I Never Bought a Fiat

I thought about it, though. I used to pass a Fiat dealer on my way to work, during the period when the 131 Mirafiori had come on the market. My Rover 2000 was a few years old, and I noted that the 131, later called "Brava," had twin overhead cams, to my Rover's single, and an extra speed in the gearbox. On the other hand, the Fiat's solid rear axle was antediluvian compared to my Rover's DeDion setup, and its drum rear brakes were retrograde, too.

Friends of ours had a 128 coupe, and told us they "loved the car, hated the service." It didn't take much for me to abandon my Fiat fascination. My family was not Fiat-deprived, however. My cousins lived in a two-Fiat family; Uncle Tom had a 600D coupe and Aunt Beezie drove an 1100 (the Millicento), albeit a wagon. They were, no doubt, lured into the showroom by the sporty 1200 Spyder in the window. The contemporaneous 600 Multipla which heads this page was an early minivan of sorts, ideal for all sorts of activities.

Fiat, actually an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino (Italian automobile factory in Turin), is considered the Italian national car. The various 500 series in the 1920s and '30s were the sturdy transportation workhorses of the day. This 1927 509 saw taxi service in Sicily. After World War II, the Topolino (Little Mouse) was the darling of Europe, this 1951 Giardinetta Legno a mouse in a wooden house. The 600 also came as a Giardinetta, clad in steel. There were larger Fiats, like the six cylinder 2100, that never came to the New World, and even V8s, called "8V" (Otto Vu) to avoid possible trademark conflitto with Ford.

Sporting Fiats of the 1970s were the 124 Spyder and 850-successor X1/9. These were sold with Pininfarina and Bertone badges, respectively, when Fiat S.p.A. abandoned the US market after 1983. A co-worker with a 124 Spyder reported that the lower door hinges rusted off when the car was but four years old.

I don't regret not owning a Fiat. General Motors made a "strategic alliance" with Fiat in 2000, raising speculation on a return to USA. The General then bought its way out of the deal five years later. Fiats are still sold everywhere in the world but North America, but the Fiat dealership I used to pass is now a Honda store.

Pioneer on Pumpkinvine Pike

On Independence Day 1894, Elwood Haynes took his new car for a ride. Haynes, of Kokomo, Indiana, had the car, which he designed and had built over the previous winter, towed out to the country behind a team of horses, so as not to cause a commotion in town. It started easily, and took the pioneering engineer for a short ride on Pumpkinvine Pike. The car seen here is a replica, currently at Kokomo's Automotive Heritage Museum; the original is in the Smithsonian Institution.

Haynes was firmly of the opinion that he had invented the automobile, reportedly oblivious to the fact that J. Frank Duryea had made a similar excursion the previous autumn in Springfield, Massachusetts (or even fellow Hoosier John Lambert, whose motor tricycle was on the road in 1891). With his successful ride behind him, Haynes teamed with the Apperson brothers, who had built his car, to produce the Haynes-Apperson car for sale to the public. The Appersons soon split to build a car under their own name, which they did until 1926, using as a mascot the impudent jackrabbit. Haynes, meanwhile, continued in production making successively larger automobiles, billed as "America's First Car." Six cylinder cars were joined by a Light Twelve for 1917 to 1922. The last Haynes cars were built in 1925, the year Elwood died.

Today, Kokomoans refer to the Haynes as "America's First Mechanically Successful Automobile," on the basis that the Duryea's production history was peripatetic and short. Elwood Haynes' accomplishments, though, are legion, and are celebrated at the Elwood Haynes Museum, located in Haynes' last dwelling on South Webster Street. On display is a 1905 Model L Haynes car, a sophisticated machine with tilt steering wheel and well-balanced two-cylinder midship engine. On a recent visit, Society of Automotive Historians directors Arthur Jones and Joe Freeman gave it thorough scrutiny.

Elwood Haynes' lasting legacies, though, are his metallurgical inventions, stellite and stainless steel. A successor company, Haynes International, Inc., headquartered in Kokomo, produces them, along with other nickel- and cobalt-based alloys. Kokomo's industrial heritage also includes tires, canned tomato juice and the mechanical corn picker.

Pumpkinvine Pike is now called East Boulevard, but the section on which Elwood rode is still a country road. A monument to his feat is located in front of the Foursquare Gospel Church, proclaiming it the "birthplace of a new era."

