In 1940 Packard had 3 Convertible Coupes built by the coach builder Rollson. This particular one was first owned by Carl Bellinger who did the unthinkable, he hot rodded and raced this amazing Packard. Mr. Bellinger had his personal mechanic Richard Tona help maintain and even paint the coupe through out the years. Richard was able to use the car as he wanted while Carl traveled for work as a test pilot. Many years later Carl gifted the car to Richard after he moved to the East coast. Richard eventually gifted the car to his son Tommy who is now sharing the story of this amazing car. If anyone has any history of this 1940 Packard at Muroc Dry Lakes please send us an email!
Officially, the F-Series kicked off its legendary adventure starting with the 1948 model year. But the original generation is also known as the Bonus-Built series. Meanwhile, previous trucks were largely unchanged since the start of WWII for America, that dreadful 1941.
So, do we hold it against the good folks over at PC Classic Cars in Sherman, Texas for potentially confusing the F-1 name with a truck that was created before the age of the F-Series? Purists might, but we are going to be as reconciliatory as possible, considering the very nice Coca-Cola-like paintjob. True, we might have a soft spot for crimson and creamy white combinations…
Now that everyone has finished ogling at the pristine exterior details, let’s get down to the classic pickup truck business. This 1946 Ford was probably restored sometimes during previous ownership – there isn’t much background to go along with as far as its historic whereabouts are concerned. We did catch the dealer’s reference that “extensive records and photos from restoration” are also available.
And this time around, we paid more attention than ever to what the consigner has to say, considering the laugh we had after reading the proud statement that we are dealing with a “truck (that) will cruise at 55 mph.” That’s just 89 kph for the Old Continent fans. But, then again, even after a full restoration, it’s still a very old truck – and well within pension rights at 75 years of age
As you motor down the road, does your vehicle invoke motion sickness from the bobbing and weaving it continues to do, long after you’ve passed over that pothole or speed bump? Does it adopt a nose-up attitude worthy of a wheelstander each time you take off, or affect a gnarly slammed stance upon braking? If you answered yes to any of these, check your shocks or struts, pronto.
The shock absorber, and the related strut, represent parts that aren’t typically seen or even thought about, but whose job is crucial in keeping cars and trucks stable, comfortable, and safe. In broad terms, shocks and struts change kinetic (movement) energy to thermal (heat) energy through friction; they’re also–and more accurately–described as dampers, because they control excess suspension action as your wheels roll.
Unlike the tires, whose tread becomes visibly shallower as they wear, shocks and struts rarely physically show the deterioration that use and years compound. It’s therefore important to spot the signs of failing dampers, and to understand what these components do and how they differ, should you choose to upgrade them from standard replacement units for improved performance on the street, at the track, or off-road.
What’s the Difference?Shock absorbers have come a long way since the late 1800s, when their concept originated with dry, solid-material friction: to absorb suspension movement, rubber and bendable metal coils kept tension via compression, stretching, or bending. Fluid friction was a major advance in the early 1900s, when double-action rotary shocks were supplanted by lever arm, and then telescopic, or tubular, shocks. And the introduction of gas-charged telescopic shocks moved damping technology still further.
An offshoot of the shock absorber is the strut, the most common version patented in the late 1940s by Earle MacPherson. This component, often used by automakers because of its space-efficient design, consists of a shock absorber cartridge located in a tubular housing that can support a coil spring and connects to the hub or axle on the bottom; it’s linked to the body/frame by a lower control arm or wishbone (and, in front-wheel applications, a steering tie rod). Another type used in some rear-wheel drive racing and street applications is the Chapman strut, named for Lotus founder Colin Chapman. This design features a coil spring surrounding a shock absorber, and the tubular shaft’s lower connections to the body/frame are a driveshaft and radius arm.
Today’s AutoHunter Spotlight is on a 1941 Deluxe Club convertible that’s undergone a body-off restoration and is equipped with a 221cid Ford Flathead V8 paired with a 3-speed column-shifted manual transmission.
