Retromobile 35

This year marks the 35th Rétromobile show held in Paris at the Porte de Versailles. Rétromobile, the largest indoor old car event in Europe, occurred a fortnight earlier than in the past, due to scheduling conflicts at the exposition grounds.

Rétromobile is not just a European Hershey held indoors. The formula does not really translate to any other venue. To be sure, there are vendors of automobile components and ephemera: tools, polish, car covers, leather outfits, pedal cars and model cars. If you're restoring a French car, you'll be happy to find an engine for your Chapuis-Dornier or a radiator for your Citroën. You can even buy an electric power steering kit for your Delahaye.

But there are also high-end collector car dealers with some mammoth motorcars, and auto manufacturers as well. At one time, the French Big Three were stalwarts, but Renault pulled out some years ago. Peugeot and Citroën are faithful followers, though, the former showing off a 602 Eclipse and the latter touting 40 years of the SM and GS. Mercedes-Benz celebrated the legend of the gull wing (which the French call "butterfly doors"). BMW/Mini pulled out this year, replaced by Mazda, which had some seldom-seen models on display. Alfa-Romeo, too, was a welcome surprise, celebrating its centenary. Also with a presence was the German gearbox maker ZF.

It's the clubs that add enthusiast depth to Rétromobile, organizations like Amis de Delage and Club Vedette, the latter with a V8-engined Simca Chambord. Morgan France had a strong presence, but their kinship to the 124 Spider group was somewhat of a mystery.

There's always an auction at Rétromobile, in recent years conducted by Bonhams. This year's headliner was the Bugatti from the Lake, a Brescia rescued from the depths of Lake Maggiore near the Swiss-Italian border. An incomplete car, it was nonetheless sold for €260,500 ($375,120), to a buyer who has promised to preserve it.

There are always centerpiece displays at Rétromobile. This year celebrated two centuries of urban transportation, corraling a flock of microcars and a vintage DeDion bus. Another display demonstrated the intricacies of filming action scenes with automobiles.

My favorite, however, was La Baleine, the whale-like creation of French artist Paul Arzens. Constructed in 1938 (take that, Harley Earl!), it shows subtle clues of its origin as a 1926 Buick.

Rollers, Hissos and Plymmies

I've heard it said that in the upper reaches of collector car circles it's considered coarse and crass to refer to a Rolls-Royce as a "Roller," although "Rolls" is generally acceptable. The same goes for Hispano-Suiza: "Hispano," certainly, but never "Hisso." Why, then, does everyone refer to a Duesenberg as a "Duesie"? In fact, the nickname is so ingrained in the language that it now describes anything that is grand or large or immense, either good or bad. I'm not sure about "Bug" for Bugatti.

Why is a Cadillac called a "Caddy," while a Lincoln is never a "Linky"? A Chevrolet can be a Chevy (in fact the manufacturer promotes it as such), but Mopar mavens recoil when a Plymouth is called "Plymmie." "Studie" (or "Stude") is all right for Studebaker, but a Packard is never a "Packy." If someone tells you he's got a "Merc," you need to know what continent he's on. It could be either a Mercedes or a Mercury.

Somehow it's frequently okay to shorten car names to a single syllable: Jaguar to "Jag," Oldsmobile to "Olds," but why is a Daimler never a "Dame"?

The single syllable cars, Ford, Cord, Dodge, Nash, Stutz, escape nicknames entirely, but how about the two-syllable makes: Hudson, Buick, Marmon, Edsel, Franklin, Saturn, and even three-syllable DeSoto? I've never heard any of them abbreviated.

It seems logical to make Pontiac into "Ponti," but Pontiac partisans apparently prefer "Poncho" instead.

If you can shed any light on the above mysteries, please direct it to the CarPort, or perhaps you have similar questions of your own.

Finally, a couple of notes on pronunciation. Porsche is a two-syllable word, and Willys does not rhyme with "Phillies." I knew John North Willys' grandson, and he told me the family name was always pronounced "Willis." So, too, did the company's television commercials call the Aero Willys car back in the 1950s.

Autocar

When I was young I used to wonder why a company called Autocar built only trucks. One frequently saw Autocars then. They were as popular as Federals and Brockways, if not as common as Reo or White. My father explained that once upon a time Autocar had done just that: built cars.

The Autocar Company was established in 1900 in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. It was said to be the first American car with shaft drive, and Autocars pioneered other features like left-hand drive and controls on the steering tiller or column. At first the cars were of two-cylinder configurations, but in 1905 the Type X twin was joined by a four-cylinder Type XI.

