SIMEONE FOUNDATION VISIT #1

 Famous Neurosurgeon Dr. Frederick Simeone created the Simeone Foundation after 50 years of gathering over 60 of the rarest and significant racing sports cars and I made my first visit in February of 2012. It is located in a rather unsuspected area of Philadelphia amongst the auto junk yards. The building is much like any warehouse in the area until you are inside and view the well thought out theme displays, grouped by country of origin or famous race locations like Lemans. I say first visit because I would recommend going back and watching the events schedule because there is an area devoted to rotating exhibits, my visit had the Best Of Britain and September 14 2013 Best of Germany rolls in with a tribute to Porsche scheduled.The Simeone also has special driving demonstrations when choice museum cars are taken out for the public to hear, smell and enjoy.

It is a Blog so something that always bothered me is next; Vintage car owners spend a lot of money and time building a car and even taking it to a show is expensive so why is it when we get to a show THE CAR OWNER has to pay to display the car?? You want the public to attend, but often the public pays nothing or very little and the car owner pays the most. If we do not bring the car there is nothing to see. Unless the money is for a charity any car show I have or plan to organize I can not rationalize making the car owner pay. I realize some venues have fees to rent or utilize a space, but if that is the case why not have the public coming to the event pay?I have noticed the entry fees keep getting higher. I was at a show and I heard someone thanking a car owner for bringing the car out today, so next time you are at a car show tell the owner you like the car and for thank him for bringing it to the show today and I bet it will be greatly appreciated.

IMPERIAL PARADE PHAETON

A car that is is very near and dear to my heart the 1952 Imperial Parade Phaeton because I get to drive and care for the car! The above photos show the car doing what it does best Ticker Tape parade prep for the last NY Yankees and NY Giants championship runs down the Canyon of Heros! The story is a long one and often incorrect and it started with a 1940 Imperial Parade Phaeton that is almost forgotten and even this car had some crazy legend like it had dual rear axles, but this car is alive and well in the Henry Ford Museum collection although in storage! Out of the spotlight it had followed the newly built 1952 car in many Ticker Tape parades as seen in these photos, yes that's Winston Churchill in it!

Eagle Eyed Imperial buffs will notice the body was updated to 1955 Forward Look specs by Chrysler and they also rebuilt the 331 Hemi engines, raised the compression ratio,added 4BBL carb with newly designed fully automatic 2 speed transmissions! All 3 cars got new colors at this time. The three, yes only 3 parade cars already had power steering and Ausco Lambert disc brakes at all 4 corners. Here are the definitive facts about the 3 cars= although rumored for years there never was a 4th car that burnt up in a warehouse fire. Car 1 NYC car was delivered Black and painted White in 1955 and later painted Black again as it remains today. This car never left NYC except when refitted by Chrysler and updated and this was to be the NYC car when the President Visited. Car 2 was to be the West Coast car for the President when he was on the left coast and never left the care and ownership of the City Of Los Angeles where it remains today to be seen every year in the Rose Bowl Parade! Car 3 which caused a lot of confusion referred to as the Detroit car was the one slated for the White House to be the main car, but was never (as the other 2) accepted by the Office of the President because of legal restrictions about receiving gifts of high value. Rumored that the cars would often travel around the country by Chrysler transport is only one third true as Car 3 was owned by Chrysler and transported around for such events like the second inauguration of President Eisenhower in 1958 when Vice President Nixon Rode in it as sen in a photo which I examined to verify that all! Car 3 was purchased by Bruce Thomas of Chrysler who is the historian (was? since it closed recently) of the Walter P. Chrysler Museum. Mr. Thomas sold or traded the car to Paul Stern in Carlisle Penn. and then after that wound up in the Imperial Palace collection in Las Vegas.In down sizing was auctioned off and now is fully restored in the Petersen Automotive museum in LA. Trying to find the conduit to document an article of the complete and CORRECT history of the cars.

RAT ROD?

