PAT GANAHL: OLD SCHOOL HOT RODS

Posted on May 16, 2020May 16, 2020 by MartynL

A scavenger hunt - PAT GANAHL: OLD SCHOOL HOT RODS - uncovers photos and magazines showcasing hot rodding’s golden years, including a 1961 issue CUSTOM RODDER edited by CGC Editor, Marty Schorr! What does Sailor Bob’s ’27 T have to do with this? Serendipity. I showed one of these non-color-shifted Ektachromes from ’58 recently, asking where did this one go, and why has no one built another like it? Well, I was paging through my May ’56 copy of Car Craft because it was supposed to have something...

BALDWIN-MOTION: CORVETTE CONNECTION

Posted on May 15, 2020May 15, 2020 by MartynL

Joel Rosen’s love affair with the Corvette, starting with a solid-axle Corvette that he hill-climbed and a white-trimmed black ’63 Sting Race Fuelie known in local drag racing circles as the (unbeatable) Skunk, spawned the first “tuner” Corvettes, available from the BALDWIN-MOTION: CORVETTE CONNECTION. In 1968 the Shark-inspired Corvette C3 Stingray was all new and, even after 15 years, still America’s Favorite Sports Car and the crown jewel in Chevrolet’s portfolio. Since 1953 Chevy dealers ha...

CONCEPT: CORVETTE XP-819

Posted on May 13, 2020 by MartynL

The story behind the radical CONCEPT: CORVETTE XP-819, from Concept build to concours restoration by Kevin Mackay’s Corvette Repair and then to its showing at the 2020 Amelia Island Concours where it was photographed, below, by CGC’s Mike Matune. Chevrolet has come a long way – actually 67 years - since Zora Arkus-Duntov built the first mid/rear-engine Corvette. That was in 1953 when #856 EX-54’s stock Six was removed and the body and chassis modified to handle installation of a prototype Cadet...

ROB IDA: TUCKER TORPEDO

Posted on May 12, 2020May 12, 2020 by MartynL

The ROB IDA: TUCKER TORPEDO continues where Preston Tucker, subject of a myriad of conspiracy theories, left off. It’s called, improving the breed! Preston Tucker, renegade hot-rodder, car designer, and principle behind the Tucker Corporation, engineered and built the Tucker Model 48, also known as the Torpedo, before coming to an ignominious end after a mere 50 versions were produced. The car was a radical design departure compared to contemporary offerings with a host of modern innovations...

JOEL ROSEN: BALDWIN-MOTION SUPERCARS

Posted on May 9, 2020May 9, 2020 by MartynL

Hagerty’s Reggie Horning blogs about the man from Motion who earned his cred the old fashion way - a quarter-mile at a time – and the Supercars he built between 1967 and 1974! If you lived in Brooklyn in the early-1960s and drag raced a fuel-injected Corvette or a Chevy powered by a Rochester-injected small-block, you would’ve known Joel Rosen, right w/"Astoria Chas" Snyder, tuning Chas' Corvette. He owned Motion Performance, a local speed shop known for his dynamometer tuning of record-sett...

MERCEDES-BENZ: AMG RED PIG RACER

Posted on May 4, 2020 by MartynL

That’s what they called the 300 SEL sedan powered by a 6.8 liter, 428 horsepower V8 sedan that won its class at the 1971 24 Hours of Spa and finished second overall! The MERCEDES-BENZ: AMG RED PIG RACER is credited with the birth of AMG. Today, AMG is the in-house performance arm of Mercedes-Benz, but it started out as a humble operation run by two engineers. The car that launched AMG on the path to three-pointed stardom was a hulking sedan named the “Red Pig.” Hans Werner Aufrecht and Erhard M...

TRIBUTE: ’63 ½ FORD 427 GALAXIE!

Posted on May 3, 2020May 3, 2020 by MartynL

‘With Eight Pipes, What Noble Music It Makes’ headlined Ford’s midyear advertising campaign, spotlighting the new ’63 ½ Sport Roof (fastback) 427/425 Galaxie. We look back at the events surrounding Ford’s unleashing of its Total Performance program in 1963, while tech-savvy automotive scribe Don Sherman focuses his attention on a 609 horsepower TRIBUTE: ’63 ½ FORD 427 GALAXIE! In January 1963, Ford unleashed a bevy of high-performance vehicles, timed with its participation in the 1963 Monte Car...

AC289: COBRAS FROM ACROSS THE POND!

Posted on May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by MartynL

Old Shel’ and Shelby American never touched COB/COX AC Cobras, but they are authentic Cobras. Here’s some history of AC289: COBRAS FROM ACROSS THE POND! plus a stunning example of a picture-perfect (COX) FIA Cobra. Carroll Shelby’s Cobras started life as AC Ace roadsters shipped from AC Cars, Ltd, Thames Ditton, Surrey, England to Shelby-American in southern California. Once in Shelby’s hands, they received Ford small and big-block engines and were finished to Shelby Cobra specs. In 1965 a new,...

IN DETAIL: FLY LIKE AN EAGLE!

Posted on April 28, 2020April 28, 2020 by MartynL

Both Steve Miller (Band) and Dan Gurney had chart-topping Eagles, but IN DETAIL: FLY LIKE AN EAGLE! zooms in on Dan Gurney’s AAR, the only constructor in the US to design and build winning F1, Indy 500 and sports car Eagles. For our second installment of “In Detail”, we look at a pair of Eagles from the Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance (AICE), up close and personal. These came from All American Racers (AAR), established by Dan Gurney who made many contributions to racing as a driver, owner, c...

IN DETAIL: GENIUS OF HARLEY EARL

Posted on April 22, 2020April 28, 2020 by MartynL

In these days of “Social Distancing” and “Stay at Home”, we have decided to offer our readers a new feature called In Detail. In these short-takes, we will examine cars (and sometimes their designers & engineers) up-close. These are cars our staff has found interesting. They may not always be mainstream as our staff is an eclectic lot with broad automotive interests, but they are cars they felt worthy of focusing on, starting with IN DETAIL: GENIUS OF HARLEY EARL. We hope you will find these...