Hankering to hop up the man cave? Whether you’re looking to polish the den, beef up the basement, or bolt on some style to the garage, automotive wall art brings the thrill of racing to the walls faster than you can say, “Gentlemen, start your engines!”
When Carrera Toys needed to decorate their North American headquarters not long ago, they turned to FramedArt.com’s growing collection of automotive artwork. Carrera selected two of Ray Foster’s marvelous muscle-era prints — Going West and Ventura Freeway — as well as a dramatic trio of European-styled prints by KC Haxton.
Carrera Toys is a legendary European slot car brand, with roots that date back to the early 1960s. As luck would have it, Carrera Toys’ American HQ is a short sprint from FramedArt.com in nearby Monmouth Junction, just north of Princeton. The company’s warehouse and factory brims with prints and technology. Their archives contain both traditional limited production lithographic prints and scalable digital images, which can be printed in a range of sizes.
While Henry Ford famously said “any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants — so long as it is black,” FramedArt.com takes the opposite approach. It’s all about customization, with a wide variety of framing and matting options to compliment any decor. The website’s online configurator allows up to three layers of matting for maximum impact. All of the artwork is available as canvas prints, as well.
FramedArt’s collection of automotive prints features convenient categories, with a broad selection of manufacturers and genres. There are retro race car black and white photos, old-school advertisements and vintage racing prints.
• Muscle Car Art — This category features Mustangs, Camaros, Corvettes, and Mopars from the glory days of Detroit iron.
• Vintage Car Posters — Start your search here to add some European flair or retro Grand Prix artwork.
• Race Car Art — Whether you’re keen on sports cars or open-wheelers, this category is brimming with cool photos and renderings.
• Classic Car Art — You’ll find plenty of tail fins and chrome in this collection, with lead sleds, hot rods, cruisers, vintage pickups and beautiful woody wagons.
• Route 66 Art — Celebrate the quintessential American highway. It’s packed with classic service stations, retro restaurants, rustic signs and quintessential roadside attractions.
FramedArt.com is offering a limited-time discount code for ClassicCars.com readers. You can get 10 percent off orders with the code CLASSICCARS10 until August 15, 2018. The offer is valid for the entire FramedArt.com store.
Chad was running late, and we were already pressed for time. This entire plan was rushed and slapped together via a phone call and a few text messages over the weekend.
The Keen Project Safari 911 build No. 2 by former race car driver Lehman Keen was in Minneapolis for a short time to celebrate Porsche’s 70th birthday. As soon as I saw that my friends Chad and Luis had the car in town, I needed a stint behind the wheel.
I shot a text to Chad: “Where are you?”
Chad called back moments later and screamed over the wail of the special 911’s flat-6 engine.
“Traffic. Road’s closed. Rerouting. Be there in a few minutes.”
Soon after, I heard the wail myself as the car entered Watertown, Minnesota. I turned to see my new highlight of the week: a white 1989 Porsche 911 Safari with driving lights ablaze in broad daylight.
Chad got out of the car wearing a blue sport coat, white dress shirt, sunglasses, jeans, and dress shoes — business casual exiting a rally fighter built for desert duty, and the irony was still perfect. He tossed me the keys after pleasantries. It was time to drive.
I opened the driver’s door with a loud click as I engaged the handle, plopped into the blue leather and plaid-covered race seat, and closed my eyes. Instantly my nostrils were filled with the musk of vintage German leather, plastic, carpet, and vinyl. My mind wandered back to my 1991 E34 M5. Once again, the regret of selling it burned, but didn’t last long.
How could you not want to drive this car? | Alex Bellus photo
“Are you ready for this?” Chad asked.
“Hell yes,” I said without thinking.
A quick turn of the key on the left-side of the dashboard — because this is a Porsche — and approximately 230 healthy horsepower from the chipped 3.2-liter flat-6 erupted to life. It was smooth, angry and just waiting for me to give it the juice.
