen, Renault and English Ford.

Does anyone collect Opels in America? Precious few, it seems. It’s all too easy to find derelict Rekords languishing in the woods.

If Detroit, the Motor City, can boast the Motown Sound, why can’t Nashville, Music City USA, have a car museum? Happily it does, and has since 2002 when Susan and Jeff Lane opened the Lane Motor Museum. Touting “Unique Cars from A to Z,” it has marques from the British ABC to German Zundapp and misses only a few in between, though most of them are not exactly unique, as in one-off.

Housed in a former Sunbeam bread bakery, their 40,000 square foot museum is big on eastern European marques, including some 13 Tatras, made in the former Czechoslovakia. Other Czech makes include Skoda, Aero and Jawa; Germans are represented by Auto Union, Goliath and Hanomag, as well as the renowned Trabant from east of The Wall, while the ABC’s fellow countrymen include a pair of BSA three-wheelers and the tiny Peel P50 and Trident, both made on the Isle of Man.

French dressing appears in the form of multitudinous Citroëns, a Panhard Dynamic with center-drive steering, and a Renault Dauphine and its electric clone, the Henney Kilowatt. Kilowatts were converted in the US by the makers of Eureka vacuum cleaners. Another electric was the Peugeot VLV, a World War II alternative-power vehicle.

There’s a generous contingent of Nissan products, most on loan from Nissan USA, which is headquartered nearby. The retro-looking Figaro is actually from 1991 and sold only in Japan, though the model has since become trendy in Britain.

From the USA come the three-wheel Davis, William Hewson’s one-off streamlined 1946 Rocket, and a McQuay-Norris Steamliner that Jeff and Susan drove in the 2005 Great American Race. Three of James V. Martin’s cars are present, the 1928 Aerodynamic, said to have been built for Billy Mitchell, and the 1932 Martinette (right) and 1950 Stationette. Stranger still is the Gasporter, an airport tanker built on Crosley running gear that is driven standing up. In 1947, designer Ben Gregory came up with a rear-engine coupe using front-wheel drive. This, too, is a one-off. Have you ever seen a Towne Shopper, one of the multitudinous postwar minicars? I hadn’t until I visited this museum.

Taking the term “self-propelled” to its limits are two aircraft-inspired machines, the 1932 Helicron from France and the “Wind Wagon,” a home-brew contraption built by the late Ted Jameson, uncle of racing driver-turned motor sports commentator Sam Posey.

To be sure, Nashville’s Country Music Hall of Fame, with the Grand Ole Opry the city’s major attraction, also has some cars: Elvis’s Gold Cadillac and the Pontiac Bonneville of Webb Pierce, the latter with an over-and-under trunk ornament and six-gun door handles. Perhaps more to the point is Hank Williams’ liquor cabinet. Country music is fun, but I’d rather spend my quality time at the Lane Motor Museum. The cars you see here are just the tip of the iceberg. The museum is open Thursday through Monday, from 10 to 5.

Until 1959, Chrysler Corporation had its own version of Sloanism, a car for every purse and purpose. Plymouth, at the bottom, sold for $2,143 to $3,131, Dodge a notch higher at $2,516 to $3,439. DeSoto weighed in above Dodge and finally Chrysler, with its premium Imperial series, above that. In an unusual marketing strategy, all Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler dealers also sold Plymouth as a volume leader.

But suddenly, as the ads had promised since 1957, it was 1960 and all that went out the window. Dodge dealers were shorn of their Plymouth franchises and instead given a new low-priced Dart model that was a Plymouth in Dodge dress. Perhaps this was to mute the effect of the new compact Valiant that, while not actually badged as a Plymouth, was sold in Plymouth showrooms. In any case, the cheapest Dodge, a Dart Seneca, sold for $2,278, just eight dollars more than the least expensive Plymouth. There were two more upscale Dart series, Pioneer and Phoenix, as well as the full-size Matador and Polara.

