The Colorado Classicist

Summer 2019 Volume 66 Issue 2 Published by the Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America

Featured Garage Tour NY CARavan ACC Concours E L Part IV Photo: Colorado.com Garage Tour

The first tour of the season stopped at Terry and Kay Johnson’s front lawn to see Terry’s collection, some of which are seen here. It was a picture-perfect Colorado day! An article on it starts on page 8.

Front Cover Back Cover Columbines, the Colorado A Civil War monument state flower, along the at West Point Acadamy Alpine Loop Scenic Byway. on the NY Legends CARavan Photo from Colorado.com

2 The Colorado Classicist

The Established 1954 Colorado Classicist Published by the Colorado Region of the Classic Car Club of America

The Colorado Classicist is published by the Colorado Region, Inc., of the Classic Car Club of America as an informative Table of Contents publication for its membership.

The Colorado Region was chartered as a Region of the Classic Car Club of Amer- Message from the Director Page 4 ica in 1954. The Colorado Region, Inc., of the Classic Car Club of America, a Message from the Editor Page 5 Colorado non-profit Corporation, was in- corporated and granted a charter by the Regional and National Events Page 6 Classic Car Club of America in 1990. Letters and Regional News Page 6 The Classic Car Club of America is a Spring Garage Tour Page 8 non-profit organization incorporated in the State of New York. The Club seeks to E. L. Cord Empire, Part IV Page 12 further the restoration and preservation of New York Legends CARavan Page 16 distinctive motor cars manufactured from 1915 through 1948, to provide a channel Ability Connection Colorado Concours Page 24 of communication for those interested in such cars, and to bring together in good Tech Tips Page 27 fellowship all who own or admire these Mystery Photo Page 31 finest examples of automotive craftsman- ship. The sole requirement for member- ship is a demonstrable interest in Classic cars. National Club membership is re- quired to become a Regional member.

It should be noted that this publication is about the events and correspondence for 2019 Board of Managers Colorado Region CCCA the membership of the Colorado Region, Inc., and may include some technical ar- Director Tom Kostelecky 303 978-1777 [email protected]

ticles and other articles of automotive in- Assistant Director and Membership Chairman terest. The correctness and applicability Davis McCann 303 841-9265 [email protected] of the information contained in the arti- Secretary Frank Keller 303 972-6420 [email protected] cles is the sole responsibility of the au- thor of the article. The Colorado Region, Treasurer Lonnie Fallin 303 904-8080 [email protected] Inc. is not responsible for the content of Web Site Master Shiela Koppenheffer 303 457-3821 [email protected] such articles or problems that may arise Classicist Editor Tom Goyne 303 478-0068 [email protected] from following the information in the ar- ticles. Collector Car Council of Colo Rep Don Leach 720 250-7450 Don Braden 303 744-8848 [email protected] Full Classic® is a registered trademark of Ron Damiana 303 985-4149 [email protected] the Classic Car Club of America. In this publication a car named as Classic or Full Lou Ficco 303 887-4754 [email protected] Classic is a Full Classic® as recognized Tony Ficco 303 431-6492 [email protected] by the Classic Car Club of America, how- Tim Gilmartin 303 807-8397 [email protected] ever, some cars depicted herein may be non-Classic.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 3 Editorial Comments

Message from the DIRECTOR Tom Kostelecky

ur summer Classic driving tours are off to a good start to new destinations with new and old friends. On May 4th we Ohad a very successful garage tour through a collector car sales and restoration shop called Cars Remember When, then visit- ing the garages of Ron Damiana and Terry Johnson and viewing all of their cars and memorabilia. I want to sincerely thank Ron and Terry for opening up their garages to the club, and to Cars Remem- ber When for sharing their fine facility. We ended this tour with a delightful and delicious lunch at Scileppi’s restaurant in Castle Rock.

While we were at Cars Remember When, Harry Lindsay from the Early Ford V-8 Club invited the Classic Car Club of Colorado to join them on their upcoming garage tour. Some of us did just that. Our first stop was at the John Metcalf Hot Rod Shop. John previ- ously worked with RCR, the Richard Childress Racing NASCAR facility in Charlotte, NC. Then we went to Pete Lansing’s unbe- lievable car collection of the 50s. These cars brought back many fond memories to us all. Thanks to Pete for allowing our club to tour his facility and thank you Harry for inviting us on your garage tour.

On June 1, Lonnie Fallin, Lou Ficco and Frank Keller put together a summer tour of two Denver-area manufacturing companies. First stop was Vieri Gaines’ companies, Winberg Crankshafts, GRP Connecting Rods, Western Motor Sports and Gibtec Pistons. They build high-end parts only for race cars and are the premier supplier of these components. Their reputation is enviable. Vieri Gaines has raced pro stock cars in the NHRA for over 20 years. Thank you Vieri for the wonderful tour!

