vintage cars

Classic Car Week: Rare Tucker celebrates 70th anniversary

The automotive industry has its share of eccentric businessmen with utopian dreams for fine machines. Preston Tucker was in the fraternity, but his legend has lasted far longer than the car he conceived. Tucker and his cohorts made 51 vehicles, designed in Michigan and built in Chicago. The prototype was called the Tucker Torpedo, the production model the Tucker 48. It was manufactured in about a one-year span beginning in 1946 was unveiled as 1948 model. The Tucker 48 was rear-engine, rear-wheel drive and had a four-wheel independent suspension. It had a horizontally opposed V6 engine with 166 horsepower. It had a pop-out safety glass windshield, padded dash and doors and the upper doors were cut into the roofline. It

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Jerry Seinfeld honors Jerry Lewis in Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Two famous comedians named Jerry driving in a vintage convertible with its top down to an omelet shop in Las Vegas? Is there a better way to begin the 10th season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee than with Jerry Lewis and Jerry Seinfeld? Jerry Seinfeld didn’t think so. His guest in the first episode of the new season and as the show transitions from Crackle to Netflix, is deceased comedian Jerry Lewis. The debut show was taped last year. It provides a poignant 20-minute homage to Lewis, who died on August 20, 2017, from heart failure at age 91. In the video preview to the opener, which will debut on Netflix on July 6, Seinfeld and Lewis visit the

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Episode 40, Classic car owners, renters meet on DriveShare

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:33 — 40.6MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MorePeter Zawadzki is as passionate about classic cars as any enthusiast. About four years ago, he had a keen idea to allow others to share his appreciation. He decided to rent out his 1958 MGA. A couple made it part of their wedding celebration. Fast-forward and the success of the initial transaction is the Hagerty DriveShare Program. It’s the online marketplace for owners of classic vehicles to rent their wheels to other enthusiasts. It’s worked. Getaway weekends, weddings, anniversaries and pending buyers who seek to test a comparable vehicle to a classic they’re considering purchasing, are among the reasons owners and renters meet on

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Episode 32, Coolest show on earth for all things engines

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:18 — 43.0MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreThe Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show is a daylong festival of engines. Rare and sentimental cars, trucks, aircraft, law enforcement vehicles, tractors, busses, military machines and motorcycles, they’re all showcased. Add lives band, food and beverage vendors to its moniker as “the coolest show earth,” ideally defines the upcoming 28th annual event scheduled from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m April 29 at Half Moon Bay Airport. The six-hour gathering is a “massive celebration of mechanical ingenuity, power and style.” And it’s the best bargain and with proceeds benefitting the Coastside Adult Day Health Center in Half Moon Bay. In Episode 32 of The Weekly

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Episode 27, The legacy of one family’s 1986 Chrysler Lebaron

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 23:05 — 31.7MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreThirty-two years ago, Karen Saylor’s parents drove into a downtown Sacramento, California, car dealership and drove away in a new 1986 turbocharged Chrysler Lebaron convertible. Like the legacies of many family cars, Karen Saylor fondly recalls going shopping with mother with the Lebaron’s convertible top down. She remembers trips to the Monterey Peninsula when mother and daughter had their hair blowing in the wind. A neighbor in East Sacramento, Saylor is our guest on episode #27 of The Weekly Driver Podcast. She recalls a lot about how much cars meant to her parents and to her husband with whom she owned several Ford Thunderbirds.

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Episode 24, Eric Wohlberg: cycling champion, vintage Buick driver

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 22:37 — 31.1MB)Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreEric Wohlberg spent more than a decade traveling around the world to compete on two wheels. He participated in three Summer Olympics for Canada and won multiple cycling national individual time trial titles and stage races. But Wohlberg, 53, of San Jose, in his sixth year as a director for the Rally Cycling Team, now prefers four-wheel transportation. He often travels to the team’s camp and its races in the United States and his native country while driving one of his two vintage cars. Since 1990, Wohlberg has owned a 1965 Mustang Fastback. For his 50th birthday, he purchased a 1964 Buick LeSabre estate

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The Weekly Driver Podcast – Episode 2 – Cars We’ve Owned

Podcast: Play in new window | Download ()Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | MoreEvery family has cars, some long gone, some inherited by children or found in grandpa’s garage decades later. A vehicle’s pedigree is at least half the fun when discussing family cars. It could be something rare or a just a favorite old station wagon the family took on a trip when you were a child. The Weekly Driver Podcast, Episode 2 – Cars We’ve Owned In episode 2 of The Weekly Driver podcast, co-hosts Bruce Aldrich and James Raia discuss our first cars and other vehicles we’ve owned through the years. We also discuss our families’ cars, old Volkswagen models to Ford Falcons, tough old Buick sedans

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Ford Mustang dominates internet vintage car searches

Vintage car enthusiasts all have their favorites. But there’s one iconic vehicle that dominates internet searches — the Ford Mustang. According to the website classiccars.com, the Mustang generated 3,736,942 unique searches in 2016. The Mustang pushed the Ford to its status as the top manufacturer searched for vintage vehicles, followed by Chevrolet. In its state-by-state calculations, the Mustang ranked first in 13 states, followed by the Chevrolet Impala (7) and the Chevrolet Camaro (5), Chevrolet Corvette (3), Dodge Charger (3) and Ford Thunderbird (3). ClassicCars.com, which specializes the research and purchase of classic cars and trucks, registers 330,000 searches daily and three million unique monthly visitors. The site, founded in 2007, is based in Phoenix, Arizona. Among manufacturers, Ford and

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Pacific Coast Dream Machines: All things for all engines