In 1907, Autocar began to build commercial vehicles. These were of cab-forward design, and included buses as well as trucks. This 1912 model once belonged to high-profile collector Henry Austin Clark, Jr. By 1911, the trucks were so successful that Autocar ceased to build cars.

Early Autocar trucks had the engine under the seat, initially a twin-cylinder but fours from 1920. In 1927, a conventional line, with the engine up front under a hood, was added. Six-cylinder trucks of five-ton capacity came in 1928, and by the mid-30s a pattern of sustained sameness set in, with a simple upright grille with prominent nameplate and squared-off cab. A streamlined cab-over-engine model was offered as well.

Autocars were big trucks - there were no pickups as offered by Reo or even Mack. They were found in over-the-road service as well as on city streets. By the 1960s, diesels had become the mainstay of the fleet.

Financial woes in the early '50s resulted in acquisition by White in 1953. The trucks didn't change much as they became the top-line model in the White catalog. This continued through the 1960s, '70s, and the White-Volvo-GMC period of the 1980s and '90s, The Autocar name was finally dropped in 2000.

But Autocar lives. In 2001, Grand Vehicle Works of Highland Park, Illinois, purchased the name and now builds Autocar Xpeditors for the refuse collection industry.

Last month while on an errand to southern Vermont I came across this field of Autocars beside the road. Parked long ago, they basked in the afternoon sun, a flatbed, a stake body and a dump truck. Old Autocars never die - they just sit and watch the traffic.

Bargain Buick

Buicks for 1959 were all new. The baroque behemoths of 1958 were replaced by a clean, finned motif reminiscent of a supersonic airplane. The design had been presaged by the attractive 1957 concept XP-75, also known as Skylark II. The only holdover was the square-buttons in the grille. The brochure called them "Buicks so new even the names had to be new." The time-honored series of Special, Century Super, Roadmaster and Limited were tossed aside and replaced by new series designations.

The entry level car, named for the 1951 concept car, was called "LeSabre" and took the place of the Special. Taking the place of the Century and Super was "Invicta." The LeSabres and Invictas were on a 123-inch wheelbase. At the top of the range was the "Electra." Three of the six Electras were more or less equivalent to the former Limited and were called "Electra 225," for their overall length.

With a design this fresh and new, you'd think Buick would have come up with a marketing name, something like Nash's "Airflyte" and Chrysler's "Forward Look." Instead, the cars were pitched to the public on the basis of affordability: "The car within reach of two out of three new car buyers." And so the LeSabre was sold as the "Thiftiest Buick," the Invicta with short wheelbase and big engine the "Most Spirited." The Electra was, naturally, the "Most Luxurious Buick."

Engines were two versions of Buick's famed "nailhead" V8. New "Alfin" front brake drums combined iron braking surfaces with finned aluminum drums. A portable transistor radio could be removed for use at a picnic or on the beach. Best selling, not surprisingly, was the "thrifty" LeSabre with the greatest number of body styles, amounting to more than half of total production.

Curious, however, was GM's corporate strategy. Alfred Sloan's "Car for Every Purse and Purpose" was thrown to the wind, as Oldsmobile virtually paralleled Buick's market segment, or vice versa. Buick prices ranged from $2,740 to $4,300, Olds' from $2,837 to $4,366. Given Olds' fussier styling and slightly higher price, I'd have thought Buick would sell better. But Olds at least made a big deal of the new styling, and in the end sold 100,000 more cars than Buick. Go figure. For The General, however, it was win-win, as the two divisions' sales locked up 77 percent of the upper-medium price segment, far overpowering Mercury and DeSoto.

Dennis David found a bargain Buick of his own several years ago. Discovered behind a farmer's logpile, the car had been parked when the elderly owner found it difficult to drive. He had purchased it new many years earlier and had specified a very basic Buick: LeSabre hardtop coupe, with automatic transmission and heater, but no power assists - nor even a radio.

Dennis had it towed home, rebuilt the braking system and gave the engine a tuneup. The car started easily and ran well. He spiffed it up with new carpeting, and drove it for about five years. He finally sold it in a spate of collection-thinning. It had been, like the new 1959 Buick LeSabres, quite a bargain. You, too, can buy a bargain Buick. The Krause Collector Car Price Guide says that 1959 Buick LeSabres are still less expensive than comparable Olds Dynamic 88s.