About.com Classic Cars

The Most Frequently Asked Questions About an Amphicar

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:31:23 +0000

Some Amphicar owners have been quoted to say, "It's not a good car and it's not a good boat, but it does just fine" and "We like to think of it as the fastest car on the water and fastest boat on the road."

Another thing they will tell you is that the most difficult part about driving an Amphicar is that they can't take it out for a cruise, on land or by sea, without being bombarded by questions about the car from whomever they come in contact with.

We understand the curiosity as this was the only amphibious car ever mass produced for personal use, albeit in small numbers, and want to know more about how it works as well.

So with the help of some Amphicar owners, we've put together a list of answers to their most frequently asked questions.� In doing so, we have acquired a new appreciation of how special this little amphibious car really is.

Photo - Getty Images

The Most Frequently Asked Questions About an Amphicar originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 17:31:23.

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Electric Cars are Back

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:54:51 +0000

The next best thing to paging through our newly delivered classic car magazine is reading an old new car magazine, like the February 1959 printing of Motor Trend we just found. This particular issue caught our eye because of the caption "Electric Cars Are Back."

On page 48, reporter Bob Rolofson writes enthusiastically about his test drive with the Charles "Town-About" concept electric car with rave reviews using terms like light, safe, noiseless, odorless, clean, durable, comfortable, simple in operation and ready for production.� Where have we heard that before?

In 1959, the Town-About was the newest automobile manufactured by the Stinson Aircraft Tool & Engineering Co. of San Diego, California.� And according to the Motor Trend article,� Stinson owners�had secretly developed this electric car and built a factory designed to mass produce it, but when word got out, the company was inundated with mail from brokers, dealers seeking franchises and privates parties asking for stock quotes. Rolofson was even shown a pile of four-digit certified checks from power and light companies ordering cars for trial.

So why aren't we driving a Charles electric car today, or better yet, why haven't we even heard of it?� Howstuffworks.com was the only place we found any information about the "Town-About" and why it faded into the mists of electric car history. Read more here...1959 Charles Town About Concept Car

Photo - Michele Hamer

Electric Cars are Back originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 17:54:51.

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Steve McQueen Memorabilia For Sale

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:48:16 +0000

If you're�a Steve McQueen fan, you need to check out the many items for sale at Bonhams' annual�Classic California�auction taking place at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles on Saturday, November 14.� There will be around 150 item previously owned by legendary Hollywood actor and his family that include movie posters, autographed photos, cars and motorcycles.� The more notable items include:

McQueen's 1949 Chevrolet 3100 pick-up that has never before offered for sale, and in its original unrestored condition as it was when last driven before his death in 1980.

The 1940 Indian Chief motorcycle that was used by Steve as his personal "Hollywood bike" and was originally sold as part of the McQueen estate in Las Vegas in 1984.

The #1 2001 Ford Mustang�Bullitt�Special Edition dubbed "McQueen 1", built in commemoration of the great chase movie,�Bullitt.� It was presented by Ford to Steve's professional racecar driver son Chad and is in factory original, unmodified condition with only 2012 miles since new.

The Number 2 Ford Mustang Bullitt was intended for �Steve McQueen's daughter Terry, but she passed away before receiving it and it passed to her daughter Molly.� This sold at Bonham's Petersen auction last year for $70,200.

You can view all the of the Steve McQueen memorabilia that will be auctioned on Bonhams' website.

Photo - Getty Images

Steve McQueen Memorabilia For Sale originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 15:48:16.

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Fall of the Berlin Wall Makes the Trabant a Classic

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:53:54 +0000

November 9, 2009 marks the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and if any of you have been watching some of the recent documentaries to celebrate the event, you may have noticed this particular little car keep showing up.

It's a Trabant, an automobile that was produced by former East German auto maker VEB Sachsenring Automobilwerke, but is now more recognizable as a symbol of the failed former East Germany and the fall of communism.

Read the full article on our The Trabant - Built Out of Plastic and Socialism page.

Photo - Getty Images

Fall of the Berlin Wall Makes the Trabant a Classic originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Monday, November 9th, 2009 at 19:53:54.

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DriveSharp, Software To Improve Your Driving

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:03:31 +0000

When we were contacted by a marketing firm asking us to inform our readers about the DriveSharp software, recommended by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, our response was as it always is, "we only write about products we have personally used and will give an honest opinion, good or bad." A week later, DriveSharp arrived in the mail.

DriveSharp is a brain game that works on improving and widening the scope of your peripheral vision while training your brain to keep track of as many things as possible. Being baby boomers who have killed way too many brain cells though the years who now have to dodge the increasing number of folks who think they can "text" while driving, we thought it might be a good idea to check this out.

In six weeks we logged in over eight hours of the software's training sessions.� Can we say� that we are better drivers because of it?� Check out our full product review, DriveSharp, Software To Improve Your Driving to find out.

DriveSharp, Software To Improve Your Driving originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009 at 22:03:31.

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The 113th London to Brighton Veteran Car Run

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:00:42 +0000

The Royal Automobile Club's annual London to Brighton Veteran Car Run is celebrating its 113th anniversary this November 1st and 2nd which makes it the world's longest running motoring event. It attracts highly valuable Antique pre-1905 cars from all over the globe. For the spectators, it's a rare opportunity see these extraordinary automobiles on the 60 mile run from Hyde Park in central London to the seafront on the Sussex resort of Brighton.

