Recently, Chris Harris from Drive TV went to the Goodwood Festival of Speed to do some gentleman’s racing in a classic Lister Jaguar Coupe. As many know this is an event focused on vintage cars, style, and everything in between. Watch as Chris and his former racecar driver friend battle it out against AC cobras and many other million dollar cars.
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Nearly twenty years apart, a mid fifties mercury wagon and a mid seventies Mercedes have very little in common. Except one major piece: they were built in a time when quality steel and comfy leather was standard. What an era. Quality as a baseline, wish we had that today!
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Above: Ultra-rare 1957 Ford Thunderbird “E” Code Factory Supercharged
Above: Factory original “Indy 500 Official Pace Car” Special Package offered by dealers in 1964. 1 of 2 Concours Gold pace car mustangs.
Above: 4 Original Big Block Shelby GT500’s, two being GT500KR’s.
Yesterday, April 17th was the birthday of the Ford Mustang. As it goes, I was too busy with everything (including working on one) to mention the Pony car’s birthday. Yesterday 49 years ago, it was displayed at the World Fair, and little did Ford know it would be arguably the iconic car from Ford. At the time it was a gamble for Ford engineers and designers, not knowing if a sporty small car could sell in a world full of used ’50’s land yachts and similar early ’60’s technology. It was an undeniable breakthrough, and it was soon clear they had struck gold. Three body styles gave the Mustang versatility, 4 seats made it a family car, and a strong V8 gave it a power to weight ratio that could compete with any labeled “sports” car of the time. The rest is history, and the amount of “good times” and memories facilitated by this iconic car are infinite. Below is a link to a forum thread currently running on Vintage Mustang Forums about how you got your classic mustang. The stories are hilarious, and some incredibly lucky, all are worth reading. Also included below is an original Ford advertisement for the Mustang, I just love how the announcer says “Mustang!”. Enjoy!
“What’s your Mustang story?” Thread
Feature Image source: forum.stangtv.com
One thing I love about European classics is the rarely seen “club badges” or “grille badges”. They always display a sense of pride and value in well built cars. It was the hand shaped fenders, hand stitched leather, and hand plated trim surrounding such cars that induced pride and joy in the sight of the finished product. The badges were added street respect, seeing one or two on the front of a car means the owner knew their car, and were deeply entrenched in the culture surrounding that genre of automobiles. Check out this 912 sporting some PCA Â pride on it’s back.
Everyone loved the latest GT500E from the 2000 movie Gone in Sixty Seconds. The reaction was similar to the early 1970’s movie Gone in 60 Seconds. If you haven’t seen either movie, the main plot is a huge car heist in a narrow time period.  Watching the movies always makes me think if such a large theft could actually be possible, and apparently I am not the only one who thought about such an event as the police departments all over the country reported a significantly larger number of car thefts in the years following the movie. The main star of both movies is a trouble-causing Mustang fastback named Eleanor. In the early film Eleanor embodies a mustard yellow ’73 Mustang Fastback which tears through police blockades like a tank. The later movie features Eleanor as  a 1968 Mustang Fastback Custom designed by Chip Foose himself. The later Eleanor is definitely the meaner of the two- with signature side exhaust, nitrous, and custom body kit. I personally prefer the early ’73 because of the sweet ’70’s paint color, and the steady burning of tires that was included with almost every sharp turn. Here are some pictures of both cars, as a side by side comparison as well as an exhaust note video of the newest GT500E.  Enjoy!
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Here lies a once-fresh VW 2 door fastback, a variation of the Bug and Squareback wagon. Yeah I’d say they got the fastback part right. The patina tells the rest of the story.
The best view of L.A.-
Shot Taken by Austin Loomis
The other day I spotted some fins. These fins were not american in their styling, but surely stylish. Â The late ’60’s Mercedes always intrigued me, as they were one of the few European cars with rear fins. I love the american fin styling of the 50’s, and this example of a 60’s German car wearing them sounds fitting as well. I recently visited the Peterson Automotive Museum, and I must say their exhibit on the styling and cars with fins was awesome, as well as educational. I have to say they could have thrown in a ’59 impala or ’57 fairlane, but those are a bit later in the fin era. Â The story of the finned Benz goes that they saw the mid 1950’s american cars were selling in huge quantities, and that the finned styling was obviously pleasing the consumer market. Â They went to their drawing board and took the Mercedes sedan designs and combined them with the rears of cars such as ’57 Chevys, and thus was born the finned Mercedes. I love the look, and this car. The two concepts: European diesel and American fin-styling merged together in this car make it incredibly and unique. It has the grace of a classic Benz, and the bold styling of an American Dream-based family car. Â I like that Mercedes stepped out in their design styling at that point in time, trying new things and different approaches to the same function often yields innovative ideas. Â Here’s some pics below, enjoy-
Have you ever heard an exhaust note that you know could only belong to a a proper vintage sports car? And by “proper” I am referring to one of European decent. Such was the case with this sweet 1956 Austin Healey 100M replica. To start, the exhaust is much like that of a classic Alfa GTV, articulated as well as loud enough to contribute to the prime motoring experience of a British roadster.  The next thing I noticed when I looked up as it was driving by was the windshield- low and sleek. It was made for speed, laid back in true aerodynamic style.  This trend of lowered windshields and slippery cars spanned many decades and included everything from chopped ’32 roadsters to Mercury Lead-sleds. In 1956, Healey did very well in Le Mans, and they decided to make factory examples of the racecars that year. Upgraded engines, lowered windshields, and leather hood straps were just a few of the factory specialty parts in the package. The 100M is arguably Healey’s best looking car. I would have to agree, the louvered hood is a nice touch as well. The body lines are simple, but aerodynamic in the functionally basic meaning of the word. This car was put together back in the day when lightweight roadster bodies, peppy engines, and short wheel bases were the accepted equation for track-speed. In many ways they were correct in their design for the application, and many others followed their lead in the speed oriented design such as Carroll Shelby and his Cobra, and anyone who put a V8 in a deuce coupe.
Spotting Classics 