The recent 27th annual Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show occurred exactly as billed. Trailer queens to muscle cars, dragsters to junkers, rarities to one-of-kind machines that looked like they were made for Mad Max movies, were all displayed at the Half Moon Bay Airport, 20 miles south of San Francisco. The all-inclusive event, a charity for an area adult daycare center, works well under the premise of 84-year-old founder Bob Senz, who says: “If it’s a mean matchine, you bring it.” Senz’s description works, albeit with a loose description of the word “mean.” Perhaps better described, about 2,000 vehicles on display were the possessions of passionate owners, whether the “mean machine” was a valuable vintage car or a vehicle of

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The worst car ever? Auto-Kabine, a VW Bug on steroids

The ugliest car ever made is an ideal topic over a great burger and couple of beers. There’s plenty of room for discussion. But the worst car ever? There seems to be a consensus: The Hoffmann Auto-Kabine. M. Hoffmann, a post-WWII engineer and entrepreneur, built bicycles and Vespas in Germany in the late 1940s and then decided to entry automobile manufacturing. It was disastrous. The Auto-Kabine microcar, which resembles a VW Bug on steroids, couldn’t have been a more contrary mechanical assemblage. The engine drives the single rear wheel mounted on a cradle. It pivots on a kingpin in the center of the vehicle’s triangular frame. An extraordinarily complex lever mechanism operates the steering. The short wheelbase, rear-wheel steering proved

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Monterey Peninsula: a mecca for all things automotive

Monterey Car Week is a misnomer. The yearly congregation of nearly all things automotive lasts 10 days. The car shows, auctions, tours, exhibits, forums and memorabilia sales presented in August are also held in cities throughout the Monterey Peninsula. The 2017 diverse motoring collective (www.whatsupmonterey.com) will be held Aug. 11-20. The automotive sensory overload will begin with a classic car show of 30 vintage race cars and their drivers in downtown Monterey from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 11. The Concours d’Elegance, the country’s most esteemed competition among elegant vintage rarities, is always the finale. It’s scheduled 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 20 at Pebble Beach. With the Pacific Ocean backdrop as well as the famous golf courses,

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Academy Awards often an homage to new, vintage cars

Perhaps only second to the theme of love, cars are nearly an inescapable part of movies. Among this year’s Best Picture nominations in the upcoming Academy Awards extravaganza, vintage and futuristic vehicles are prominent in Mad Max: Fury Road, Brooklyn and Bridge of Spies. But while prominent, cars aren’t the stars of any of this season’s top films set for the spotlight in the 88th edition Academy Awards on Feb. 28. Still, cars are often presented in starring roles. In many instances, the vehicles used in iconic Academy Awards films through the years are as famous the actors and actresses who’ve drove them in anger and in sheer joy. Cars Often Shine In Academy Awards Movies Cars, in fact, are

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Janis Joplin’s psychedelic Porsche fetches $1.76 million

The 1964 Porsche 356 C1600 SC Cabriolet owned and used as a daily driver by rock and roll star Janis Joplin sold Dec. 10 in New York for $1.76 million at the RM Sotheby’s auction and far exceeded the expected selling price. The announced price in the auction title “Driven By Disruption” was prompted by aggressive bidding among seven collectors in the room in the New York auction house and via telephone. The sale of the wildly painted Porsche set a record amount for any Porsche 356 sold at public auction, according to Sotheby’s. Joplin’s car was expected to fetch around $400,000. Purchased from a used car lot in 1968, Joplin engaged Dave Richards, a friend and roadie with her

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Thinking about visiting Disneyland? How about owning a ride?

You can go to Disneyland to ride on an attraction — just like everyone else. Or you can own a Disneyland attraction car ride. Several vintage attraction car rides will be among more than 800 items of memorabilia from Disneyland offered in a live auction Nov. 21 from Van Eaton Galleries’ “Collecting Disneyland” auction. According to the Sherman Oaks, California-based gallery and auction, the sale is a “rare opportunity to own original Disneyland attraction ride cars.” The cars include two original Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover ride cars, a Skyway to Fantasyland bucket ride car and a Space Mountain ride vehicle. The PeopleMover attraction debuted on July 2, 1967 and ran until August 21, 1995. Van Eaton says the two PeopleMover

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Ten Fun, Affordable Vintage Cars

My father owned a 1962 Corvair Spyder convertible. It was supercharged, had wire-rimmed wheels. And, of course, it was a rear-engine wonder. It was the most unique car my family owned during my youth. We weren’t really a car family. I remember a 1955 Buick, a 1962 Ford Falcon station wagon, a 1964 Ford Galaxie, a 1973 Ford Courier pick-up truck and a 1973 Mercedes-Benz 240D. Somewhere in the mix, we had a Volvo sedan and an AMC Hornet. Nothing fancy. Some good cars, some bad. If given the opportunity, I would own any of them now for nostalgia. Which, of course, is why one reason why vintage cars, rare or otherwise, are a joy. There are plenty of other

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Favorite fantasy cars, Jaguar XKE to Bugatti Veyron

Maybe just a simple red convertible, any year, any style is your fantasy car? If that’s not good enough, how about a high-performance supercar like a Bugatti Veyron or a even more rare Saleen? Perhaps you’re into vintage cars and long for a 1957 T-Bird, a Gullwing Mercedes-Benz or a pristine Porsche? Or maybe off-the-hook top speed is what you’re seeking and you’ll only settle for a Hennessey. Its Venom GT model last February achieved a record top speed of 270.49 mph at the Kennedy Space Center on the Shuttle Landing Facility’s 3.2-mile runway in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Regardless of your desires, here are 10 fantasy cars. Some are readily attainable without cashing in your 401K. Others are likely out

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