How a Jowett Jupiter changed our lives!

All Jowett Jupiter owners know the thrill of owning and driving one of Great Britain’s rare and iconic sports cars. Every owner seems to have their own special story.

Our story started in 1980 when my wife Judie was expecting our daughter, Dana. She suggested a new hobby since our many travels would temporarily end. Our first idea was to own a special English sports car and we were fortunate to purchase a 1962  Morgan +4. Owning this car introduced us to other car enthusiasts and we attended many car events. 

Early in 1982 we were approached at a show by another Morgan owner wanting to sell a 1957 Morgan 4/4 needing restoration. It was a perfect project while our young daughter grew and we could eventually take her on family travels. The new vehicle received a ground-up restoration and was completed and ready to be shown at local car shows by 1983. 

Several years later while competing at a distant car show with our 1957 Morgan, we were approached by a gentleman indicating that he had an unusual British car that had been in storage for many years. He indicated it was a Jowett Jupiter. While I thought I knew about British cars, the name Jowett Jupiter was something new and piqued my interest. We were invited to see the car outside of Pittsburgh and found it buried under a tarp in a shed where it had sat for almost 20 years. The car was immediately purchased and a new garage project was started. 

The Jupiter was in need of a complete restoration. It had a cracked water jacket when the original owner, who bought the car in California in 1951 and was transferred to Pittsburgh, did not realize you need to put antifreeze in the car. Fixing that issue was part of a complete restoration with everything on the Jupiter being replaced or restored. This included dipping all body panels, restoring the chassis with Imron coating, rebuilding the engine and restoring every part possible —  including chrome parts, the interior and the bonnet material. 

The family resumed travel and in 1987 returned to England where we found a historic 1951 Morgan four- seat model at Laurie Weeks Light Car and Cycle Company in Hartlebury. It was in bare metal and waiting our choice of exterior color and upholstery. It was originally owned by a Dr William Steel and driven for the Morgan factory team to the 1951 RAC team championship. By 1990, the Jupiter was complete and ready to compete in its first major show, the 1990 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix All British Car Show of almost 400 registered vehicles. 

The British cars competed by class such as Jaguar, Austin Healey and MG. The Jupiter was placed in a mixed class where often only one example or unusual make competed. We were excited that our Jupiter took a 1st place award in the large mixed class. We then found out that, out of 400 cars, our Jupiter was named Best of Show. This would be the start of a show car career for our Jupiter that never disappointed. 

Over the next three decades the Jupiter competed for bragging rights at shows along with our 1951 and 1957 Morgans. Over the years both Morgans have collected over 90 awards each, while the Jupiter collected over 110 awards, including many Best in Shows. One such Best in Show award was when we drove the car out of state to Moundsville, W.V., with little hope of winning an award against a field of mostly pre-1940 American vehicles with over 300 competing cars. At the conclusion of the show we were shocked when the 1951 Jowett Jupiter again was chosen Best in Show. The car was invited to several major Concours d’Elegances, including the Burn Prevention Foundation Show in Reading, Pa., where it won another award. In 1995 both our Jupiter and 1951 Morgan were invited to the Meadowbrook Concours d’Elegance in central Michigan where both won awards and got lots of attention.

In Edmund Nankivell’s definitive book titled “The Jowett Jupiter – The Car that Leaped to Fame” aptly describes our Jupiter E1 SAL 125 that over the years it was featured in at least five major United States and international magazines. This was in addition to many By Jupiter! and Jowetteer articles. 

In 2018, the Burrows family received a postal note from England inquiring about Dr. Steel’s famous Morgan from his grandson wanting information on the car’s status. At that point we decided that the car should return home and belong to the Steel family. Tim Steel was excited to see the car that was part of the family history upon its return to Great Britain. 

In the following year, the Steel family hosted family outside of London. Tim picked us and brought us home in the Morgan four-seater. 

In the summer of 2025, our family was contacted by Jeff Lane, owner of the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville, Tenn. Our long-time friend and mechanic, Jim Biery, would often undertake major restorations for Jeff back in Pittsburgh. Lane learned of the rarity and quality of the Jowett Jupiter from Jim, and made an offer to buy the car that we could not refuse. The Lane Motor Museum is the home of the largest European car collection in the United States with over 500 unique and unusual cars and 60-plus motorcycles. The museum continually rotates 150 different cars among its show room displays. While it was bittersweet seeing the Jowett leave for Nashville, we will forever treasure the memories of the many car and the and Jowett owners they met in Great Britain, New Zealand and Australia over the last four decades. 

