Excerpts taken from world famous ‘Hemmings Auto Blog’
Peter Ashcroft. Photo courtesy Capri Club North America. Though Peter Ashcroft may not be a household name, the engines and racing programs developed under his watch as competition manager for Ford of Britain, and, later, as motorsport director for Ford of Europe, are the stuff of legend. Those efforts, and Read more
Before 1970, most brake shoes, clutch discs and disc brake pads were made of an asbestos-based material, chosen because of its ability to quickly dissipate heat and for its durability. The interaction of these brake and clutch linings with the drum, rotor or flywheel they contact creates dust as a Read more
Not to make you all paranoid, but as collector cars appreciate in value and as they continue to gain exposure outside of our little world, they’ll also become higher-profile targets for thieves. Stolen car stories are becoming more and more commonplace in our community, and with two different headline stories Read more
Scenes neither from It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World nor of the aftermath of any other Hollywood car chase, instead these two photos depict the natural confusion that arose on Sweden’s roads on September 3, 1967, also known as Dagen H, the day that Sweden changed over from driving Read more
It probably won’t tackle the Rubicon anytime soon, but this front-wheel-drive 1982 Matra Rancho for sale on Hemmings.com – one of the lesser-seen Decouvrable versions – certainly tries to look the part and appears to remain in good condition and ready for an overnight soft-roading excursion. From the seller’s description: Read more
Plymouth Belmont. Photos courtesy Barrett-Jackson. Could Plymouth have benefited from a challenger to the Chevrolet Corvette and Ford Thunderbird in the two-seat sporting car field? Automotive historians could debate that question ad nauseam, but we at least know what such a car might have looked like: the 1954 Plymouth Belmont Read more
The Owls Head Transportation Museum’s annual New England Auto Auction shares a weekend with the Monterey auctions, but that’s about where the similarities end. The Owls Head auction tends to focus on cars that are affordable to people of average means, and have that “something for everyone” quality that encourages Read more
GM Electrovan. Photo by Daniel Strohl. In 2000, automaker Honda began using its experimental FCX-V3 hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicle as the official pace car of the Los Angeles marathon, and by 2002 the city of Los Angeles became Honda’s first commercial customer for a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, leasing five Read more
Jay Leno’s 1937 Fiat Topolino, one of the few that made it out of the Hemmings limbo files. Photo by the author. Paperwork is the bane of our modern existence. Everyone hates it; it’s time-consuming and a colossal hassle. And so, it is always with trepidation and a heavy heart Read more
Back to the Pacific Northwest – specifically Olympia, Washington – for these two photos from the Washington State Digital Archives. First, above, the view looking east down Fourth Avenue from Washington Street; and then below a photo of the Institutions Building on the Capitol campus. The latter is undated, while Read more