The next business we visited was Bye Aerospace near Centennial airport where Charlie Johnson, the COO, gave us a tour of their facility and showed us the electric airplane that they are developing. Their electric airplane has already flown and is now in the FAA certification process, and they have over 200 orders from different commercial airlines to date. It is to be used for training new pilots. Thank you so much Charlie for an interesting tour.

Looking forward, Lou and Tony Ficco are planning a fall tour on Sept 5-8 which will give another great opportunity to drive our Classic cars and take part in an event that we believe is going to be outstanding. Some out-of-state members are already making their arrangements to come and be a part of this tour. We will be going to the Concours d’Elegance in downtown Vail where you will be able to show your car. You do need to register soon, however. Call Lou Ficco regard- ing hotel reservations and go to the Vail Concours website to register for the show at www.Vailautomotiveclassic.com. Other things we are going to do on this tour is a BBQ on the prairie and a beautiful drive to Steamboat ▶ Page 5

4 The Colorado Classicist Editorial Comments

Message from the EDITOR Tom Goyne

espite snow into late-April, we did have a relatively mild winter here in Denver. The flowers are now in full bloom Dand I, for one, am ready to smell the roses and for summer weather. That late snow was not to my liking.

Our club tours this year have been good. Tom mentioned them in his column on the previous page and you can read full reports in this issue and in the next issue. The article on the garage tour starts on page 8.

Along with our local tours, I attended the New York Legends CAR- avan on the east coast in May and enjoyed it greatly. We saw a lot of great car collections, some were really extraordinary, and visited interesting places as well. It was great fun charging around the Catskills and the Adirondacks in my ; the roads in that part of the country were made for our cars. The only negative was the rain. It rained every day but two, but that did give us an appreci- ation for the sun on those days. One good thing about the rain is that it proved out all the good work Jim at Auto Weave Upholstery did on my top...no leaks at all, would you believe. I’ve never had a leak-free top before! An article on the CARavan starts on page 16.

I thought you might be interested in some statistics about the Full Classics in our region...There are 140 cars listed in the directory. The most common marque is Packard with 52, then comes Cadillac with 33, Cord with 9, Rolls-Royce with 6, and Lincoln with 5 each, and then 17 other makes with between 1 and 3 each. The most common year/ marque combination is 1937 Packard with 14, followed by 1941 Cadillac with 12 and 1934 Packard with 9. So now don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t know everything there is to know about our region. See you soon!

Tom Goyne, Editor Proofreader: Joe Malaney

Springs and along the way enjoy other activities with your fellow club members.

Thanks for your participation in our tours. They take a lot of time and planning by your board members but provide a lot of great Classic Car Club memories. Hope to see you on the fall tour!

Tom Kostelecky, Director

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 5 Events and News

Colorado and Regional Events If you are interested in attending a Board of Managers’ meeting, please call one of the board members for time and location. The Board generally meets on a Thursday at 7:00 PM. August 24 Morgan Adams Concours and Air Show, Centennial Airport September 5 - 8 Mini-CARavan to the Vail Automotive Classic Concours and Air Show September 26 - 29 Telluride Cars and Colors Concours November 7 Annual Meeting, Romano’s Restaurant December 8 Christmas Party, Rolling Hills Country Club

National Events Check your Classic Car Bulletin or classiccarclub.org for the latest details August 18 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance September 9 - 17 Pacific Northwest Region CARavan September 14 Cobble Beach, Ontario, Canada Grand Classic

Letters to the Editor and Regional News

THE CORD EMPIRE-From the last issue can’t say where that came from. Randy Ema, our Club’s guru and historian, said that the Baby was sold for scrap and Your editor received this note from member Tim Gilmartin definitely destroyed as that was done with prototypes back on the last issue’s series of articles on the Cord 810/812. He then. Also, you said there was a hostile takeover in 1937 by also lent me two magnificent tomes on Cord, Cord Complete, an American aristocrat? First I heard about that, and who The Story of the Models 810 and 812 by Josh B. Malks; was the aristocrat? I’m just trying to correct the record; not and , His Empire His Motorcars by Grif- trying to be a know it all. If you find something that contra- fith Borgeson. These two books represent massive amounts dicts me, please advise. of research by many knowledgeable people into E. L. Cord CORDially, Tim Gilmartin, Centennial, CO and his empire and reading them stirred your editor to do a follow-up article on Cord, especially on the “Baby Duesen- ____ berg,” which was the prototype of the Cord 810. This arti- cle starts on page 12. I am very thankful to Tim for bringing this up. It is always good to get misinformation corrected! MYSTERY PHOTO-From the last issue

I read with great interest your article on Cord. May I politely A number of people correctly identified the mystery photo in say there were a few mistakes in the article. Attached are the last issue. Here are some of the responses. drawings and photos of the real Baby Duesenberg. I have never seen the drawing of “it” that was in the article, so I The first thing I saw on the back of the cover of the recent