As we snaked our way across blacktop heading toward some county dirt roads, I was amazed at how quiet the 215/65 R16 KO2 tires were at 60 mph. The 4.0-inch lift combined with the beefy all-terrain tires soaked up any road imperfections, but a creaking noise emanated from the rear suspension.
Chad told me those squeaks were the poly bushings, and I later learned from Keen that newer builds have poly bronze bushings that feature bronze inserts with serviceable grease, but the owner of this car doesn’t want to give the car up to have them installed.
When the rear KO2s hit the gravel road I buried the throttle. The tach instantly jumped as the flat-6 came alive, and revved all the way out to its 6,500 rpm redline before I grabbed the black wiffle ball shifter and threw the tight G50 gearbox into third gear.
I looked down and asked Chad how accurate the speedometer was.
“Dead on, why?” he said.
We hit 80 mph without effort. I began laughing maniacally.
The flat-6 wailed as we blasted around the country dirt roads between 60 and 80 mph. Each time I approached a corner, I braked hard, cranked the wheel, waited for the rear end to settle, goosed the throttle, and the rear end kicked out as I dialed in countersteer and floored the accelerator. Gravel and dirt goes flying and Chad laughed: “Yeah, alright, you understand how to drive an air-cooled Porsche.”
The Keen Project Safari 911 was built for paved and gravel roads alike. | Alex Bellus photo
This scene repeated for the next 40 minutes with laughter and smiles.
Finally, the white Safari 911 was heading toward blacktop again and I began to back off the throttle.
“Don’t do that, keep in it.” said Chad.
We flew onto the blacktop at speed and the car didn’t flinch.
“That’s the beauty of this thing. It’s happy with whatever,” he said.
We headed over to another gravel road that went around Lake Waconia, but we took it slower with a neighborhood on one side and the lake on another. As I cruised along it dawned on me: You would never ever do this with a non-Safari 911, and definitely not with a RWB or Singer 911.
As we snaked our way back from farm country back into Watertown, I took mental pictures of the interior. The two metal switches on the dashboard to control the four driving lights up front, the black metal wiffle ball shifter, the blue carpet where the rear seat should be, the blue leather on the race seats, and the most amazing blue plaid cloth on the door, dash, and seats I had ever seen. This is what the ultimate 911 that you can drive anywhere looks like.
Some aficionados may scoff at the Keen Project Safari, but that’s ridiculous. Porsche has a rich history running this generation 911 in the East African Safari and Dakar.
All Keen Project Safaris get a light pod up front with two wide-beam lights and two pencil driving lights, bumper bars, shaved mirrors — which are nearly useless in real driving but, boy, they look cool — mud flaps and ride on 215/65 R16 BFGoodrich KO2s.
Inside, each has the wiffle ball shifter and a Momo Prototipo steering wheel along with wild, retro upholstery that Keen and the owner choose together.
The suspension features long-travel shocks, upgraded torsion bars and modified upright that gives it the 4.0-inch lift from European ride height, a coilover setup, (911 Turbo) tie rods, racing camber plates and racing ball joints finished with poly bronze bushings slathered in waterproof grease (though this car, build No. 2, doesn’t have the these).
Keen didn’t create the Keen Project as a movement or a business; he simply wanted to make it so he could bomb around downtown Atlanta or blast through a national forest without worrying about his red 1981 Porsche 911 SC. From there, it snowballed as friends and others saw his Safari 911 and demanded he built them one.
Get up enough speed and the Keen Project Safari 911 will soar to new heights. | Alex Bellus photo
The entire thing costs about $100,000 — including the donor car — which is a lot of money, but Keen is quick to point out “in the Porsche world for a full build, it’s not a lot of money.”
He’s right. The average Singer build runs over $390,000, and while an RWB might cost $100,000, you’re more likely to spend $150,000 to $200,000 depending on the build.