This scheme continued into 1961, with Darts Seneca, Pioneer and Phoenix opposite Plymouth and a single “big” Polara modle, but greater inroads were made into Plymouth territory with the Lancer, a Valiant clone. Dart series were renamed in 1962, with the base model simply “Dart” and the more upscale cars called Dart 330 and Dart 440. The Lancer continued, in two-door, four-door and station wagon form. The only large Dodge was now the Polara 500.

The Dart was a phenomenal success. In its first year, 306,603 cars easily outpaced the 253,432-car volume of the full-sized Plymouth. Ensuing seasons were not so heady, but Dart sales nicely offset the dealers’ lack of Plymouth product. The Lancer, however, sold at only half Valiant’s volume, so for 1963 it was dropped, replaced by a longer-wheelbase new Dart. With sedan, hardtop, station wagon and convertible models, it caught on, and became Dodge’s volume leader. It remained so through 1965 and to the end of production in 1976. A GT coupe also became available. Meanwhile, the 330 and 440 became full-size Dodges, companion to Polara. In 1962, after all Dodges were downsized, dealers begged for a larger car, so the factory mated a Dodge front end to a Chrysler Newport, begetting the Dodge Custom 880.

The Dodge lineup now virtually doubled with Plymouth, and more besides. By the time the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare were introduced in 1976, comparable models were very closely priced, some exactly the same. Plymouth lasted another quarter century, but the handwriting was on the wall. The company was competing against itself, and eventually the weaker brother lost.

The blogs have been agog since Edsel Ford‘s Special Speedster made $1.76 million at RM‘s recent Amelia Island auction. The notoriety is well deserved, since the car lay unnoticed in a Florida lockup until re-discovered and restored by Amelia Island Concours founder Bill Warner. Perhaps more to the point, it aroused interest in Edsel’s other specials and reminded the pundits that his first speedster, too, is back in the spotlight, having appeared at the 2007 Grand National Roadster Show.

Throughout this fray has come occasional mention of Edsel’s third special, and PreWarCar.com’s Rutger Booy wondered if it, too, might soon be found. I doubt it.

The third special, known as the Special Sports, has long been misunderstood. Occasionally thought to be a British Jensen because of its right-hand drive, it was instead the starting point for Jensen’s own cars, but done in Dearborn under Bob Gregorie‘s direction for Edsel himself. Built late in 1934, it adopted the chassis details of the Special Speedster, extended front axle and underslung rear, but instead of a speedster body it carried a four-place, two-door tourer. Edsel wanted to put it into limited production but his father said “No!” Edsel and Gregorie tried to interest the foundering coachbuilder Brewster, but nothing came of it.

Instead, the concept was floated across the Atlantic to Ford’s British subsidiary. Ford of Britain boss Percival Perry didn’t like the idea either, but the Jensen brothers, who had built a Ford-based special for the 1934 Tourist Trophy race in Ireland, did. They had been rebodying Ford V8s into sleek tourers with English appointments, a few of which made it to the US. One of these, a 1936 model, was intended for Clark Gable, who cancelled his order before delivery. Gable did, however, pose for publicity with other Jensen-Fords.

Edsel had Gregorie put together another Special Sports chassis, this time without the underslung rear, since the 1935 Fords sat lower in stock form. The Jensens then began building to this pattern, but added their own coachbuilt body with distinctive radiator shell and interior appointments. A neat remote shifter was included. Sold as the “3-1/2 Litre Jensen” it used the 21-stud V8 with SU carb and came in saloon, tourer and drophead coupe forms. These cars, introduced in the autumn of 1936, are commonly called S-Types, from their serial numbers.

Late in 1937, the Jensens beefed up the front of the Ford chassis and dropped in a Nash dual-ignition straight eight. The cars had a novel independent front suspension using over-and-under leaf springs as control arms – described by some owners as “too independent.” Designated “4-1/4 Litre Straight Eight” they were nicknamed “H-Types” and came in the same saloon, tourer and drophead styles. A limousine was cataloged but probably never built. One car was constructed in left-hand drive form with a Lincoln-Zephyr V-12. Perhaps 50 S-Types and a dozen H-Types were built before World War II put a halt to production. Jensen was coy about the Ford (and Nash) content, which grieved Edsel but placated both his father and Percival Perry.

