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Old Motors Old Motors

Automotive History Online

1994 Dodge Ram 1500

1994: The Ram Revolution

in American Cars Trucks on 11/18/2019 11/28/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

The “miniature big rig” shape of Ram pickups is familiar today, but in 1993 it was genuinely radical. At that year’s Detroit Auto Show, Dodge’s first totally new big pickup in 21 years dropped slowly…

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1980 Fiat Strada

Postmodern Italian: Fiat Ritmo/Strada

in Italian Cars on 11/17/2019 11/28/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

Long forgotten by most in America, the Fiat Strada – called the Fiat Ritmo in Europe – was delightfully strange and very familiar at the same time. Sometimes accused of being a copy of the…

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1981 Citroën LNA

The First Peugeot-born Citroën: LN/LNA

in French Cars on 11/15/2019 11/15/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

No doubt President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, having eked out an election win over labor favorite Francois Mitterrand only months earlier, breathed a sigh of relief on December 4, 1974. Ailing Citroën, for months in very…

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1969 Toyota Corolla

In the Beginning: Toyota Corolla E10

in Japanese Cars on 11/12/2019 11/12/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

There have been millions of Corollas since, but this humble little car is the original – the very first generation, the E10. Despite many technological changes, the Corolla has hued fairly close to the original…

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1964 OSCA 1600 GT2

Last Call for the Maserati Brothers: OSCA 1600 GT2

in Italian Cars on 11/11/2019 11/11/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

There were seven Maserati Brothers in all – Carlo, Bindo, Alfieri (I), Alfieri (II), Mario, Ettore, and Ernesto. Carlo, the eldest, died in 1910 but worked for Fiat and Isotta-Fraschini. The third Brother, Alfieri (I)…

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1954 Aston-Martin DB2/4 Drophead Coupe

The David Brown legend: Aston DB2/4 Drophead

in British Cars on 11/10/2019 11/28/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

Keen on speed from a young age, David Brown was a natural fit for Aston-Martin. Though his father didn’t drive, he grew up around the family business – David Brown & Sons – founded by…

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1989 Maserati 228

Building a Better BiTurbo: Maserati 228

in Italian Cars on 11/07/2019 11/15/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

It looks like a Maserati BiTurbo coupe and in a sense it is – but it’s not like other BiTurbos. It’s a Maserati 228 – also known as Tipo AM334. Until the 1990s and the…

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1959 Wartburg 311/2

East Germany in California: Wartburg 311/2

in Eastern Bloc Cars on 11/05/2019 11/08/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

No, those California black plates don’t lie, this is an East German Wartburg 311/2 convertible that was sold new in Los Angeles, in what is now Arlington Heights. In the late 1950s, an enterprising car…

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Lancia Appia S2 Berlina

Bella Berlina: Lancia Appia Series 2

in Italian Cars on 11/04/2019 11/11/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

As the pre-war Aprilia gave way to the 1950 Aurelia, so too eventually did the “junior” Lancia – the pre-war Ardea being replaced by the Appia in 1953. The Ardea may have looked old-fashioned, but…

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1960 Chevrolet Sedan Delivery

1960: Chevy’s Last Big Sedan Delivery

in American Cars on 10/30/2019 11/09/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

It says “Bel Air” on it, but those badges were added later. Sedan deliveries became common as hot rods in the 1960s, but they were plain and basic work vehicles first – and definitely not…

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1960 Austin A55 Cambridge MKII

BMC’s Finned Farinas: Austin A55 Cambridge

in British Cars on 10/28/2019 11/15/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

The story of the big BMC Farina cars starts with the 1952 merger of the Nuffield Organization (Morris, MG, Riley, and Wolseley) and Austin into BMC. Rationalizing the disparate array of cars the combine now…

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1939 LaSalle

Cadillac’s Companion: 1939 LaSalle

in American Cars on 10/22/2019 11/08/2019 Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email

Recollections of the LaSalle were, for many years, as hazy with nostalgia as the Edward A. Wilson paintings that were used to advertise the Cadillac companions from 1927-33. Born of the boom times of the…