Buy a Singer, RWB, or any off the shelf RS or GT3 from the Porsche showroom and you’ll enjoy taking it to the track, driving it around town and hitting up the local cars and coffee.
For those that want more, need more or demand more, the Keen Project Safari 911 is a time machine that bombs around the woods, blasts through the mud, then rolls into cars and coffee and stops the crowd dead in their tracks.
So, do you come out ahead if you buy a future classic or simply put your money into the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index funds?
Obviously, you get to drive your car, but what happens when it comes time to sell. Have you made money while enjoying the drive?
The folks at Kwik-Lift decided to do the math, selecting five vehicles sold at the Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale earlier this year.
“There’s always someone who thinks restoring a car is wasted money, so we tried this little experiment to prove the value of the classic car hobby,” Jason Peters, director of Kwik-Lift, was quoted in the company’s news release. “Whether or not it actually proves our point, having the conversation and creating this chart was a lot of fun.”
Vehicles from 1968 through 2015 were selected. Manufacturer’s suggested retail price was used as the investment cost. That amount was then calculated as though it were an investment made in the S&P on January 1 of the car’s model year. Actual auction price achieved was then compared to what the S&P investment’s value would have been as of March 31, 2018.
However, Kwik-Lift noted, “These calculations do not account for vehicle maintenance nor insurance costs for the cars. The calculations for the stocks do not include taxes.”
Peters added: “Every car on the chart looks like a good investment to me.
“I couldn’t believe the ’69 Camaro brought in returns more than 50 percent higher than the S&P. This graphic is a handy illustration for anyone who needs to convince their significant other that buying a classic car is a good idea.”
Kwik-Lift was Danny Johnson’s idea back in 1996 after he found himself pinned beneath his street rod.
“Determined to find a safer alternative to jack stands, he started designing the Kwik-Lift,” the company notes in its news release. “Built in the USA and designed to fit in most home garages, the Kwik-Lift is the strong, affordable car-lift solution for safety and convenience.
“It offers adjustable length and width and handles vehicles up to 5,000 pounds. The company’s product offering has grown to include two-post, four-post, mid-rise, alignment racks, and many other types of lifts.”
Model year 1960 is toward the end of General Motors’ most-exuberant styling era, although the Pick of the Day, a 1960 Oldsmobile Super 88 convertible, carries on the extreme design elements that seem so flamboyant today.
Not only does this space-age Olds exemplify the extra-long and ultra-low ethos of the plus-size cars of the time, the restored convertible has been slightly lowered and sports fender skirts, which serve to emphasize the ground-hugging nature of this sleek cruiser.
You could land a plane on that rear deck
The Oldsmobile Super 88 received a frame-off restoration some time ago and it remains a highly presentable example of a rare car, according to the Bremerton, Washington, private seller advertising the Super 88 on ClassicCars.com. The car drives well and recently received a fuel-system refurbish and new shock absorbers, the seller adds.
“This car is in very good condition and is a driver,” the seller says in the ad. “Red leather interior, black top. Needs very little to become a show car.”
An added attraction is the set of trick spinner hubcaps that don’t spin.
“Original Dodge Lancer 4-bar hubcaps … have been customized to be floater hubcaps, meaning that when the car moves the hubcap stays in the exact position as when it is sitting, giving it a floating effect,” the seller says.
The bright-red interior looks to be in nice condition
The seller presents a gallery of photos and a forthright description of the car’s apparently minor flaws, of which a potential buyer should be aware.
Oldsmobile convertibles were the official pace cars of the 1960 Indianapolis 500, the seller notes, although the cars were 98 models rather than 88s. Still cool, though.
The Oldsmobile Super 88 is powered by its correct 394cid V8 with four-barrel carb, automatic transmission, power steering and brakes, and a power top, plus wide whitewalls and those fiberglass fender skirts painted to match the body color.
The Oldsmobile looks very clean under its hood
This Oldsmobile would be quite a head turner at a local car show or cruise-in, and it would stand out big time on the highway. Low-profile drivers should shy away.