6 The Colorado Classicist Events and News

issue of the Classicist was a picture of Wyatt Earp, western The lawman as Dick, David and Jim have said, is Wyatt lawman. In the book I have of Fred Dodge’s life (1854- Earp. The car is not his, however. It belonged to Earp’s 1938) is the same picture of Wyatt Earp. Fred Dodge was a good friend, film star William S. Hart. After the gunfight at Wells Fargo agent, the constable of Tombstone, Arizona, and the O. K. Corral in Tombstone, Wyatt Earp moved around Texas cattleman. the West, eventually settling in with Josephine Dick Veghte, Littleton, CO Marcus, with whom he would spend the next 40 years. Over the years, he made a living by gambling, saloon-keeping, Fred Dodge went to work mining and real estate speculation. He was a minor celebri- as an undercover agent ty even in his lifetime and spent much time hobnobbing with for Wells Fargo, working Hollywood western stars such as Tom Mix and William S. in California, and Hart and author Jack London. Earp died in in Arizona. In December, 1879, he was working in January 1929, at the age of 80. He famously said of Tomb- Tombstone, Arizona and stone comparing it with LA, “It (Tombstone) was not half as recommended that Wyatt bad as Los Angeles.” Amen to that. -ed. Earp be hired as a guard and messenger for the stage line. The two quick- ly became good friends and Dodge supported Wyatt and his brothers in Mini-CARavan their troubles in Tombstone after the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral and during the Earp Vendetta Ride. He and Wyatt remained friends the rest of their lives. -ed. Plan on attending the The man in the mystery photo is Wyatt Earp. Mini-CARavan to Vail on P.S., Your magazine is outstanding! David Schultz, CCCA Past President September 5 through 8.

The mystery photo was Fall colors should be at their easy for me since he is a best and the weather relative. Wy- att Earp was perfect. first cousin to Martha Earp, my Contact Lou Ficco at great-great 303 887-4754 for more info. grandmother. However, no one on my side of the fami- ly owned a Packard until I bought my ‘41 in 1986. A tired old model T Thanks to our sponsors was a more likely car, since they continued to farm the same To place an ad in the Classicist, poor Missouri dirt. Congratulations for first place McManus Publications Award. Well deserved! Another great Classi- call or email the editor cist, I read it cover to cover. Jim Hull, Estes Park, CO

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 7 Regional Meet

Spring Garage Tour By Tom Goyne

fter nearly a week of clouds, rain and even snow, it was a beautiful spring Saturday. The panoramic Ashot above was taken in Terry Johnson’s front yard and it was pure heaven. The grass was luxuriant and green, trees were in bloom and starting to green-up and the tem- perature a pleasant 65 degrees. In other words, a perfect day. We don’t always get these kind of days for our annual garage tour, but this year it could not have been better.

Ton Kostelecky and Frank Keller organized the tour to three garages this year. First we went to the shop of “Cars Re- member When” on south Santa Fe Drive. This is a fairly new facility that specializes in car sales and minor res- toration. Their emphasis is, as you can appreciate, where the market is...1960s, ‘70’s, 80s automobiles, though there were a few others for sale there as well. We ▶ Page 10

On this page are shots of the “Cars Remember When” facility and three of the more unusual cars for sale.

8 The Colorado Classicist Regional Meet

Left is the traditional yearly photo of Lonnie Fallin and his son-in-Law Troy and grandson Ethan, taken in Ron Damiana’s garage. Lonnie gets grayer; Ethan gets taller; and Troy luckily stays the same. The “Fisk Boy --- Time to Re-Tire” statue is part of Ron Damiana’s collection.

Lunch at Scileppi’s Restaurant in Castle Rock was excellent. Our group took over most of the “church” area of the eatery. This stone structure was built in the 1800s as a Catholic chapel. Unseen in the photo is the confessional booth, now a cozy table for two.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 9 What appears to be two alligators snarling at each other is really Don Braden’s 6o-Special giving a jump start to Frank Keller’s convertible. Photo courtesy of Betsy Fallin.

were given a tour of their shops and shown a number of cars with restoration or modifica- tions or hop-ups in progress. Their work looks excellent! On the main display floor, there were around fifty cars for sale which were ar- ranged for easy viewing. Ray Yanguez told us that when they opened most of their sales were over the internet, but now most are walk-ins.

After seeing the “Cars Remember When” facility, we adjourned to Ran Damiana’s garage to see his collection. He has some very fine Classics and other cars, and also a great collection of mosaic emblems and 1940s and ‘50s pin-up calendars, some of which are shown below.

“Bugsy” Damiana and his henchmen kept a watch over his collection. One doesn’t fool with them, or with his pin-up calendars, below.

10 The Colorado Classicist Our last stop before lunch was at Terry Johnson’s garage. Lunch was at Tom Kostelecky’s son-in-law’s restaurant, Terry’s collection changes regularly and it was a pleasure Scileppi’s, in Castle Rock. We took over most of what used to see the latest acquisitions as well as the ones he will keep to be a small stone Catholic chapel built in the 1800s. This forever. Two of the recent ones are a 1970s Cadillac station structure was an integral part of the restaurant and made a wagon, a 1 of 11 special, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom Con- very charming setting for the meal. I am happy to report that vertible. Terry had moved his cars out of the garage and there was nothing but good reviews from everyone on the displayed them around the front lawn for better viewing. It quality of the food and service! ■ was the perfect springtime setting for the cars.

