Jumbling at Beaulieu

Each automotive event has its place in the season. In Britain in September, all enthusiasts head for Beaulieu to the annual Autojumble. Held on the grounds of the Beaulieu estate in Hampshire, home also to the National Motor Museum, Autojumble was inspired by the gigantic Hershey swap meet, but in four decades has developed its own flavour and character.

The name is credited to Michael Ware, early event organizer and director of the museum, now retired. Since "swap meet" had no context in Britain, Michael suggested combining "auto" with "jumble," the British term for a rummage sale. Autojumble was born in 1967, and this year celebrated its 42nd event on September 13th and 14th.

As at Hershey, one can find all things automotive: sheet metal, seats, bodies, radiators, lighting, automobilia, mascots, signs, model cars, pedal cars both entry level and prestige, even intricate demonstration models like this German chassis. You can even buy new wood for your Morris Traveler. Fanciers of Austin Sevens are especially well catered for. On the grounds they can find engines, chassis, both basic and complete, even a kit to build your own car.

Equivalent to Hershey's Car Corral is the Automart, a large area for selling cars. This year's crop included such treats as a 1929 Essex, E-Type Jaguar and a Wolseley used in the PBS-broadcast series "Foyle's War," though whether it was driven by Honeysuckle Weeks was not noted. What looked like a Durant bore the Rugby badge of the export version, and nowhere else on earth would you be likely to see a clapped-out Austin Cambridge sidled up to a restored Falcon Knight. Also in the Automart were two cars by custom virtuoso Andy Saunders, the Lancia-based Zero and All-Ego, an Austin Allegro converted in three days for the British television programme "Juice My Lemon." Both, plus nine other Saunders cars, will be offered in RM's London sale on October 29th.

Each year Bonhams holds an auction on the Autojumble grounds. This year's sale included restorable examples of Aston-Martin, Model N Hupmobile, Sunbeam Harrington LeMans V8 coupe, a rather sad 1931 Lincoln, and a trio of GN cyclecars, the most unassuming of which, a 1922 Vitesse, nearly doubled its pre-sale estimate. A work-in-progress, the 1910 Hudson Model 20, went for £14,800 (about $26,490 at time of sale). Bargain of the sale was a ready-to-drive 1948 P3 Rover, which sold for £2,200 ($3,940). Auctioneer James Knight coaxed a top bid of £155,000 ($277,450) for the Brighton-eligible 1905 Renault, not enough to satisfy the vendor, while a 1940 Chevy convertible was knocked down for £40,000 ($71,600). Buyer's premiums were added to all successful bids.

Autojumble is home to many club stands and on the grounds one sees interesting contraptions like the one-passenger French-built Mini-Comtesse. There are occasional side shows, like a Curtiss OX-5 aero engine that gave live demos throughout the weekend. At 2,200 spaces, Beaulieu is but a shadow of Hershey, but covering it all in two days can still be exhausting. A feature not found at Hershey is the ability to leave large parts at a central depot and have them transported, free, to one's car at the end of the day. Although the organizers put metal roadways in high traffic areas, wet weather this summer left some areas a bit muddy. By show's end, a few vendors had to be extricated Hershey-style.

Next year's Autojumble will be September 12th-13th. It's not too early to start making travel plans.

Advance Design

When I was 24 I bought my first house. It was old and needed much work, so the first tool I bought was a truck. It was my first pickup, a 1953 Chevrolet Series 3100 half-ton, a type once ubiquitous and in 1968 still fairly common. Chevy called the style "Advance Design."

It was introduced in 1947, succeeding a model built since 1941. Advance Design trucks came in all sorts and sizes: pickups, panel trucks, dump trucks, rack body trucks, canopy express, the SUV granddaddy, Carryall Suburban, even cab-over-engine trucks. Some had special bodies for delivery work. If you've ever been inside one you'll remember it - a very tasteful interior, quite deluxe for pickups in that era, though very, very few were equipped with radios back in the day.

An Advance Design was not only my first truck. It was the first truck I ever drove - on the road. I was all of 14, and though I'd been driving in fields and in the back woods for years, I'd never driven on the road - my father wouldn't let me. But when a neighboring farmer asked me to help him drive the cows to a distant pasture, and gave the choice of walking with the cows or driving ahead to open the pasture gate, I took the truck in a heartbeat. Ah, the lure of the open road and the thrill of doing something illegal. I loved every minute. The one thing that surprised me was that once up to speed the truck, a 3/4-ton long bed 3600 like this one, wandered all over the road. It probably needed tie rod ends. I'll always be nostaglic about Advance Design Chevys.

