The Gilmore Car Museum, Hickory Corners, Michigan, July 31, 2017--Part 3: Interesting Americana

The next section of the Gilmore Museum brought us to a section that had a diverse selection of interesting American cars primarily from the 1950s and 1960s.  Lots of pastel colours and a great deal of chrome was on display.

The Tucker 48, which the museum acquired in 1983, was the 47th one built of the 50 cars, including a prototype, built at the Tucker factory.  At least one additional car has been built from spare parts.  The story behind the Tucker, which got the full Hollywood treatment in 1988 in "Tucker" The Man and His Dream," is well-known but in spite of everything it is hard to see how a severely under-capitalized manufacturer with technology issues would have succeeded in the US car business.  Tuckers are highly prized collector items today in spite of their lacklustre performance but because of the story of Preston Tucker and how he wanted to go against the Big Three.

1948 Tucker 48

1954 Kaiser Darrin

Unveiled to the public in 1952 (two months before the Chevrolet Corvette concept car), the Kaiser Darrin was intended to be a "halo" car to attract people to Kaiser showrooms.  Designed by the colourful and accomplished Howard "Dutch" Darrin, the Kaiser Darrin was the first two-seat fiberglass body sports car from an American manufacturer but was not a huge success for several reasons.  Performance with its 90hp engine was not sprightly, although it had excellent brakes, and the novelty sliding pocket doors made entry and exit awkward due to the limited door opening, besides tending to jam if dirt got on the runners.  The car did not have roll-up side windows but did have an unusual three position landau top.  The car was quite expensive and in the end only 435 were built. That does not sound like many but is actually representative of the limited market for two seat sports cars at the time.  However by the car's introduction in 1954 the Kaiser company was facing financial difficulties and as one commentator wrote: "Kaiser didn't need a traffic builder.  It needed a miracle."  Darrin took a number of unsold cars and re-engined them with more powerful Cadillac motors, improving performance dramatically.

1957 Ford Thunderbird

1963 Studebaker Avanti Sport Coupe

One of Studebaker's last-ditch efforts to stay in auto production, the Avanti was styled by noted designer Raymond Loewy's office and was marketed as "America's only four-passenger high-performance personal car." Powered by a 240 hp V8 (with an optional Paxton supercharger), the Avanti was the first American car to have front disc brakes.  It was introduced in 1962 and interest in the fibreglass bodied car was high but production delays and quality issues marred its launch.  Instead of the intended 20,000, only 1,200 Avantis were sold in 1962, with less than 4,600 the next year after which Studebaker production of the cars ceased.  Amazingly, the Avanti went on to a second life with five different companies, remaining on and off in production until 2006 in various versions, including a convertible and sedan.

1967 Shelby Cobra 427 S/C

Powered by a 427 cu. in. (7 litre) Ford V8 of 425 hp, this stock street Cobra, the 6th last produced, was capable of 163 mph.  It weighed only 2,523 lbs and could go from 0-60 mph in 4.2.  In spite of its fame, only 343 examples of the Cobra 427 model were built.

1963 Chrysler Turbine Car

Chrysler began experimenting with gas turbine engines in the 1930s.  Turbines are light, powerful, fairly simple mechanically, highly durable and can use a variety of fuels.  In 1963 Chrysler built a series of five prototypes and 50 production Turbine Cars and these were offered to 250 different drivers as public use test vehicles in some 133 cities from 1963 until 1966.  At that time Chrysler called back the cars (which were all identical in "Turbine Bronze" paint) and all were scrapped except for nine, of which Chrysler owns two, five are in museums and two are in private collections (including comedian Jay Leno's).  The turbine, in spite of its advantages, was not to be the future, suffering from complex starting requirements, considerable noise, and excessively high fuel consumption.  The Turbine Car suffered also from slow acceleration and would not have been able to meet emission standards coming into force.  The body, built by Ghia in Italy, bears a strong resemblance to the contemporary Ford Thunderbird, unsurprisingly as Elwood Engel was the designer of both the Turbine Car and the proposed 1958 T-Bird, which morphed into the 1961 Lincoln Continental.

Continue to Part 4 of the Gilmore Auto Museum visit here.

Concours d'Elegance of America, Plymouth, Michigan, July 30, 2017: Part Three

The next area we came to was dedicated to the Enthusiast of the Year, Ralph Gilles.  Mr. Gilles is currently Head of Design for Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, a position he has held since 2015.

1998 Chrysler Chronos Concept 4 Door Sedan

Inspired by the Chrysler/Ghia collaborations of the 1950s, including the 1955 Chrysler Falcon concept car, the Chronos came at a time when Chrysler was looking to create a new design language.  The car was to have a considerable influence on the Chrysler 300C sedan that went into production in 2005.

 

2004 Chrysler ME412 Concept

Powered by a turbocharged V12, the ME412 supercar was a radical concept for Chrysler.  It utilized LED lighting and unusual angular surfaces.

