Stretched Chevrolet station wagon from the Milton Hershey School joins the AACA Museum collection

Posted on Mar 24, 2015 in Featured | 2 comments

Buses were just too industrial for the Milton Hershey School in the early Sixties. Instead, the boarding school’s administrators wanted to transport its students to and from student housing in a manner that more resembled typical family life. To do so, they commissioned a fleet of station wagons – extra long five-row 14-passenger station wagons – and now,...

The Shape of Things To Come: Remembering Triumph’s TR7

Posted on Mar 24, 2015 in Featured | 2 comments

1975 Triumph TR7. Introduced in 1975, Triumph’s TR7 coupe (and later, convertible) represented a bold new styling direction for the British automaker, whose other coupe and convertible offerings (the GT6 Mk III, the Spitfire and the TR6) were beginning to show their age. With a distinctive and futuristic wedge shape, penned by Harris Mann, the TR7 put the...

Automatic transmission fluid, part one—American manufacturers

Posted on Jan 12, 2015 in Featured | 2 comments

Cutaway view of ZF automatic transmission. Just as vehicle manufacturer recommendations for engine oil are changing at an ever-increasing pace, so are requirements for the ever-widening range of automatic transmission fluids. With the advent of overdrive transmissions and four-, five-, six- or more speed units being employed in today’s cars, it is important to...

Rebirth of a Legend: 1984 Chevrolet Corvette brochure

Posted on Dec 10, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

It’s hard to overstate the impact that the fourth-generation Corvette made upon its national introduction on April 21, 1983. Replacing a popular car that had grown very familiar through its incredible 1968-1982 lifetime was an incredibly fresh and forward-thinking new model that was completely of the 1980s, but would also prove timeless in the physical appeal...

On the 50th anniversary of its soggy victory, the Chaparral 2 returns to Sebring

Posted on Nov 26, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

The Chaparral 2 in action. Given the focus that Ford had put into beating Ferrari in endurance racing, motorsport fans probably expected the Ford GT40 to repeat its 1965 Daytona victory with a win at Sebring. Instead, it was an innovative team from Texas, running an open-cockpit, Chevy-powered sports racer of their own design, that claimed victory in the 1965...

Midweek Matinee: Corvair in Action, 1960

Posted on Sep 21, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

The 1960 Corvair, in all its initial release glory. The Chevrolet Corvair was named Motor Trend’s Car of the Year for 1960, due in part to its air-cooled, OHV, 139.6 cu.in., horizontally opposed six, featuring an aluminum alloy crankcase and heads and detachable ferrous alloy cylinders, fed by dual single-barrel Rochester carbs—all of which resulted in 80 hp...

Setting up a home garage

Posted on Aug 13, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

Richard’s column on setting up a home garage, which previously ran in the August 2005 issue of Hemmings Motor News and the December 2007 issue of Hemmings Sports & Exotic Car, includes such good advice, we thought it worth running it yet again. Setting up a garage for your old car restoration needs is the single-most important phase of your car’s...

A look back at the Camaro, through the eyes of contemporary Chevy designers

Posted on Jul 19, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

First-generation Camaro analysis by Ed Welburn. With a new Chevrolet Camaro poised for introduction in the coming months, GM wants to keep the model fresh in the eyes of consumers until the sixth-generation car takes its bow. One innovative way to do so is to look back at five generations of Camaro, as seen through Chevrolet’s current design executives. Ed...

Lost and Found overflow – Chevrolet’s overhead-camshaft and hemi-headed big-block V-8s

Posted on May 6, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

While researching our recent story on the 50th anniversary of the Mark IV big-block Chevrolet V-8, we came across something odd, something we’d never seen before – and it appears not many other people had seen it before either. Two photos in the GM Media database that showed two experimental big-blocks that very well could have set the American high-performance...

My hit-and-miss experiences with parts cars

Posted on Apr 2, 2014 in Featured | 1 comment

Parts car availability seems to be shuffling toward the realm of dinosaurs, VCR repairmen, desktop computers and hula-hoops, thanks mostly to the fact that with collector car prices being what they are, every candidate is now viewed as restorable. Some parts cars may be good enough to save; others, however, may require the replacement of 97 percent of their...

Driving a slow car fast: The Alfa Romeo Sprint and the “Top Gear Theory”

Posted on Jan 23, 2014 in Featured | 2 comments

This contribution comes to us from Australian reader and Alfisti Steven Wade, who recently acquired a 1986 Alfa Romeo Sprint. We asked for his take on the car, as well as his opinion on the pseudo-infamous “Top Gear Theory” of Alfa Romeo ownership. Steven is also passionate about Saabs, and is the founder of the Saabs United website. I only heard this saying...

Remember when Oldsmobile embraced the diesel engine?

Posted on Nov 16, 2013 in Featured | 4 comments

The 1979 Oldsmobile diesel range. As the 1970s came to a close, automakers were faced with ever-stricter emission regulations on gasoline engines. Thinking outside the box, GM tasked its Oldsmobile division with creating a range of diesel engines that would be immune from gasoline emission standards, while delivering the performance and fuel economy that...