Spotted this 1965 DeVille outside a local CVS. Nice long 2 door convertible, as god intended Caddy to be configured.
There were about 19k Caddy DeVilles Convertibles produced in 1965. These were all powered by a 429 cid, V8, overhead cam, iron block engine. The bore and stroke were 4.13 x 4.00 with a compression ratio of 10.5:1 and topped with the a Carter 4 bbl (Model 3903S) it produced about 340 hp. That’s not much considering the weight of the car was over 4500 lbs.
I love two vertical headlight look on most cars.
Still sporting fins. The back of this car is just as impressive as the front and that’s not always the case.
Love a two door DeVille
This one is a daily driver and could use some freshening but it is a fine automobile.
2/10/1942 Pontiac stops producing cars for World War II
Eventually all the U.S. car manufacturers halted production, but many turned to creating something else for the war. What did Pontiac make for the war effort?
Pontiac began making an anti-aircraft gun for the U.S. Navy in its sheet metal plant and produced Bofors automatic field guns for the U.S. Army.
Swedish Designed Bofors
Pontiac also supplied front axles for the M-5 tanks built by Cadillac and air-launched torpedoes for the U.S. Navy.
Air Launched
M5 Tank by Cadillac and parts by Pontiac
2/11/1932 – Ford develops it’s new V8
It as developed from 1926 to 1932 and was known as the ‘fatty’. Compared to the straight 6’s and the straight 8’s it was. It was a flat head V8, the first of its kind. Economically produced and was first installed and sold in the Ford Model 18 but the car was referred to as the “Ford V8”
Beautiful!!!
I love the look of these sedans. (Quit hacking them up!!!)
You pony car guys should really appreciate this innovation or else your Mustangs and Camaros would be a lot longer up front!!
2/12/1908 – New York to Paris Auto Race
The race was won by George Schuster driving the Thomas Flyer.
Car that won the first New York to Paris race
2/15/1929 – Graham Hill, British race car driver was born in London. He raced with Lotus, BRM, Brabham, and Hill
racing teams. Graham didn’t pass his drivers test until he was 24 years old. He died when he a plain he as flying crashed in England.
2/15/1944 – SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) was formed – I am card holding member. It’s a great experience
So not unlike many restoration projects I’ve worked on, something often pops up that makes you have to set some part of the work aside and tackle some unexpected. That’s about the same with writing as frequently as I do, multiple articles all nicely lined up and a couple fillers nearly ready to go. Then BAM!!! Up pops a car show or a I read something I want to react too. As it is with this piece.
I wish I could just write all day, every day, but I have a “paying” IT job which is a 7 days a week job and manage to squeeze out all the normal life stuff including ‘honey do’ list as long as I am tall.
So while tackling one of those tasks this past weekend, I happened upon a small cluster of cars at end of the a very large parking lot that normally adjacent to a COSTCO. At first glance it looked like a group of a flock of Chrysler Lebarons. But I was wrong, well sort of.
Mindful that I have frozen seafood and burgers sitting in back of my wife’s Lexus (it has a bit more cargo room than my C6), I planned on just saying hi a grabbing a couple of shots, but you know how car people are!!!
I asked if I could take a few shots with my Android phone and a couple of the guys said sure. Then a guy approached me and I said “Hi.” I told him I had thought it was a local LeBaron club when I first saw the cars. Well the gentleman was Mr. Hemi Anderson, TC America Tech expert in all things TC. Hemi let me know that although they were similar in appearance the underpinnings were different – different wheel base and all. He assured me that the TC was the original design and that Chrysler came up with the Lebaron as cheap alternative. His TC had about 11K miles and he drives it only on long drives – like this one (he hales from just outside of Vegas) or his annual Florida drive. He was a wealth of knowledge and I wished I didn’t have a car full of groceries to get home or I could have spend a few hours going over every car with him.
Here’s a few shots:
Those Wheels are similar to the ‘plastic hub caps” that are on my son’s Lebaron.
There were a total of 8 cars and waiting for more to show up.
I do like the wheels…I think they’d look good on my son’s Lebaron.
Removable Hardtop with ‘Opera’ window.
You can find this car club at http://www.chryslertcbymaseraticlub.com/.
