gena rowlands as pat foster in face of a stranger

A hot-rodder’s staple for decades, are original Willys coupes almost extinct? Recently I was perusing old car classified ads online, thinking of possibly buying a Ford Model A, when I suddenly realized that on some websites hot rod Model A’s outnumbered stock examples to a depressingly large degree. It occurred to me that at the rate hot-rodders are mutilating Model A’s, there may come a time…

The first time I spotted the photo seen on this page I thought both the man and the car looked sort of familiar. My bat-infested mind immediately conjured up a vision of a “Bizarro-World” Raymond Loewy sitting in an early Avanti prototype. Thankfully, I was wrong. But the photo, which I purchased many years ago at a car show, didn’t identify either the man or the car, so I was left to wonder…

It seems nowadays that companies like to announce “revolutionary new” products, many of which are simply repackaged versions of existing or far older products. During much of its history, the American automobile industry liked to trumpet “all-new cars” every model year, claiming great advances that many times were pretty minor. But there were certain years when truly ground-breaking things were…

What kept Nash from building light-duty pickups? – Pat Foster @Hemmings

The company looked into building a full lineup of trucks Would Nash-Kelvinator have done better if World War II never happened? Conventional histories have usually said the American independent automakers were helped by that conflict, not hurt. That’s because the independents were awarded lucrative contracts for war materiel that gave them decent profits while enabling them to vastly improve…

Hudson’s step-down styling was revolutionary. So why didn’t certain other carmakers use it? – Pat Foster @Hemmings

Not stepping down In case you’re wondering, the title of today’s column is not about me stepping down from my position here at good old HCC. Rather, it has to do with the cars that never joined the “step-down” movement. In other words, it’s the handful of cars that never incorporated Hudson’s innovative step-down construction technique. You’ll recall that Hudson’s first post-World War II…

I Don’t Want to Love the Zimmer Quicksilver, But I Do – Pat Foster @Hemmings

Remember the song “I Hate Myself for Loving You” by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts? That’s how I feel sometimes about the Zimmer Quicksilver. I don’t want to love it, but I do. After all, it’s sort of a ridiculous automobile, gaudy and of questionable engineering. It’s ostentatious and most people bought them simply to show off their wealth. In other words, the Zimmer Quicksilver stands for…