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  • Slave to the Rhythm:
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  • If you’ve never been to the Americas, and this statement is true from Prudhoe Bay to Tierra del Fuego, you have no idea how many of these old #FordFseries pickups are out there. They were built in 11 different factories in the Americas and one in Australia, and are essentially omnipresent even though production of this generation of #Fseries, the sixth, ended in 1981 (in Argentina, in the USA it ended in 1979). It’s in this generation that the F-150 name debuted (in 1975) and the F became the U.S.’ best-selling truck (in 1977), a title it’s kept ever since. The 6th-gen also spawned the second-gen Ford Bronco in 1978, but the trucks’ roots go back to 1965. - At a glance, the 6th gen trucks look very similar to the 5th gen (from which they evolved), but closer inspection will reveal subtle but significant differences in styling. The 5th gen trucks are sometimes called #Bumpside trucks because a long convex styling line portrudes down the entire side of the truck. 6th-gen trucks have a concave cut in the same place and are sometimes called #Dentsides. Both generations have their roots in the 1965 revision to the 4th-gen F-series (which debuted in 1960), and use developments of that truck’s frame. - There were many improvements to the dentside - including front disc brakes - transformative for stopping power - and major leaps in rust protection. Typical with products late in their cycle, #Ford kept the F-series fresh with a major style update for #1978 and debuted a new slogan - #BuiltFordTough - to market the trucks. The update consisted mainly of a new front fascia with a massive chrome front end - many versions got rectangular sealed-beam headlights at this time but the #F150 custom kept round lights inset into the new front end. - Although humble-pie work trucks formed the bottom of the lineup, this F-250 Ranger XLT would have been one of the fanciest Fs when new. Pickups then were not as luxurious as they are today, and the Ranger XLT came with a plush vinyl-and-cloth interior with car-like appointments inside and extra chrome - and usually a large V8, particularly in a 3/4-ton 250 clearly set up for towing. 2WD pickups topped out at 460-cid at the time
  • By itself it doesn’t look so small - but when it’s parked next to something like that towering Vanagon, you realize how tiny the #HondaBeat really is. It’s wheelbase is an inch longer than an NA Miata, but its overhangs are almost nonexistent. It measures just 10.8’ (3.3M) long and 4.6’ (1.4M) wide. This triumph of packaging was Honda’s contribution to a set of sporty Kei cars that arrived at the tail end of Japan’s 80s boom times; a group that included the Suzuki Cappuccino or Mazda AZ-1. It was the last car approved by Soichiro Honda himself, and though it was rarely trumpeted, the exterior design came from #Pininfarina. - Despite being a mid-engined roadster, the Beat wasn’t specifically meant to be a sports car but a fun lifestyle car for people on Kei budgets. Under the hood, buried behind the passengers, was a 660-cc triple with Honda’s MTREC system (not to be confused with VTEC), an individual throttle body for each cylinder. The free-revving little motor produced 63 hp with no forced induction (turbos were common on Keis at that time). The lack of overhangs and taut, communicative suspension made it a fun car to drive, if not out-and-out fast. - Form followed function on the Beat and to create the exterior, Honda turned to Pininfarina. The Beat was the first mass-production Japanese car styled by the famous house, and the lead designer was @camardellapietro - whose credits included the Ferrari Mythos and work on the F40. The subtle, honest shape belied the car’s tiny proportions, which were a big change from what Pininfarina usually worked on. Camardella also designed the Ferrari 456GT and Peugeot 306 Cabrio, among others, before going to Lancia and Fiat. - The #Beat debuted in the spring of 1991 to loads of positive headlines - including in the U.S., where it would not pass crash tests and therefore was never sold new. Like the other sporty Keis, sales were good for the first 18 months but fell off severely in Japan’s 1990s recession. 2/3rds of Beats were built in the first year, but the car continued in production until 1996. Beats are now legal to import, so they finally arrived in the States in 2016. A successor (the #HondaS660) debuted in 2015.
