Circle the Wagons

Shortly after I posted last week's CarPort about two-door station wagons, I became aware that the International Station Wagon Club was holding its national meet at the historic Publick House in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, not far from where I live. Coincidence or not, it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed, so I didn't miss it.

The age of wagons stretched from brass Model T to some time last week, and class judging was arranged for Original Unrestored wagons, Original Restored (how can it be original if it's been restored?), Modified and Returning Champions. There were woodie favorites like a 1940 Pontiac, a '50 Buick Super and an exquisite 1933 Ford with a complete set of original tools. The faux wood brigade included a '53 Country Squire, '65 ditto, a pair of 1969 Chrysler Town and Country wagons and a seldom-seen 1966 Mercury Comet Villager. Next to the Comet was an equally noteworthy 1959 Plymouth Suburban and not far away a 1962 Corvair Lakewood. The '64 Ford Fairlane was billed as a Custom Ranch Wagon, and was nostalgic to me for its 260 cid V8, just like the one in our old '63 Falcon.

The only hardtop wagon was a '57 Mercury four-door Commuter in drive-in theater trim. From Stratford, Connecticut came a '64 Ford patrol car, and the '59 Rambler reminded me of one my next-door neighbor used to have. A '65 Rambler 660 basked in the champions' circle, a bare-bones model with few accessories. American Motors, ever pragmatic, put its unused shift quadrant to good purpose The ISWC welcomes wagons to come as they are, good for this 1963 Dodge, and embraces such youngsters as a '99 Mercury Sable, late model Buick Roadmaster and a Pontiac 6000. Apart from a 2000 Mercedes-Benz E320, the only import was a '58 Hillman Estate Wagon (but, sadly, not a single Husky). Thankfully, people are starting to collect Plymouth Volares, particularly the Premier Edition.

Big wagons demand big engines, and there were many on hand. The '57 Chrysler New Yorker had a hemi, of course, and there were both 427 and 454 Chevrolets, the latter having spells of incontinence. The largest Ford engine seemed to be a 352.

A theme meet calls for theme-appropriate accessories, and station wagons provide ideal places to display them. If there was a disappointment it was finding only three two-door wagons. A '57 Pontiac Safari contrasted with Chevy's '57 Bel Air Handyman with the "conventional" tail, though the latter was a bit overdone for my taste. Steve Mierz took me to task last week for forgetting his wife Diane's 1973 Pinto Squire,which made its CarPort debut last year. The ISWC show rubbed it in with a 1977 version of the same car. The Pontiac Safari is so well known that we forget that the name survived much longer on big four-door Ponchos.

Among the station wagon owners and spectators were rapaciously writing reporters, and furiously focusing photographers. You'll probably see their coverage in the mainstream media. My favorite outfit was the 1969 Buick Sportwagon, which was hitched to a matching '69 Shasta Loflyte camper. The weather was perfect and I was glad to see people preserving cars that are a bit out of the ordinary. As a parting exercise, consider this plaintive face. Tell us what you think it is.

A Tale of Two Doors

Station wagons are as old as the hills. Billy Durant's Star was the first to introduce one, and Ford the first to mass produce them, starting with the Model A. But until after World War II, with a very few exceptions like Bantam, all station wagons had four doors.

Credit Willys with two significant innovations in one vehicle: the two-door, all-steel station wagon of 1946. Crosley did too, starting in 1947, but it took the 1949 Plymouth Suburban to take the concept big time.

Ford Motor Company wasn't ready for all-steel, but they did switch over to two-door wagons in 1949, both Ford and Mercury. FoMoCo's steel shift came in 1952, but there was still a two-door, the Ranch Wagon, which endured through the fifties right up to 1960.

