CarPort

Rétromobile, France’s premier old car event, opened for the 37th time on Wednesday. Occupying three pavilions at the Paris Expo center at the Porte de Versailles, the show continues through Sunday.

It is a year of anniversaries: 50 years of the Ferrari GTO and MGB, 40 for the Honda Civic and Renault R5 (a/k/a Le Car). Among manufacturers, Porsche is making its Rétromobile debut, while Skoda enlarges its presence. Citroën is showcasing the automobile as art, BMW its underappreciated racing heritage and Mercedes-Benz evincing a stark, white presence. Peugeot, meanwhile celebrates the long run of the 200 series, which dates from 1929. It is nice to see the elderly Citroën bus, discovered in the rough and under restoration a few years ago, nearing completion.

Rétromobile is not all automaker displays, however. There are clubs, some of them, like Le Club 205, on factory stands and others, like Amicale Spridget, standing alone. I was caught off guard by Renault Alliance Club Passion. Who new the French could be passionate about a car Americans generally ignored.

Many of the major classic car dealers are on hand, and French auction house Artcurial was on deck with a Friday sale. Making a European debut is a selection of cars from the Mullin Automotive Museum in California.

There are always specialty displays at Retromobile, and among this year’s selection are friends of amphibians and “Constructeurs sans Patente” (manufacturers without license), a showcase of one-off creations like Le Renaudat. Outside Pavilion 3 is the huge 30-ton, nine-cylinder Duvant engine, which makes frequent demonstrations.

Rétromobile also hosts many parts vendors, model car purveyors, booksellers, painters and sculptors, although we wondered if any Bugattis were harmed in the making of this audacious desk. Some carnival favorites never die, like the spark intensifer man beloved of country fairs and carnivals.

Our friend Joris from PreWarCar.com is sharing space with the British magazine The Automobile. On their stand is perhaps the most unusual exhibit of all, the never-finished Gerin automobile of 1923-26. Discovered in Ireland by Reg Winstone, it shows very early hints of streamlining and technologies that are thought to have arisen later. We’ll tell more about that another time.

One of the good things about February is Rétromobile, France’s premier old car event. Held annually at Paris Expo at the Porte de Versailles, it’s been on the go for 37 years. Think Hershey or Beaulieu Autojumble with an accent, and all indoors.

In addition to vendors of parts and cars, Rétromobile also draws manufacturers with their own historic displays.This year will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the MGB, and the 40th of the Honda Civic (who knew…?). Citroën will explore cars as art, Peugeot will highlight the the launch of the new 208 with a tribute to 200-series Peugeots of the past.

Other attractions include the little-known and stunningly beautiful French luxury car Monica, home-built cars like this Piollet, a history of amphibious cars, and the gargantuan 30-ton, nine-cylinder VOS Duvant engine.

Also on the cards are the European debut of the renowned Peter Mullin Collection from California and an auction of fine motor cars by the Paris firm Artcurial.

Rétromobile opens Wednesday, February 1st at 11:00 AM and runs through Sunday the 5th. Check it out.

Yesterday was exactly seven months since the last Mercury was made. The thought was brought home to me recently, after my Infiniti I30 was dangerously damaged by a deer. While the insurance deliberations were evolving, I had the use of a rental car. The only vehicle available at my local agent was a spanking new Mercury Grand Marquis.

It struck me immediately how little the model has changed since the current generation was introduced in 1992: broad front seat, a split bench rather than buckets, equally spacious leather couch in the rear, and broad of beam at the back. The trunk verges on huge, but is awkwardly shaped, the giant doughnut spare intruding seriously on space. There are nice touches, like a locking remote trunk opener, cupholders for two in the back and legible instruments on the dashboard, but the whole approach is pretty old school, including the patently fake burled walnut on the doors.

The engine is the 4.6-liter version of Ford’s modular sohc V8, with the obligatory plastic vanity cover emblazoned with a legacy version of the Ford V8 logo. With that in mind, one wonders why the modern, ambiguous “waterfall” emblem, rather than a Big M or winged-hat god from yore. The car is equipped with stability control, but I didn’t notice any difference whether it was on or off, not that I performed any extreme maneuvers.

