Hemmings Motor News November 2021

When the last BWAZ (Birthday With A Zero) rolled around, I did what any sane, mature adult does to celebrate a milestone: I ran frantically to the nearest motorcycle dealership and impulse bought the first new dual sport I laid eyes on. It was like the way a five-year old lunges for a Kit Kat in the grocery store checkout, minus a parent there to explain how some purchases might not be in your best long-term interest. But that feeling of desperation, knowing that there’s more life behind you than ahead, is tough to resist: “I’M XX YEARS OLD TODAY AND COULD DROP AT ANY MOMENT! TAKE MY MONEY BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!” So, post-midlife-crisis averted, I enjoyed fun trail rides, spent evenings in the garage lubing and adjusting the chain…

“I was hellbent on festooning my car with every dubious, self-adhesive aerodynamic aid I could get my hands on.” Here in Charlotte a while back, I spotted a modified, lowered, mid-1980s Toyota Corolla GTS, aka an AE86, that rolls around with large “IROC-Z” decals on the doors as it spits and barks from what is clearly a modified engine. The irony this driver is displaying is not lost on me at all, though when I first saw the car, I just assumed there was some sort of LS engine in the thing. It turns out there’s a trick JDM 20-valve 4A-GE twin-cam four-cylinder under the hood. Eat you heart out, International Race of Champions-Z. The ironic use of the IROC decals aside, there is something endemic and time-honored in our car culture…

Private equity firm buys Covercraft Covercraft Industries produces over 300,000 products for auto, marine, and outdoor use, including car, RV, and boat covers, seat covers, front end bras, dashboard covers, window shades, and bikini tops. The company was founded in Southern California in 1965 by Bob Lichtmann, and operated as a family firm until 2015, when it was sold to an investor group. Now, the Oklahoma-based company has changed hands again, having been sold to Audax Private Equity. Audax, founded in 1999, describes itself as “a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco” that “seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value.” At present, Covercraft produces products under its own brand, plus ADCO, Carver, Marathon,…

I’ve enjoyed reading your articles pertaining to late ’60’s to early ’70’s Chevrolet trucks. I would like to share with you my family’s survivor 1969 Chevrolet Suburban that we were able to purchase thanks to Hemmings. We were very fortunate to come across this truck during our search for a family hauler, as our growing family no longer sat comfortably in my daily driver ’66 C10! I searched every day for six months for the perfect Suburban, and I got lucky when I found this listed on Hemmings.com — it had only been listed for 30 minutes. Upon arrival, we learned that it had been sitting for 10 years, but the truck looked like new inside and out. We bought the truck in July 2019 and are now just the second owners.…

For 1938, Cadillac had 12 available Series 90 body styles: two or five-passenger coupe, two-passenger convertible coupe, five-passenger convertible sedan, five- or seven-passenger sedans, Imperial sedans, town sedans, or formal sedans. The car pictured here is body style 9039, the Fleetwood five-passenger Town Sedan. With a starting price of $5,695 (in a day when a Ford started at $595), it’s little wonder that just 20 were built. Barely 300 Series 90s were built for 1938, across all body styles. Cadillac’s V-16 engine was a feat of contemporary engineering — one of the last all-new engines to be introduced before World War II broke out, and designed to offer the smoothest-possible driving experience. You wouldn’t necessarily realize it with a glance at the specs: Both the new engine and Cadillac’s previous V-16 put…

One of the more controversial things Packard Motor Car Company ever did was start building less-expensive cars. In the 1920s, there was no such thing as an affordable Packard. If you owned one, it meant you were somebody of wealth and taste. Come the Great Depression, however, fewer folks with taste had wealth. Moreover, those with wealth often didn’t wish to flaunt it on the streets they shared with those without. Packard’s answer was a high-quality, six-cylinder car aimed at upper-middle-class buyers. After the Depression and World War II were over, the economy recovered, but Packard continued to build more-affordable cars alongside its luxury models. In 1951, the entry-level range was restyled and renamed the 200 model. Priced like a Buick Super, Chrysler Windsor, or base-model Lincoln, the 200 rode on a…