On this page are shots of the cars in Terry Johnson’s yard.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 11 featured marque The E. L. Cord Empire Part IV, The “Baby Duesenberg” And the Takeover of the Cord Corporation

If you read Tim Gilmartin’s letter to the editor on page 6 you The “Baby Duesenberg” will know that there were errors in the last issue’s Cord arti- cles. I hope this sets them straight. There are two definitive n 1926 E. L. Cord hired Harold T. Ames as the Sales books on E. L. Cord and they were generously loaned to me Manager of Duesenberg, Inc. Later he was appointed by Tim and used extensively in putting this article together. Ipresident. He was vigorous and imaginative and highly The books are: Cord Complete, The Story of the Models 810 respected by his employees. By 1933, the Great Depression and 812 by Josh B. Malks; and Errett Lobban Cord, His Em- was in full swing and Ames was well aware that other luxury pire His Motorcars by Griffith Borgeson. car manufacturers were hedging their bets by offering less expensive models which would trade on the reputation of the more expensive models. Ames, in particular, admired Ca-

These four views are of the first “Auburn Stream Line Body” delivered by coachbuilder A. H. Walker in secret on April 3, 1934 to the Duesenberg factory, and mounted on an Auburn Eight chassis. It is designer ’s embodiment of Harold Ames’ “Baby Duesenberg” vision. Note that it has very low windows, inboard headlights which nearly cover the outboard radiators when opened, and no trunk, rear bumper or tail lights.

12 The Colorado Classicist dillac Division’s LaSalle and sought to follow the Cadillac “venetian blind” louvers around the bottom of the alligator lead at Duesenberg with what became known as the “Baby hood, headlights concealed on the inside of the torpedo fend- Duesenberg.” He envisioned this car as a modified Auburn ers, spare tire concealed in a rear compartment, rear-hinged chassis with a high-performance engine and a “tricky body” doors, and a very small split cathedral rear window. (as he called it) for that Auburn chassis. It had been apparent for some time to Harold Ames that Ford had just introduced its V-8 engine and the V-8 moniker the Baby Duesy project and the E-278 front drive project quickly became synonymous with high-performance. Ames, at Auburn should be combined and moved to Auburn, and therefore, wanted a V-8 for his Baby Duesy and approached Ames reluctantly made that decision, which was carried out Lycoming (a Cord subsidiary) for a sample engine in 1933. some 12 weeks after the Baby Duesy was completed at the Duesenberg factory. The Cord L-29 was America’s first production front wheel drive automobile and it is known via surviving memos Gordon Buehrig and Denny Duesenberg, Fred’s son, dou- from Ames to Herb Snow (VP of Engineering at Auburn) ble-dated on Saturday night June 23, 1934 in Indianapolis. that most of the Auburn engineering staff’s time from 1933 After they had escorted the ladies home that evening, they onward was spent on front wheel drive conceptual work. drove to the Duesenberg plant, picked up that no-longer This front drive project was designated E-278. But it is also Duesenberg prototype and drove it to the Auburn plant in the known that Ames and Snow had considered, but not settled dark to preserve its secrecy. Denny drove and Gordon fol- on, front drive for the Baby Duesy...overlapping engine de- lowed in his customized Ford Model A Victoria. They found signs for both rear and front drive were pursued well into that with the retractable headlights open they had to stop ev- early 1935 and of course, the original Baby Duesy prototype ery twenty miles to let the car cool off. The lights blocked was rear drive. air flow to the outboard radiators. The prototype was proba- bly never driven after this though it served its purpose well. To design Ames “tricky body,” Gordon Buehrig was rehired from GM in the summer The Prototype 810 of 1933 (Buehrig had Cords been the chief designer at Duesenberg for three By March or April years and had designed 1935 the decision had nearly half the bodies been made at Auburn mounted on the Model to construct five pro- J chassis). But because totype cars with these of Auburn’s tanking features: front drive, sales, he was first put to unibody construction work redesigning that (though the term “uni- line for the 1935 and body” was not yet in- ‘36 models. This is a watercolor rendering by Paul Reuter-Lorenzen (of the Au- vented...it was called burn Art and Body studio) of a hybrid Auburn/Cord design designated “monocoque”), solid By late 1933, however, E-294 that utilized an Auburn 653 sedan rear half mated to the new rear axle, the largest front drive Cord. A clay model and full prototype were completed Buehrig was back at it on of the Lycoming V-8s, the Baby Duesy and had in early 1935. The design appears to be an attempt at reducing tool- ing costs, though in fact the completed prototype functioned as a a four-speed trans- completed a one-eighth “mule” to test out various components, such as the rear axle design. mission, the Bendix scale rendering and clay A different rendering of the car was shown in the last issue of the pre-selector shifter, model. Auburn placed Classicist and was mislabeled as the “Baby Duesenberg.” and the “pure” Bueh- an order with coach- rig body (i.e., not the builder A. H. Walker for hybrid shown on this a prototype body in January 1934, and also placed an order page). Soon after, many changes were proposed: moving for an Auburn eight-cylinder chassis the following month. the headlights from their inboard position to the front of the The two were mated at the Duesenberg factory in Indianap- fenders, making the windows larger and the front ones open- olis in April 1934. The Duesenberg facility was used rather ing, which required moving the wipers to the top, adding a than Auburn to maintain project secrecy. That car is shown cowl vent on the driver’s side with matching hatch on the in the photos on the previous page. It features Buehrig’s passenger’s side for the water and oil fill caps, mounting twin outboard radiators as engineered by Augie Duesenberg, both rear and front doors on the center pillar with hidden

