Despite weighing in at a hefty 4,plus pounds, the C proved its mettle on the track. Instantly recognizable on the street, it commanded respect at every stoplight, yet its cost meant that in pretty much every case a suit-and-tie-wearing swell was at the wheel. Two-tone Chevrolet Bel Air with whitewall tires. The small-block engine bristled with innovations.
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First was its light weight: an impressive 41 pounds less than the Chevy six. Its short piston stroke, big valves and excellent cylinder-head design gave it unparalleled high rpm performance. The aesthetic emphasized length and sleek, swept, dart-like features. It was reinforced by dramatic two-tone paint schemes with bright chrome borders. Taillights were housed in the trailing edges of the fins. Bumpers and grille were treated as massive chrome appendages. The Adventurer got standard TorqueFlite automatic transmissions and power brakes among many other standard features.
It also had gold plating for the trim accents. DeSoto proudly noted it was the only standard i. In a horsepower race, this was the car to have in , with flamboyant style to match its performance. It won uncountable races as the Boss It set drag-racing records as the Boss Advertisement featuring the Chevrolet Corvair.
Small, lightweight and modestly powered, a compact served basic transportation needs—and maybe a little bit of counter-cultural disdain for prestige. A flood of them came from Detroit in , and the driving public gobbled them up. But Corvair had one fatal flaw: a swing-axle independent rear suspension. Even with the attraction of a turbocharged hp version of its cubic-inch engine.
Corvair passed away after , a daring concept tripped up by negative publicity and the burgeoning auto-safety movement. Pontiac Division president E. So Estes and DeLorean found a simple workaround to the new-model rule: Make the horsepower engines a mid-year option in the Le Mans. With sales success, all restrictions were off. It also ignited muscle car madness. In GM looked to have a hit when it introduced the handsome, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive, sub-compact Vega.
Its single-overhead-camshaft cast-iron cylinder head aided performance. Individual bucket seats and a floor-shift 3-speed manual transmission came standard, giving Vega a sports car flair. It was chosen by Motor Trend magazine as its Car of the Year. Unfortunately for Chevrolet, it also rusted quickly and the engine had vibration and cooling issues. In , Time magazine named Richard M. Nixon its person of the year. And Ford introduced a spiffy new small car called the Pinto. Despite promising starts, none of these would end well.
It used two different cast-iron four-cylinder engines engines one 75 horsepower, the other which had been built in England and Germany and were already proven in their home markets. Bucket seats, a floor-mounted shifter for the standard four-speed manual transmission and rack-and-pinion steering sported up the driving experience.
In an attractive and practical 2-door station wagon was added, and these three models would remain in the Pinto lineup until it was discontinued in Pretty much anyone with a passing knowledge of cars, or who lived through the s, knows what happened next. With more than a million Pintos on the road soon after its introduction, the car displayed a sometimes-fatal tendency to catch fire when hit in the rear. The problem was ultimately traced to the location of the fuel tank and its filler neck. Ford relocated those components for and later models.
But in , facing an impending recall order from the U. It proved to be a devastating and expensive blow to Ford and its prestige—particularly when, in , the State of Indiana charged Ford Motor Company with reckless homicide in a rear-ended Pinto fire. The blistering-fast brainchild of American racing driver and entrepreneur Carroll Shelby, the Shelby Cobra made incarnate the belief that you can never have too many horses under the hood.
Theirs was a nifty marriage: Shelby was looking for an American engine-European chassis project. Shelby approached Chevy for engines. We think not.
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Introduced in , the Shelby Cobra created a sensation among the automotive media—and wreaked havoc among its racing competitors. It would be a first for an American manufacturer. Yet another industry creates replicas—some good, some bad and a few downright ugly. The final fling of a Detroit legend, John Z. DeLorean, whose flamboyant lifestyle grated with suit-and-tie-wearing Detroit managers, but who produced results wherever he worked. At Chevrolet, he drove development of the compact Vega and the frighteningly powerful Chevelle, leading Chevrolet to its first year of 3-million-car-sales in In between, he courted models and movie stars, splitting his week between working in Detroit and partying in Los Angeles.
