A Tip of the Cap

This car sat for years beside the road in Hyannis, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod. Car spotters easily identified it as a 1957 Ford. Closer inspection reveals an unusual fuel door location and a distinctive roofline, both hallmarks of the Skyliner retractable hardtop, a "new kind of Ford" that year. The Skyliner returned for the 1958 season, and one final time in 1959, after which it departed the catalog. The unusual roof mechanism, in which the "trunklid" opened from the front to swallow the roof, carried on in 1958, '59 and '60 "squarebird" Thunderbirds, but with a soft top, and had a final fling on the 1961-67 Lincoln Continental convertible, of which this 1962 is a good example.

The collapsible hard top was not meant to be a Ford feature at all. Intended for the 1956 Continental Mk II, an unbadged Lincoln, it was judged too costly for a limited production car. It was hoped that the greater production volume of the Ford would better amortize the development costs. Ford had a couple of Mk IIs softtop-converted by Hess and Eisenhardt (now armored car constructor Centigon) in 1957, but the model never entered production.

It is well that the Skyliner was touted as a new kind of Ford, as it wasn't a new kind of car. Peugeot had a retracting hardtop on the Éclipse model in the 1930s. Designed by French dentist Georges Paulin, the system was built into a few Peugeot 301 models in 1934 by Parisian coachbuilder Marcel Pourtout. Later Éclipse décapotables (crudely translated as "able to remove the cap") were built on the larger 601 model and finally a series of nearly 500 on the 402. The Éclipse is fondly remembered at Peugeot, so much so that the company has put modern versions, the 206CC and 307CC into production recently, although Mercedes-Benz would have you believe the SLK is the only such collapsible in the world.

But even Peugeot was not the first with a retracting hard top. In 1922, B.B. Ellerbeck of Salt Lake City, Utah, built one on a Hudson Super Six. Not as sophisticated as either the Eclipse or the Skyliner, its top had the same curvature as the rear of the roadster body. It merely pivoted back and down. A clever hatch in the top allowed the use of the rumble seat when the roof was down. a feature missing on Peugeot and Ford.

At $2,942, the 1957 Skyliner was nearly 20 percent more expensive than the canvas-roofed Sunliner. The price premium, the complexity of the top mechanism, and the nearly-unreachable luggage space combined to limit sales to barely a quarter of Sunliner volume. At 20,766 units, though, the Skyliner is not the rarest '57 Ford. The Fairlane Town Victoria achieved but 12,695 and the Custom Business Sedan, a "Tudor" without a rear seat, only 6,888.

The Plymouth Problem

In October 1999, two venerable automotive historians were pondering the upcoming execution of Plymouth, announced a month earlier in the motoring press. Mike, ever the romantic, remarked that Plymouth's Mayflower badge still shone brightly, despite erosion of the car's product line. Fred, the pragmatic realist, said it was all about bottom line, and some hokus-pokus called "brand management" that was sweeping the industry. Apparently Plymouth's brand managers hadn't managed very well.

Plymouth had come in on a rising tide. Introduced on July 7, 1928, it was a modern four-cylinder car, first in the low-price range with four-wheel hydraulic brakes. The PA model, new for 1931, brought style, further enriched by the PB of 1932. In 1933, Plymouth went to six-cylinder cars across the board. Over the years, Plymouth had a number of distinctive models, such as the only 7-passenger sedan of the Low Priced Three (this is a 1940), and the Suburban, the first all-steel station wagon of the Big Three manufacturers.

The 1953 and '54 Plymouths are often considered "stubby," but I find them well-proportioned. Virgil Exner's Forward Look for 1955 vindicated Plymouth's beauty, and the "Suddenly it's 1960" styling of 1957 established Chrysler Corporation as a trend-setter. Plymouth lost third-place standing (to Rambler) in 1960 and '61, and slipped further from 1962-69, but it remained Chrysler Corporation's best-selling make. The compact Valiant (initially not badged as a Plymouth) was more distinctive than its Falcon or Corvair competition, and the glass-back Barracuda had no match in the industry. By 1970, Plymouth was back in third, but more storm clouds were brewing.

Simply put, for the next three decades Plymouth was on a starvation diet. From 16 models in 1970, Plymouth was down to three within a decade. With the exception of the street rod-inspired Prowler of 1997, Plymouth never again had a distinctive model. As time went on Plymouth had hardly any models at all, and when the cute little Neon said "Hi" in 1994 the only difference from Dodge was a glued-on emblem. The model even had to share its name with big brother. The corporate strategy became clear when the PT Cruiser was introduced in 1999 as a Chrysler. The car that should have been a Plymouth, because it looked like one, was kicked upstairs.