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 13 hinges, adding a trunk lid, license plate provision and tail trepreneur, born to riches and aristocratic (E. L. had known lights. him for some time), John “U-Drive” Hertz, and a group of men who represented Schroder, Rockefeller & Co, New While these changes were being made, the process of do- York bankers. Emanuel, in particular, had his eye on the ing all of the detail design and drawings, building temporary Cord Corp because his colossal Electric Power tooling, finding vendors and coercing them to deliver on an Company was disintegrating rapidly as a result of the De- impossible schedule, and then finally putting parts together, pression and Roosevelt’s Public Utilities Holding Company progressed frantically. They had only a few weeks before Act of 1935. Emanuel looked around for fresh territory and the car’s introduction at the New York Auto Show. Amaz- found it in the Cord Corp. The same held true for Hertz. He ingly the first two prototypes were completed in June 1935, had built the Yellow Cab and Coach Company and then sold and on July 27 prototype #2 was sent on its shakedown drive it to GM. Later he bought TWA and was trying to take over from Auburn to Los Angeles so E. L. Cord could see it first Eastern Airlines. His interest was in Cord’s sprawling avia- hand. He liked it. He drove the car around Los Angeles tion branch and the taxi business, though there was another roads extensively and made some suggestions (perhaps darker side to Hertz’s interest in Cord...In an earlier nearly more like orders) on improvements. Notable ones were the incomprehensible set of maneuvers (at least to this writer) E. addition of a rear roll bar, lowering the car 3/4”, providing L. Cord was able to take over Avco as a result of Avco’s ear- a larger battery to improve shifting at idle, and changing the lier takeover of E. L.’s Century Air Lines. Hertz was thwart- front wheel caster angle to improve steering. ed by this in his efforts to get further into the airline business and felt the “adversary had to be neutralized,” and by that he The 810 prototypes were shown to wild acclaim at the Los meant that E. L had to go. Angeles and New York auto shows, and orders came rolling in. But there was still all of the production engineering to be At the same time, the SEC was preparing an injunction done on the cars, not to mention fixing the design flaws, and against E. L for stock manipulation in the Checker Cab and so promised delivery dates came and went. The competition other companies and undoubtedly Emanuel and Hertz used kept hammering at their customers with phrases like, “You this to their great advantage in the negotiations with Cord. don’t want to risk your money on a new untried automo- On August 5, 1937 the sale was announced in a New York bile,” and they had the intended effect. Many orders were Times headline, “E. L. CORD INTEREST TO BE SOLD canceled. Then when teething problems began to be evident TODAY. Ranking Group to Acquire Control of Auto, Avi- in the new Cord, sales fell further. In the end, barely more ation and Shipbuilding Companies.” The Ranking Group than 1,000 810s were sold. The 812 did somewhat better, consisted of Emanuel, Hertz, and Schroder, Rockefeller & but still only about 2,000 of them were delivered in total. Co. Two days later the Times reported “The SEC injunc- tion issued in the Federal Court of Chicago yesterday gives The Takeover of the Cord Empire a further dramatic touch to the termination of Mr. Cord’s career as an important American industrialist.” Time Maga- By the end of 1933 there were only two of the many hold- zine said this, “...to a cunning infighter like Victor Emanuel, ings in the Cord Corporation which were making money, with the well-heeled Schroders again in his corner, it was the Yellow Cab of Chicago and Avco. (Avco was a conglomer- work of only a few months to knock out Cord and take over ation of airline and airplane companies and by far the most the company in August 1937.” Griffith Borgeson in his book valuable.) Auburn and Duesenberg were hemorrhaging cash called it “a nice, legal takeover play.” and neither company was selling nearly enough cars to be profitable. 1934 and ‘35 were even worse for them. E. L. Emanuel, Hertz and the Schroders were tough, ruthless ne- was not involved in the daily running of his company by gotiators, to the point that this has been described as a hostile this time. He and his family had escaped to England either takeover, yet E. L. Cord was just as cunning and came out because of kidnapping threats or because of the scrutiny of very well indeed. Cord sold his interest in the Cord Corpora- his stock manipulation by the SEC and Senate Munitions In- tion for $2,632,000, which in today’s dollars is $44,000,000! vestigating Committee, or perhaps because of both. During And by selling his interests and resigning from the board, he this period E. L. had intimated to friends and family that he effectively blunted the SEC injunctions. might get out of the Cord Corp. His son Charley said, “He was a nervous basket case.” A new board was elected for the Cord Corp with Victor Emanuel as chairman and Lou Manning as president. Man- E. L. had been meeting with a group during 1937 and possi- ning was a long-time trusted employee of E. L. Cord and bly earlier, regarding the sale of the Cord Corporation. This the new board trusted him to continue to run the companies group included Victor Emanuel, a tough and successful en- well. And he did. Within a scant two years, Auburn and