Production quality, in a word, sucked.
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The DMC lasted two years. Then John DeLorean was caught in a drug sting. Although he was acquitted of those charges— and a later fraud charge brought by DeLorean Motor creditors and investors—his high-flying automobile career had crashed and burned. At the beginning of the s, Chrysler Corporation was moribund and bound for bankruptcy. A new extended hood was also constructed that fit over the 4. Next step was to build the framework for the rear of the body per the full-sized body drafts, put it together and install the carefully-sized hand-hammered aluminum panels.
The headroom lost by chopping the top was regained by dropping the floor and footwells several inches below their stock location, which provided a most comfortable driving and seating position. The rear seat was similarly lowered by notching the bottom of the seat so that it cleared the driveline. Buehrig designed a special set of seat cushions for the car based on the same Marshall Knockland design typically used on the Model J. All of the work at Duesenberg was done after hours with Harold T.
Ames permission and Buehrig paid the workers out of his own pocket.
Ayres Company. After lunch, when I returned, there was a crowd around the car extending into the street to the streetcar tracks. A policeman was trying to clear away the crowd. He was happy to see me arrive and solve his dilemma.
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Aftermarket Another important player in the later part of these early years is the starting aftermarket companies the Los Angeles based Eastern Auto started by Joseph Kraus in was the most popular. The company started to develop parts for the model T Fords, Parts to help people keep their cars running through the rough depression years. Different styles of ripple disk hubcaps, inspired by the Cadillac knock off hubcaps were also among the first items they developed especially for the Custom Car enthusiast.
Beautifully restyled Chevy Convertible with padded top, solid hood sides, removed running boards, narrow grille, spotlights, and teardrop skirts parked in front of the Eastern Auto Supply Co. He developed his love for cars in his fathers blacksmith shop in Pueblo, Colorado. The shop was doing both horse and buggy repairs as well as the new automobiles. His Custom Cars as well as the grille design work on the race cars was trend setting.
Frank Kurtis worked on several of the famous So Calif Plating Co delivery trucks, creating some of the unique parts on the car. Later on in his life Frank concentrated mostly on race car orientated cars. Frank Kurtis around In Frank rented a section in the Paramount Auto Top Shop where he created some of his early customs including this Ford roadster with chopped raked windshield and custom grille and the Oldsmobile sedan with custom grille.
The humble beginnings of Custom Restyling.
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A few more samples of Frank Kurtis created early Customized automobiles. Top left, Model A Ford Roadster with modified Hudson fenders, stretched wheel base, Woodlite headlights, chopped windshield and the characteristic Frank Kurtis grille, Mottom left, Model A with Kurtis grille and modified fenders. Frank Kurtis also did the work on the Atlas Chrome Special race car, with a wonderful restyled chrome plated front end.
Another Atlas Chrome Plating truck was restyled by Frank Kurtis based on an 19 29 Ford to witch a set of Ford fenders, hood and grille was added.
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The truck featured a home made cast V-windshield and hand shaped top. New skirted fenders were added, and a beautiful chrome plated grille designed and incorporated with the modified hood. Cast slightly v-shaped windshield and modified v-ed bumper. Notice that the windshield on this truck is more upright than the one below. Truck Restyled by George DuVall and Frank Kurtis, based on an Ford pick features custom made grille, v-windshield, skirted fenders, custom bumper and many other custom made components. Stunning looking truck back in around when it was created.
This is the one car that set the standard, that had a huge impact on many car builder and car enthusiast. It is perhaps the most important car in the Custom Car history. The car was commissioned by Leonard K. The company already had owned several restyled pick up trucks that were used to haul to be plated and freshly plated parts from all over Los Angles.