The asking price is $29,000, which quite literally would buy a whole lotta car. And with floater hubcaps, no less.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
A stock classic is an amazing way to sample a life potentially lived decades ago. Dave Kunz’s Ford Bronco seats were redone and the paint refinished but the truck has otherwise been left alone. There’s no modern Ford V8 swapped in or a massive lift pitching the truck into the sky. This is clean, classic, and certainly very cool.
“It’s not slow, it just isn’t fast…it’s kind of medium,” Kunz said of his 1977 Bronco. He brought his bone-stock classic SUV over to Jay Leno’s Garage so the comedian and car guy could take it for a spin.
Kunz informed Jay that the Bronco came to be as a Ford alternative for Mustang owners. It was originally marketed as a sports car for off-road adventures and it was meant to take aim at International’s Scout. Ford, of course, eventually blew away the Scout until competition arrived from Chevrolet, which went even larger by introducing the full-size Blazer. Jeep also got into the fray with its Cherokee.
Under the hood, you’ll find a 302cid V8 and this Bronco is backed up with a three-speed automatic gearbox. That makes for a great cruising combination, which is what the car is all about. Paired with manual roll down windows, appropriately sloppy steering and a bouncy ride, the original Ford Bronco is an excellent place to start for anyone looking to experience an older car or truck.
Of course, these old SUVs and pickups aren’t getting any cheaper. The vintage SUV is a hot item at the moment, and you can spend tens of thousands on a clean, stock example, or hundreds of thousands on an example rebuilt by a company like Icon.
It’s the stock version, however, that gives you the best taste of what a given vehicle is all about. Kunz’s old truck is a lovely example of the tail end of a great era for Ford.
As Leno said, “This is what you got for your $3,000.”
We all have a dream car in mind. It’s the one we constantly picture in our driveway, imagine ourselves driving, and check out its current pricing a little more than we probably should. For Coby Orgeron’s father, Dave, that car was a 1966 Ford Mustang painted in Tahoe Turquoise.
Coby and his brother had always planned to save up and buy him one. They even asked Dave what his favorite model year and color were two years ago.
This year, that goal became reality and was captured in a video posted to YouTube. The pair found the car they were looking for in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, bought it, and took it home to Bayou Gauche, Louisiana.
Rather than just driving it up and presenting it to Dave, however, his sons hatched a plan: They parked the Mustang along the road and slapped a “For Sale” sign in the window. They found a bystander to act as the person selling the car.
The brothers picked up their dad to head to breakfast and “accidentally” drove by the car. You can hear Dave commenting about the car in the video.
“Oh, look at this,” he exclaimed.
They all get out to look at the Mustang and chat with its “owner.” That’s when Dave learned the car was, in fact, his.
He was overcome by emotion and had to take it all in, but after a round of hugs and thank yous, he climbed inside his new classic.
The feelgood video ended with Dave driving his dream Mustang down the street for the first time.
Editor’s note: This piece is part of the ClassicCars.com Journal’s Muscle Month. We’ll be featuring stories, muscle cars and people during July about everything and anything that goes fast.
Following World War II, auto companies scrambled to regain their footing in an increasingly complex marketplace, with revolutionary designs and technology setting the trends. While the British, Italian, French and German automakers established signature styles, the U.S. companies became known above all for their sturdy and powerful V8 engines.
As the muscle-car era roared across America, some smaller European manufacturers latched onto American V8s as a drop-in solution for reliable performance.
Best-known of all of them was the Shelby Cobra, pioneered by American sports racer Carroll Shelby, who took the roadsters of AC, a British manufacturer, and turned them into the remarkable Cobra 289 and Cobra 427 with an infusion of Ford V8 power.
Another sports-car brand that followed that formula was Sunbeam, a British company that installed Ford V8s in its diminutive Alpine roadster and called it a Tiger. Carroll Shelby also had a hand in this.