Rat Rod has become a component of the new Kar Kulture, but what is a RAT ROD? I think the phrase has spread too wide. Lets see if I can subdivide this a bit= 1- Rat Rod - NOT a street rod because a street rod is a finely refined custom usually with a great custom paint job and a defined goal towards perfection. A Rat Rod on the other hand usually a pretty modified drivetrain, but where it strays is the body and interior usually follows the rule of there ain't no rules! No paint, rust, chopped and channeled and tack welded back without finishing or finished in satin paint usually around a theme with the goal to amuse and entertain. The overwhelming theme is on a good rat rat is keep the audience busy. If you keep finding stuff while walking around the vehicle its a success!! 2- Beater, a term we lost that usually is an older car with faded paint and maybe some mag wheels, could be faded paint, lets make this clear this is not a Rat Rod. 3- Imposter - YOU CAN NOT FAKE PATINA!! I do like the faded painted signage (made to look faded) we see on an old rat rod truck, yes trucks count! What I see more and more are people painting a potential rat rod and then sanding and buffing the paint off so it looks faded or old, worst examples might actually be clear coated after the illusion and these just never make it at all. I am building a rat rod 67 Dodge D100 truck - it has a performance built 225 slant six, bored .030 over, 268 hydraulic can, 2bbl Holley carb, header with 3" exhaust and a big cherry bomb muffler, brakes rebuilt, 16x10 steelies out back with steam roller tires. Paint will be satin black with hammertone gold and bright red accents, many other features and once finished will show it here. I am still having problems leaving the rough spots, but I am trying. Without the many performance and custom touches I think it might just be a beater, if I finished the body right and painted it original the egg shell blue it would be a custom. So I guess we have the chart= BEATER* RAT ROD* CUSTOM* STREET ROD* RESTORED* PRO STREET* PRO TOURING* The Kar Kulture is just that a culture, the guys like to dress a little rockabilly, the gals AKA Rust Queens dress in 1940's pin up styling with the hair styles and clothes to match, but Tattoos are part of the look. Don't want to try and figure out why we follow a theme in dress and style with the cars, but its like the Harley Davidson culture a bit although a new Harley owner will find themselves in boutique at the dealer buying the look! I see a lot of vintage clothing and creativity in the Kar Kulture. Attending the first rebirth of the Brooklyn Rumblers car club thats used to be a big rowdy party under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway which it over grew so for the first time it was at the Garden State Exhibit center and hats off because I think it was a great success as it combined with a few clubs in NJ. This truck caught my attention, 302 v8 modern driveline, but no attempt to polish it off check it out>

You either get it or you don't!!

MOTOR TREND CHANNEL!

Ok motorheads and automaniacs you need to visit YOU TUBE and look up the Motor Trend Channel and check out the semi weekly shows. The one that got me into this is RoadKill where 2 guys come up with hairbrain crazy schemes like driving a El Camino on 7 cylinders to Summit performance in Reno NV with a pitbull, tools and an engine hoist to pick up a new 383 small block crate motor. Ok sound normal, well they install it in the parking lot and drive it home. Put this you tube on your favorites!!

537 CHEVROLETS LOST IN NEBRASKA - OK FOUND IN FIELD!

CRIME SCENE UNIT An incredible event is taking place in Pierce Nebraska population 7700 est. September 28 and 29! Mr. Lambrecht returned from his stint in the Army and opened Lambrecht Chevrolet with his wife, eventually son,daughter and one paid employee. Not unusual in the 1950's unless of course that went on until 1996! Obviously a very successful business so much so that they did not sell the trade in cars and used cars, but continued for decades to place them on the family farm under the trees, but something else happened. When the new model year arrived the previous model year was put aside and not sold because Mr. L thought no one would want last years model, not even at cost. For the next 50 years this practice continued when the doors of the Chevrolet dealer were locked, keep in mind the buildings still had parts -NOS parts never sold and those new never sold cars and trucks with sticker prices in place and most with less than 10 miles. Local sources confirm there were more buildings, one an old creamery/dairy, but the buildings fell in disrepair and accounted for some of the damage on the cars, the 58 Cameo Carrier truck had something fall on it in the building. The building gets condemned and here comes part of a 50 car collection of brand new cars being stuck everywhere including the family farm- hidden under trees in the dirt, I guess that would protect them? So a rather unusual group of cars, mostly Chevrolet, but some other makes that were traded in and I have seen Studebakers, Chryslers, Fords and more. If you are an automotive enthusiast then you may be forewarned that the images could be very upsetting and it may be hard not to be angry at Mr. Lambrecht although there is no evidence this was done out of malice nor wasn't he just a nice man! I think things just got away from him in a grand scale. This will be my October photo set on Flickr CARHUNTER2. Expect all the cable shows about cars and junk pickers to be in attendance, I will be, but only for the reveal/inspection day. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsC5pSz4Bqs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRFiSUH4gdQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp-zZcS_sGM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwMzXfoULxY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmCSv3wzOfU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmCSv3wzOfU see Vanderbrink auctions and if the links don't work just google Lambrecht Chevrolet

Brazil has em!!!

There have been many cars that were sold in foreign countries that were variants of US models, but a few I would give my eye teeth for!! In Brazil the A-body as we know it as Valiants and Darts in the USA were called Chargers in this country and used the R/T nameplate too! The roof line at the C-pilar was exclusive along with different header panels. I think my favorite is the 1979, yes the body was held over at least 3-4 more years. I will bring some other unusual ones with familiar names from the international file!! the best is the 79 with rear window louvers and two tone paint!