As part of the publicity campaign to promote the upcoming Barrett-Jackson charity auction of GM CEO Dan Akerson’s personal 1958 Corvette to benefit Habitat For Humanity in Detroit, GM Design chief Ed Welburn brought that car along with three Corvettes from GM’s Heritage collection to the Big Dog Garage for an episode of Jay Leno’s Garage. I have a ton of respect for Leno and not just because we both own Lotus Elans (in Leno’s case, he owns two, one a 26R racer that he’s restomodding, mine is in pieces, in what is now my ex’s garage). He’s a knowledgeable car guy whose collection is broader and deeper than that of many car museums. Sure, he’s promoting himself, and helping GM promote itself as well, but then that doesn’t hurt when Jay wants a one-off eco supercar. Still, PR aside, Leno loves cars and it shows in which of the four Corvettes most catches his fancy. In addition to Akerson’s ’58, Welburn brought one of the first Corvettes, a 1953, a perfect ’63 split window coupe, and the 1959 Stingray race car, Leno’s apparent favorite. He refers to it as “the rarest and most valuable” Corvette there is, though it wasn’t officially a “Corvette”. Watch Leno grin as he listens to the engine roar after Welburn lets him fire it up.

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It’s got an awkward name but it’s a vehicle whose niche will never disappear. A “sedan delivery” is a commercial version of the station wagon that has metal panels replacing the glass in the vehicle’s rear (photos here). They were originally used by small businesses as service and delivery vehicles and it’s such a practical vehicle that they never really will go away. They were made out of ’57 Chevy Nomads, they made them out of Pinto wagons and they currently are being made out of Chevy’s HHR retro panel truck thing. Now Ford Europe is getting back into the sedan delivery business. To accommodate those businesses that need to transport tools and replacement parts but don’t need the capacity of something like a Transit Connect, Ford of Europe has introduced the new Fiesta Van, based on the Fiesta hatchback.

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When you say the word Cord, most car enthusiasts think of the “coffin nose” 810/812 models, designed by Gordon Buehrig for the 1936 and 1937 model years. There was much about the ’36-’37 Cords that was revolutionary, or at the very least advanced for their day. Buehrig’s art deco masterpiece was E. L. Cord’s automotive swan song. His styling included hideaway headlights flush mounted in pontoon fenders, hidden door hinges, no running boards, and that distinctive one piece hood was hinged at the cowl and opened from the front, not from the sides as in most prewar cars. From a technical standpoint, what people remember about the ’36 Cord is that it had front wheel drive. Some mistakenly believe that the Cord 810 was the first front wheel drive American production car. Actually, the first front wheel drive Cord was the L-29, named for 1929, its year of introduction. The L-29 was not just the first Cord with front wheel drive, it was indeed the first American car with front wheel drive that was offered for sale to the public, beating the now obscure Ruxton to the market by a few months.

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As millions of kids get ready to unwrap their Christmas presents Ford is making a big deal about the fact that in the three years since its uber F-150, the SVT Raptor, was introduced, licensees selling toy Raptors have made them the most popular licensed trucks in the toy industry. With all the discussion about a possible lack of interest in cars and driving by young people now reaching adulthood, it’s interesting to see that toy trucks are still popular with kids, which might bode well for the auto industry.

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I was already in a wagon state of mind when, driving home on the Lodge freeway after a stop in downtown Detroit, I spotted a camo’d car with manufacturer’s plates up ahead. It was some kind of hatchback or wagon and it had a Blue Oval on the hatch/tailgate so it was undoubtedly a Ford.

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Lately, in no small part due to Michael Moore, the “documentary” film has become the carborundum upon which filmmakers from a variety of perspectives have ground their own axes and then proceeded to chop down the subject of their films. It’s nice, then, to see a documentary made that exhibits some affection for the subject. Wagonmasters, a film made by Chris Zaluski and Sam Smartt as part of their work for MFAs from Wake Forest University’s Documentary Film Program, looks at the great American station wagon with affection. Wistful affection for the now disappeared suburban icon of Americana, but affection nonetheless. (Read More…)

Okay, so at 257.8 feet, the yacht Delphine is a bit longer than your average Dodge Grand Caravan, Monaco or Polara. It’s even bigger than a Ram 3500 with dualies, but it is a Dodge, in a manner of speaking. Horace Dodge even designed the engine.

