CarPort

Nicholas Elgin Vernam Foster was born in the wee hours of the morning, 34 years ago today. The firstborn of his parents, he was much loved and doted upon. It wasn’t long before he was eager to drive a tractor. When he was about two he got his first Tonka, a dump truck in the late 1970s series modeled, with artistic license, on that era’s Dodge truck. The dump truck was soon joined by others, which he was proud to demonstrate to his mother. He had a certain fascination with Jill’s Triumph Herald, often eager to help me work on it.

When he was five, after a good breakfast he went off to school, returning full of knowledge and enthusiasm.

By the time he got to high school he was a self-assured student, which stood him well in higher education. Although Nick and his sister Harriet accompanied us to many car shows, he never inherited my infatuation with automobiles, instead focusing on computers (to which I owe the existence of the CarPort), biology and music. With regard to the latter two, you can find him as Dr. Nick, a post-doctoral research neuroscientist by day, and Professor Groove, a world-class funk music DJ at night. Both of these personae make his parents very proud. You can hear his show each Friday at midnight on radio station CKUT in Montreal, or catch up to it at wefunkradio.com. If you’re going to be in Austin, Texas, in two weeks, you can check him out at South by Southwest.

Long ago I noticed that people enamored of cars often harbor another transportation interest. For many it is airplanes and I’ve met a few who dote on ships. Probably that largest dual constituency, however, favors cars and trains. One manifestation of this appears in elaborate model railroad layouts. Dennis David, the CarPort’s northwest Connecticut correspondent, recently attended the annual Amherst Railway Society Railroad Hobby Show in West Springfield, Massachusetts, and brought back these photos.

Model railroad layouts demand more than trains and track, to achieve a degree of realism. Trees are helpful, buildings essential, but it takes model cars to fill out a world in miniature, be it streetscape or landscape. Some of the cars rival the finest collector models, and all of them appear in appropriate context.

As you’d expect, there are railroad stations, a roundhouse, grade crossings, fire houses, diners, fast food and factory buildings, each with its appropriate complement of cars and trucks. There is usually construction going on, leading to backhoes, draglines and post hole diggers. There are gas stations galore, and service stations and used car lots. We can see containers being loaded for a rail journey, and cars and tractors also on their railward way. The train show even had its own version of Wikileaks.

Familiar marques like Mercury, Divco, Greyhound and Checker were in abundance; less iconic but nicely detailed was a 1948 Ford convertible. Not all cars are that nice, though, for the layout comes complete with a junkyard.

Some features, like the drive-in theater, not only had real movies but replicated cultural icons in their own communities. There was a Big Top circus, with a full cast of performers, a Goodyear blimp, and a circle-track raceway, complete with little Miller racecars. And, for the record, NASCAR was not neglected.

These big layouts seem to run themselves, but in reality there’s someone in the background manning the controls. Dennis couldn’t resist putting himself in the frame, but he made sure to show us that the miniature train show comes with its own set of miniature railfans.

This past August, Jill and I spent nearly three weeks in Kenya, visiting our daughter and son-in-law, who were working there with the US State Department. Generally considered a developing nation, Kenya has a long and interesting history, which involves, not surprisingly, the automobile.

Kenya’s British colonial heritage dictates that traffic keep to the left. While there are recently-built good roads, others are in poor shape and the transition between the two is often abrupt. Maintenance is frequently casual, and building of new roads can seem illogical and usually involves much manual labor. Traffic is less disciplined than we are used to, and departures from the established lanes are common, which results in vehicles coming from unexpected directions. In rural areas, one must watch for animals on the road. Even on main routes, animal traffic is often encountered, and bicycles, too, carry cargo.

Roadsides in Kenya provide a nationwide marketplace, where one can buy fruit and vegetables, furniture, pottery or plants. That’s not to say the country lacks mercantile infrastructure. The Nakumatt chain is the Kenyan equivalent of Super Wal-Mart and Best Buy rolled into one. There is no domestic oil, so all petroleum products are trucked in from elsewhere.