14 The Colorado Classicist Duesenberg were liquidated, other of Cord’s holdings were trading in Beverly Hills. Later, he took up legal residence sold and the investors fully amortized their investment. E. in Nevada and became a respected state Senator known for, L. retired to his Beverly Hills mansion and parlayed his mil- surprisingly enough, consensus-building. ■ lions into even more riches, primarily through real estate

Prototype #2 in front of E. L. Cord’s mansion in Beverly Hills after the cross-country drive from Auburn. Despite issues which needed fixing, the engineers who made the trip loved it. George Kublin said he was “Chuck full of enthusiasm” for it during the trip.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 15 16 The Colorado Classicist These cars were all in the relatively unknown but superb Northeast Classic Car Museum at Norwich, NY, which was visited during the New York Legends CARavan. An article on it starts on the next page. Without cheating by looking at the answers below, see how many you can identify.

Left to right across both pages, then top to bottom: 1921 Holmes, 1921 Mitchell, 1927 , 1933 Marmon, 1924 Lafayette, 1907 Franklin, 1924 Buick, 1912 White, 1939 Buick, 1929 Franklin, 1915 Franklin, 1930 Franklin, 1938 Graham, 1937 Chrysler, 1937 , 1933 Diamond T, 1928 Stutz, 1947 Playboy 1925 Stutz, 1908 Pullman, 1909 Victor.

Five of the cars are Full Classics. I’m sure you can pick them out.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 17 National CARavan

New York Legends CARavan By Tom Goyne Photos by Betsy Fallin and Tom Goyne

he first national CARavan this year was in New York Saratoga Spa State Park, famous for mineral baths. In the in the historic Hudson River Valley region of the state early 1900s it was a favorite destination for “Taking The Wa- Tknown as Leatherstocking Country. The term Leath- ters.” Supposedly, drinking the mineral water and soaking in erstocking Country refers to the fictional character Natty the many mineral baths was good for your health. That pur- Bumppo, featured by author James Fenimore Cooper in his pose has been supplanted for the most part, because today, collection of stories, Leatherstocking Tales, set in this re- Saratoga Springs is considered one of the State’s best cities gion. Leatherstocking is a term for the leather leggings often to live in. We visited the local museums and car collections worn by Indians to protect their legs from brush and briers including the fabulous Jim Taylor collection and the superb in the woods. Northeast Classic Car Museum. Jim walked us through the building pointing Susan and Skip Tetz with out the many facets the help of Grace and of his eclectic collec- Bob Gluck did the hard tion, some of which are work of planning, orga- shown on pages 20 and nizing and detailing the 21. trip, and they did a good job indeed! We started at We then moved on to Saratoga Springs, which the elegant Otesaga Ho- is about 190 miles north tel and resort in Cooper- of . It is stown for three nights to a hub for thoroughbred see some fine museums horse racing, home to the and collections, includ- Saratoga Race Course ing the Baseball Hall and the National Muse- of Fame. Your editor um of Racing and Hall of was very pleased to find Fame. We stayed at the his uncle’s photograph Gideon Putnam Hotel there. His name was which is located in the Earl McNeely and he

Colorado region members attending the CARavan: Betsy and Lonnie Fallin, Kent and Shiela Koppenheffer, Maury Wilson and Tom Goyne awaiting dinner and 60s music at the Grandview restaurant.

18 The Colorado Classicist The mighty Hudson River from the grounds of West Point. The Great Hudson River Chain and high ground above the narrow “S” curve in the river enabled the Continental Army to prevent British Royal Navy ships from sailing upriver and thus dividing the Colonies. While the fortifications at West Point were known as Fort Arnold during the war, as commander, Benedict Arnold committed his act of treason, attempting to sell the fort to the British. After Arnold betrayed the patriot cause, the Army changed the name of the fortifications at West Point to Fort Clinton

