Hemmings Auto Blog

1958 Toyota Toyopet Crown, in left-hand drive. Photo courtesy Toyota Motor Corporation. When the first Toyota Toyopet Crowns landed on the docks in Los Angeles in the late summer of 1957, no one on hand realized they were watching history unfold. Six decades later, Japanese automakers are well entrenched in Read more

Photos and images courtesy Milwaukee Art Museum. By 1963, Studebaker as a carmaker had run out of options. Bleeding cash, facing stiff competition, and with no new products in the pipeline, the only question observers asked was when – not if – the company would shut down its auto plants. Read more

While poking around for more on the Lakewood Center photo that appeared in a recent LA-centric carspotting post, we came across this one and had to believe we’d already used it; the colors and the packed parking lot are total gimmes for selecting carspotting photos around here. But a search Read more

There’s a little bit of work left to be done on this 1970 Datsun 510 for sale on Hemmings.com, but that’s nothing compared to the restoration work the seller’s already completed, from floor and rocker replacement to a head rebuild – pretty much everything necessary to turn it into a Read more

1962 Kurtis Aguila. All photos by Darin Schnabel, courtesy RM Sotheby’s. By 1962, legendary builder Frank Kurtis was winding down his automotive business, but a request from Texas racer Herb Stelter seemed like one last shot at motorsport glory. Stelter wanted a car he could race fenderless in Formula 366 Read more

Photo courtesy Oldsmobile, via Steve Moskowitz. Driving a Curved Dash Oldsmobile across the country when it was new took skill, mechanical aptitude and courage. Driving a Curved Dash Oldsmobile across the country in more recent years still took skill, mechanical aptitude and courage, and one of the few living men Read more

Pandora, my 2000 BMW R1100R.  Photo by author. Spring came early to Vermont this year, and with 60-degree temps in the forecast I opted to wake Pandora, the name I’ve taken to calling my oft-troublesome 2000 BMW R1100R, from her winter slumber. Thanks to the use of a smart charger, Read more

The Hannover plant in 1959. Photos courtesy Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles. On March 5, 1955, Volkswagen broke ground on a new factory in Hannover-Stoecken, Germany, and just over one year later, on March 8, 1956, the first Hannover-built Type 2 Transporter rolled off the assembly line. Sixty years later, on March Read more

Like many photos taken for EPA’s Documerica series, this one of South Charleston’s downtown area – specifically Seventh Street, looking east, which we came across on Jim and Chester’s Garage – uses a loooong lens to juxtapose a thriving downtown with, likely, the reason for that downtown’s fortune: a now-demolished Read more

A while back we ran a piece on the 1970 Chevrolet Monte Carlo sale brochure, and it generated a surprising amount of discussion. Much of it was centered on the highest-performance variant, the Monte Carlo SS which, in 1970, came equipped with a 454-cu.in. V-8 that produced 360 horsepower and Read more