  • Although it got styling updates every year, the 1962 Rambler Classic - formerly the Rambler Six/V8/Rebel - hadn’t changed much since 1956 underneath. This was the the mid-size horse - bigger than “compact” but smaller than a “standard” that George Romney bet AMC’s future on and won; effectively establishing the Rambler as a mainstream brand. Being financially constrained as AMC often was, the company got the maximum life out of the platform. But with “intermediates” like the Ford Fairlane about to invade its turf, in 1960 authorized work to begin on a replacement - 1963’s Rambler Classic & Ambassador. - The styling for the new Ramblers came from Ed Anderson and his deputy, Dick Teague. Anderson had been a Nash veteran since migrating from GM in 1950 and, along with his former assistant Bill Reddig, had styled most Nashes and Ramblers in that decade - including cars publicly attributed to Pininfarina but actually in-house designs. Teague had come from Packard and replaced Reddig in 1958 - he’d replace Anderson in 1963 and be AMC’s style chief into the 1980s. Their brief for the car was complicated by Romney’s insistence that the new mid-size car share some stampings with a forthcoming replacement for AMC’s smallest (and in 1962, oldest) car - the Rambler American, due in 1964. - That cost-saving move in the long term made work more difficult in the short term, but AMC’s engineers saved weight and complexity by combining pieces of the unibody into larger stampings, making the Classic light and rigid. Anderson and Teague’s styling had a slight tuck-under, low beltline, and curved side glass for a sleek look. The car’s new engineering and style made splash, winning @motortrend COTY for 1963. More than 320K Classics were sold in 1963, and more than 500K AMCs overall - a high water mark for AMC. - The new body was used on the Classic and the V8-only Ambassador. A 287-cid V8 was added to the Classic in mid-1963, but most were sixes. In 1964, GM launched a new set of intermediates like the Chevelle and some economy-minded Rambler buyers were tempted by the smaller, cheaper American. This generation of classic continued into ‘66, but competition bit increasingly hard.
  • It ended up being the company’s last new production car, although nobody could have known that when the Iso Lele debuted at the 1969 New York Show. Meant to replace the circa-1962 Iso Rivolta IR 300, the Lele hued close to the Iso formula - a big GM V8 powering a sleek Italian GT with lines by a serious pro - in this case Marcello Gandini. In many ways, the “Iso recipe” was just about perfect - reliable and exotic. - Renzo Rivolta’s Iso had evolved from his refrigeration business, which graduated to scooters, motorcycles, and eventually the Isetta bubble car - though it was only truly successful after it was licensed to BMW. The Isetta funded his next project - the Giugiaro-styled, Giotto Bizzarini-designed IR 300. Remarkably polished, the IR 300 was handsome and fast but never sold as well as hoped. Iso’s encore was the legendary Grifo. Renzo died unexpectedly in 1966, thrusting 25-year-old son Piero Rivolta into the CEO role. - The younger Rivolta would prove adept at keeping the company going in the face of many challenges - but in the 60s things still looked bright. His first task was getting the 4-door Fidia (nee S4), a rival to Maserati’s Q-porte, on sale. Despite celebrity customers like John Lennon, the Fidia languished. The next project was the Lele - a proper replacement for the IR 300. The new car, named for Piero Rivolta’s wife Rachele, had a mean muscle car look with its long fastback and hooded grill and lights. Under the hood was a 327-cid small block, which in time gave way to a 350, mated to a GM four-speed or hydramatic. - The old Bizzarini-designed chassis provided neutral handling although the car was a bit hefty for its size - about 3,700 lbs. But you could take three of your friends hooning around with you in a comfy and modern leather interior. It looked good, although it faced an increasingly crowded field, including Lamborghini’s Jarama, also styled by Gandini using similar themes. Piero Rivolta worked hard to reduce costs - even moving the factory and switching to Ford power and ZF transmissions when GM demanded pre-payment for engines, but the Lele was never a big seller - 285 were made in five years, but Iso went under in 1974.