The owner’s manual comes in a nifty little portfolio, but on opening one is reminded that this car is nothing more than a badge-engineered Ford Crown Vic, the last civilian model of which was made in 2007 (sales since then have been limited to cabs and cops). This car was built in Canada (“2″ in the VIN) in December 2010, so it’s the Ultimate Edition in more ways than one. It’s a brand new, 20-year-old car. Some people are already collecting Grand Marquis – Chris David has an ’87 model, from the previous generation, and it rates Early American registration, as Connecticut calls its antique car plates. Next year the ’92s will qualify, too. In fact, I think they should all be eligible for antique plates, for, like the long-running Locomobile 48, built from 1913 to 1929, the Grand Marquis was old before it was sold.

Later this month the Lincoln Town Car will also meet its maker. We’ll talk about that another time.

Time was when any town worth its salt had a dirt track race course. Aspiring young drivers, especially those who would never become Ralph dePalma or Russ Snowberger, could buy a junkyard special, probably a Ford or Chevy coupe, weld in a roll cage and go Saturday night racing, with and against their friends. Jalopy racing, as it was known, died out by the 1960s, leaving the impecunious in the lurch. Now, thanks to Jay Lamm and his co-conspirators, we have a 21st Century equivalent, the 24 Hours of LeMons (looks like “LeMans,” pronounced “lemons”).

The rules are simple. Any car that costs less than $500, ready to race, is eligible. It’s really an endurance race – the car rolling up the most laps in the allotted time wins. There are some other arcane regulations and contradictions, and gerrymandered awards, but basically that’s it. It’s an open field and you run what you brung. We visited the Boston Tow Party and Overhead-Cam Bake at Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut last weekend to check it out.

As you’d expect, all the usual “tuner cars,” like Honda Civic, are represented, BMW, and there’s a generous helping of Camaros and Firebirds. But others seem like long shots: PT Cruiser, Saab, Fiat 131, Peugeot 405 Mi16,a TR-7 uprated with a 3.9-liter Land Rover V8, and a brace of Alfa Milanos. Seeming totally out of place were an Olds Delta 88 and a funny, jacked-up Pontiac Bonneville coupe.

Teams seem to need themes, so we find Britney Steers, the Saudi Audi, a golfing foursome and a Volvo-based Family Truckster with Chevy Chase on the roof. Themes demand mascots, so we see rude little gnomes, a cuddly platypus< and a plethora of rubber chickens.

After tech inspection is complete, teams report for the driver’s meeting, where impresario Jay reads the rules and penalties, and then cars line up to enter the track. Once everyone’s circling in friendly fashion, the lights turn green and the race is on.

In addition to our natural curiosity, we were there to watch our son Edward, who’s been wrenching for the Cannibal Cafe Racing team, take his first turn behind the wheel. Alas, the car, a ’91 Honda CRX, blew a head gasket on its first few laps, before his stint. A furious frenzy of remove and replace followed, while other team members cooked lunch. After a couple of hours, the car was together and running, and Edward put in two hours of some really good driving, faster than most cars on the track. It makes a parent proud.

As Jay admonishes the drivers, “racing is not a contact sport,” but sometimes stuff happens. Other times, the cars pass in circles, with no damage beyond lost time. The Bonneville fairly floated its way around the track, its driver taking the high, wide and lonesome line, a useful tactic because a tortoise that runs the entire race may outscore a hare that flamed out early.

There were some heartbreaks, like the Peugeot going out in a cloud of smoke with internal injuries, although a spare engine was quickly rounded up from their support network. Head gaskets were the order of the day, and some cars needed suspension work and others body surgery. Still others opted for heart transplants. Alas, Honda #33 had another acute case of headgasketitis and was out for good, an hour into its third leg.

Saturday was hot, leaving the stands sparsely settled while many sought shade under the bleachers. Some teams, like the 999 Gutlass, brought cheerleaders, who were eager to perform for the cameras. By 5:00 Sunday, as racing drew to a close, it was Alfa #75, running well all weekend, that took home the nickels. Firebird #6 made a class win – complete results will show up soon on the 24 Hours of LeMons website.

Interested? There are nine more LeMons races in 2011. The next one is August 6-7 at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California. There’s still time get a car from your nearest junkyard and enter.

UPDATE: Full results now available.

New York’s International Automobile Show is the last on the North American circuit and a moveable feast, in that it always opens on Easter weekend. The scribblers of the motoring press get in a couple of days early, so they can write and blog about it before the good citizens form their own opinions.