The Emancipation Run, as it was called at its initiation on November 14th, 1896, celebrated the passing into law of the "Locomotives on the Highway Act" which raised the speed limit for "Light Locomotives" from 4 miles per hour to 14 mph. The event was considered to be a red-letter day in the history of British motoring, demonstrating that the automobile was here to stay...even though only 14 of the 33 starters reached Brighton. Since then, with the exception of the war years when gas rationing was in force, the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run has been an annual event to celebrate motoring.

Today, royalty and personalities from the worlds of television, stage, music and sport often participate in the annual run which takes place on the first Sunday every November. Few events on the international motoring calendar can claim the individuality, personality and character of the 557 fine examples of early automotive engineering that will participate in the 2009 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run.

2009 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run Spectator Information

Photo: 1902 Murray Runabout

The 113th London to Brighton Veteran Car Run originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Thursday, October 29th, 2009 at 20:00:42.

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Toyota to Host Classic Car Festival

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 18:01:07 +0000

Toyota �Motor Corporation announced that they will host a Classic Car Festival at their Toyota Automobile Museum, in Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, on Saturday, November 28. The festival will be the third hosted by the Museum, and is aimed at promoting and developing Japan's automobile culture and encouraging interaction among car fans.

To mark its 20th anniversary, the Toyota Automobile Museum will display prized classic cars from its collection under the theme: "The 100-hundred-year History of Automobiles and Personal Mobility Beyond 100 Years".

To illustrate the past and future of personal mobility, seven classic cars from the Toyota Automobile Museum will be driven side-by-side with vehicles such as the i-REAL, a vehicle that �has been described as a "wheel chair on steroids".

We wonder which classic cars Toyota will use from the museum that might best demonstrate the major advances their futuristic i-REAL has made.� Could it be Leonardo da Vinci's Self-Propelled Cart or maybe the Baker Electric.

Either way, we think the classic would still be our choice to get around in.� Check out Top Gear's video of the i-REAL and see if you would agree.

Toyota to Host Classic Car Festival originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 18:01:07.

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Emirates National Auto Museum Hosts First Classic Car Auction

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 19:37:29 +0000

About forty miles outside Abu Dhabi, the capitol of and second largest city in the United Arab Emirates, sits a huge pyramid-shaped structure known as the Emirates National Auto Museum. The museum is really the garage of a member of the Abu Dhabi royal family, H.H. Sheikh Hamad Bin Hamdan Al Nahyan, that houses around 200 vehicles in his private and rather amazing collection of vehicles.

One of the most impressive displays at the museum/garage is the sixteen foot high replica of a 50's Dodge Power Wagon, custom built to a scale of 64:1. Its wheels came from an oil rig transporter and its windshield wipers from an ocean liner. Inside, the power wagon has a full apartment with bedrooms, bathrooms, a meeting area and kitchen. Incredibly it can actually drive...it had to in order to enter the Guinness Book Of World Records.

On October 31, 2009, the royal collection will be rearranged to conduct the Museum's first annual collectible car show, swap meet, and auction. We must say that the organizers picked a great weekend for the event because the city is sure to be filled with car enthusiasts. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which is the climax of the F1 World Championship season, will be underway at what is considered to be the most beautiful, innovative and luxurious motorsport circuit ever built, the Yas Marina Circuit.

You can see more of the cars on display at the Emirates National Auto Museum by going to their website.

Emirates National Auto Museum Hosts First Classic Car Auction originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 19:37:29.

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Craig Jackson on Buying and Selling Collector Cars at Auctions

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 23:21:57 +0000

If you want great advice about buying and selling collector classic cars, your best bet is to ask an expert. And that's just what we did when we met with Craig Jackson, Chairman and CEO of the Barrett-Jackson Auction Company at their collector car event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Jackson was very candid on such topics as the benefits and risks for first time buyers and the most common mistakes they make. But his most passionate topic we discussed was the ethics of collector car auctions.

You can read the full interview on our Craig Jackson on Buying and Selling Collector Cars at Auctions page.

Craig Jackson on Buying and Selling Collector Cars at Auctions originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 23:21:57.

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Do You Know Anything About This Car?

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:48:25 +0000

One of our loyal readers, Hugo Vera, came across a car at the annual "Autoclasica" event which prompted him to send us this email:

Hello Michele and Tony, I'm an avid reader of your newsletters. In my country, Argentina, there is a strong heritage of pre-WWII American cars, and some of them has been preserved and/or restored. Almost every year we enjoy a nice antique and classic cars exhibition called "AUTOCLASICA".� Those of 2009 has been done last weekend. I'm attaching a some pictures of such American-made beauties, and I need your help to know if one in particular, the Auburn "Explorer" is an original one or if it has been some sort of customized conversion. I will really appreciate any information you can provide.

Our reply to Mr. Vera was that in�our research, we�couldn't find an "Explorer"�listed in Auburn's�production models and that it was probably a customized conversion. The car definitely has the Auburn grill, running boards and rims of a 1930's model. But the windshield, boot, doors and especially the fenders don't resemble any Auburn model year we've seen. Could Auburn have made this Explorer as a concept or one-off...maybe, but we think the likelihood of that is slim.

With permission from our Argentinean friend, we would like to ask you, our readers, for your opinion on the 1930's Auburn Explorer Hugo is questioning. Click on the links below for a good look at the car and then share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Auburn Explorer Front View�- Auburn Explorer Rear View��

Photo by Hugo Vera

Do You Know Anything About This Car? originally appeared on About.com Classic Cars on Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 at 17:48:25.

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