An early catalog cover for San Francisco, California-based American Racing Equipment. One of the many benefits of the Hemmings West desk here in San Francisco, is the city’s somewhat obscure role in ...
American Racing Equipment ‘s magazine ad for its new pizza-cutter 4 x 15 magnesium frontrunner. Here at Hemmings, we’re nothing if not steeped in history. Comes along with the territory, right? Becau...
Jim Benjaminson’s grandfather, Andrew Widme, purchased his first car in July of 1912 – a used 1910 Mitchell built in Racine, Wisconsin. Grandpa Widme paid $700 for the car (which sold new for around ...
I took this photo of my black ’57 at the Classic Thunderbird Club International regional meet at Seven Springs around 1970 or so when we drove the Bird from New Rochelle to western Pennsylvania. Bill...
It’s a good bet that the 1921 Ballot straight-eight that John Ballard Engineering recently assembled for a customer may be the last time anybody will take on such a project. Fortunately, Ballard docu...
As an old computer returns to its original owner, we wonder: Are old-car fans so different from vintage appliance fetishists? Photo by Rama. Are you a tech fetishist? I am not. Computers have, tradit...
Photos courtesy Porsche AG. Own old cars, trucks or motorcycles long enough, and sooner or later a common problem arises: A needed part is no longer available. Porsche Classic has recently announced ...
You can’t beat the old Sears catalogs as reference material. Photos by the author. One of the neatest references for everyday-material culture of the past is a Sears, Roebuck and Company Catalog. Sea...
This just sums up everything good about the Turlock Swap Meet: @clydeathan doing the boxer’s championship belt hoist with his 2nd-gen Firebird nose–a great score and evidence of a day well-spent. Pho...
I can remember commuting from Albany, New York, to Springfield, Massachusetts, every Thanksgiving as a child and traveling the NYS Thruway and the Massachusetts Turnpike to get there. Being part of a...
When we realized we only had one headlight, Conder took it all in stride. This is the sketch on a piece of chipboard that he keeps piles of, deep inside Conder Custom, that finally solved the problem...
Getting there. They say that it takes 90 percent of the time to do 10 percent of the work and vice-versa. “They” say a lot, don’t they? All photos by the author, unless otherwise noted. Warhol claime...
One of the four mysterious photos Joe Gotelli – grandson of Ted “The Goat” Gotelli – dug out of a filing cabinet for me. While I had to find out what cosmic forces brought these elements together in ...
Photo courtesy MACS worldwide. The EPA established rules concerning the purchase of automotive refrigerant as part of the United States Clean Air Act. When enacted in 1992 as section 609 of the law, ...
An Airstream Clipper and a Lincoln Zephyr in a 1930s-era photo. Photography from the estate of Helen Byam Schwamborn, courtesy Dale Schwamborn. Recently in writing a profile of Airstream founder Wall...
Kanter Auto Products facility at 662 Myrtle Ave. in Boonton, NJ. Photos by James From, courtesy Kanter Auto Products. Vintage parts giant Kanter Auto Products is in the process of consolidating its o...
Santa brought the writer a 1923 Ford touring car body, which has been dubbed “Tilly,” thanks to the original plan to use a pair of Tillotson down-draft carburetors on the engine. The Tillotsons are n...
Photos by author. Many of us can attest to the fact that vintage cars require periodic attention or they begin to slip into a permanent state of rest that impedes future cruising enjoyment. And since...
While photographing a 1969 Buick Riviera on Long Island recently for a forthcoming feature in Hemmings Classic Car magazine, the car owner, Eric Sporrer, showed me some of the many pieces of original...
By itself, it’s a wholly unremarkable ball of aluminum with a black textured finish, measuring roughly two inches in diameter. Featuring a collar at the bottom, the item is drilled and tapped with a ...
Photos courtesy Virginia Historical Society. While researching an upcoming story on the Kline Kar, I found some information about the car on the Virginia Historical website. The automobiles were manu...
Marketing automobiles has certainly come a long way since the days prior to World War II. Back then, when a dealer wanted to get the word out about the cars that he was selling, he would either adver...
Photo by author. I have a confession to make: I am a tool hoarder. Were I loyal to one brand of automobile or motorcycle, or even a single nationality, this would pose less of a problem, but over the...
Singer, songwriter, actor, and television host Glen Campbell died on August 8 after a protracted battle with Alzheimer’s disease. One of Campbell’s roles that few remember is Datsun pitchman; as Japa...
Though my garb here is a little out of sync with the early-Fifties-era Hudson Hornet-powered rail my club ran at this year’s Race of Gentlemen, it’s period-plausible for my early Thirties Ford speeds...