There are rarely any new concept cars at New York, but always a few new-model introductions. This year heralded a new Chevy Malibu, lauded for exemplary miles per gallon (with the four-cylinder engine, of course), and Chrysler had two new Jeeps, a Mojave edition Wrangler and an SRT8 Grand Cherokee, its 6.4-liter Hemi making it America’s fastest SUV. Ford gave its Taurus a nose job and touted its “active grille shutters,” which make the car more aerodynamic when running cool, and a new SHO model that’s mostly a trim package with a Bentelyesque grille.

Most of the roll-outs were imports, Hyundai’s new Accent, five new Honda Civics, and a Subaru Impreza. Seen before were VW’s new New Beetle and the zero-petroleum Nissan Leaf (you can try this at home). Porsche claimed primacy in hybrids with the gasoline-electric replica Lohner-Porsche and introduced a hybrid Panamera, while nearby we were treated to the new Land Rover Evoque and an “Autobiography Ultimate” package for the Range Rover (can you say $170,000?). Rolls-Royce and Bentley were together again, if only in proximity, while Saab gave no hint of ongoing difficulties, if one ignored the paucity of new product. Popular commentator Dennis David got to meet Eleanor Thornton and prolific scribe Gregg D. Merksamer was intrigued by the Lohner-Porsche.

Outright concepts were few, one of the more dramatic being the Cadillac with Lambo doors. My favorite, though, was the Scion FRS (for front-engine, rear-wheel drive, sport). Not ready for production, it certainly shows that the son-of-Toyota is contemplating new directions.

The bottom floor is the domain of trucks. In stark contrast to Malibu’s numbers were the economy ratings of the F-150 Supercab pickup. The show runs through May 1st. Check it out.

A few weeks ago, I told you about our summer sojourn to Kenya. As you might suspect, we did not go solely to look at cars. About a week of our trip was spent on safari.

We started with a top-down view, wild animals as seen from a hot air balloon. Rising before dawn, we were collected in a Land Rover and driven to the launch site in the Masai Mara reserve, whence we ascended at daybreak, thanks to plenty of hot air. We were not alone, as three other balloon parties drifted with us. During the hour-long flight we spied wilbebeests, elephants, impalas and zebras. The excursion ended with a terrestrial champagne breakfast.

Once earthbound, we went in search of animals close-up, happening upon an accommodating cheetah, who posed for a photo op. On our day we met ostrich, zebra, baboon, elephants, sun-bathing hippos, giraffes, more impalas and a pride of lions. Wildebeests hobnobbed with the zebras when not making their own migration. Despite the sage advice not to venture on foot, we alighted briefly at a pillar marking the Tanzanian border.

The Land Rover is, of course, the quintessential safari vehicle. Outfitted for animal-spotting, they are ubiquitous in the bush, though increasingly being supplanted by Toyota Land Cruisers. Some safari operators take a less expensive route, with sightseeing adaptations of the familiar matatus, the Toyota vans used as communal taxis in towns. Long-haul safari cars are called “overlanders.” These are heavy trucks outfitted for passengers. At night they pull into campgrounds and disgorge their passengers for supper and, eventually, sleep. We shared a campground with several overlanders, though in more comfortable-looking huts that concealed rustic tents.

Our safari car was our daughter and son-in-law’s Toyota Land Cruiser Prado, a sport utility not sold as such in the United States (a less rugged V8 version is sold as the Lexus GX470). With all creature comforts and a 4-liter turbo diesel it conveyed us throughout the preserve, while GPS kep us from getting lost. Even in the bush, Kenya is tech-savvy, with cell towers aplenty, albeit sometimes in disguise.

A sure tip-off to the presence of wildlife is a gaggle of matatus. By waiting our turn we were able to move into position to snap some awesome photos.

Frank McMullen has been fascinated with Model A Fords since he was five years old. He built most of the Hubley diecast kits, and religiously watched The Waltons on television, drawn by the distinctive exhaust note of the Model As on the show. Somehow, though, real Model As always eluded him, the available ones being either too ambitious a project or too expensive a purchase.

The summer before last, however, he was checking about the car corral at a local AACA meet in eastern Pennsylvania when he came across a perky 1928 Special Coupe. It had been painted Rattle-Can Black and had a number of issues, but it had four decent Allstate tires and no ominous puddles underneath. After a short ride, Frank was able to make a deal, but the local Model A guru, who was handling the sale for the owner, insisted on going through it before letting it go. So it was a cold and snowy January before Frank could drive it home. He gave it some exercise in a local park, then put it away, next to his 1961 Rambler American convertible.