The car of choice in East Africa was formerly the Peugeot, and examples of 404s, 504s and 505s are still seen on the roads. However, the most popular car is now the Toyota Corolla, most often a station wagon and almost invariably white. A few upscale, even American, cars can be seen, but luxury SUVs, like in the States, rarely go off-road. There’s a good parts network and numerous, if primitive, facilities for fixing cars, although the vast majority of repairs seem to be carried out at the side of the road.

Few Kenyans, however, have cars of their own and must rely on buses or matatus. The latter, (whose name means “for three” in Swahili, as originally the fare was three ten-shilling coins – now about 35 cents). are 14-passenger minivans (nearly all Toyota HiAce vans) that ply established routes and make frequent stops. They operate erratically and are frequently overloaded, and the careful motorist will give them wide berth. Only in Nakuru, the principal city in central Kenya, did we encounter scooter taxis, known as “tuk-tuks,” and real freeway-style highways.

School buses are nothing like those in the United States, but it came as a surprise to see a bus-like hearse. It seems that since few people have cars and many burials are conducted in the deceased’s home village, the family and other mourners ride with the coffin on its homeward journey. Moreover, most towns have a convenient coffin shop.

While Kenya can be seen as a throwback to the motoring past, it also provides a glimpse into our future. While we were driving in Nairobi I spotted my first Chery Tiggo. Chinese cars may be coming to America, but they are already very much in Africa.

In the middle ages, the word “squire” denoted a knight in training. More latterly it has meant a village leader or the dominant landowner. In the case of this car, it was simply the surname of the maker.

Adrian Squire (1910-1940) was just 21 when he decided to build his own motor car. He founded Squire Motors, Ltd., and set about designing a road-going Grand Prix car. Into a chassis of his own conception he put a 100-bhp Anzani twin-cam engine, clothed in a coachbuilt body. Squires are said to have had exceptional top speed and braking. Only about ten were built during 1935 and 1936. The still-young Mr. Squire was killed in a bombing raid during 1940 while working at the Bristol Aeroplane Company.

This Squire burst onto the scene as a much-vaunted barn-find at this year’s Rétromobile show in Paris. Offered by Fiskens of London, purveyors of fine historic automobiles, it reportedly lay dormant for 30 years before recent exhumation.

The 1,500-cc Anzani engine is force-fed by a Roots-type supercharger, and the car’s legendary stopping power is apparent in the size of the brakes, which are equipped with magnesium-alloy finned drums. The gearbox is a Wilson pre-selector unit, and the wood dashboard is instrumented with a clock, 120-mph speedometer, two oil gauges (the purpose of which is indeterminate – one reads 0-160, the other 0-1000), a combination vacuum-pressure gauge (for the supercharger), ammeter, temperature and a 6,000-rpm tachometer.

There’s been a lot of speculation about this car on one of the more influential auto blogs, in particular regarding the provenance of the barn-find detritus. We can report with authority that the straw, while authentic, is of a modern replacement variety, and the egg in the rear seat is supplied fresh daily – the yolk is on us…

A steady stream of onlookers paid homage to the Squire during the show, admiring its handsome aluminum body by John Charles (Ranalah) Ltd. and vintage India rubber tires.

Rétromobile, Europe’s largest indoor old car event, began its 36th year yesterday with a new format. Previously a ten-day show encompassing two weekends, this edition has been downsized to a five-day run, with just a single weekend. But as is often the case, less is more.

More, this year, means more exhibitors. Over the past three decades, some traditional participants had fallen away, as the costs of supporting a ten-day extravaganza had multiplied. Particularly affected were many of the club participants, but major automakers, too, felt the pinch. Renault, for example, had not had a presence in years, and BMW, once a stalwart, had been replaced last year by Mazda.

From appearances, though, this year things are well again. BMW is back, in league with its French club, and Mazda is too, celebrating the LeMans success of 1991. Fellow Japanese carmaker Nissan features its sports models, while Mercedes-Benz touts a 125th anniversary. Peugeot and Citroën are perennial exhibitors, but it was good to see Renault back in town, honoring the anniversary of the Renault 4. New at the show is Czech automaker Skoda.