Blue Sky in the Big Apple

Easter weekend brings the International Auto Show to New York's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. This year, skies are blue regardless of the weather, as Saturn livens its image with a "Red Line" intercooled turbo version of the Sky roadster introduced at Detroit in January. Joining it are the new Aura mid-size sedan and Outlook crossover SUV.

Toyota is busy hybridizing its entire product line, so it was no surprise to see press days kicked off with a new Lexus hybrid, the top line LS600hL, to arrive in showrooms in six months. Mercedes has an updated E-Class, shown in 320, 550 and 63AMG variants. Acura touts the RDX, a turbo 4-cylinder "premium crossover" vehicle, and shows a concept of a new MDX 7-passenger V6.

Ford brought veteran racer and car tuner Carroll Shelby out for a cameo announcing the Shelby GT-H, a 40th anniversary rent-a-racer to be available at selected Hertz counters. Infiniti rolled out the next generation G35, along with a new Altima, and promised a "refined" 2007 Maxima by early summer.

The only Chrysler debut was a double Jeep whammy, the Wrangler Unlimited, dubbed a "four door convertible," and the 4-cylinder CVT-driven Jeep Patriot, which, claims its manufacturer, creates a new segment in the industry. Popular Jeep personality Patrick Foster made a guest appearance to critique the new vehicles.

Scion showed a new FUSE concept vehicle, a chop-top coupe with quirky features, while Bentley flashed the Royal Warrant to roll out the new Continental GTC. Curiously, BMW used its press conference time to sing the praises of internal combustion and straight six engines, promising dual-fuel (gasoline or hydrogen, at the flip of a switch) 7-series within two years, glossing over the dearth of hydrogen stations anywhere on earth. It was somewhat refreshing, then, to come back to earth with Maserati, whose biggest news was a Master Driver School at Road Atlanta.

Other intros included Mazda's first crossover, the CX-9, a new Kia Sorrento, a bigger Hyundai Elantra, an "SC" dressed-up Honda element, and an Equinox-derived Suzuki XL7.

Noteworthy, if not new, were the far-out fantasies of Toyota, the parlor-like F3R concept and four-wheel-steering Fine-T concept. Most arresting among the exotics is the revival Spyker, sumptuous inside but rather beastly from twenty paces.

Sponsored by the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association, the New York International Auto Show runs until April 23rd at the Javits Center, easily reached by M42 bus from Grand Central Station. C'mon down!

I (heart) Brewster

You're the top; you're a Brewster body," wrote Cole Porter in 1934, to rhyme with "You're the top; you're a Ritz hot toddy." The custom coachwork business at Brewster & Co. was waning, but the American public knew that a Brewster body was indeed "the top."

The Brewsters began building carriages early in the nineteenth century. In 1905, Brewster built its first automobile body, and by 1911 was out of horse-drawn carriages entirely. Having imported the French Delaunay-Belleville for a time, in 1914 Brewster took on the Rolls-Royce franchise. Not surprisingly, American Rolls-Royce cars often wore Brewster bodies. In 1915, Brewster began to manufacture whole cars, with Knight sleeve valve engines and a distinctive oval radiator. Most were town cars, like this one built for Vernon C. Brown of New York City and now in the collection of The Henry Ford.

When Rolls-Royce opened a plant at Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1919, they established a line of standard bodies for the American-built line, many of which were built by Brewster on Long Island. The relationship of the two firms grew closer, and in 1925 Rolls bought Brewster. Popular body styles were the Speedster tourer and the Newmarket convertible sedan on Phantom I chassis. For the Phantom II, Brewster built such models as the Dover sedan and Newport town car on imported chassis, as manufacture at Springfield had ceased.

All custom body houses were struggling by the early 1930s, and Brewster entered receivership in 1934. John Inskip, Rolls-Royce of America executive and dealer, took over the firm and started building some low-priced custom jobs on American chassis, mostly Fords but occasionally Buick and other large cars. Most of these bore distinctive flying fenders and heart-shaped grilles. They came as town cars, phaetons and even roadsters. A few, like a '34 built for Edsel Ford, had conventional grilles. Some find the heart-shaped Brewsters lovable; others think they're arresting, but everyone agrees they're distinctive. You can read more about them at the Brewster Car Society web site.

It couldn't last. In August 1937, Brewster's assets were sold at auction. To put it Porterly, they were "just about to stop; But if, baby, I'm the bottom, You're the top!"