But he really wanted to drive it, so he began driving it to work when the weather wasn’t too bad, appropriate because he works in a building the same age as the car. Come spring there were some coolant issues to be addressed, followed by head gasket replacement. He found what were clearly original pistons and valves, at somewhat more than 80,000 miles. He’s put another 5,000 on it since, mostly commuting and some touring. It celebrated International Model A Ford Day in September at the local Ford dealer.

He liked driving it so much that this past winter – the winter from hell in much of the country – he kept it on the road for all but the sloppiest days. It started easily on the coldest day of the year, though sometimes relished a bit of thawing. It didn’t mind being out in the snow, but on really cold nights he bundled it up.

A couple of weeks ago, he gave it a bath before the first spring tour of his local club, Steamtown A’s of Northeastern Pennsylvania. Convoy-fashion, they visited Loch’s Maple and Fiber Farm in Springville, Pennsylvania, where craftspeople, alpacas and rising sap were holding forth. The folks had fun, and the Fords got a chance to catch up with their cousins.

I know from experience that Model A Fords are good winter cars. Nicely balanced and not overpowered, their narrow tires are sure-footed in snow. They’re not especially warm inside, even when equipped with a manifold heater, but the coupes, like Frank’s are cozier than open cars or sedans. Frank has the right idea. He has plans for more cosmetic and mechanical work, he says, “that is, if I can ever stop driving it long enough to do some serious work.”

Veteran CarPorters know I’m fond of Gravely tractors. In fact, my first post about Gravelys back in 2005 generated the most comments of any since the beginning of the CarPort. It’s no surprise, then, that when I learned the Gravely Tractor Club of America was holding its annual show in Connecticut I made plans to attend. Held this past May, as part of an engine and tractor show put on by the Scantic Valley Antique Engine Club, it drew Gravelys from all over the northeastern United States and some from farther away.

Gravely gatherings are called “Mow-Ins,” although the Gravelys attending come with many, many more types of attachments. The most familiar Gravely to most people is the eponymous Model L, built from 1937 into the 1970s. Many of these have been converted to electric starting. These two-wheel workhorses evolved into the Convertible, Super Convertible and Custom Convertible models, before being joined by a range of four-wheel tractors. The largest of these had rear engines, the single cylinder 424 with Kohler power and the 816, which used a twin-cylinder Onan engine. Less well known is the front-engine 1138, and even scarcer is the Westchester, a Convertible turned into a front-drive four-wheeler. I had never seen a Gravely push rotary mower before, but they do exist (in fact they’re still being made).

It all began, however, with one-wheel tractors. Benjamin Franklin Gravely attached an Indian motorcycle engine to a push cultivator in 1911, and the eventual result was the Gravely Model D, called the “Motor Plow.”

Perhaps the most common Gravely attachments are the 30-inch rotary mower and the rotary plow, but there are larger mowers, even reel mowers, gang reels and sickle bars. You can aerate your lawn, fell trees with either a circular or chain saw, or configure your Gravely to cut cordwood. You can spray your fruit trees, chip wood, vacuum your driveway or make ice cream. There are many types of snow blowers, even a snow blade with a chain-driven slinger on the end. There are various scoop devices, this one originally owned by the West Virginia Division of Highways, and the four-wheelers can be equipped with hydraulic buckets or blades, some of them quite elaborate.

Some people have modified their Gravelys for more power. There was an aftermarket overhead-valve set for the Model L that nearly doubled the horsepower. The Kohler engines on the Convertibles were more powerful still, but that wasn’t enough for one owner, who fitted a Yamaha diesel engine.

In the afternoon there was a Parade of Power, showing off representative models, and showgoers also had the rest of the engine show see, which had a good representation of tractors, like this ancient Avery and a nifty little John Deere Model L, a tractor pull, some doodlebugs and a few cars. One of my favorite scenes was this little bus, made from a stretched lawn tractor and an old one-lung engine.

The 2012 Gravely Mow-In will be held this August in Brownsville, Pennsylvania. Gravely guys, make your plans now.

In 1922, the Maxwell Motor Company began an advertising campaign touting “The Good Maxwell.” Does that mean that prior Maxwells were bad? Unfortunately, some of them were.

