Snake Bite

I don't usually give much attention to the so-called supercars, Ferraris, Duesenbergs, Corvettes and the like, for they all have their own very substantial constituencies. I don't even dote on Mustangs, except to appreciate their Falcon origins. As a result I was not wildly excited when invited to visit the Shelby American Collection. By the end of the tour, though, I was glad I went.

Unobtrusively located adjacent to a Boulder, Colorado, shopping mall, the Collection includes some of the most famous and significant examples of Shelby cars, the Cobras, Shelby Mustangs and GT40s. We were fortunate to have as our guides Greg Volan (left), the director, and Frank Barrett, who has just written a book about the detailed histories of the cars.

The tour starts with AC, for it was the AC Ace that was the basis for the original Cobra, powered by a 260 cubic inch smallblock Ford engine. The Collection also has street 289- and 427-engined Cobras, and a Sunbeam Tiger, which also used the Ford engine, thrown in for good measure. The Dragonsnake was a Shelby promotional competition car with movie credentials.

Competition Cobras include CSX 2385, a 289 USRRC car owned and driven by baby food scion Dan Gerber, and CSX 2345, the factory team 289 FIA car with rich competition history (the CSX numbers are their Shelby serials; the faithful know them by number). Something completely different is the Willment Daytona Coupe, CSX 2131, bodied in England. CSX 2155 is a "customer" LeMans replica roadster, campaigned in 1964. This Daytona Coupe, CSX 2299, was built to race against the Ferrari 250 GTO. It won four races and finished second three times during 1964-65, driven by Dan Gurney, Bob Bondurant and Jack Sears, among others.

Among the Shelby Mustangs are SFM 5R002, the first "R" model completed, a factory mule, and SFM 5014R, the GT-350 advanced prototype.

The GT40 story is told with MkI P/103, the first GT40 to win a race (Daytona, 1965), and P/1015, a Mk II 427 car, first overall in the 1965 Daytona 24-hr race. The MkIV car J-7 ran at LeMans in 1967, but did not finish.

Providing counterpoint is the Ferrari 410 Sport Scaglietti Spider raced by Carroll Shelby and Richie Ginther. There's plenty of memorabilia at the Shelby American Collection, including original Holman & Moody body molds for the GT40 MkII racing coupes.

Still, I didn't become a supercar guy. My favorite of the lot was the "Cobra Delivery," a 1963 Ford Falcon sedan delivery that served as Shelby American's delivery and tow vehicle. Originally a 260 V8 like our old Falcon station wagon, it was converted to Cobra status with a full race 289.

The Shelby American Collection is open Saturdays from 10 to 4. If you're in Boulder on a weekend, by all means check it out.

Long-Time Companion

Although Hudson's Essex was certainly the first of the so-called companion cars, it's often Lasalle, the Cadillac companion, that comes first to mind. Introduced for 1927, it was the first hurrah for a young Harley Earl, recently discovered as a talented designer. In fact, LaSalle is generally credited as the first truly designed car, one not conceived by body engineers and draftsmen.

Earl took as his inspiration the Spanish-Swiss Hispano Suiza. Adapting Hispano cues into what was in great measure a small Cadillac, Earl produced a car that was elegant, yet dashing. Introduced in March 1927, the LaSalle was available in an ambitious 33 body styles, four by Fleetwood but most, like this 4-5 passenger phaeton, by Fisher. Prices ranged from $2,350 to as much as $5,000. First year production reached nearly 17,000.

Subtle cues were updated for 1929, by which time displacement had been increased to 328 cubic inches. By 1933, the engine had been enlarged to 355 cubic inches, the same sizd as Cadillac's. However, hard times were upon the industry, and despite prices no higher than $2,645 sales barely reached 3,400. So for 1934, an entirely new personality was devised, which owed a lot to Oldsmobile. This car, with a straight eight engine and selling for under $1,700, more than doubled sales from the year before. The design was somewhat simplified for 1935.

For 1937, the V8 was back, at prices that now started under $1,000. Sales recovered, reaching some 34,000 units. 1938, another bad year for the industry, saw sales shrink by half. What would be the final iteration of LaSalle was readied for 1939. The changes for 1940 mostly concerned the headlights, now sealed beams partially submerged into the fenders. Body styles were now but ten, coupes, sedans and two- and four-door convertibles. Although not cataloged, at least one station wagon was built.

When 1941 dawned, LaSalle was gone. However, there was a new Cadillac Series 61, which, at prices from $1,345 to 1,535, effectively replaced it. With sales of more than 28,000, it did that and some.

In the end, both Essex and LaSalle lasted fourteen years, though not concurrently. LaSalle, however, was the companion to survive the latest, save for Pontiac, the companion that eventually killed off its parent Oakland. This has been but a quick overview. For more detailed information, take a look at Yann Saunders' Cadillac Data base.

Bridge Over Troubled Water

The whole world knows the US automobile industry is in trouble (and that everyone else's isn't far behind). I took particular interest, then, in this year's New York International Auto Show, to see what the manufacturers themselves would say about the subject. Their attitudes were telling.