Plymouth, having pioneered the two-door wagon for the Big Three, kept it in the catalog until 1961, while Dodge didn't have one until 1953 and kept it only to 1958 (nearly the same as this '57). Chevrolet's first debuted in 1955, and with it the glamorous Nomad, which led to a bevy of two doors, in 150, 210 and Bel Air trim. By 1956, Ford had its own Nomad fighter, the Fairline-trimmed Parklane and Plymouth, too, had fancier two-doors. Pontiac went the Chevy route with '55 two-doors, but gave it up after 1957, having had their own Nomad lookalike, the Safari, for three seasons. Chevy's last full-size two-door came in 1960, but after a three year hiatus there came a two-door wagon in the Chevelle line, through 1965 only. The same was true for Ford's Falcon, which had two doors from intro in 1960 until 1965.

Mercury abandoned two-door wagons in 1952, but came back with a hardtop two-door for 1957, in both Commuter and Voyager trim. Both hardtop and two-door wagons lasted only through 1959.

Nash had a two-door wagon in the Rambler line through 1955, then brought it back as the Rambler American in 1959. The last Rambler two-door wagon was the 1963 American model. Studebaker's first postwar wagon was a two-door, the 1954 Conestoga. The style lasted through 1956, after which it handed over to four-doors until the coming of the 1959 Lark, which reverted to two-doors only. The last two-door Studie wagon came in 1961. For whatever reasons, Chrysler, DeSoto, Lincoln, Cadillac, Buick, Oldsmobile and Packard never attempted a two-door wagon, and Hudson's only postwar wagons were rebadged versions of the 1955 Rambler (Note this brochure illustration has no branding whatsoever, save for "R" on the wheelcovers).

So who kept the two-door wagon going the longest? Look back to that pioneer, Willys, who had a two door version of the Wagoneer in 1963 and kept it in production until 1968, then reincarnated it in 1974 as the Jeep Cherokee right up into the 1980s. By that time, though, Jeep was part of the sport utility movement that absorbed first the two-door wagons and eventually nearly all station wagons. Considering strictly "civilian" models, it looks like the 1965 Chevelle and Falcon were the last true American two-door station wagons. Have we missed any? And why do you think the two-door wagon took so long to emerge in the United States, and why did it fade in barely two decades? Tell us what you think.

If You've Got It, Flaunt It

It is not inapt to think of automotive concours as beauty pageants. Concours d'Elegance, after all, translates from the French as "elegance contest." And since beauty is in the eye of the beholder one can expect all sorts of beauty, provocative and subtle, beguiling and bewitching. Such was the experience at the thirteenth annual Greenwich Concours d'Elegance held this past weekend in Connecticut.

Greenwich, benefiting the disaster relief organization Americares, is actually two shows in one. Concours d'Elegance for American antique and classic cars occupies Saturday, with Concours International for foreign-born automobiles following on Sunday. The oldest car on Saturday's field was a tiny 1901 Crestmobile, but it wasn't the smallest. That honor went to an electric Auto Red Bug Racer. Steam was represented by two Model K Stanleys, while Dick King's 1910 touring model showed that Rambler was not always a compact car. Notable cars included a 1931 DeSoto SA, 1934 Pierce-Arrow 840A coupe, Kaiser Darrins in lemon and lime, and a Derham-customized Cadillac Eldorado Brougham. The muscular entries topped out with Dodge's winged 1969 Daytona. Buick built America's last wood-bodied wagon, the 1953 Roadmaster, one of which was on hand, and the white 1959 and 1960 Mercury Park Lane convertibles gave no hint that they're sisters under the skin. Sibling to the Mercs, and less subtle, was this 1956 pink Linc.

Grand Marshal Don Peterson commentated at the awards drive-by, joined by Chief Judge Edward Herrmann, here presenting Best Combination of Car and Costume. Saturday's Best of Show went to the 1929 Duesenberg Model J Derham Phaeton owned by Timothy Durham.