In my opinion the real watering down of the brand occurred in the 80’s under the ownership of de Tomaso, with the launch of Biturbo (and all the models based off of it) and the Chrysler TC by Maserati. TrollHater 5pts. Its possible. Look at how watered …
2/4/1913- Perlman patents the demountable tire rim
(Few years later – Feb 24, 1925 Lewis K. McClellan got a patent for his improvements.)
from http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/05/dayintech_0521/:
Back in the earliest days of the automobile, radiators were brass, headlamps had wicks, cars were made as much of wood as metal, and wheels and tires were a single unit. The tires were solid rubber, and the wheels were wooden hub-and-spoke setups not unlike what you’d find on a horse-drawn wagon. Each one was affixed to the car by a single nut, and they were, for all engineering purposes, treated as a single unit.
The tires were about the width of a business card and provided roughly the same level of grip. On the upside, they were pretty darn tough. But, like everything else on a car, they would eventually wear out. At that point, you had to replace the tire and the wheel, even if the wheel was just fine.
Perlman knew there had to be a better way, and he found it.
His demountable tires (patent No. 1,052,270) worked pretty much like the ones on your car right now. A bead — that’s the inner rim of the tire — held the tire against a groove machined into the wheel. The friction of shallow notches kept the tire from rotating on the wheel, though some early applications used a cumbersome screw-clamp system.
The only downside was the tire-and-wheel assembly had to be balanced to prevent vibrations and ensure a smooth ride, but that wasn’t a big problem. Today no one thinks twice about it (except when they forget to get it done).
Perlman’s invention led to the adoption of pneumatic (inflated) tires, which provide much better performance. It also allowed automobile owners to choose their own wheels, which is one of the most common ways of customizing one’s ride.
From the U.S. Patent Office
From the U.S. Patent Office
2/5/1925 Ethyl Lead gas goes on sale
100% Leaded!!!
2/5/1970 AMC buys Kaiser Jeep
Now every knows AMC and that the Jeep went from there to become an part of Chrysler and now is technically part of Fiat, but not too many people, outside of Jeep collectors where it was before that time. Kaiser Jeep was created out of a merger between Kaiser-Frazer car builders and Willy’s Overland company. Willy’s Jeep was famous for the jeeps built to support WW II. Willy’s also made cars, but both companies (Willy’s and K/F) stopped making passenger cars in 1955 and continued to manufacture Jeeps, including the famous Jeep Wagoneer – the first soccer Mom vehicle, and the CJ, under the name Willy Motors. In 1963 they changed the name to Kaiser Jeep Corporation. After the AMC purchase the company Jeep Corporation was formed as a subsidiary of AMC.
2/5/1846 – The founder of Dunlop tires birthday – John Boyd Dunlop – Dreghorn, England
2/6/1951 – Kaiser introduces it’s Silver Dragon
The Silver Dragon or Dragon was a option package on what was actually just the Kaiser Manhattan. It had vinyl upholstery that simulated alligator and Kaiser was afraid that customers were shy away from the cars thinking actual alligator was used so they called it Dragon skin and the model was tag as “Dragon”.
Produced from 1951-1953
1953 Kaiser
2/7/1942 – U.S. Government “requests” (orders) auto makers to switch to wartime production and stop building cars.
2/7/1958 – The car world is introduced to the 600 Automatic Transmission – Dutch DAF
The first continuously variable transmission (automatic) developed by the Dutch car manufacturer DAF (although one was used in England circa 1923 – guess it wasn’t a big hit back then). DAF produced some ‘cute’ cars:
The 600
The car that made the automatic transmission popular.
1964, but in an era of cheap gasoline many motorists preferred a V-8. Thus, when GM found itself with more sixes than it needed, it sold the Buick V-6 rights and tooling to the Kaiser-Jeep Corp. in 1967. K-F named it the “Dauntless 225” and used it in …
“My goal was to build an expedition vehicle. I had been shopping for a truck to design and build for sustained off-road travel,” says Kevin Mackie of Milpitas, California. The story of how he ended up buying and building this ’69 Kaiser M715 began with …
I have a bunch of other posts ready to publish..ok…fine but they are started…including Auto Factoids, The Bridgestone project, a couple of Drive By/Parking Lot Spot pieces but just had to stop and type a bit about Hess Trucks.
I recently got the latest issue of Hemmings Motor News and flipping through it I saw this article on Hess Gas Stations and the promotional toys they sell.
If you are from the North East you will have seen the Hess stations.
I remember these stations as a kid, always seemed bright and clean. I also remember getting the Hess trucks as gifts. We weren’t well off so they were usually a Christmas gift and I think we mainly got them from one set of grand parents. I remember playing with them inside and outside and they didn’t last very long and we never considered saving them.
This is the first model my father sent my son.