Will the real Special Sports turn up some day? Perhaps, but if so it will have been well hidden. It was last seen in the 1950s on a Burbank, California, used car lot wearing a LaSalle grille and a Carson padded top.

The full story of this English intrigue, told by the historian who connected the dots, can be read in Automobile Quarterly Vol. 36 No. 2 (February 1997).

New York’s International Auto Show is, like Easter, a movable feast. Following the first full moon in Spring, in western cultures it can fall as early as March 22nd or as late as April 25th. The New York show, which opens on Easter weekend, is the last of the North American auto expos, but last is not least and there’s never a shortage of new models and concepts to introduce. This year’s Big Apple roll-outs started on Wednesday.

Each show begins with a breakfast for the pundits, this year keynoted by new Chrysler and ex-Home Depot honcho Robert Nardelli. Taking a page from Harry Jewett, he proclaimed a “New Day” at Chrysler and described a program of “right sizing” the mix of models, options and inventory (in other words, bloodletting). New models will follow, as will expansion in Asia and Europe. Closing of the Pacifica design studio was attributed to “globality.” Does that mean outsourced, perhaps offshore, design?

Manufacturer debuts included the 2009 Acura TSX, a rather bland Nissan Maxima and a new-generation Honda Fit. Mercedes-Benz is agog with their clean BlueTEC diesel, introduced for the 2009 M Class with a fit of electioneering. Next door, BMW rolled out a 4th-gen M3 convertible and announced that their new diesels are just as clean as Mercedes’ and have twin turbos to boot. Porsche took the stage to introduce the Boxster RS60. The boldest concept was Scion’s Hako coupe, a retro caricature of a slammed Essex coach.

Over at the GM stand, vice chairman Bob Lutz announced three new rear-drive Pontiacs, a coupe version of the Solstice sports car and a 400-hp G8 GXP sedan, the latter available with 6-speed manual transmission. Novel was the G8 derivative they’re calling “Sport Truck,” real name to be the subject of a contest. It is, in fact, a knockoff of the Australian Holden Omega, so I’m inclined to call it “Cute Ute.”

Best speaker of the day was Jim Press, a Toyota transplant now vice chair at Chrysler. Eclipsing his boss, Press dazzled the press with a glib intro for new Dodge Challenger models, reprising the mild-to-muscle intermediate coupe of the 1970s. Available as an entry-level V6 SE model, the Challenger includes an R/T version with 5.7-liter Hemi and tops out as an SRT8, announced in Chicago, with 6.1-liter LS3 Hemi making 425 hp and available with 6-speed shift-it-yourself gearbox.

Over on the Lamborghini stand, the Lambo Ladies demonstrated Lambo doors and unmasked the new Gallardo LP560-4, a 552-hp sprinter with 0-60 time under four seconds that first met the public in Geneva.

Every circus has its sideshows, and New York doesn’t disappoint. For old-car lovers the LeMay Museum has assembled a display at the south end of the lower level, many of the cars from the Bulgari collection. These ranged from a 1934 Studebaker Land Cruiser to a Ford GT, and included novelties like Fred Flintstone’s prehistoric people mover. The exhibit lasts through this Sunday only.

The real curiosities hug the back wall of the lower level. The AirCar from Milner Motors claims to fly, but hasn’t been tested yet. A wingless version will carry four passengers on terra firma with electric power. The Iconic GTR, an 800-hp roadster, is a high-tech amalgam of carbon fiber and chrome moly with a computerized gas cap. The Ellis family from Florida is showing a line of tricycle trucks called “Trifun.” Presently manufactured in China, a US assembly plant is planned. There’s more than one way to skin a Corvette. The Karvajal is a contemporary conversion, while Ed Monahan will make your C5 look like Tod and Buzz’s ’62.

Celebrities on hand included embedded reporter Gregg D. Merksamer and television producer Dennis David, who had trouble deciding which Bentley to buy.