Sunday's show used to be Concours Europa, but this year's title "International" acknowledges elegant cars from beyond the Continent, like this Datsun 280ZX. Its contemporaries included a Citroën SM, Saabs conventional and sporty, and volumetric Volvos, the 122 at left owned by Automobile magazine bureau chief Jamie Kitman. There were no Amphicars, but those of a nautical bent were attracted to this aquatic Isetta combination and aficionados of Eastern Europe could check out this Tatra 603. France was represented by sedate Hotchkiss and quirky Georges Irat, as well as Malcolm Pray's Figoni et Falaschi Delahaye, hardly phony but certainly flashy. Statesman of the Mercedes-Benz entries was an "Adenauer" 300b convertible. Amidst a gaggle of Porsche 356s hid a Dannenhauer & Strauss cabriolet and a Beutler-Porsche (you can look them up). English sports cars abounded, including Morgans with three and four wheels, a Lotus Elite, the rarely-seen Elva Courier and a twin-cam MGA owned by sports car savant Jonathan Stein. Best Jaguar was a svelte XK120 fixed-head coupe, and an original tobacco-coloured Triumph Stag won its class. A real rarity was a four-door Bristol. Lest you think that all Ferraris are red, Greenwich also had them in yellow and mustard.

There were a few cars with multicultural genes, including a Dual Ghia, Cunningham C3 and John Fitch's prototype Phoenix, driven by the master himself. Sunday Best of Show honors went to Joseph and Margie Cassini's Tipo 8A Isotta-Fraschini, presented by Concours founders and co-chairs Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom (seen here flanking the Cassinis).

Bonhams (1793) have taken over the auction concession, Christies, purveyor of recent Greenwich sales, having exited the motor car business. Choice lots included a '54 Plymouth with rare "wood weave" trim (sold at $64,350), a 1934 Aston Martin sport saloon ($155,500), 1949 Austin Atlantic ($55,575) and the star of the sale, a long-dormant Type 57 Bugatti ($364,500).

Attendance was abundant, especially considering the hot, hot weather, mitigated to some extent by availability of vintage ice cream. Finally, a thunderstorm broke the hot spell and ended the prize-giving, Grand Marshal Peterson not missing a beat until the last drive-by had driven past. Credit is due to all who made the show a success, including hard-working judges and the Three Musketeers, Kent, Dennis and Nick, who don't complete their behind-the-scenes work until Sunday's sun sets.

Britannia Rules the Waves

She did on Sunday last, when hundreds of British cars descended on Waterford's Harkness Park for the Connecticut MG Club's 21st annual British Cars by the Sea meet. Not surprisingly, MGs ruled, mostly MGBs, in chrome and rubber trim. A good range of MGs attended, however, from TC to TD to TF, and MGAs in both roadster form and the svelte little fixed head coupe. There were modern Midgets, again in chrome and rubber, and several of the rare six-cylinder MGCs. Also represented were MG saloons, by the attractive ZA Magnette.

Star of the show was a barn-fresh Austin A30, the drive train of which gave rise to Donald Healey's brilliant little Austin-Healey Sprite. There were "big Healeys" on hand, too, both the original Healey Hundred and the later 3000 models.

It was an all-British show, so the MG Club welcomed the competition: Triumphs, including TR3, TR4 and TR6 (no TR250s), four-cylinder TR7 and Rover-engined TR8 coupe. As the A30 was to the Sprite, so was Triumph's Herald to the Spitfire, which in turn had a six-cylinder derivative in the GT6. A single Triumph saloon car attended, a 2000TC. For good measure there was a class for British bikes, whose sole occupant was a Triumph Trident.

There were Mini Coopers old and new, and Loti from Seven to Exige. A solitary Jensen-Healey showed up, as well as a Nash Metropolitan, another manifestation of the A30 drive train.

Early Jags were limited to an XK120, while several E-Types were seen kissing the sod. Saloon Jags ranged from XJ6 to the current S-Type. The only Morgan left by the time we arrived was a 4/4 4-seater.

Rovers made a good showing, with P4, P5, P6, P6B and SD1 saloons, and Land Rovers galore, including military versions and a 101 model all set for safari. Modern Landies were not forgotten, with a Discovery and a Range Rover holding court near the entrance.

The ambitious could buy an MG project, or a full race Ford Fiesta. I was pleased to see my friend Karl Hansen showing off his Carter invalid car, and to meet André Shay, who adopted some of my Roveriana some ten years ago. It was a grand day, even if there were no Humbers or Vauxhalls. Check it out next year, on the first Sunday of June.