Some others who followed the muscle-car trend of jamming big, high-torque American V8s into decidedly European automobiles (and this list is by no means inclusive, but just the most high-profile examples) were:
1952 Allard K2 roadster | ClassicCars.com
Allard
Founded in London by motorsports fanatic Sydney Allard in 1945, Allard Motor Company was a small-production company that equipped its sports and racing cars with V8 engines from Ford, Mercury and Cadillac, foreshadowing the Shelby Cobra and Sunbeam Tiger. Just 1,900 Allards were produced through 1958, and they are highly collectible today. Most revered are the open-fendered J2 models and the big, full-fendered K and P cars.
Bitter CD coupe | Wouter Melissen/UltimateCarPage.com
Bitter
This German brand, founded and headed by former race driver and designer Erich Bitter, built sports-luxury cars powered by Chevrolet small-block V8s. Based on the chassis of the Opel Diplomat, and with strong encouragement from the legendary Bob Lutz – who was at the time head of General Motors’ Opel division – Bitter produced exceptionally attractive coupes and convertibles styled in-house by Opel designers.
1969 BIzzarini GT 5300 | Bob Golfen
Bizzarini GT 5300
One of Italy’s most-renowned engineers, Giotto Bizzarini founded his own automobile company after serving with Alfa Romeo and helping to create some of Ferrari’s greatest road and racing cars, such as the iconic 250 GTO. He was part of the “palace revolt” at Ferrari in 1961 with many of the automaker’s brightest stars walking out. The Bizzarini GT 5300 Strada was his company’s most-stunning achievement, designed by Bertone and powered by a 5.3-liter Corvette V8 rated at 355 horsepower.
1962 Bristol 407 | ClassicCars.com
Bristol 407
Bristol Cars of Great Britain produced any number of exceptional automobiles after World War II, mostly powered by BMW-derived Bristol 6-cylinder engines. But in the mid-’60s, the Bristol 407 took a step away from the routine with a handsome two-door sedan that looked not all that much different from its brethren except for what was under its hood: a 313cid Chrysler V8 that put the 407 solidly among Britain’s elite performance cars, and delivered a top speed of 125 mph.
1971 De Tomaso Pantera | ClassicCars.com
De Tomaso Mangusta and Pantera
Undoubtedly the best known among this group, the Mangusta and Pantera were mid-engine cars with all the design and styling excellence of the Italian manufacturers but powered by rock-solid Ford V8 engines. The Mangusta came first, equipped with a Ford 289, followed by the legendary Pantera with a 351cid Cleveland V8 nestled behind the two occupants. The Pantera achieved popular U.S. culture with a roar, including such things as a heavy-metal rock band named after it and Elvis Presley eschewing his usual Cadillacs in favor of a bright-yellow Pantera.
1961 Facel Vega HK500 | ClassicCars.com
Facel Vega
After supplying bodywork for a number of European automakers after the war, French manufacturer Facel began seeing its auto-body business drying up. So the company decided to step up with its own eponymous car brand. Facel launched the stylish, American-influenced Vega FV in 1954, powered by a DeSoto Firedome Hemi V8 engine, followed by the Vega FVS, which grew in Mopar power, and the HK500, which was propelled by a 360-horsepower, 6.3-liter Chrysler Hemi V8. An infamous fact: Nobel laureate writer and philosopher Albert Camus was killed in a crash while riding in an HK500 driven by his publisher, Michel Gallimard, who also died.
1974 Iso Grifo | Bob Golfen
Iso Rivolta and Grifo
Giotto Bizzarini returns for the story of Iso (pronounced EE-so), a car company that first came to world attention after its development of the Isetta bubble car, which it licensed to a number of world manufacturers, most famously BMW. But Bizzarini along with famed designer Giorgetto Giugiaro and company owner Renzo Rivolta took the brand in a radically different direction by producing a brawny lineup of performance cars, most notably the various Grifo models powered by either Chevrolet or Ford V8 engines.