When the last Plymouth, a silver Neon, left the line in June 2001, Dodge became DaimlerChrysler's price leader. Plymouth had not had its own division since 1961, and had never had a separate dealer network, so corporately there was little to lose. Still, there were unintended consequences. Most Mopar outlets in our area now sell Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep (and sometimes many, many more), but our closest Chrysler-Plymouth store happened to be next door to the Dodge dealer. With the loss of Plymouth, in order to keep the low-priced showroom traffic the Chrysler guy took on Kia. Apparently Kia has been a success, so much so that he's ditched the Chrysler franchise. What hath brand management wrought?

Midsummer Night's Dream

It used to be the conventional wisdom that no one would ever collect cars from the 1970s. I have never believed this - every car will some day have its moment of collectability - but I once said I hoped I'd never see a Pinto at a car show. I ate crow for that statement a long time ago. Today there are Pinto clubs and Pinto posses, and Ford's little subcompact has a culture all its own.

The Pinto came on the scene in 1971, following the Falcon-replacement Maverick and undercutting it in size and price. Once problems with fuel tanks and broken door handles were overcome, the Pinto proved a reliable and economical little car. Performance of the first cars, with 1,600 cc British-built "Kent" engine, was a bit underwhelming, but a 2-liter ohc unit from Ford of Germany was soon substituted. By 1974, Pintos were being propelled by a husky 2.3-liter ohc four built in Ohio, an engine so sturdy that it found its way into third-generation Mustangs and, with turbocharger, Thunderbirds and the German-built Merkur XR4Ti. A 2.8-liter V6 followed the next year.

Diane Mierz has always wanted a Pinto. Two years ago she found one, a low-mileage 1973 Squire wagon, with 2-liter engine and automatic transmission. She and her husband Steve took it to Hershey that autumn, and entered it in the car show. Steve, webmaster for the Shoreline Antique Auto Connection, soon set up the Connecticut Pinto Registry, an online news and information resource for Pinto partisans.

Three weeks ago Connie and Bill from Glastonbury, Connecticut, organized a Pinto stampede at the regular monthly cruise night on the green in Colchester, held by the Good Times Motoring Club. Seven Pintos came to celebrate the Summer solstice, including Connie's own 1978 runabout, Bill's 1977 sedan with T-Bird turbo engine, and Diane's Squire wagon. Glenn and George from New London showed up with no less than four: a mint 1972 sedan that was my first car-show-Pinto sighting in Norwich a few years ago, a 1976 Squire runabout with factory V6, a Cruising Wagon and a '77 sedan into which they have stuffed a 302 V8.

Pinto's swan song was the 1980 model. Fred Summers, our St. Louis bureau chief, ordered a Cruising Wagon for his wife Sharon, without the wacky graphics package that was available. Cruising wagons had a special interior with tachometer and rally steering wheel. When the 1981 model year came around, the Pinto had been replaced by the front-wheel drive Escort, billed as a "world car" because the same model was made in Britain, Germany and several other countries. The Pinto had done well, with two million sold in ten years, and its reputation intact. Its competition, the rough and rusty Chevy Vega with an unlined aluminum engine, a type better suited to a lawn mower, must be green with envy.

Time Warp

Are you overwhelmed by your motor mall megadealer? Are you cowed when you go to the antiseptic parts and service department, where you're never allowed to talk to the mechanics? Maybe you should be taking your car to Nick Pagani at Ace Auto Service in New Rochelle, New York. Established by Nick's grandfather in 1920, Ace Auto is Westchester County's oldest family-owned service facility. During the 1950s, the business included a Hudson dealership. At Ace Auto you can talk to the mechanics at their work benches, and customer policies are plainly posted. The parts department doesn't need a computer; the parts are easy to find in the loft or hanging from the rafters.

Most of the cars at Ace Auto are old. That's because they're Nick's. Many are Buicks, like this '54 Roadmaster sedan with rare factory air or this '64 LeSabre wagon. There's a 1939 Century that looks like it's nearing the end of a restoration, and a '61 that simply sits. Many of the cars work for a living. "Hollywood Nick" has a movie rental business specializing in 1950s and '60s cars like this 1960 Chrysler hardtop wagon and the 1963 Mercury Meteor that doubles as America's most unobtrusive collector car. Nick's 1935 Packard limo does double duty as movie maven and wedding car.

Some cars await attention, like this 1960 Cadillac limo with flaccid air suspension. His Hudson Commodore is being restored while keeping company with a '58 Olds. There are some surprises, like a Mercedes SL coupe ("I don't know why I bought that thing"), some alternative transportation and a few shifty characters loitering about. Once in a while he even fixes a modern car.

There's something for everybody at Ace Auto. While groping behind this '55 Buick Roadmaster, Dennis David was happy to find the pulleys he needs to install power steering on his '59 LeSabre.