CarPorters will have a feeling of deja vu at the New York show. Making their North American debuts are BMW’s CS coupe concept, the Saab 9-4X Biopower and Volvo’s production XC60, all of which were scooped last week right here at the CarPort. The show runs through Sunday, March 30th, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center.

As the earth’s first motor city, with five companies manufacturing cars by 1897, Paris is the logical place not only for Rétromobile but for an exhibition of concept cars by automakers on two continents. Just such a show was presented last month by Le Festival Automobile International at Les Invalides, the military museum and monument in the city’s 7th Arrondissement.

Anchoring the exhibit were 15 concepts from nine major manufacturers, only one of which has been seen in North America. Not surprisingly, France’s Big Three, Renault, Peugeot and Citroën, were best represented. Citroën had three cars, the Lambo-doored C-Metisse, the quirky little C-Cactus and an almost mundane C5 Airscape convertible. Peugeot’s concepts were a little less radical. The 308 RCZ exhibited the same fishmouth I find so unattractive on their present-day cars. The 908RC sedan was a little more interesting, but I found the frontal theme reminded me of a harelip, less so from head on.

Renault’s cars included an utterly uninteresting Laguna coupé concept (though intriguing enough to one lad that he wanted to sketch it) and a perky Altica sport wagon. The piéce de resistance, however, was the Nepta, a gull-wing convertible with no apparent provision for a top. Other European manufacturers included BMW with a CS four-door coupé (the front looks too predatory) and Volvo with an XC 60 that improves a bit on the current Cross Country. Saab parent General Motors, of course, is on an Ethanol binge, so the 9-4X BioPower Concept drinks E-85. Just plain silly, though, is the power-operated ski rack that stows the staves inside the car. Surely people agile enough to ski should be able to load their gear without help.

I’m not a Mercedes man, but I did like the F700 limo, a boardroom on wheels. A new Stratos concept from Atabeyki Design wore the expected Lancia badge. Asian entries were the Mixim, a quirky coupe from Nissan and the Kia Kee, a turret-top terror.

There were side shows aplenty. An amberoid bubble car was dubbed “Zooop.” A Giugiaro-designed Bugatti EB 18/3 was a 1999 debutante from Frankfurt. Perhaps most surprising was the Faurecia “Premium Attitude,” a contemporary interior that looks not a whit out of place in a 1960 Tatra 603. Students from the Strate Collège were exhibiting some of their automotive design features.

Almost hidden among all this futuristic artistry was “La Plus Belle Voiture de l’Anée,” the most beautiful production car of the year. High on the dais, the winning Renault Laguna Estate Wagon was being seriously ignored by everyone present. Who can fixate on today when the future is staring you in the face.

The show was well-attended. Let’s hope it becomes a regular fixture on the Parisian calendar.

Ford was America’s acknowledged wagonmaster, from the introduction of a woodie to the Model A catalog in 1929 (this is a ’30) right through the thirties and forties. In 1946, nearly 17,000 were built, more than all other manufacturers combined – including sibling Mercury. These were all upright four-door 8-passenger woodies; with all seats in place there was precious little cargo space. For all their varnished wood glamor, the woodies had one Achilles’ heel: if left to weather they would self destruct in no time.

With Ford’s radically-new 1949 models making their debut in June 1948, all that changed. Willys had introduced an all-steel wagon in 1946. A two-door on the Jeep chassis, it had vestigial “panels” stamped into the sheet metal as a strengthening measure, painted in the time-honored wood pattern. Plymouth took this one step farther for the “real” 1949 line, introduced that March (some holdover ‘48-style cars had been sold as “first series 1949s” because the new cars weren’t ready as the model year began). In the short-wheelbase P-17 Deluxe series was a two-door Suburban wagon, a six-seater with novel foldaway rear seat. The body was “All-Metal,” a harbinger of the future announcing that there wasn’t a hint of wood trim to be found.