It had not always been so. Jonathan Maxwell was a pal of Benjamin Briscoe, and Briscoe convinced J.P. Morgan to invest in their new car company. The jaunty little two-cylinder Maxwell runabout developed a fond following, and by 1909 the make achieved third place in sales. Comedian Jack Benny had one, which maintained a constant virtual presence on his radio show.

The Maxwell dealer in these parts was Palmer’s Garage in New London, Connecticut. Owner Roy Palmer made a trip to Detroit for a dealer driveaway of the 1916 models, which included this special speedster runabout. Palmer had a fondness for the old two-cylinder runabouts, too, and kept one at the back of his shop.

In a spirited bit of advertising that same year, Maxwell made a family-oriented pitch, explaining how a woman could make use of a Maxwell in her role as mother and homemaker. Why, she could even put up the top by herself. That this was a ruse became evident on the next page where we see mother and child in the back seat, with father patriachally at the wheel.

All auto manufacturers were struggling in the aftermath of World War I, but Maxwell more than most. In addition to poor market conditions, Maxwell’s quality had suffered, and sales dropped precipitously in 1920 from seventh place to eleventh. Walter P. Chrysler arrived that August, from Buick, and set about rescuing both quality and sales. A series of engineering improvements was followed by the “Good Maxwell” campaign, pointing sales upward again, although a merger with moribund Chalmers in 1922 didn’t help. Still, gains were made, as Maxwell sold a new line of open and closed cars, even a spiffy Sport Touring model. But Walter Chrysler had his eye on a car that would bear his name. Maxwell was dropped after 1925, but a version lived on through 1928 as the four-cylinder 50-series Chrysler, a facelifted and slightly re-engineered Maxwell.

In April 1979, General Motors introduced a new line of compact cars. Designated “X-bodies,” an early use of a corporate code name in automotive marketing (the predecessor X-body, the Chevrolet Nova and corporate siblings, had not used the X-word in public), the line included the Chevrolet Citation, Pontiac Phoenix, Oldsmobile Omega and Buick Skylark. The Citation and Phoenix offered a notchback coupe and two hatchback models, two- and four-door. Olds and Buick had a more formal roofline and eschewed the hatchback entirely. The base engine was a Pontiac-built 2.5-liter “Iron Duke” four. A new Chevrolet 2.8-liter 60-degree V6 was optional. A floor shift four-speed overdrive manual transmission was standard, with automatic optional.

The big news was the X-cars’ engineering: transverse-engine front-wheel drive with rack-and-pinion steering. These were not new inventions. The British Motor Corporation’s Mini, designed by Alec Issigonis, used them from 1959, and the concept wasn’t even new in the United States. J. Walter Christie had built and raced a number of cross-engine front-wheel drive cars prior to 1910. But it was novel in the 1980 model year, when all the American competition was mired in longitudinal front-engine rear-drive configuration.

Chevrolet touted the Citation’s advantage in bad weather, which it had aplenty, and also suggested it was good for towing, which it really wasn’t. It’s quaint to look back and see how the features we take for granted today, power windows, heated backlights, moonroofs, and reclining seats, were touted options. Kitschy fake wire wheels were still in vogue, and instrument panels sported round dials in rectangular frames and vertical radio controls.

Of course there was a sport model, designated X-11, which was largely an appearance package with alloy wheels, although “bucket seats” (more like ordinary seats with bolsters), a high-output V6 and sport suspension made it more lively. A sport steering wheel and tachometer completed the package.

The X-cars got a roaring reception, and a long waiting list developed. Soon, however, the cars’ teething problems became apparent. The power steering and brakes were problematic, the latter causing uncontrollable lockup under hard use. Eventually the engineering caught up with the concept, but not before the brand had been tarnished. A former co-worker of mine had an Olds Omega that was so bad it became a cause celebre for the Connecticut lemon law.This last generation of X-cars was ushered out after 1985, but the lessons learned were factored into a new line of front-wheel drive A-body intermediates, the Chevy Celebrity, Pontiac 6000, Olds Cutlass Ciera and Buick Century in 1982. For all their faults, the X-cars really paved the road for volume production of front-wheel drive in America.

The X-cars have yet to make much of a dent in the collector marketplace. Most of the survivors are weathered veterans like this Citation. However, last October’s Hershey had a decent example in the Car Corral, whose only obvious flaw was a scarred bumper fill panel. Moreover, some brave souls are entering serious competition. Wayne Kieffer’s 1980 Buick Skylark has achieved Preservation status at AACA.