Most candid was Chrysler. Vice president Jim Press drove out in a Fiat Cinquecento and proceeded to wax euphorically about how much they're looking forward to their wedding night with the Italian automaker. Then he cut to the chase and rolled out a new Jeep Grand Cherokee, flagship of the line that has apparently been in the pipeline for quite a while. For all that, it's rather anachronistic, based on a pre-divorce Mercedes ML platform, but forward-thinking in that it brings four-wheel ifs, the first in a Jeep. A new dohc V6 is in the offing, too, as an alternative to the pushrod Hemi V8.

Next American up was GM. Their lipservice to economic trouble, delivered by Buick-Pontiac-GMC Channel North American vp Susan Docherty, consisted of their no-payment promise to the newly laid off. The sole rollout from The General was a GMC SUV, albeit a small one, an Equinox equivalent called "Terrain." For green credits, they touted their hybrid Yukon Denali. Perhaps it's time for GM to change the channel. A possible preview of the next channel is the two-passenger Segway, seen maneuvering on the show floor.

And what of Ford, you ask? Nothing. Nyet. Nada. No intros, no hype, just a quietly idling stand with lots of cars, including the returning Fiesta and the Transit Connect, a little utility van that is coming from foreign shores.

Last year Bentley promised they were getting hip on the environment. We won't see a hybrid Bentley, I'm afraid, but in 2010 the Continental is apparently going flex-fuel. New for now is a 621-hp Continental Super Sports.

Less dramatic, and perhaps more relevant, was VW's new Golf duo, a basic model and hotted-up GTI. Asked earlier, after his keynote breakfast address, why the company can't make up its mind between "Golf" and "Rabbit," VW of America chief Stefan Jacoby responded "It will be Golf forever." Porsche had a superhot 911 GT3, Mercedes a 518-hp E63 AMG, a hybrid SUV, the ML450, and a new E Class coupe. BMW, with precision PowerPoint proficiency, introduced the X6 M, a twin-turbocharged SUV.

Land Rover's mostly warmed-over trio, a new LR4, freshened Range Rover and Range Rover Sport, failed to excite. Most innovative vehicle of the first press day was Scion's iQ, a characteristically quirky box derived from a home-market Toyota product. I was most impressed by the unveiling of Acura's ZDX concept, a luxury hatchback possessed of a personality all but absent from all their recent cars.

Thursday's intros were all Asian, roll-outs from Mitsubishi, Subaru, Kia, Mazda, Honda and Hyundai, none of them earthshaking. Perhaps most interesting was this eye-opener discovered near the back of the First Level. It has its own story, which we will tell in the fullness of time.

The New York International Auto Show runs through Sunday, April 19th, at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. Check it out.

Hy-Drive

We've studied Chrysler's Fluid Drive before, both early and late versions. You'll notice, however, that Plymouth is mentioned only in passing, having missed out on all the variants that fall under the Fluid Drive label. This is probably because Plymouth was an inexpensive car whose customers were least likely to spend money to avoid shifting. Too, the competition lacked such amenities, but once Chevrolet announced Powerglide in 1950 and Ford the Fordomatic in '51 Plymouth was at a disadvantage.

Chrysler still didn't have a fully automatic gearbox, but from 1951 had added a torque converter to make Fluid-Torque and Gryo-Torque. So for 1953, they put a torque converter ahead of the conventional three-speed and Plymouth got Hy-Drive.

Driving was simple. You just stuffed the transmission into high (remembering to use the clutch) and drove away. It was smooth, versatile and fast (well, faster than a Ford or Chevy if using only high gear). It offered good engine braking, which some fully-automatics didn't, and there was enough creep in the torque converter to hold on hills. At $146 it was cheaper than Powerglide or Fordomatic, less expensive, even, than Fluid Torque. According to Jim Benjaminson's excellent history Plymouth 1946-1959, by the end of the model year about a quarter of Plymouth production was delivered with Hy-Drive.

There was more to Hy-Drive than a simple torque converter. It was a hefty converter, 2.6 to 1 multiplication, highest in the industry. A beefier transmission was used, and a different engine block. From mid-1952, Chrysler torque converters had taken their oil from the engine, and Hy-Drive followed suit. Because of the additional torque converter housing, ahead of the clutch, a new floor pan was needed, so interchangeability with standard three-speed cars was nil. Like the other shiftless cars, a shift quadrant was essential for marketing purposes, even if it didn't do anything, so Plymouth got one - with no markings except neutral.

Hy-Drive continued into 1954, and was fitted to such prestige cars as the Ghia-built Explorer. By April, though, Powerflite, the clutchless, shifting automatic, became available and Hy-Drive hit the low road.

I don't remember seeing many Hy-Drive Plymouths back in their day. Nowadays, of course, they're pretty scarce. A few years ago I saw this Cranbrook sedan in the Car Corral at Hershey, complete with Hy-Drive. I've always thought the 1953 Plymouths to be attractive, more so than the gaudier '54s. They're compact and contrite, and the Suburbans are very useful. Maybe I should have bought it. I'd still like to drive a Hy-Drive Plymouth some day.