This first model year example of the Super Deluxe series was resprayed in black and given a replacement power-operated cloth top accented with red piping. The three-piece front grille with vertical slants was only found on these 1941 models.
Other eye-catching exterior features include a two-piece windshield, fender-mounted turn signals and optional bumper guards.
The interior, dressed in red leather with a contrasting black dash, houses a pull-out ashtray, lockable glove department and a black steering wheel with a Super Deluxe chrome center button.
Odometer shows approximately 44,984 miles, although total chassis mileage is unknown.
Nostalgia is a potent drug and, like any old bastard, I’m highly susceptible to it as well. Hell, I work in a sort of idiotic shrine to a very specific kind of nostalgia. But there are some details of the past that, even with the rosiest-colored glasses, are still very clearly garbage. I’m talking about being a kid in the back seat of many 1980s GM cars, specifically the GM cars (and one Chrysler) that, somehow, didn’t let you roll down the rear windows.
These cars — which were GM’s A- and G-bodies from 1978 to 1983, and the 1981 Chrysler four-door K-cars — represented a huge percentage of cars on the road when and where I was growing up, in 1980s America. I feel like pretty much every family I knew at the time had at least one car from this lineup, and the reason I remember this so well is because of the painful memories of sweltering in the back seats of these metal mausoleums, in the heat of a North Carolina summer, with rear door windows that remained steadfastly and cruelly fixed.
The list of dirt-common cars that were like this is ample: Buick Centuries, Regals, Oldsmobile Cutlasses, Pontiac Bonnevilles, Chevy Malibus, and those early K-Cars. I think there were some others, as well, but these sorts of cars formed the backbone of the carscape of America at the time, which means the plague of no-open-rear-seat-windows was widespread.
Jay Leno gets a close look at the coolest hybrid you’ve never heard of.
Did you know Briggs & Stratton built a car? Yes, that Briggs & Stratton, the company best known for the small engines used on lawnmowers. And it’s not just any car, but a hybrid … built in 1980 no less. Honestly, we didn’t know such a machine existed until this video cropped up at Jay Leno’s Garage, but when we saw this six-wheeled hatchback with styling not unlike a 1980’s L-Body Dodge Charger, we couldn’t not click on it. And once we watched the video, we knew we couldn’t not share it with you because it’s actually very impressive.
This is strictly a one-off concept car designed to be a technology demonstrator, and actually, its top speed isn’t so impressive. According to the video, Richard Petty managed to get this car to a whopping 68 mph on a closed course. On the streets of California, Leno and Briggs & Stratton Engineering Technician Craig Claerbout achieved 60 mph, but when you realize there’s just an 18-horsepower (13-kilowatt) air-cooled twin-cylinder Briggs engine under the hood, that’s not such bad speed. An electric motor is connected to the engine, which then connects to a four-speed manual transmission sending power to the first set of rear wheels
An iconic segment of the California hot rod culture is on display in a museum, but it’s a museum halfway across the country. The Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed is located in Lincoln, Nebraska, but is showcasing the famed little black Model T hot rod built by a youngster named Ed Iskenderian, who soon would become famous for creating high-performance camshafts. “Isky” anticipates celebrating his 100th birthday on July 10.
If the Nebraska location for the famous hot rod seems strange, consider that the car is displayed with Ed Winfield’s cam grinder that Isky used as well as with the only other pair of Maxi cylinder heads known to exist. The car is owned by Isky and is in Nebraska on a long-term loan.
As the story goes, Isky — the nickname given by school teachers who couldn’t pronounce Iskenderian — and a buddy John Athan grew up in the same Los Angeles neighborhood and were fascinated by the cut-down and hopped-up Model Ts people were building.
Athan built a T-based hot rod and then one based on a Model A (in the 1950s the car appeared in the Elvis Presley movie, Loving You). Isky acquired a T-based car from Athan in the late 1930s, replacing the 4-cylinder engine with a flathead V8 equipped with Maxi overhead valve head, and adding an Edelbrock triple manifold and Vertex magneto.
