Hemmings Motor News July 2020

All of this sheltering in place has kept me healthy, but given me a lot of time to stand around the garage reflecting on my many shortcomings as a DIY restorer. It’s also given me time to go back and redo the things I screwed up on my ’70 Chevrolet pickup the first time around. “The truck looks really nice,” The Chief said recently, when I’d returned from driving it up and down our street on a shakedown run. “Is there anything left to do?” “Oh, just some minor stuff,” I said. “Since it’s running and driving, I haven’t really wanted to take it apart. But it looks like we’re in for the duration so it’s a good time.” “Take it apart?” she asked, sounding as perplexed as any sane, non-DIY-restorer human would…

“…here’s my selection of car companies that would help make the world a better place.” In honor of this issue’s Late Great Makes Special Section theme, here’s my selection of car companies that would help make the world a better place. AMC Imagine how sleek a modern-day fastback AMX would look. Or a current Javelin with the front fender humps. Better still, picture an updated AMX/3 to compete with the new Corvette. Austin One of the cutest cars ever created was the A30, so perhaps BMW can issue a rebodied Mini with an A30-styled body. Austin-Healey It’s near impossible to improve upon the original 3000’s design, but a Big Healey combining vintage looks with state-of-the-art EFI and ABS would make one heck of a sports car. Bandini We need more small cars, so who else…

I am a 16-year-old 11th-grader in Raleigh, North Carolina. I have recently become interested in automotive restoration as a future career path. My father and my grandfather are both auto-restoration hobbyists and subscribers to Hemmings Motor News. Seeing them work on older cars and eventually getting my own car that my father restored with me, a 1981 Porsche 924, made me realize my interest and passion for restoring classic cars. I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know of any auto-restoration apprenticeships or schools in the North Atlantic or Southeastern regions of the country. I would also be interested in any part-time jobs for people with little to no experience that are closer to my location, if you know of any. I am hoping to expand my…

Contrary to what one might expect, Overland was conjured from the minds of Charles Minshall and Claude Cox while enjoying coffee during a workday break in the fall of 1902. Cox, a recent graduate from Ross Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana, had a conversation with Minshall — the president of Standard Wheel Company, also located in Terre Haute — about his senior thesis: a four-wheeled vehicle based on a motorized tricycle. Self-propelled vehicles were certainly not new to the world, but the concept was unquestionably new to both men and neither had any other experience in the fledgling field. Disregarding the vehicle’s lack of internal combustion prowess, Minshall was impressed enough to promote Cox to lead the company’s new automotive department, which also stipulated that Cox design and build its…

This quietly attractive American Motors station wagon, riding high on a lifted suspension, shared showroom space with Jeep’s rugged and posh Grand Wagoneer in the 1980s. Looking back with 30-plus years of hindsight, both of those often faux-wood-clad 4x4 family vehicles have found themselves with a new fan base, and top-quality examples have enjoyed rising values. The Eagle may not yet have achieved the Nantucket/Hamptonsbeach-house-car prestige of its Jeep cousin, but it’s already proven itself an appreciating collectible. On the heels of Subaru bringing its part-time four-wheel-drive-equipped cars to the U.S. in the 1970s, AMC executives worked with U.K.-based Ferguson Formula to develop a full-time, roadgoing-biased four-wheel-drive system to underpin the Hornet family of vehicles. When the new Eagle line launched for 1980, its variants were some of the first mass-market,…

Plymouth threw down the gauntlet when it created the original Road Runner. Its low price and superior performance made it the bane of many competing drag racers. The Road Runner’s glory days were short-lived, however, as forces were gathering to quell factory performance. Yet, while most of its rivals were dead and gone by the mid-’70s, the Road Runner lived on. Plymouth’s decision to produce a Satellite coupe that had a completely unique body — sharing no sheetmetal with the four-door — was unusual in the industry in 1971. After the ’74 model year, Plymouth and Dodge dropped their respective coupes and introduced new ones for 1975 that shared styling with the existing sedans. At the same time, the Satellite name was replaced with the Fury badge. Through all of this, the…