1976 Jensen Interceptor | ClassicCars.com
Jensen Intercepter
British automaker Jensen Motors re-christened its Interceptor with an all-new model in 1966, a grand-touring car with a greenhouse rear window and powered by a succession of Chrysler V8 engines, ranging in displacement from 330 to 440cid, through 1976. The aggressive styling was by Touring of Italy, and the cars were hand-built at a factory near Birmingham, England.
On Wednesday, the iconic Oscar Mayer Wienermobile turned 82 years old. One of the most successful uses of “productmobile” advertising, the fiberglass Frankfurter can still be seen plying America’s highways, traveling between car shows, county fairs and parades – or anywhere people might gather to indulge in America’s favorite summer snack.
Originally conceived in 1935 by Oscar Mayer chairman Carl G. Mayer, the original Wienermobile was mounted on an International chassis, was about 13 feet long and cost $5,000.
Today, a fleet of six Wienermobiles roam the country, each with teams of two drivers that sign on for a yearly contract.
An available Wienermobile app keeps track of the six vehicles as they tour the country, so that anyone who might relish the chance to see one of these unique vehicles can ketchup to them this summer. (Sorry, we couldn’t resist.)
Take a look at the video above for an exclusive tour of the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile given to ClassicCars.com at the Iola Old Car Show last week.
What kind of car did Kurt Cobain drive? We’re not sure what cars the Nirvana rocker might have driven during his life, but according to family members the only car he owned was a powder blue 1965 Dodge Dart that has gone on display as part of the “Growing Up Kurt Cobain” exhibit at the Museum of Style Icons in Newbridge, Ireland.
The exhibit, which includes art, clothing and the Cobain car, runs through September 30. The exhibit opened earlier this week with Cobain’s daughter, sister and mother in attendance. Items on display were provided by the family.
If you can’t get to Ireland, the exhibit moves to The Museo de la Moda in Santiago, Chile, for the winter.
Fans examine Cobain artifacts
“These items have never previously been seen by the public,” museum owner William Doyle said. “We have handled exhibitions of Michael Jackson, Cher, Prince and many other music and fashion icons and we expect this exhibition of Kurt’s life to be one of our greatest exhibitions curated by our museum.”
“With this exhibition we hope to bring the focus back to Kurt’s roots, vision, and artistic genius to inspire everyone not to lose their creativity and childlike wonder,” said his sister, Kim.
Cobain always thought his family was from County Cork, but research shows his ancestors emigrated from Carrickmore in County Tyrone in 1875.
‘Ride the Classics’ at the Gilmore
From 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. July 21, visitors at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, can take a 10-15 minute ride in a 1948 Packard, 1951 Cadillac, 1936 Cadillac, 1932 Duesenberg, 1935 Austin taxi or 1964 Checker taxi from the museum’s collection, weather permitting. The museum will offer similar programs July 25 and 29 and August 1, 8, 15, 19, 22, 25 and 29.
Throughout the day July 21, the Volvo Club of America will stage its biannual meeting at the museum with driving tours and a swap meet. Volvos will be parked on the C-Barn lawn across from the Blue Moon Diner.
On Sunday, July 22, the museum stages its first All-Years Corvette Show and Swap Meet.
Old-fashioned cruise in Allentown
America On Wheels museum, Friends of Allentown Parks and the City of Allentown, Pennsylvania, will stage an old-fashioned Classics & Cruisers on Hamilton cruise-in July 21 between 6th and 9th from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m.
Cars & Coffee ends at the Blackhawk
The Blackhawk Museum in Danville, California, has announced that it no longer will host a monthly Cars & Coffee cruise-in.
“The event has grown beyond our ability to actively monitor with our volunteers and staff,” the museum said in its news release. “The hazards caused by congestion within the Plaza, noise complaints from the surrounding residential area, and concerns of local law enforcement cannot be ignored.”