When my son was born my father began sending one every Christmas to him. He loved getting them and would play with them a bit, but that was about the time computers and gaming consoles became common place and began taking the place of playing, as we did when we were young. For 14 years my Dad would sent one every year. We still have all of them, even the 1982 pictured above (which is actually two years older than my son) original boxes and all. My son would play with them a bit and then we’d remove the batteries and put them back in box. They are all nicely packet and in the attic, ready for my son to pass on to his son/daughter.
They come in many different models – tankers, flat beds, 18 wheelers, police and others, and apparently are only available around Christmas time. I didn’t realize that until I read the Hemming article, that explains why I got them for Christmas gifts and my son as well.
Hess started the tradition in 1964. The article further state that Hess is dropping out of the gas station business (Remember when they were called ‘filling stations’ or ‘service stations’?) and will concentrate only on refining but the good news is they will keep the convenient stores and folks will be able to purchase the trucks at those location every holiday season. Oh yeah….they are available online WWW.HESSTOYTRUCK.COM .
Do you have a Hess Toy Truck collection? Drop us a note.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Just saw a Hess gas station wow taking me all the way back to my childhood .. Hess trucks for days thanks gramma !
Even if you aren’t a Corvette lover (WHAT?!??) you know or have heard of the L88. This was the designation of a racing engine used by GM in the Corvettes from 1967 – 1969 (0nly 3 years!!). (Now there was a LT1 – 88 hybrid dubbed the ZLZ – lower compression – same out put.)
The engine sported a racing-spec cam with high-flow aluminum heads. Toss in a couple of upgrades and you are looking at a compression ratio of 12.5:1 and rocking it at 430 hp!!!
And doesn’t it look great wrapped in that two-tone paint job.
This beauty was at my local hardware store. Yeah…I’d drive it there.
Yes that intake is the real deal!!!
Big Block L88
1967 L88 Corvette fetches world record 3.85 million in Scottsdale: The January 2014 auctions have concluded an… http://t.co/Att1jz815N
AC Automotive: Barrett-Jackson: 1967 L88 Corvette Sells for 3.85 Million http://t.co/BLHuTjmCDZ #AC #auto #cars
An amateur Corvette L88 team beat the world’s best GT cars in this world record holding No. 57 “Rebel” L88 Corvette. The story about how this amazing Corvette became a world- beater begins with two Tampa, Fla., businessmen, Dave Heinz and Or …
If you’ve been reading my ‘stuff’ for a while, you’ll know that this site is not a commercial enterprise. The ads you see here are just products or services I like. No money has ever exchanged hands. Even the Car Art page is offered gratuitously.
So I’m going break my tradition and add one more ad – mine!
With over 30 years ‘living’ with cars I’ve decided to take my passion to the next level. As my regular readers know, I grew up around cars, hanging with my Dad as he worked on ours and working in his auto body shops on and off for all my teenage years. We did everything from replacement panels to welding two car halves together to make one (a Datsun 510) to complete paint jobs with bondo work to painting the Coke swirl on the deliver trucks. I learned to use a porta-power jack and a slam hammer to straighten out some of the worse dents – acceptable back then and even today.
My first car was a 1966 Chevy Impala convertible, loving restored by my Dad for my graduation (back in 1976). A couple years later I restored a 1970 Plymouth Duster, with a 318 and three speed. This was upstate New York so there was a lot of body work on this car. Next up was a girl friends 1971 Thunderbird, liked that car more than I did her…well I missed the car more anyway. Next up was a 1970 Chevelle, automatic with a 350 (nothing special back then), mostly tinkered with that and it died on a highway in eastern Nebraska. After that there was a gap of a few years, while I joined the military, traveled the world, got married and raised a son.
And if you’ve been a regular reader of this blog you’ll know my history with my first Corvette. Lots of work on this first year C4 generation Vette. I replaced every bushing and rubber component, including the mounts for the transmission, etc. The work I completed on this car earned two car show trophies (not Pebble Beach caliber – but best in class in medium to large local car shows).
If you’ll took a look at the Mustang tab on this blog you can see the restoration of my 1970 Mustang. Now I had some of this work done for me, but I kept a close eye on the details and budget. This included a complete paint job, welding, new motor mounts were need to let the bored 302 to be placed between the finders, custom pulleys for mounting the A/C, power steering and alternator. I did all the upholstery myself and replaced the original three speed transmission with the a stock Shelby 4 speed complete with Hurst Competition Plus Shifter. You can read the rest on these pages.