2000 Dodge Viper GTS-R Concept

Vipers have raced successfully, including LeMans class wins, and the GTS-R Concept was both a foreshadowing of the 3rd generation Viper, launched in 2003, as well as the pure racing Competition Coupe.

1989 Dodge Viper Concept

The Viper was introduced at the Detroit Auto Show in 1989 and stole the show.  A caricature of a sports car, it was a throwback to the primitive Cobras of yore.  It was produced from 1991 to 2017, with a hiatus from 2010-2012.  Powered by a V10 engine, it was even the star of its own promotional television program from 1994-1998.

1968 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale

Designed primarily as an endurance LeMans racer, the Tipo Stradale is considered the precursor of the modern mid-engine supercar.  A mere 18 examples were produced between 1967 and 1969; five were used as the basis for concept cars by Italian coachbuilders including Bertone and Pininfarina.  The most expensive car in the world when announced, they are seven-figure cars in the rare event one comes on the open market.

1957 Alfa Romeo 1900 C SS Zagato Coupe

Mr. Gilles co-drove this superb and rare Alfa Romeo in the 2016 Mille Miglia Storica.  The event is limited to cars produced no later than 1957 which had attended (or at least registered) for the Mille Miglia race that ran from 1927 to 1957.

The next class of cars seemed to be the smallest at the show. "European Classics," with only five cars indicated in the show program.  In fact, there were seven, including two fantastic Isotta Fraschinis, and each of them would have been the highlight of a car show individually.

1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Sport Cabriolet

This beautiful car resulted from a project in 1931 undertaken by the Swiss coachbuilders Carosserie Worblaufen, F. Ramseier & Co. to build an elegant sports cabriolet, using a 145 inch wheelbase 1924 Isotta Fraschini as a basis.  Re-bodying luxury cars was not unusual in that era of custom coachbuilding, although this very Germanic 1930s style would have had nothing in common with the original body.  The car was shown at the 1932 Geneva auto show and has had only four owners.  After residing in Switzerland and France, it was brought to the United States and underwent restoration.  Although the sign with the car did not indicate it, I immediately recognized this particular car as the 2015 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance Best in Show car.

1937 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet "A"

It is hard to get much more classic than this two seat (!) Mercedes-Benz 540K, one of 116 built with the factory Cabriolet A body, and equipped with a 5.4 litre supercharged inline eight cylinder engine, capable of pushing this 5,700 lb car to speeds reaching 100 mph.  Power was 180 bhp, and torque was 318 ft-lbs at 2200 rpm.  The 540K was built from 1936 to 1940.  Incidentally, new radiators for a 540K are available and cost $80,000.

1925 Renault Model 45 Tourer

Unlike most of Renault's regular mass production cars, the Model 45 was a monster powered by a 9 litre engine and riding on a 150 inch wheelbase.  It sports Renault's distinctive "coalscuttle" hood, so designed due to the placement of the radiator behind the engine.  The car features four wheel mechanical drum brakes and a four speed transmission.  Previously owned by the Nethercutt Collection, it is now displayed by the Stahl Museum in Michigan.  Only six surviving Model 45s are known.

1939 Delahaye 135 Cabriolet

 Delahaye was one of the oldest car companies in the world, founded in 1894, and built the six cylinder 135M from 1936 until the firm went out of business in 1954.  This example here is clothed in a fairly understated body by Swiss coachbuilder Gebrüder Tüscher, a firm that survived the coachbuilt era.  Founded in 1917, it produced bus bodies and imported Chrysler automobiles as well as building custom car bodies, the latter occupation until 1940.  The company today continues as a manufacturer of commercial vehicle bodies, primarily for buses.

1935 Amilcar Pegase G36 Roadster

 Amilcar had left its minimalist cyclecar past far behind it when the Pegase came onto the market in 1934.  At this point the company, which ceased production in 1940, was owned by Delahaye and used the same engine and transmission as that brand's 135M model.  This car, one of only four Pegases built in 1935, boasts a flamboyant roadster body by celebrated builders Figoni & Falaschi.  It is thought to be the only Pegase roadster extant today.

1927 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8AS Dual Cowl Phaeton

Isotta Fraschini focused much of its auto production (it also produced trucks and marine and aircraft engines) to the wealthy American export market and in the 1920s many celebrities, including Rudolph Valentino, Clara  Bow, William Randolph Hearst and Jack Dempsey, to say nothing of Pope Pius XI, the Queen of Romania and Benito Mussolini, enjoyed these fine cars.  This sensational Dual Cowl Phaeton was shipped as a bare chassis to New York in 1928 where it received the body designed and built by LeBaron.  It was ordered by George Piperno, a New York stockbroker, who apparently purchased a total of five Isotta Fraschini, of which three are still in existence.  The Isotta Fraschini was the second-most popular foreign car in America after Rolls-Royce, although priced to exceed even a Duesenberg.  Isotta Fraschini stopped building cars in 1934 as production was reoriented to military orders. Although at attempt to revive production with a rear-engined oddity, the Monterosa, was made after World War II, only a handful of prototypes were constructed.

Continue to Part Four here.