Car collector chronicles 09 16 by Dave Yaros

Car Collector Chronicles ®

Volume IX, Issue 9

Exploring:

 Car Collecting Today

High RPMs

 Classic Rides  Reports From the Field  Oldsmobile (1897-2004)  Cadillac (1902- )  Allanté (1987-1993)

 Corvair (1960-1969)

◄ = Clickable Link

IN THIS ISSUE: High RPMs

The World Is A Changin’

The Opposite Extreme

The Tucker Convertible

September already? Where does the time go? I am debating whether to buy new tires for Saved 62:. There is nothing wrong with the rubber currently in place; other than it is, like yours truly, old. That said, 14” tires are getting harder and harder to find. That situation will only be exacerbated with the passage of time. So, I am looking at what is available. The best bargain I can find is, believe or not, from Walmart™. There, I can buy Hankook Optimo tires with a 70,000 mile tread life for $61 ea. It might be smart to pick up a set now and stow them away in my shed for future use? If you are into transportation of the two-wheeled variety, let me bring to your attention the three night

CCC® Forum EMail:

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OldsD88@gmail.com ◄

presentation on the Discovery Channel® of “Harley and the Davidsons.” Episode 1 airs 9/5. It shows the beginning in a shed in Milwaukee. That location is on one of my walking routes., but alas, the shed is no longer there. September Automotive Milestones 2-1893 Duryea builds-drive 1st American automobile 2-1959 Ford Falcon debuts 4-1917 Henry Ford II born 4-1957 Edsel goes on sale 7-1954 Ford intros T-Bird 11-1911 Milwaukee Mile Speedway opens 11-1970 Ford Pinto goes on sale with MSRP below $2K 13-1899 NYC site of 1st U.S. auto fatality 15-2011 Last American rear wheel drive auto produced 16-1908 Durant forms GM 17-1854 David Buick born, Arbroath, Scotland 18-1886 Powel Crosley Jr.

born, Cincinnati, Ohio 19-1919 Buick founded 19-1937 Duesenberg closes 24-1909 Virgil Exner born, Ann Arbor, Michigan 24-1948 Honda Motors founded 26-1967 AMC's Javelin debuts 29-1966 Chevy debuts Camaro

- Summer days are dwindling!

GDYNets® on the Web Find GDYNets on the web:

Pics to Ponder

September 2016

CCC -THE FORUM ◄-A web site to discuss the newsletter, the hobby and our cars. Car Collector Chronicles® ◄ Saved 62 ◄-Our 1962 Olds convertible, Ransom Eli Olds and things Oldsmobile related web site. The Gray Lady ◄-1955 Cadillac Coupé de Ville web site.

SAVED 62: A website devoted

to our 1962 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 convertible. The site also has a lot of information on Oldsmobile cars and the company founder, Ransom Eli Olds.

THE GRAY LADY: This website features our 1955 Cadillac Coupé de Ville, lots of Caddy information and an extensive repair library.

DAVE’S DEN: ◄-A site devoted to a myriad of interests. Foremost is extensive information on the “Steel City” of Gary, IN. There are also offerings on steel making, U.S. Steel-Gary Works, U.S. Marine Corps, M14 assault rifle, of course Oldsmobile, and the tragic story of the murder of Gary, IN Police Lt. George Yaros.

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The World Is A Changin’

“Cadillac is consciously making a statement, and that statement is definitely not proAmerican!”