This is a long introduction to my services. I’m recently obtained my Classic Car Auto Appraisal certification and I specialize in classic, muscle, and specialty vehicles (racing and modified cars). Additionally with all my experience restoring cars I’ve begun to offer my services as a restoration project manager.
The appraisal service is pretty straight forward. The project management service is not unique but more then just consulting. I’m currently managing the restoration of a rare VW bug for a car lover – but not car girl. You’ll see more of that coming up, as it’s now in the 2nd year of it’s “every bolt off” restoration. Did I mention two of my restorations won 3 car show best in class trophies? My ’70 Mustang and my ’84 Corvette.
See more on the Services page or contact me directly.
Thought I’d share this article from Car and Driver.
My first car was a convertible – 1966 Impala. It was given to me in 1976 when I graduated high school. I lived in upstate New York and being young I could squeeze out a good 5 months of top down. But speeds were slower then and gas was cheap so cruising wasn’t half your paycheck and you could still hear the stereo. But when it got down to the middle up winter in the Adirondacks, nothing stopped the code from getting in and you sure could tell how light the car was when you had to drive on snow and ice.
My next convertible was my 1984 Corvette, of course wasn’t really a rag top but a targa top, which is a perfect alternative to a folding cloth top and much better than a mere sun roof. But I know live a weather environment 180o from where I had my first convertible. Here in southern Arizona you can maybe squeeze out 5 months where it’s great to run with the roof off without melting like a carton of gelato in a microwave oven or freezing your assets off when it 29o – Yeah it gets that could here! However, depending on how sensitive to hot and cold you are and whether you mind lifting the lifting the top out of the rear cargo area you in the summer time often start out the morning with the top in the back and pop it on when the temp climbs past your liking. EXTRA BONUS – it keeps the cool air in 90% better than the cloth top. I enjoy by C6 topless.
Oh, as a side note the C4 top was a pain to remove – the C6 much easier to remove and replace!!!
How racing has changed over the years. Now I’m not a big F1 follower although I did drive a F1 at Phoenix International Speedway, in Phoenix, AZ and that was impressive machine – slightly older model. So I have a lot of respect of them and driving them for hours…well…let’s just say you are going to have be a hard a$$ or develop one!!!
So look at the McLaren’s new offering the shape is amazing.
2014 MP4-29 F1
Take a look at the side view:
Sure is different than those old flat bottomed Formula 1
Well we just returned from a weekend trip to Las Vegas celebrating my beautiful wife’s birthday. Of course since you see this post, you can surmise that we didn’t come back big winners, but I did bring home more money than what I started with and we had a great time. However, I was disappointed, I hadn’t been to the “strip” for a number of years and I was expecting to see some fantastic cars zipping around. High roller – flashing their Lambo’s and Farraris or even a Lotus or a classic. Nope – not a one, unless you count the Ferrari that sat at the resort the entire time. Very disappointed.
So back at the old keyboard and here are your auto factoids for the week.
Jan 20, 1942 – Chevy sends it last car off the assembly line until WWII concludes. The bulk of the last cars produced were, for the time, the very undesirable “black out” models – where chrome wasn’t used and the cars seemed muted. But a true black out model is highly sought after in today’s market.
http://travelphotobase.com/v/USWA/WATM4211.HTM
Jan 21, 1954 – …… Tell you what….guess what this is?
It’s a gas-turbine engine powered bus. First displayed in NY on this date. This is a GM application the are others, including a “firebird” and some Chrysler projects.
Jan 24, 1960 – Volvo shows the world the P1800 Prototype. The engine was the Swedish B18 and it displaced 1800 cc. Topped with dual SU carbs it produced 100 hp. The try was dubbed the P1900 but only double digit(under 100) number of cars were sold. The engine was Swedish but the car was being manufactured by Jensen. Jensen had quality control problems with the P1800 and by 1963 Vovlo took the car home to it’s Gothenburg and named it the 1800S (for Sweden).
I seriously like the lines of this car!!
Thanks for reading
Tim
If you’d like to sponsor one or more AGCRMR’s Auto Factoid articles – drop me note. With over 200k monthly page visitors you’ll get a lot of visibility.
RT @Eric_Rasmussen: Talk about a heartbreaking rip-off for some classic car owners in the Bay Area. For weeks, I’ve been looking into… h…
to complete paint jobs with bondo work to painting the Coke swirl on the deliver trucks. I learned to use a porta-power jack and a slam hammer to straighten out some of the worse dents – acceptable back then and even today.