Orphan makes are usually represented by their clubs, and Panhard, Amilcar, Lorraine-Dietrich and Bugatti are just a few of these. Specialty clubs include the French Vintage Corvette Club.

The Rétromobile organization has mounted several topical displays, including a roundup of Grand Prix driver Duncan Hamilton’s Gulf ROFGO race car collection and a celebration of “Youngtimers,” the cult cars of the 1970s-90s. Centerpiece of the show, however, was a recreation of the fardier built in 1770 by Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot, generally considered the first real automobile. Constructed by French-American industrialist, collector and engineer Alain Cerf, the modern-day vehicle dazzled Rétrogoers by operating under live steam.

And there is plenty to buy. Oldtimer enthusiasts can find books, literature, petrolia, and lighting old and new. There are whole villages of model cars, and objets d’art in the automotive vein. Collector car dealers, too, are in abundance, Fiskens of Britain offering a much publicized “barn-find” Squire sports car. An arresting sight is the Lancia Aprillia “woody” on the stand of Marreyt Classics. There’s always an auction at Rétromobile, and this year the French concern Artcurial takes over from Bonhams, with a sale tomorrow evening. Bonhams have not left town, however, and are holding their own event at the Grand Palais on Saturday.

It’s a cosmopolitan event, offering even authentic New York hot dogs. But Rétromobile is short and sweet, so you must join the crowds before Sunday in order to enjoy the treats. Rétromobile runs through February 6th in Hall 7.3 at the Parc des Expositions, Porte de Versailles, Paris.

After our second child was born, it became apparent that not all of us could ride in my standard cab pickup truck. There were times when we wanted to haul something with the whole family aboard, so I started looking at alternatives. A crew cab pickup would have solved the problem, but in 1980 there were no compact “shorty” crew cabs and I didn’t care for the idea of a 160-some inch wheelbase. However, Dodge had introduced the Club Cab model in 1973, and they were starting to appear on the used market.

After some searching in the media we had in the world before Craig’s List, I found a hot prospect in Rhode Island, about 50 miles from home. It was solid, if well used, and I made a deal on the spot and drove it home. The extra cab space was useful, for tools and other items as well as people, and there were desirable features like a tailgate that was easily removable. Jill named it Uriah, after Uriah Heep in Dickens’ David Copperfield (not the British rock band), because it was, well, a heap.

When I inspected it more carefully I found that Uriah was a “Camper 9000,” designed especially for slide-in camper units (although I didn’t have one). The number 9000 was Uriah’s GVW, achieved by putting one-ton brakes and springs on a 3/4-ton chassis, along with a package of camper-useful features. (Observant CarPorters will have noticed that his grille was the later 1974-76 style rather than that shown in the 1973 literature – I’m not sure why.) As it turned out, he needed brake work, no big deal, but I soon noticed that he didn’t accelerate worth a darn. Someone had replaced the original 360 engine with a 318 from a 1978 Dodge passenger car. That was okay because the 318 had a good reputation in truck circles, but in 1978 Chrysler Corporation had used an electronic spark advance. But there was no control unit on my truck, so Uriah was running permanently retarded. A junkyard distributor with vacuum advance fixed that problem. The only other malady occurred on a trip to Cape Cod when the electronic ignition module failed. As a result I bought a spare and always carried it with me, and of course I never had another failure.

Uriah’s principal shortcoming was that even with the “shorter” 149-inch wheelbase he didn’t have much traction when empty. Four years later I replaced him with a similar Dodge Club Cab, with four-wheel drive, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.

New Britain, Connecticut is known as “The Hardware City,” home to the Stanley Works and the Corbin Lock Company (later part of American Hardware), Fafnir Bearing, North & Judd and Landers, Frary & Clark. Stanley, North & Judd and Landers concentrated on building, household and marine products, but Fafnir bearings often found their way into cars, particularly cars built by the Corbin Motor Vehicle Company. It was fitting, then, for New Britain’s Klingberg Family Centers to feature New Britain-built cars, and those from other Connecticut cities, in their 2010 Vintage Motorcar Festival held this past June 19th.