“The Standard of the World!" “The universal symbol of excellence." "Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit." What do all these phrases have in common? They are advertising slogans used by Cadillac in 1953, 1959 and 2006, respectively. Each invokes a bit of the pride in, and the spirit of, America. Even its current slogan of “Dare Greatly” is from a quote by Teddy Roosevelt. It is kind of hard to get more bully on America than referencing good ol’ T.R.! Well that love of all things American is now being cast aside by Cadillac. I was going to say “Well, apparently” in the above sentence, but there is nothing apparent about it at all. It is as plain as the noses on our faces. Over the years on these pages I have bemoaned the difficulty encountered when trying to “buy American.” That situation has gotten worse, thanks to the folks at Cadillac. With the introduction of the CT6 PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) Cadillac is consciously making a statement, and that statement is definitely not pro-American! Why do I say this? Before I can answer, we need to take a look at the CT6 PHEV. As the car is not yet in production, not a whole lot is known and available info is limited. That said, the CT6 PHEV is ground breaking in that it combines luxury with economy and performance. By way of example, a conventionally powered CT6 carries a price tag of $53,495 for a base model. Ad another $34,000 to that sum and you can drive off in the top of the line. The last time I looked, $87,495 equals a whole bunch of luxury. Now for the economy portion of the equation. Per Cadillac, a conventional CT6 gets 22 City/30 Highway MPG. The CT6 PHEV does a slight bit better than that. It shall sip 0.45 gallons of gas every 62 miles. That computes out to 137.8 MPG! A luxury sedan being parsimonious when it comes to gas consumption more than qualifies as being groundbreaking. Moreover, the CT6 PHEV accomplishes such without having to apologize or make excuses when it comes to performance. It will do 0 60 in a respectable 5.6 seconds (However, top speed is 78 m.p.h.). The combination of 2.0L turbocharged gas engine and two electric motors produces 449 h.p.! In touting its performance, Cadillac is quick to point out that one of the three driving modes of the CT6 PHEV is “sport.” The Normal driving mode maximizes electric-only operating range and fuel economy when the CT6 PHEV's gasoline engine is running. Sport driving mode makes the car feel livelier and adjusts steering feel for added stiffness, according to Cadillac. Sport mode also adjusts the mapping of the accelerator. The result is improved acceleration and better road feel. Hold driving mode allows the car's owner to conserve electric-only operation for those times when it is more advantageous to use such, as when driving in the city rather than on the highway. All the technical nitty gritty for the Cadillac CT6 PHEV may be found online here. ◄ The CT6 PHEV borrows and improves upon much of the technology incorporated into the Chevrolet Volt. As it does, it is sometimes referred to as a Chevy Volt on steroids. Staying with the “All-American” theme I ask, what could be more American than Chevrolet? Chevy and apple pie = USA, do they not? You may be thinking, and saying to yourself, this does not sound bad at all. It has potential. I want one. Well, in order to get one, this Caddy will have to be imported for you from China! You heard me right, the Cadillac CT6 PHEV is a Chinese import! While much of the reasoning behind it being such makes good business sense, I still find the fact that it is so to be sickening. The car is to be built at a $1.2 Billion (USD) plant in Shanghai, People’s Republic of China. By building the car in Communist China Cadillac is able to avoid imposition of a 25% tariff that Communist China imposes on import vehicles. This makes the car more affordable for the Red Chinese. In China, Cadillac is competing against Lincoln, Jaguar Land Rover, Infiniti Lexus and Acura to challenge the dominant German brands. In that competition Cadillac is now poised to

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The World Is A Changin’—Cont’d. overtake Lexus among second-tier luxury brands. In 2015 Cadillac sold 80,000 cars in China, compared to 175,000 in the U. S. of A. Cadillac expects to sell 100,000 cars in China in 2016. China could overtake the U.S. as Cadillac’s biggest market in the next 5 to 10 years. This is because the Chinese population is expanding at a far faster rate than the United States, and because Chinese buyers of Cadillac cars are half the age of American buyers; 34 in China, compared to 60 in America. So, is this why we, the American taxpayers, took a $11.2 Billion loss on our $50 Billion bailout of GM in 2009? What would be the immediate and long-term economic impact of Cadillac investing $1.2 Billion in a new assembly plant in the U.S.? Here is another interesting, and troubling, facet of this whole scenario to consider. Currently the U.S. is engaged in a trade war with China due to its dumping of subsidized steel on our shores. To counter the effects of this practice we now impose triple digit tariffs (500% +) on Chinese steel imports. Will there be an exorbitant tariff on the imported Cadillac CT6 PHEV that Americans shall have to pay in order to enjoy the benefit of technology which we make available to the Chinese without penalty? Lastly, it is not my intent here to single out Cadillac. Perhaps my focus should be on General Motors? I say this as the Cadillac CT6 PHEV is not the first automobile that we have imported from China. That distinction goes to the Buick Envision.

The Opposite Extreme While the Chinese are gobbling up luxury rides at a rate attractive to American car manufacturers, another country is making a mark with its automobile products in this hemisphere. Can you say Polski samochody? Probably not. The phrase translates to Polish cars. They are the rage in, of all places, Cuba. Specifically, we are talking about the Polish made Fiat 126p. This baby is powered by a 2-cylinder engine which almost produces 24 h.p.! It tips the scales at about 1,000 lbs. The Fiat 126p is air cooled. Air cooled engines are prone to overheat in hot and humid Cuba. In an effort to overcome this situation many 126p owners can be seen driving around with the rear hatch open to easier expel the hot air in the engine compartment. The president of the Friends of the Car Havana car club says 2016 has been the year of the Fiat 126p. Their popularity is due to being somewhat affordable to the average Cuban; costing only a few thousand dollars. It is estimated there are over 10,000 of them registered in Cuba. Notwithstanding, their numbers still have quite a way to go to outnumber 1950’s American iron.

