Hemmings Motor News May 2022

Recently, while trying to avoid the news, I read that 45 years ago this month the late Sandra West and her 1964 Ferrari 330 America were buried together at Alamo Masonic Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas. Ms. West’s final wishes were that her corpse be dressed in a lace nightgown and propped up in the driver’s seat of her exotic 2+2 coupe, then all of it lowered into the ground alongside the grave of her late husband, Ike — a rich Texas oil man. (Mr. West presumably returned to terra firma in a conventional coffin.) The fact that Ms. West passed prematurely at age 38 was overshadowed in accounts of her unconventional burial, which received quite a lot of media attention. I also have to believe that the thought of someone…

“Not since World War II has there been a shortage like this one of private vehicles available for sale.” My first car was a junkyard special — literally. It was smack-dab in the middle of the 1980s when I drove that not-completely-crusty ’69 Dodge Dart GT home from a local salvage yard for $300. I might have even paid the state of Connecticut its fair share of tax. Somewhere in a shoebox is the bill of sale for it that looked suspiciously like the sort of ticket your order is written on at a diner. Title in hand, and with two of the most rock-hard snow tires imaginable mounted on the Dart’s rear axle, 17-year-old me drove a fully functional automobile off that junkyard lot for just about all the money I…

Ford to build GT3-spec Mustang for IMSA racing Since the 2019 end of Ford’s GT supercar racing program, the Blue Oval has been absent from high-profile international racing. That’s about to change and soon you will be able to see Mustang GT3 racers mixing it up in two different series under the auspices of the International Motor Sports Association: GTD Pro, where it will face off against the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, Mercedes, Lexus, McLaren, Corvette, and BMW; and GTD, facing more Porsches, Ferraris, Mercedes, Lexuses, McLarens, plus Aston Martins, Lamborghinis, Acuras, and Audis. GTD Pro and GTD are IMSA’s top series. From a fan perspective, the important part is that GTD Pro will play host to Ford’s factory team, which is a joint effort with Multimatic Motorsports, a partner from the…

I greatly enjoyed Mark McCourt’s article on Toyota Celica convertibles. He mentioned the Sunchaser, and I thought you would enjoy a photo of my Sunchaser on Daytona Beach, Florida. This was taken not far from the retired Model T factory in Jacksonville, where the Sunchaser conversion was installed. Forgive the road grime. This pic was taken after a 600-mile road trip from Georgia and a day riding on the beach! There were approximately 500 Sunchasers produced each year of production, for a total of about 1,500 cars. The conversion was thoroughly engineered by Griffith. A search on the web will show photos of Sunchasers involved in rollover accidents, and the cars performed very well. The problem with the Sunchaser was the $4,995 option price, which put these cars in Corvette price…

Despite the popularity of the Mustang, Camaro, and Firebird, an unquestionable stalwart in the late 1960s pony car market had to be Mercury’s Cougar. When Dearborn’s mid-priced division announced the arrival of the “Big Cat” for 1967, it was a refreshing deviation from yet another gussied-up Ford. Based on the groundwork executed in the original Mustang design, Mercury’s engineers created a new foundation that was longer and wider, coupled with a suspension tuned for spirited-yet-discerning drivers. Rather than supply a six-cylinder as the base engine, a 200-hp, 289-cu.in. V-8 was installed. Stylists then crafted a distinctly European-influenced body featuring hidden headlamps, wraparound front and rear bumpers, refined contoured flanks, and taillamps — with sequential turn signals — that echoed the front fascia. Interiors contained vinyl bucket seats, plush carpeting, and a…

It took Chevrolet two years to respond to the Mustang, but it was worth the wait. When it debuted for 1967, the Camaro shared almost nothing with the contemporary Chevy II compact — instead heralding the next generation of pony cars with its Chevelle-style front suspension and plenty of room to accommodate Chevrolet’s top-performing big-block engines. It was a timely move, as the Mustang had just gotten a skosh wider and more Fairlane-like. If the Camaro had a failing, it was perhaps that its styling was insufficiently aggressive for buyers. The first two model years of the initial generation could almost be mistaken for a third-gen Corvair, thanks to the smooth, flared shape of the body. Chevrolet would correct this oversight for 1969, when the same basic car came with more…