"Automotive taxidermy"...

...was the term I dropped into the conversation, and it brought on a stare, followed by a knowing grin and a nod of agreement.

I was having a discussion with a friend of mine, and the usual bench racing turned to the topic of restored cars... namely muscle cars and classics, and soon to one-off's like customs and hot rods. Initially, conversation revolved around escalating costs involved with merely buying a muscle car in today's market. It's a large amount of money to even touch anything worthwhile, and it prices the average Joe out of the game from square one. Add to this the recent trendiness that revolves around said collecting, and the people outside of the hobby begin to think that any car manufactured pre-1980 is a collector car, and worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. All of this notwithstanding, we soon hit on the real meat of the situation:

Cars locked in museums.

Granted, I can appreciate a one-off ride being preserved for future generations to enjoy and study... and who wouldn't want a work of art like Cadzilla to be around for a hundred or so years? Yet, to keep the cars locked in a climate-controlled room, pampered (sometimes quite literally) by teams of "preservation technicians", to me, anyway, deprives us of the best aspect of building a car. Actually driving it, and witnessing it in action!

Granted, you're not going to pull a world championship-winning Ferrari F-1 car out for a jaunt to the Circle K (that'd be like asking to fly the Spirit of St. Louis over a stadium, dragging a banner advertising a tanning salon, or a space shuttle around for kicks), and I can't imagine risking the original Hirohata Merc in LA traffic. What I'm getting at is that taking a Camaro or a Mustang, whatever, and storing it inside forever is a waste of the car. Why not just commission a great scale model, or a nice painting, or even a Poloroid?

Cars today are fast becoming trophies. Watch a certain auction, where it's no longer about bringing enthusiasts together to trade vintage rides and share some time... It's about "dig how much money I have!", and then living in fear of enjoying the purchase. I cannot fathom anyone getting so behind this attitude, and helping to hype it. It's a hobby meant to enjoy. The moment anything becomes centered on simply getting rich from it, well... at that point, I've lost any respect for the person(s) involved.

Take the car, and drive it. Not onto a trailer, and then off of it, 30 feet to a spot at a show.... Take it to the drags. Go for ice cream. Hit the park, whatever. If you don't, it's the equivalent of stuffing the deer you bagged, and throwing away the meat. Why not just mount the front clip over your fireplace, and tell stories of the "big block that got away"? In my opinion, there's really no place in the hobby for automotive taxidermy...

And with that, I'll hop off my soap box here...

200 MPH...

…speedometer, that is.

And did I mention that it’s a factory piece?




Anyway, a few weeks ago, I took some time away from the Studio and had an absolute blast, with good friend Josh dropping into the Valley for some time at the Barrett-Jackson auction (and subsequent menagerie of auto- and non-auto-related goodies and sights and sounds), as well as a Saturday morning trek for some breakfast and to take in a Chrysler 300 Show (the Chrysler 300 Club’s 15th Winter Meet). Josh is a big 300 fan, and owns a ‘57, too, along with his killer, slammed ‘58 Buick, and happens to be a great photographer, and true auto afficianado.

Back on track here, as we strolled the small –but high-quality– show, I was thrown for a loop by just how friendly these folks are, and how into the 300’s (letter and non-letter cars), and was just kinda soaking up the great rides on display, when I came across one of the coolest things I’ve seeen in my car-gazing life:

A 1960 300F (Special Gran Turismo).

Consider: a Chrysler 300 is a big, luxury automobile that brings performance to the table. Light years ahead off the competition, this was a muscle car in its purest form. In 1960, the 413 Wedge was the new engine, and cranked out 375 horsepower in stock trim. You’ve probably seen a few with the unique cross-ram intake, which places the carbs over the fenderwells (more on this later). Chrysler also created a special short-ram version of the engine (the tuned runners for the intake were about 15″ long), pushing 400 horsepower. They created only 15 of these cars, backing the mighty Wedge with the French Pont-a-Mousson four-speed transmission, originally created for the Facel Vega.

So, in effect, we have a luxury car with muscle car tendencies, wrapped in a killer styling package. All cool, but what blew me away was this:

…yes, that reads 200 MPH. Factory piece, from 1960. Consider that for a minute. (hell, the cars rode out of the factory on 15″ wheels wrapped in Goodyear Stock Car Special Blue Streak tires… the same as used in NASCAR!) This was no ordinary car. This was a race car with STYLE.

I just wanted to share this, as it’s a neat piece of history, and a very cool conversation piece, to say the least. We’ll touch back on these killer cars in the future, to be certain.