“[I]s this why we, the American taxpayers, took a $11.2 Billion loss on our $50 Billion bailout of GM in 2009?”

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The Tucker Convertible

We are all aware of the Tucker automobile. Only a few were ever manufactured, but they have made a place for themselves in automotive history and lore. One may view the car, as well as Tucker’s factory office at the Gilmore Car Museum in Hickory Corners. MI. An impressive Tucker collection is found at the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA. Both are must sees for car history buffs. It is seldom these cars come on the market. When they do they command a premium. In the last half-decade four Tucker sedans have sold. The average sale price has been $1,959,000. The first Tucker produced was a prototype sedan, known as the "Tin Goose". In total, 58 frames and bodies were produced by Tucker. 36 sedans were built before the factory closed. It is believed that work was begun on a prototype convertible, dubbed project "Vera," but was never completed. In fact, very little is known about what projects were being worked on by Tucker when his plant closed. What is known is that chassis #57,a prototype, was in development. A Tucker designer interviewed about the prototype years after the plant closed was asked, "Was there a Tucker convertible project ever started at the plant?" He responded, "Yes, but I thought the project was scrapped when the plant closed." This designer was one of those working on project “Vera” when the plant closed. The Tucker convertible started life as Tucker 48 sedan #57. It bears this stamp marking in multiple places. Project “Vera” began with cutting the roof off of the sedan. Once this was done they noticed that the frame was sagging. The engineers then completely disassembled the car and devised a plan to strengthen the convertible's chassis. It was decided to add ovular steel beams inside of the existing box frame, as well as thicken the existing frame. This resulted in a stronger ovular steel frame box wrapped in thicker than stock 10 gauge steel. This combination eliminated the unwanted sag. With the frame sag resolved, next came lengthening of the doors and shortening of the windshield. A GM top frame was incorporated after adding a Tucker designed header. At this point the factory closed and Tucker Corporation went out of business. The convertible project was transported to Lenki Engineering headquarters when it became apparent bankruptcy loomed. The car sat untouched and under cover in WI for many years. A retiring Lenki Engineering employee purchased the unfinished project just before leaving the firm. He had plans to finish it, but never did. It was sold to a second individual who also planned on finishing it, but did not do so. Eventually Benchmark Classics ◄ of Madison, WI acquired the car and finished assembling it in 2010. Allegedly this is the last Tucker automobile ever to be completed using body parts sourced primarily from Tucker. It is also the only Tucker Convertible in existence and has less than 50 miles on it.

Counterpoint -

-- All the people in the Tucker Community believe the convertible is homemade. The Tucker Club of America official position, as printed on the Tucker Club of America Website ◄ reads: The Tucker Automobile Club of America, Inc. has never been presented with—nor has been able to find—any credible evidence to prove the authenticity of this or any other vehicle as being a Tucker Corporation intended convertible and therefore we can not certify it as such.

Another Tucker expert posits: I find very puzzling the way this almost incredibly unique and historically significant car just seemed to "pop" into existence recently. I've been a Tucker enthusiast and have read and studied voluminous amounts of material on the car, the man and his company for almost 40 years, but had never once come across one word about any other body style constructed other than the sedan, let alone a glamorous and attention-getting convertible Tucker 48. A car such as this would have been the center of attention, the star of every show, the subject of thousands of words of historian's chronicles by now. Instead...silence. That is the strange and difficult thing to resolve about this car for me. It is also intriguing that it appears, to me anyway, to have been "cobbled" together by using what appears to be an early postwar GM convertible body as a starting point; perhaps a Buick or Cadillac model, with extensive and elaborate alterations made to adapt it to the Tucker's front and rear clips. That is definitely not a Tucker body; the cowl structure alone is very expensive to engineer and tool for, and this car shares nothing in common with a "production" Tucker sedan's bodywork. This would make perfect sense when considering the dismal financial condition of Tucker at the time, and Mr. Tucker's lack of reservations about getting things done the best and cheapest way possible.

How say you?

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Car Collector Chronicles

Pics to Ponder There seems to be no end to the strange vehicle related things one is able to locate with little effort. This column will have plenty of material to present over time. Here is what we have for your September viewing: Would you spend your hard earned bucks for this 1979 Olds interior?

↑ This looks more inviting

This petty much sums it up, doesn’t it?

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Ok, I’ve had my say for the month. Now it’s your turn! I invite/encourage submission of your comments, opinions and article contributions. I also ask that you please help spread the word about our publication. Everything sent shall indeed be reviewed by me. Submissions should be sent to CCC® at OldsD88@gmail.com.

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-- RESTORE 'EM, AND DRIVE 'EM! COMING NEXT ISSUE:  TBD