Antique & Classic Cars Blog

It’s easy to fool the eye with a camera. Toy guns, fake armor, half-cars sitting on flat beds to film actors, gaffer tape holding things on, etc., are commonplace and seldom noticeable. Movie cars–selectively shot, usually moving, cleaned up in post–just don’t need to be that nice. Where a car is featured, the studios will have several to drive, a few to wreck if necessary, and then one or more “picture cars,” which are promotional, kept very nice, and used to pimp the production.

Amidst all the no-dollars-spared hot rods, customs, and restored stock eye-morsels at the World of Wheels, the Mach 5 from the new film looked weak. This presumably was a picture car, one built for display only. Fans who grew up watching the original Speed Racer from the 1960s–which admittedly was from a 2-dimensional cartoon–couldn’t help but be disappointed. The drawn car had flowing lines, sweeping curves, and an interior akin to those of its real-life sports counterparts of the time.

The movie car looked just like what it was–a one-off fiberglass body plopped onto a late-model Corvette. It appears they even kept the Vette windshield, which looked about as classic as, well, a late-model Vette. The interior is busy, packed with air-conditioning vents and other modern features that look neither classic nor cinematic. And the lines just didn’t hold up when the car’s sitting still and you can walk around it like a drill sergeant during basic-training inspections.

There’s no blaming the builders. When crunch time comes, Hollywood car builders work as hard as anyone on the planet, meeting impossible demands on impossible timeframes with every job they take. They can make cars look like anything and do anything, keeping in mind the health and safety of the stunt personnel who climb in and make the money footage possible. The disappointment viewing a car like that up close is just the nature of the beast. A Mach 5 that satisfies the middle-aged kids who grew up with the Trans-Luxe cartoon would need to be manufactured by a top-notch custom coachbuilder on a budget of . . . unlimited. It would have hand-beaten panels, custom everything, gauges and dash and wheel and seats to rival the fastest, sexiest Ferraris and Aston Martins and Jaguars of the day. (I would have started with an E-type Jaguar, not a Vette.) Just building a one-off, polished, period-looking engine would probably run half a million bucks.

When studios are paying human stars 5, 10, 20 million dollars a picture, they’re not investing in hand-shaped aluminum-bodied one-off racers that will win at Pebble Beach and make your jaw fall on the ground and shatter when you see them. Turn off the camera and lights, send the cinematographer and editor home and push a movie car into the middle of a car show and your surprise will be just like seeing a big name actor in person. “Hmm. I thought he’d be taller.”

The metal bodies Chip Foose (P32) and Old Skool Kustoms (chopped ’36 Pontiac 3-window) displayed struck a lot closer to my idea of beautiful coachwork–but then, these are cars built to be seen up close in real life.

The fact that this is Minnesota and it’s 2009 has no bearing on what you can find here in terms of amazing cars and bikes. Hidden behind the anonymous facades of houses scattered throughout the state are vehicles of all ages from all parts of the globe.

Last Saturday, Gene, a bike owner going into my current book project, Survivor II: The Unrestored Collector Motorcycle, invited me to see some really great bikes he’s accumulated over the years. He has roots tracing to the very heart of the American auto industry–his grandfather started working for Henry Ford pre-Model T. In the shot above, Gene’s grandfather is on the far left with moustache; Ford is on the far right in topcoat.

Gene has an extremely original, unrestored 1938 Velocette he bought at the St. Paul auction. (I’ve included my feet because I don’t have Photoshop.) That bike came over from England for the event.

The Norton International below is also an incredible bike. His father Lee had one in 1949, which he raced with a partner in Michigan. When Gene went hunting for this rare model several years ago, the one he found worth buying–in England–was also a ‘49. It still wears the original paint. The pinstripes have been redone–but by an original factory pinstriper whom a prior owner of the bike had do it before the man retired.

The Honda Dream was a bit nerdy in ‘66, but today it’s pure classic cool. For a 43-year-old sheet of plastic, the original windshield still looks great. This bike has less than 3,000 miles and, like all of Gene’s bikes, runs like new. That’s thanks in part to his tuner, ace mechanic and Bonneville recordholder, Steve Hamel, another valuable asset in the Twin Cities bike community.

It’s not just bikes at Gene’s place. He also loves E-type Jaguars and has one of the best 3.8’s in the world. You would never want to set a sandwich on this engine as oils from the bread might get it dirty. Calling this car immaculate is like saying Usain Bolt is quick.

A full restoration is a fun project to undertake and to watch. Seeing everything so clean, like you’re the original builder, is a nice experience after years of oily wrench turning or rust dropping on your face when you scoot underneath.

This is a ‘62 Karmann Ghia owned by my friend John, in whose heated garage my ‘69 MGB GT is quietly slumbering over the winter. His mechanic, Matt, has just fitted the wiring harness.

The black car in the back corner is a parts car John bought for $300. He’s going to take everything mechanical off of it, plus the full interior, but there’s a guy who still wants what remains. John told him, “It’s really rusty,” but the guy claims, from photos, that the car he owns is far worse.

Kinda cool that many stylish old cars are worth something even as stripped-down hulks. It encourages folks to keep reviving them, which preserves history and makes the roads at summertime more interesting, when the old collector stuff comes out to play.

View enough museums and collections and certain spaces just cry out for cars, bikes, and other collectible vehicles.

This space on Central Avenue just north of downtown Minneapolis really caught my eye. They were manufacturing for the war effort here in the 1940s and it has the feel that almost nothing has changed since the men and women laboring to stop the Nazis finally moved on to post-war careers and families. You can easily picture the assembly lines at full tilt.

Once that image fades, I look at all this space and dream of rows and rows of gorgeous cars sheltered from the snow and rain–Bugatti, Duesenberg, Stutz, Auburn, Delage and more modern fare too, the E-Type’s iconic nose, Cobra’s bold wide-mouth grille, a GT-350, and what about the glorious ’50s–the near perfect first generation Corvette and T-Bird, a Chrysler 300, and how ’bout some period Nascar and drag-racing offerings….

The building’s maintenance man was kind enough to let me wander and shoot a few pictures. I could have stood there filling in dream cars for another hour. Here’s a flyer describing what was once made in this space. The well-known aircraft data tool, “the black box,” was apparently developed here. Lotta history….