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 19 played for the Washington Senators in 1924, hitting the win- toric Site, but I don’t think I have ever seen a more poorly ning home run in the World Series that year. maintained building in all of my visits to these sites. Paint was peeling, the balustrades were rotting to the point of col- Our next destination was on great mountain roads through the lapse, and some of the wooden columns had gaping holes in Catskill Mountains to Bethel Woods. These roads were per- them where animals had burrowed in. The Park Ranger told fect for our Classics and gave them a good workout. Bethel us that approval for restoration funding is oozing its way Woods is where the infamous Woodstock Festival was held through Congress and the Park Service administration. in 1969. It is nothing like it used to be. Now The interior of FDR’s there is a handsome mu- home is typical of the seum celebrating both era: crowded with the bad and good music pictures, paintings, of the era, and the naked furniture and trinkets. writhing bodies who at- It looks well lived in. tended the festival. OK, FDR was born here so maybe your editor is and used it for escape not too sympathetic to from DC, but also the festival and what used it for confer- it stood for, but it was ences with Churchill an interesting museum and the like. It has a anyway and did try to significant history and sensibly explain what despite its appalling happened there in 1969, condition, it was a and why it should be good visit. remembered. I’m glad we went. That evening we dined at the Culinary Later that evening we institute of America, a went to the Grandview prime training facility Restaurant in Pough- for future chefs and keepsie for a evening wait staff. The facil- of good 60s music and ity is impressive with dancing. about 4,000 students. We had a choice of a Next was a visit to West French or an Italian Point Academy with restaurant for dinner, an excellent tour of the and both were excel- grounds, and a stop at lent. It was the serv- Springwood, Franklin er’s first night, how- Roosevelt’s lifelong ever, so they were home at Hyde Park. pretty nervous. ■ This is a National His-

The column of this memorial statue at West Point is the largest piece of polished granite in the world. It is dedicated to the memory of “The Officers and Men of the Regular Army of the Unit- ed States who Fell in Battle in the War of Rebellion.” It is a poignant reminder of the horrors of West Point cadet fighting West Point cadet and brother fighting brother.

20 The Colorado Classicist Above and on the previous page is Jim Taylor’s fabulous collection...Eclectic is the way he describes it. Taylor invented the common boat fender used in every marina in the world. Jim is with Skip Tetz, the tour organizer in the lower left photo, above.

The Classics on the CARavan are lined up in the rain at Spring- wood, FDR’s home in Hyde Park.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 21 The two shots above are of Jim Taylor in his 1941 Buick on the 2007 Peking-to-Paris race. Below are left, the West Point chapel and right, the Culinary Institute of America campus where we were served an elegant meal.

22 The Colorado Classicist Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 23 Regional Concours

Ability Connection Colorado Concours d’Elegance By Lonnie Fallin Photos from the Ability Connection Colorado web site

n Sunday June 9th, 2019 the Colorado Concours Kreisman entered his 1957 Jaguar Drop Head Coupe. d’Elegance was held at Arapahoe Community Col- Olege in Littleton. This event, which used to be a Last year Tom Goyne entered his 1934 Packard Super Eight charity event for cerebral palsy has changed to a charity Convertible Coupe and it was awarded Best of Show. Un- event benefiting Ability Connection of Colorado. fortunately this year none of our cars were winners.

The Concours is hosted by the members of more than 15 This is certainly a very good event for charity, and many, car clubs in Colorado. There were more than 400 cars dis- many very nice cars were displayed. A lot of people paid to played. Every make from Aston Martin to Tesla were there, attend this event and to stroll around looking at the various and also 4 handsome brass era cars from the early 1900’s. cars. Since our Full Classics and the brass-era cars were next to each other, I noticed that more people stopped and This year three of our Classic Car Club of America mem- spent time looking at our cars and asking questions about bers, Don Braden, Art Cutler and Lonnie Fallin displayed them and took a lot of pictures, than the other makes. Our Full Classics at the show. cars do attract attention Don’s Full Classic was a 1941 Cadillac 60 S Se- Art let a number of kids dan. Art’s was his 1931 climb into the rumble seat Cadillac 12 cylinder on his car, and several 370A Coupe. Lonnie’s people had their pictures was a 1947 Packard Cus- taken in the driver’s seat tom Super Clipper Club of my Packard. The rea- Coupe. son I point this out is that our club is missing out on Two of our members also a great opportunity to let had cars entered but were people know about our non-Classics. Phil Doty cars and our club, and we entered his 1984 Porsche certainly are not taking ad- Cabriolet, and Steve vantage of it. ■

Above are Art Cutler, Lonnie Fallin and Don Braden at the ACC Concours

24 The Colorado Classicist Here are a few cars at the show. Two nice brass cars were among the entries in the pre-war class. Below that is Lonnie Fallin’s 1947 packard, a youngster in a Saab wishing he was sixteen, Don Braden’s 1941 Cadillac, and Art Cutler’s 1931 Cadillac.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 25 The

Art Cutler, above, giving some kids a chance to experience his rumble seat at the ACC Concours. An anxious mom with camera at ready looks on.

Below, Art’s, magnificent flying lady.