He made many other changes — 1932 Ford front axle with 1937 wishbones, Plymouth hydraulic brakes, Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels, modified 1933 Pontiac grille, gauge panel salvaged from an 8-cylinder Auburn, and a flying-skull hood ornament Isky created in a high school shop class.
Spring may have just arrived, but at least one vehicle going up for auction at Bonhams’s next sale may have you longing for winter’s return.
Impossible, you say. Wait until you check out the 80-year-old Bombardier B-7snowmobile. Set to hit the block late next month at the auction house’s Amelia Island auction, the restored snow cruiser will have even the most cold-averse among us wishing for a thick snow fall so they can take it out for a spin.
Although the B-7 was born out of a family tragedy—inventor Joseph-Armand Bombardier’s young son died during the winter because no vehicle could safely transport him through the snow—it’s also a dazzling creation. The vehicle, which was referred to at the time as a “snow coach,” looks like an old-fashion family wagon with skis and tank treads in place of its wheels, so that it can “float over the snow.” After being introduced in 1935, the vehicle proved to be a hit, and by the end of the decade, the Canadian company had built more than 100 examples.
There is no way we can count all the weird machines we’ve seen cooked up by more or less prominent garages across America over the years. Yet we’re pretty certain we’re going to remember this thing here, going forward.
What you’re looking at is officially titled 1938 Indian V8-60 Flathead, and it’s an yet unfinished project that could have just as well been named Ford, or Porsche, or Harley-Davidson. That’s because each of these companies contributed in one way or another to this thing coming together.
Indian is responsible for the frame, with a 1938 Indian Chief as a starting point. It was bred and welded with 1.25- and 1-inch tubing and paired with a Chief front end. The thusly-modified frame was needed because it had to accommodate the Ford V8 engine its builder saw fit to gift the bike with.
The V8 is of the flathead variety the Blue Oval had in its portfolio for a couple of decades between 1932 and 1953, which came with a power rating of 60 horsepower—this bike’s name is beginning to make sense now, right?
The engine used on this two-wheeler is a 1937 model year, packs a Stromberg carburetor, and is tied to a Harley-Davidson transmission and a clutch from the same bike maker.
Two fuel tanks, made to resemble pre-war Indian pieces, are located left and right of the frame, and we’re told they never got the taste of fuel in them. An Indian solo seat dangles precariously over the massive engine, there are 1946 controls on the handlebars, and even a Porsche 12-volt generator in there (not hooked up to anything yet).
In the 1930s, Ford was getting slaughtered in the mid-priced market by the likes of Dodge and Oldsmobile. To save the company, Edsel Ford – the legendary Henry Ford’s son – established the Mercury brand in 1939, serving as a bridge between Ford and its Lincoln luxury division. The idea worked like a charm, as Mercury produced some of the most iconic American classic cars from the 50s to 70s era.
10 – 1969 Mercury Cougar Eliminator
Most people don’t include the Mercury Cougar in their list of the greatest classic muscle cars, but it fully deserves to be included. Introduced in 1967, the Cougar had everything muscle car fans love – a Mustang-based design, a mighty V8 under the hood, and fantastic driving dynamics. The Cougar was so good that it received the 1967 Motor Trend Car of the Year award.
Following the successful launch of the Cougar, Mercury introduced several trims, with the highest-performing one being the 1969 Eliminator. This car came with a 4.9-liter V8 – the same engine in the Mustang Boss 302 – producing 290 horsepower, making it a joy to drive.
9 – 1950 Mercury Coupe
The Mercury Eight is one of the first cars Mercury built in the early 40s. However, it wasn’t until 1950 that Mercury gave it the redesign that earned it a spot on this list. The 1950 Eight was based on the 1949 Ford, but had a distinctive design and a bigger Flathead V8 than the Ford.
Available as a sedan, coupe, convertible, or two-door station wagon, the Eight quickly became popular in hot rod circles and even had songs written about it. It’s also one of the most popular movie cars featured in James Dean’s 1955 film Rebel Without A Cause.
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