Over the years, more than 130 makes of automobiles have been built in the Nutmeg State, most of them prior to World War I. Thus, the Klingberg show was largely a celebration of brass, and there was plenty of it. The oldest Connecticut car present was a 1903 Pope-Hartford Model B, made in nearby Hartford. In fact, cars from Colonel Albert Pope’s various entrprises that were best represented at the show, with other Pope-Hartfords from 1909, 1910, 1912 and 1913 and a 1907 Columbia, the engine of which was a major attraction. Next most populous and perhaps more remarkable was a clutch of five Corbins, probably the largest gathering of the marque since the last one left the factory in 1912. Corbin contenders dated from 1908, 1909, 1910 and two 1911s.

Surprisingly, the longest-lived Connecticut marque, Locomobile (1900-1929) fielded only one car, a 1908 Model E. Cutest by far was the 1914 Trumbull cyclecar of Bridgeport dealer and restorer George Dragone.

Other brass-era makes, like International Harvester, were represented, and there were plenty of Full Classic makes on hand, including Packard, Brewster-Ford and an imposing Inskip-bodied 1940 Cadillac. Best of Show was judged to be John Parker’s 1921 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost.

Overall an eclectic show, the Klingberg Festival welcomes collector cars from more modern times, as well as rat rods and unusual postwar vehicles like this 1948 three-wheel Davis. Of particular interest to me was a newly-awakened 1930 Model A Ford panel truck that had come from my home town.

What more could a proud Nutmegger want? Well, perhaps a Houpt-Rockwell, built in neighboring Bristol, if any have survived.

The Klingberg Family Centers, a private, nonprofit multi-service agency aiding children and families, will be holding the next Vintage Motorcar Festival on Saturday, June 18, 2011. If you’ll be near New Britain you should check it out.

October 3, 1963, is a red letter day for many car enthusiasts, but few of them know about it. It can be considered the birth date of the Pontiac GTO, as far as the public is concerned, but because the GTO was a stealth project its actual “birth” came unheralded on new-car-introduction day, a check-box for a seemingly unobtrusive option package.

The story of the GTO is well known, how Pontiac ad man Jim Wangers and chief engineer (and later division manager) John DeLorean gerrymandered a hot rod package past GM brass. General Motors had a dictum that what had become intermediate A-body cars could have engines no larger than 330 cubic inches. Wangers and DeLorean persuaded their bosses to allow the big 389 cubic inch engine as part of an option package for the 1964 Tempest. In a bit of automotive chutzpah they appropriated Ferrari’s “GTO” label.

The GTO option put the 389, heavy-duty suspension, bucket seats and “Tiger Paw” red-line tires on any two-door Tempest LeMans. It struck a chord with American youth, and virtually every red-blooded boy wanted one. More than 32,000 were sold in the first year and 75,000 in 1965. Car & Driver‘s David E. Davis conjured up a GTO vs. GTO faceoff for the March 1964 issue, pitting Pontiac against Ferrari and proclaiming the upstart the winner. It was actually a journalistic sleight of hand since the two were never together until the now defunct Pontiac Enthusiast magazine arranged an actual meetup 30 years later.

For 1966, the GTO became a model in its own right. From 1968, “The Goat,” as it was nicknamed, had a distinctive plastic “Endura” grille/bumper arrangement (this is a 1970). In 1969 came “The Judge,” a caricature of a car inspired by a comic routine on Rowan and Martin’s “Laugh In” television program. The competition quickly took notice. Oldsmobile countered with a 4-4-2 package for the F-85, and Buick with a GSX Skylark. Ford produced a Fairlane GT with a 390 and Plymouth came up with the cartoon-inspired Road Runner.