The last season of the pure Advance Design was 1953. By that time it had acquired push-button door handles. For 1954, there was a bolder grille and a one-piece windshield. Then in mid-1955 there was an all-new Chevy truck and the Advance Design was history. You don't see them much anymore, even at shows. Although they turn up once in a while, they seem less popular with collectors than F-series Fords. Perhaps they were all just worked to death.

I kept mine for three years, then sold it to my next door neighbor when I bought a '57 Chevy pickup from my brother-in-law. Although the truck is gone, we still have the house. For some reason, though, I don't seem to have photographed my Advance Design, so I had to borrow a picture of one. The CarPort expresses its appreciation to Albion Baucom, whose uncle has a '53 3100 almost identical to mine, except for the stainless grille - mine was painted. Check out Albion's pickup page. He's got a '52 Advance Design himself.

America on Wheels

The folks in Allentown, Pennsylvania, have been working for a long time to start an automotive museum. Their efforts are finally bearing fruit. Dennis David and I visited last year, and while they had a venerable old building as a centerpiece, the rest was very much a work in progress. What a difference a year makes!

Dennis went back on his way to Macungie this August. The building is finished and America on Wheels, as the museum is named, is welcoming visitors - big time. Their architects have done a marvelous job, placing museum displays against the city's industrial skyline as backdrop. The key word is "wheels." American on Wheels is not a car museum. It encompasses also trucks, bicycles, motorcycles, sports cars and race cars. The displays are artfully designed, with mannequins that tell the story but which are not so detailed that they become the story themselves. Automobiles are shown in context, but not overdone, as is sometimes the case.

Allentown was home to Mack Trucks, so there are plenty of Macks on display: fire, semi, dump and a Maxidyne diesel - even a Bulldog monument. No museum can survive without muscle cars, and AoW scores. A big feature is the Car of the Future exhibit, which of course explores alternative power, epitomized by GM's EV-1, a Sebring-Vanguard Citicar (the best-selling postwar electric, by the way), a "first generation" Detroit Electric and a Stanley Steamer.

Small museums do a good job of telling their local stories, so in addition to Mack we learn about Pennslyvania's first car, the circa 1891 Nadig (there's some controversy about the date). Yes, there's lots to like about America on Wheels, including a spic and span museum shop. They're open daily except Mondays. Go to Allentown and check them out.

Ahead of the Game

Everyone knows that Nash pioneered Unitized construction, in-car beds and "Weather Eye conditioned air" heating and ventilation. Note that it was not called "air conditioning," since there was no compressor to cool the air, but the system was thermostatically controlled and filtered. (How many owners, do you think, changed their filters even once a year?) Some, however, assume all these advances arrived with the new-for-1949 "bathtub" models. Nash Motors deserves more credit than that.

While many 1930s Nash models were typical of the decade (did Babe Ruth own one, or is this merely a photo op?) , the marque had begun the Depression with a line of prestige cars, powered by twin-ignition ohv straight eights. Fresh, new styling for 1939 was reprised in 1940 with a slightly different grille and sealed beam headlights, but Weather Eye was already established in the catalog. Flagship of the 1940 line was the Sakhnoffsky-designed Ambassador Special Cabriolet, of which eleven were built.

For 1941 came Unitized construction on the Ambassador 600 model (its cruising range - 30 mpg on a 20-gallon tank). The 1941 models, in addition to an art moderne horn ring, offered berthing for two, albeit partly in the trunk. The '42s showed hints of styling cues to come post-war. We tend to forget, though, that the "regular" Ambassador Sixes and Eights still had chassis frames. After the war, Cannonball Baker paced Indy with one in 1947 and the final body-on-frame Nash appeared as the 1948 Ambassador.

And lest you think that Nash was slow coming to streamlining, consider the 1935 models, less arresting than Chrysler's Airflow, more in the mode of the 1934-35 Studebakers, albeit with subtler ornamentation. Yes, Nash was farther ahead, in the 1930s and '40s, than most people acknowledge.