For some reason, Ford decided to split the difference, to build a half-timbered wagon. The new Ford Station Wagon, in the Custom series, was also a two-door – with a moderately raked tail. The body was a mixture of wood and metal, with a single stamping for the roof, steel corners but side panels of mahogany plywood trimmed in maple. It had seating for eight and plenteous cargo space, though not without serious wrestling to remove the rear seats.

For 1950 the wagon was carried over, as was its Mercury stablemate. Introduced as the Custom Deluxe Station Wagon, it became the Country Squire in midyear and also gained a stamped steel tailgate. The Country Squire continued into 1951, by which time sales of the handy Plymouth Suburban had easily passed Ford’s wagons. In a catch-up attempt a fold-down second seat was added.

When Ford’s new lines for 1952 debuted, it was all over for real wood. All Chrysler cars had ditched it, and at GM Buick was the only holdout. (Pontiac and Chevrolet had hedged their bets in ’49, offering both a wood wagon and an all-steel version. Although wood sold better at first, by 1950 only the steel survived.) For ’52 Ford did a Plymouth and brought out the two-door Ranch Wagon, a six-passenger car with folding rear seat. But Ford had some aces in the hole, a companion four-door six-passenger Country Sedan and a new prestige Country Squire with seats for eight and a faux wood applique. Combined sales of ’52 Ford station wagons numbered 49,919 cleaned Plymouth’s clock and made Ford wagonmaster again. However, a dangerous precedent had been set, which eventually led to the use of fake wood on everything.

For truth in titling it must be noted that while Ford invoked an Olde English homonym in calling its two-door sedans “Tudor,” the designation was never applied to wagons, which were only ever called “two-door,” and seldom that.

It starts at $11,590. Yes, the smart car (the makers prefer lower case) has arrived in America. Actually Roger Penske’s Penske Automotive Group has been taking reservations for the smart for about a year; the first cars were delivered last month.

I saw my first smarts in Paris in 2001. A two-passenger urban automobile, the smart was powered by a three-cylinder 600 cc turbo gasoline engine or an 800 cc turbo diesel. Transmission was a 6-speed automanual. Just 98.4 inches long, the smart weighed 730 kg (1609 lb.). A prime attraction of the car, in addition to its economy of operation, was ease of parking, although some drivers are known to take liberties with the rules. In some places they can park perpendicular to the curb, which greatly increases density. Certainly with parallel parking two can park as easily as one; comparison with a recent Citroën puts it in scale. Smart was not the first urban concept; some years ago Renault built a working model of a similar car whose rear wheels folded forward for parking.

All smarts have a tridion chassis that encircles the passenger compartment, painted either black or silver. Body panels, which are removable, come in six colors, though white, black and silver seem most popular. Some decorative touches are occasionally seen, and the smart has been popular in promotional dress.

For a while there was a four-passenger smart, the forfour, a Mitsubishi-based design made in Holland. The two passenger car, called “fortwo,” is made in Hambach, France, by a division of Daimler AG (née DaimlerChrysler, née Daimler-Benz AG). It thus becomes the first French-built car sold in the US since Peugeot left in 1992 (although the cars bear the VIN country code of Germany).

Canada has had smart cars since 2004, and they’ve proved quite popular. This one was visiting Connecticut in 2006 while being tested by Consumer Reports. Canadians got a diesel version, not sold here. The US models have a 1-liter normally-aspirated Mitsubishi gasoline engine and a five-speed automanual gearbox.

The other day I visited my local (50 miles) smart center, as the dealerships are called. Part of the Inskip megamall in Warwick, Rhode Island, it’s modestly hosted in a large Mercedes store. Despite stories that smarts were zooming off the lots into buyers’ loving hands, I found seven still in stock. It will be, no doubt, a cult car, not simply economical transportation. Smart money, as it happens, is not the cheapest sticker in town. For less, one can buy a Kia Rio, Hyundai Accent or Chevrolet Aveo (think Daewoo), all Korean four-seaters.

First CarPorter to spot a street smart is VW guru Steve Mierz, our Shoreline Scout. He saw this one in front of the post office in Stony Creek, Connecticut. Its smitten owner had already snapped up an appropriate vanity plate. Need I say more?