Don Weber of San Antonio, a sterling gentleman of the old school, died December 10th at the age of 90. Those who miss him may like to leave a few words on his permanent legacy page. There you will also find details of his extraordinary life.
In Don Weber’s memory, we thought it would be a nice thing to reprint my article on storming Pikes Peak in his 1914 Packard Six Model 1448 on the 1976 Glidden Tour. It first appeared in my sixth issue as editor of The Packard Cormorant, Spring 1977.…
We are bowled over by the sheer volume of color, beauty and depth of photographs in the latest and greatest edition of Triumph Cars: The Complete Story. Largely this was the effort of my co-author Graham Robson, but I never expected such a high quality treatment by the publishers. A big, square format, 10×10 inches, it’s chock-a-block with lavish illustrations from the first spindly Triumph 10/20 of 1923 to the last, badge-engineered Triumph Acclaim of 1984. There are even appendices on Triumph-derived cars like the Bond Equipe, Amphicar, Peerless and Swallow Doretti.…
Jonathan Wood, Donald Healey’s 8C Triumph Dolomite. Wetherby, Yorkshire: Jonathan Turner & Tim Whitworth, 2017, 300 pages, profusely illustrated in color and b&w, $275. Available from the publishers. Written for The Vintage Triumph Register.
Donald Healey’s DolomiteIn 1977 I wrote the pre-World War II chapters of Triumph Cars, now reappearing in an expanded new edition, thanks largely to my co-author Graham Robson (blatant plug, please order).
At the time, though, there was little to describe about Triumph’s most impressive failure, the legendary straight-eight Dolomite. The only one built by the factory had come to grief (along, almost, with Donald Healey) at a railway crossing on the 1935 Monte Carlo Rallye.…
Reader Brent Hinde writes about my Hudson book, The Classic Postwar Years (1977, reprinted 1993). Very kind of him, since it’s the first mention of that book in decades.
Recently at an estate sale I picked up the book and found it an excellent read. On page 38 is a terrific sketch of a car that should have been built, rather than the design management chose. My question is: Who drew that sketch? Are there more drawings like that in existence? It would make a great guide for a project car.
Hudson’s styling teamThe drawing (top) shows a crisper shape than the production 1948 Hudson.…
A chance meting with Darryl Zanuck brought Darrin back to America—at exactly the right time. The custom coachbuilding business was waning, semi-customs were in, and Packard needed a new body style. Continued from Part 1…
Excerpt: For full text and illustrations and a roster of Packard Darrins, see The Automobile, May 2017.
Darrin frequently hobnobbed with the Good and the Great. One day in 1934, at the Paris Polo Club, a club director approached: “There’s an American out on the playground with a horse and polo mallet; please see if you can help him.” Dutch went out and met film producer Darryl Zanuck—who invited him to Hollywood.…
Dutch Darrin was supremely lucky—and one of the most charming things about him was that he never ceased saying so.
Part 1Excerpt only. For full text and illustrations and a roster of Packard Darrins, see The Automobile, May 2017.
Looking back on the previous century, the historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. reflected that individuals do make a difference: “In December 1931 Churchill, crossing Fifth Avenue in New York City, looked in the wrong direction and was knocked down by an automobile. Fourteen months later Franklin Roosevelt was fired on by an assassin….Would the next two decades have been the same had the car killed Churchill in 1931 and the bullet killed Roosevelt in 1933?”…
Having written about cars and Winston Churchill for fifty years, I finally produced a piece on them both. From exotica like Daimler, Napier and Rolls-Royce to more prosaic makes like Austin, Humber and Wolseley, the story was three decades in coming. I am satisfied that it is now complete.
Part 2, continued from Part 1: Excerpt only. For footnotes, all illustrations and a roster of Churchill’s cars, see The Automobile, (UK), August 2016. A pdf of the article is available upon request: click here.
Wolseley to AustinIn the early 1930s Churchill switched from Wolseley to Austin cars: small fours and big sixes.…