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Henry Ford II and Israeli premier David Ben Gurion, Ford HQ, Dearborn 1951

One of the neatest parts of being a car guy living in the Detroit area is that you hear stories about the people in the auto industry. Some of those stories are obviously apocryphal or urban legends, others have the ring of truth but can’t be verified. Last night at dinner I heard one of those stories, only in this case the source is credible and willing to say it on the record. Whenever the topic of Henry Ford comes up, almost invariably Ford’s shortcomings as a human being get mentioned, in particular Henry’s infamous antisemitism. (Read More…)

If you’ve driven for a few years, you’ve probably had a close call or two. I can remember when I was in college and I was driving my Lotus Elan to Ann Arbor from Oakland County via two lanes and small towns. I was going through South Lyon I think it was, and as I went down Main Street, a pickup truck pulled out from the curb lane just as another pickup going in the opposite direction veered over the double yellow. I don’t think that I had a gap that was much more than a foot wider than the Elan. Had I not been driving such a small car I never would have avoided a really nasty accident and might have ended up hitting (or getting hit by) both trucks.

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Yesterday, Bertel posted that Michigan, home to the United Auto Workers and a state where twice the national average of workers are organized by labor unions, “might” soon pass a right-to-work law, something that is anathema to labor unions. It appears that law will be enacted even faster than soon. On Thursday afternoon, with thousands of protesters at the capitol representing both sides of the issue, the first step in the legislative process, approval by the state House of Representatives, took place with the passage of House Bill 4054. The legislation is expected to be passed by the Michigan Senate and signed into law by Governor Snyder by the middle of next week.

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In the bankruptcy auction for EV battery maker A123 that begins today, Reuters is reporting that NEC of Japan and Siemens of Germany are going to join China’s Wangxiang and Wisconsin’s Johnson Controls in bidding for the entire company.

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1929 Packard Eight 745 Sport Phaeton owned by Richard & Linda Kughn – More photos here.

Not much more than a decade ago, the total worldwide market for the most expensive cars was in four figures. Then, not necessarily in chronological order, Ford bought Aston Martin, VW and BMW fought over the rights to the Rolls-Royce and Bentley brands, Fiat started taking its investment in Ferrari seriously and VW bought Lamborghini. Instead of operating as they had been, more or less boutique operations, those luxury marques were now expected to pay their keep. Also someone smart figured out that there were a lot more than just few thousand rich people in the world and that a $200,000 car is almost an impulse purchase to people who can afford a Gulfstream or a fourth home. For most of the years 1985-2001 Ferrari sold between 3,200 and 4,500 cars a year. Today, Ferrari alone makes about 7,000 cars a year. (Read More…)

Chrysler Thunderbolt and Newport Show Cars in the atrium of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum

I’m an unabashed booster of Detroit area institutions so it was with some sadness that I read that the Walter P. Chrysler Museum on the Chrysler campus in Auburn Hills will be closing to the public at the end of the year. Apparently admission fees and facility rentals were not sufficient to sustain continued operations.

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Steve Lang just asked the question, Which Car Companies Do You Not Like… But Respect?. That brings to mind a related question, sort of an inverse on Christianity’s love the sinner, not the sin, attitude. What car companies that you don’t like make cars that you do like? I’m pretty sure that I can guess how our friend Mr. Baruth feels about Porsche the company, but the guy owns three of Zuffenhausen’s best.

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Some positions are dream jobs. Let’s say that you’re a car guy and that you like to paint and that you also happen to live in France. What could be a better job than being the official artist of the 24 Hours of LeMans race? François Bruère is that car guy and that’s his dream job. I first came across François while he was setting up his display at the automotive art show & sale that was part of the Concours of America at St. John’s festivities in suburban Detroit. Bruère has spent 30 years refining a style that combines hyperrealistic renderings of automobiles with sepia toned backgrounds, often historic, that give his work a distinctive, immediately recognizable style.

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