  • You always think “how’d that happen?” when you see a luxury car in such a state. But of course, today’s luxury cars will someday be cheaper to buy - but not cheaper to maintain, which eventually puts them in danger zone of neglect. Even so, it’s hard to go too far wrong with a 6-cyl Mercedes W116. A pressure wash and some fettling would probably get you to 300K. In the USA, there were four basic versions of the 1970s W116 - the 6.9, the regular V8 450, the Turbodiesel 300SD, and the 280S/280SE. This car is a 280SE, the most popular version in Europe but not as popular stateside. -  It’s sometimes overshadowed by its W126 successor, but the Mercedes W116 S-class was a car of many firsts and one last, it arguably set the stage for the W126, which evolved out of the older car. The “last” was that it was the final car designed under Friedrich Geiger, who retired after 40 years with M-B in 1973 - though he hardly labored alone. Work on the W116 began in late 1965 and Paul Bracq, Bruno Sacco, Peter Pfeiffer, Joseph Gallitzendörfer and Gérard Cardiet all contributed to it. - The W116 was the first to officially wear the S-Klasse distinction, it was the first turbodiesel Mercedes (a U.S. exclusive), the first car with modern anti-lock brakes, and the first sedan to use a new corporate style that defined the brand into the early 90s. In traditional Mercedes fashion, it was very safe and built like a bank vault - early W116 prototypes were a part of Mercedes ESF safety vehicle program. It debuted at the 1972 Paris show, and arrived in the U.S. in 1973 as a V8 only - the 280S, using a carb’d M110 DOHC six, was belatedly added in 1975, possibly as a response to OPEC 1. - Many U.S. customers knew by 1975 that Mercedes meant real quality and engineering - but the rather bare-bones 280S was twice the price of a Cadillac and found few takers. The addition of Fuel injection and more equipment on the 280S in 1977 helped - but the heavy car still only made 142hp (down from 177 in Europe). The less complex engine and systems made the 280SE a very durable workhorse - but it was mostly eclipsed by the slower but supremely frugal North-America-only 300SD turbodiesel after 1978.
  • “Let`s just say that Jerry Hirshberg is a real fan of Jaguar,” said Nissan USA CEO Thomas Mignanelli in 1992. The Infiniti J30 that Mignanelli was being interviewed about hailed from the opposite side of the world from Jaguars, but an infusion of California style and a punchy V6 turned it into a Japanese successor to old-school S-types. Such press was a coup for Infiniti, which had stumbled out of the gate, and a compliment to the car - which looked a little like the cheaper Nissan Altima. Both cars came from the same studio - Nissan Design International (NDI). A studio headed by Gerald P. Hirshberg (1940-2019). - Hirshberg had been a GM designer for the first 15 years of his career, which notably included the “Boattail” Buick Riviera. In 1980, he’d gotten a call from Nissan CEO, Takashi Ishihara, asking him if he wanted to head a U.S. studio in California. Ishihara told Hirshberg, “I want to change the flavor of our soup, and I will stay out of your kitchen.” Fellow GM staffer Allan Flowers went with him. By 1986, the first NDI designs were on sale (Hardbody, Pathfinder, NX Pulsar) and in the late 1980s the studio began working on what became the J30 (primary stylist Doug Wilson) and Altima (Flowers). Both were studies in soft, organic forms. The Altima had a larger market impact, but the J30 got all the press. - Known as the Nissan Leopard J Ferie in Japan, the J30 replaced the square-rigged M30 (the previous Leopard) but continued its basic formula - now a “4-door coupe” (nobody called it that then) but still with rear-drive and a 210-hp V6, automatic only. The RWD platform came from the Cedric/Cima. Some described it as a luxurious 4-door 300ZX. The interior, designed with help from @poltronafrauofficial, was beautifully appointed if small for the car’s overall size. It got rave reviews - especially from fellow designers - but never seemed to be a big seller though it was ~40% of Infiniti’s volume in 1994/95. - This particular J30 sports a rare 90s accessory - gold badges, very popular then. There was also a rare J30t “Gold Package” that included HICAS 4-wheel steering, but they were rare. Production ran into the summer of 1997 with only minimal changes.

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