By this time, insurance companies had also taken notice, that the red-blooded boys were racking up plenty of claims in their “muscle cars,” as the pundits called them. By the late ’60s, a GTO VIN was an invitation for sky-high rates, so the GTO again became an option and another stealth model, the GT37, was introduced. This was a kind of a la carte GTO, which let one choose from a myriad of possiblities, including a 455 engine. GTO sales peaked in 1966, at slightly below 100,000, and then began to decline. The last version, in 1974, was little more than a dress-up kit on the compact X-body Ventura (Most people have forgotten the 2004 revival attempt, with an Australian-sourced Holden Monaro, and so shall we).

Unlike most of my peers, I never lusted for a GTO, nor any other V8 muscle car. I contented myself with building an ersatz Studebaker speedster, and had I been in the market for a new car in 1966 I’d have probably bought the Sprint version of Pontiac’s new overhead cam six – but that’s another story.

GTOs have long been darlings of the enthusiast market, so I was not surprised, a few years ago, to come across a sort of goat boneyard in central Massachusetts. Scattered about were all sorts of Tempest parts, and a couple of nearly-complete cars. Whether they were organ donors for genuine Goats or clones in the making I’m not sure, but they were clearly coveted by somebody. How else do you explain a grand for a rusty sway-backed LeMans?

Byron Carter was a clever guy. He patented a three-cylinder steam engine, and with two friends he organized the Jackson Automobile Company in Michigan in 1903. By September of that year he had built a two-cylinder runabout for himself using a friction-drive transmission of his own invention.

The concept was extremely simple: two large discs rotating at right angles to one another. One of them was mounted on an axle allowing it to slide in relation to the other. Wherever the discs were allowed to touch resulted in a new gear ratio – Carter called it a “car of a thousand speeds.” To reverse, one simply moved the sliding disc past dead center of the mating disc. Installed in a chassis, the concept became the Cartercar, introduced in 1905.

The Cartercar enjoyed enjoyed a pleasant rise in popularity, sales reaching 325 in 1908. That April, however, Byron Carter died of pneumonia. In October 1909, the Cartercar Company was one of 30 firms bought by Billy Durant and folded into General Motors. Cartercars grew in size and stature – a four-cylinder model replaced earlier singles and twins in 1910. Along the way, Durant was ousted from GM and the modest annual sales of 1,000-2,000 cars failed to impress the directors. Production was halted in 1915 and the Cartercar plant re-purposed to build the Oakland Six. A few other automakers used friction-drive transmissions, among them Lambert, Metz, Petrel, Sears and Simplicity, and the idea was revived later in the 20th Century for lawn mowers.

This 1913 Cartercar appeared in the Historic Preservation of Original Features class at Hershey in 2010. Owner Michael Witt had discovered it barn-fresh, and mechanically resuscitated it to operate as it should, while leaving the patina of body and upholstery alone. Aside from some unobtrusive oxidation it was humbly handsome, and possessed of charming period features like a radiator-neck license plate bracket. The friction mechanism was exposed for all to see, along with the car’s simple controls. Only the tattered top spoiled the mood, and Witt could be excused for disregarding its provenance and replacing it with distressed modern canvas. With better weather protection it would be a thoroughly-practical original “oily rag” car for touring with a thousand speeds.

Yes, the CarPort has re-awakened, after a ten-month, Google-induced coma. The owner of Blogger.com, Google ceased supporting FTP publishing back in the spring, making it impossible for me to post any features to my server since February.

My son Nick, neuroscientist by day and impresario of WeFunk Radio by night, has rebuilt and relaunched the CarPort, now running under WordPress on my own server. Take a look below at the post you should have seen last February, and check back often for (usually) weekly features. We’ll catch up on events of the past winter, spring, summer and autumn, explore some of the vehicles encountered during our vacation in Kenya, and highlight a few of the serendipitous creatures we stumbled upon during the year.

Many of you said you missed us; thanks for being patient. The CarPort originally launched six years ago today. With this better control over our operations and content we should be with you for years to come. Here’s to an exciting time in “Twenty-Leven.”