26 The Colorado Classicist Tech Tips

ing the gasoline out of the bellows and to the carburetor, Rebuilding an Autopulse Electric Fuel Pump at the same time closing the points to start the process all over again. This cycle repeats a few times per second until By Tom Goyne pressure builds up to a level predetermined by the spring force. The pressure in the bellows then keeps the points open have used Autopulse Model 300 and 500 electric fuel stopping the action. I pumps for many years on my Classics with good success. These are the ones with metal (not rubber) bellows. They The construction of the pump is rugged and simple. Unless are reliable, foolproof and effectively eliminate the worry of damaged, the only thing that happens to it is that the cork vapor lock with modern gasoline. They have not been built gaskets dry out and leak, though even that won’t happen if for many years, but millions were produced at their plant in it is kept full of gasoline and used periodically. I have had Detroit and they are generally available on eBay in rebuild- one on my 1934 Packard for some 60 years without any re- able condition for under $200. They were used as original building required. equipment on many makes such as Wills St. Claire, Duesen- berg, some Cords and Porsches, quite a few English cars, Classic & Exotic Service, Inc [www.classicandexotic.com and hot-rodders of the 50s loved them. or (248) 269-9414] offers a rebuilding service for the pumps which is thorough and effective. If, however, you want to try The principle of operation is thus: An electrical solenoid your hand at rebuilding the pump yourself, here are instruc- much like the solenoid operatng your starter pulls a metal tions on how to do it. Classic & Exotic Service also sells bellows downward. The action of the bellows sucks gas- gasket sets and a few other parts. oline into it and at the same time opens a set of points dis- connecting the electrical supply from the solenoid. A spring Rebuilding instructions follow on page 28. A general note was compressed during the downward motion of the bellows on rebuilding...take lots of pictures; it helps in reassembly. and this then returns the bellows to its original position forc-

This is an Autopulse Model 300 electric fuel pump installed on the outside of the side frame rail of my 1934 Packard. Note the angle bracket I made to secure it in place. The pump should be mounted low on the chassis below the level of the gas tank and well away from the ex- haust pipe, with the black cover down- ward. The inlet side is shown.

I cut the main gasoline line and bent it out away from the frame rail and installed it with a compression fitting directly onto the pump outlet (not shown). A short length of rubber fuel-grade hose was used to connect to the inlet (shown).

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 27 First step is disassembly. Take the black pressed steel cover Here are all the parts cleaned-up and laid out, includ- off by removing the two screws holding it in place and ing a gasket set from Classic & Exotic Services on the slide it off. It is not necessary to remove the electrical left. Cleaning the old gaskets off of the cast surfaces is terminal. Inspect the electric solenoid for damaged or tedious, but to insure good sealing with the new gaskets, overheated wires, and check the bellows for cracks. do this carefully. Problems in either one of these areas means you should probably not attempt the rebuild yourself, but rather con- tact Classic & Exotic, or find another pump.

Next remove the screw holding the domed filter cover in Reassembly is the reverse of disassembly. place on the top of the unit and take it off. Then remove Note above the correct location and orientation of the the two screws holding the top die casting in place and inlet valve on the left. The outlet valve is not yet in place pull it off. You may need to tap it lightly with a hammer but the cork gasket is shown under it. The outlet valve is to release the cork gasket. (The top is the part at the installed upside-down from the inlet. left above.) Before removing the top, however, mark the The inlet end of the casting is marked “I” and outlet “O”. orientation of it on the main base with a couple of punch Photos below show correct gasket placement. pricks to insure proper reassembly.. Under the top are the two valves, inlet and outlet. Clean everything carefully using alcohol and lacquer thinner, but be very careful to not get either on the electrical windings! You will be reusing the valves so be especially careful of them.

Then remove the four screws holding the main die cast Make sure that all gasket sealing surfaces are clean and base and electrical solenoid frame together. You may scratch-free, and assemble dry without gasket cement. need an angle screwdriver to get to them as shown above. Torque the screws tight enough to compress the cork, Be very careful that you don’t damage the bellows in this but don’t over-tighten as you can bend the die castings step. Once removed, check the bellows again for cracks. fairly easily. When first running the pump you will find At this time, you can also check the points to see that they that it takes a while to prime. If you start the car first, its open and close smoothly, and you can clean them. mechanical pump will speed up the priming process.

28 The Colorado Classicist Visit our Englewood, CO shop for the finest in expert paint restoration - from sand and polish to ceramic coating for newer cars. We also service all classics and offer complete detailing for shows or auction.

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Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 29 LINCOLN OWNERS CLUB

P. O. Box 37, Monkton, MD 21111 (410) 472-9043

A club for the early Lincolns 1920 through 1939

LincolnOwnersClub.com

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30 The Colorado Classicist Mystery Photo

This photo was taken in Denver The occupant of the vehicle is probably apparent to you, but the identity of the car may not be. Identify the occupant, the make and year of the car, who owned it, and where the photo was taken.

Colorado Region Classic Car Club of America 31 At West Point Academy on the New York Legends CARavan was this monument dedicated to the memory of “The Officers and Men of the Regular Army of the United States who Fell in Battle in the War of Rebellion.” An article on the CARavan begins on page 18.