One Lap of Kentucky drives scheduled
The National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky, will organize four Museum in Motion driving tours of its home state in October. Dates are October 8-13, 15-20, 22-27 and 29-November 2.
Tours will visit Makers Mark Distillery, the Ark Encounter, Louisville Slugger museum, Kentucky Derby museum, a riverboat cruise and race-horse farms.
The AACA Museum in Hershey, Pennsylvania, offers Model T driving experience classes July 21 and 28 and August 4 and 11, September 8 and 9 and October 20.
The Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tennessee, offers a special tour of the Nissan Heritage Collection on July 20. For details, see the museum’s website.
America on Wheels in Allentown, Pennsylvania, stages Classics & Cruisers on Hamilton between 6th and 9th from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on July 21.
Muscle Car City in Punta Gorda, Florida, hosts its monthly car show July 21 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m.
The National Corvette Museum’s NCM Motorsports Park offers “Psychology of Speed with Andy Pilgrim” July 20 from 12:30 p.m. until 4:45 p.m. with the champion racing driver covering various aspects of racing.
The Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum in northeastern Indiana will host a Cars, Coffee & Donuts” event Saturday from 9 a.m. until 11 a.m.
Tacoma Power’s Electric Vehicle Ride & Drive takes place July 21 from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. at LeMay – America’s Car Museum in Washington State. At 2 p.m., the museum opens its CARnival, a family-oriented car show that will include a Hagerty Youth Judging program and viewing the Disney Pixar movie Cars 3 on a 40-foot outdoor screen.
The Owls Head Transportation Museum in Maine hosts a truck and tractor show July 21-22.
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles hosts a Japanese Car Cruise-in and Super Street Meet starting at 9 a.m. July 22. More than 300 street, show and track vehicles are expected.
Mark your calendar
The Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners, Michigan, hosts its annual “Mopars at the Red Barns” car show July 28 from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m.
It’s “Supercar Saturday” on July 28 at the Brooklands Museum in England, where high-performance vehicles — vintage and modern — will take part in runs up the Brooklands Test Hill and on-track demonstrations.
The Kansas City Automotive Museum’s second annual The Great Car Show is scheduled from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on July 29 at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri. As many as 450 vehicles can be accommodated.
The Seal Cove Auto Museum in Maine stages “The Fine Art of Murder,” a murder mystery dinner event, starting at 6 p.m. on July 29.
It’s the inaugural “Pride of Our Rides” car show August 4 at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia where museum volunteers, those who help with Demo Days and other museum programs, will stage a show of their own cars. The show is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m.
England’s Beaulieu Museum hosts its Simply Japanese car show on July 29 and a new Supercar Evolution event August 4-5.
The British Motor Museum offers its fifth annual Classic Van & Pick Up Show on August 5.
The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia has added a second session for its Race Car Summer Camp, July 30-August 3. The camp will use motorsports to explore STEM subjects, and each camper will design and race a CO2-powered car. For information and registration, visit the museum website.
The Seal Cove Auto Museum in Maine presents a watercolor workshop with artist Judy Taylor on August 8-9. The workshop will feature vintage antique auto advertising and will use a 1931 Franklin as a “live” model. To register, visit the museum website.
August 9 is “It’s Not All About the Cars” day at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, California, where tours of the museum’s art collection will be featured.
Ed Garten, vice president of the Society of Automotive Historians and dean emeritus and professor at the University of Dayton will present “The Volkswagen Beetle: From Hitler to Hippie to Icon”at 1:30 p.m. on August 15 at the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana.
The Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia has scheduled its 10th annual Motorcycle Exhibition for August 18-September 8 and promises a display of more than 40 historic bikes spanning 90 years. Themes this year include Indian Motorcycles 1902-1953 and Italian Motorcycles 1938-1988. At 6 p.m. on August 18 the museum will welcome Peter Starr for a screening of his movie, Bod’Or, about the 1976 24-hour motorcycle race at Le Mans.
The LeMay Collections at Marymount in Tacoma, Washington, will stage its annual car show on August 25 with more than 1,500 vehicles available for viewing, along with antique dolls, pin cushions, radios and more.
The National Corvette Museum celebrates its 24th anniversary August 30-September 1. The weekend includes the induction of Burt and John Greenwood, Tom Wallace and Mike Yager into the hall of fame.
“Riverside Revisited” is the theme of a special tribute celebration of the historic racing circuit scheduled for September 8 at the Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, California, just south of the runways of LAX. During the event, mechanic, fabricator, car builder, crew chief and Indy racing team manager Jimmy Dilamarter will receive the Peter Bryant Challenger Award for Excellence in Engineering.
The Kansas City Auto Museum will be among the participants in the American Royal BBQ Car Show, scheduled for September 15 at Kansas Speedway.
Not long after John Cobb and the Railton Special set a new standard for land-bound vehicles, racer Hans Stuck was determined to exceed that land speed record and convinced Daimler-Benz and Ferdinand Porsche to build a car for the attempt. That car was the Mercedes-Benz T 80.
With its swoopy bodywork and 44.5-liter Mercedes-Benz aircraft V12 engine that produced 3,500 horsepower, the car was created to power beyond the 595.04 km/h (369.74 mph) record established by Cobb in August 1939. The plan was to attempt a record run in February 1940 on the autobahn near Dessau.
The T 80 was designed to achieve a top speed of 650 km/h, nearly 404 mph, a standard not actually achieved until 1963.
Wall-mounted display of streamlined cars | Mercedes-Benz Museum photo
With the outbreak of World War II, the T 80 was placedinto storage.However, the body — complete cockpit with leather-covered steering wheel, pedal cluster, instruments and driver’s seat with original fabric upholstery — has been on display at the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Germany, albeit without the engine.
The body is nearly 27 feet long but only 50 inches tall.
Now a special exhibit has been created with Mercedes-Benz Classic, the company’s collector car division using the original bodywork to re-create the car’s spaceframe chassis.
“The innards of the T 80 are presented just as they were designed and built by Mercedes-Benz eight decades ago,” the company said in its news release.
The original body and re-created chassis are displayed with a cutaway DB 603 engine. Also reproduced were the wheels and tires.
“It was a stroke of luck that the company’s collection also includes a DB 603 aircraft engine,”the company noted. “Because the original engine of the T 80 was a test engine from the aircraft-engine development department in Untertürkheim. It belonged to the Ministry of Aviation, which made it available for the world record project vehicle. When the planned record-breaking attempts were cancelled owing to the breakout of the Second World War, the engine was returned to the aircraft engine department. This original engine for the T 80 is lost without a trace.
“The aircraft engine now installed in the chassis comes from later series production of the DB 603. The series production engine’s connecting dimensions differ from those of the test engine; therefore the connection to the centrifugal clutch of the original chassis is not an exact fit.
“Nevertheless, Mercedes-Benz Classic decided to go ahead and complete the chassis with this engine: firstly, because the DB 603 engine once again makes the astonishing overall dimensions of the T 80 obvious. And secondly, because the engine from the collection is a cutaway engine. It allows profound insights into the technical details, and perfectly rounds off the demonstration exhibit of the T 80 with its open spaceframe as a substructure.”
Mercedes-Benz Classic reports that it took three months to re-create the tubular frame, using 150 meters of 20mm tubing, which had to be flattened in some places to fit within the bodywork.
Period engineering drawings (above and below)
Although it has some 500 drawings related to the original T 80, it needed to use the original spaceframe for reference points to the body connections and supports. That frame is mounted on the banked curve within the “Fascination of Technology” exhibit at the museum, so Classic technicians had to use professional mountaineering equipment to get into position to take the needed measurements.