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When Pontiac stuffed a 389-cid V-8 into its midsize LeMans to create the 1964 GTO, the muscle car era of the 1960s took off like a top-fuel dragster leaving the starting line. Chevy launched the Chevelle SS396 in 1965, Plymouth offered the Barracuda with the Formula S option and Ford’s Fairlane GT housed a 390-cid V-8. Big-block pony cars soon followed.

GTO sales were beginning to sag by the late 1960s amidst the growing competition. Pontiac responded in 1969 with the GTO The Judge. Originally envisioned as a low-cost muscle car to compete with the Plymouth Road Runner, it actually ended up costing $332.07 more than the standard GTO. By 1970, the peak performance year for muscle cars, sales were impacted by rising insurance rates and impending smog rules, but before then, the Judge was at the head of the court. A total of 6,833 Judge hardtops and convertibles were sold in 1969, and another 3,797 were sold in 1970. Judge sales slid farther in 1971, and it was the last year for the option.

The Pontiac marketing gurus were looking to bring more attention to their hot intermediate models and the idea of The Judge was born. The name came from the popular Flip Wilson routine on the Rowan and Martin TV Show titled “Here Come the Judge.” Advertising campaigns featured catch lines like “All Rise for the Judge” and “The Judge Can Be Bought.”

The name caught on and while only 6,833 were sold in 1969, it became a recognizable spoof, a poke at muscle car lineups that featured cartoon-character badging, such as the Plymouth Road Runner and the Dodge Demon.

Kevin Guido’s ’69 GTO The Judge is a classic example of Pontiac’s marketing and promotional efforts with its bold decals, Carousel Red paint (which actually looks orange) and standard rear wing. The first couple of thousand or so Judges were only available in Carousel Red, but later in the model year, any color could be ordered. The Judge also differed from the GTO by having a blacked-out center grille section, but like the GTO, hidden headlamps could be optioned.

In the engine department, the Judge outshined the ’69 GTO, which featured as standard the Pontiac 350-hp 400-cid V-8. In the Judge, the new, more powerful Ram Air III (L74) 400-cid was standard and touted 366 hp (this engine was optional in other GTOs). Like most Judges, the Clearwater, Fla., resident’s Judge features that model’s standard Ram Air III engine that develops its 366 hp at 5,100 rpm and peaks at 445 lbs.-ft. of torque at 3,600 rpm. Functional hood scoops feed fresh air into the Rochester Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor, hence the Ram Air name.

Pontiac did offer a more powerful Ram Air IV V-8 in its GTO and Judge models during 1969, but there is no accurate data to show how many Judges might have had that upgrade. Numbers do exist, though, that show that about 200 of the more than 72,000 GTOs sold that year were bought with the Ram Air IV engine.

Kevin bought his Judge in 1991. He’d owned Trans Ams and GTOs before and first saw his Judge in 1986 while driving down a Clearwater street.

“It was about 8 p.m. and it was dark,” he said, “but I knew the familiar headlamp arrangement of a GTO. So, when he passed me going east, my neck about snapped as I realized it was a 1969 Judge.”

Kevin made a quick U-turn and followed the car into a hamburger joint’s parking lot. He talked with the owner about the car, which had just arrived in Clearwater after having been purchased in California. After a few years, the buyer ran into financial trouble and sold the car. The next owner took over the restoration, but tired of it and listed it for sale. That’s when Kevin was able to buy the car, even though it was priced above his budget at the time.

“But I knew I had to scrape up the loot or lose the car, which was not an option,” he says.

Kevin drove his Judge for a few years (“I pounded that car relentlessly,” he says) before deciding that it was time for a full restoration. First up was a rebuild of the V-8. A friend rebuilt the engine back to stock specs, except for adding a Crane Ram Air IV cam. 

By 1994, it was time to tackle the predictable rust points, and true to form, the more they dug into the rust, the more that emerged. After the body cancers were fixed, Deltron single-stage paint was applied, and 30 years later, it still shines like a new paint job.

While the body shop work was underway, Kevin tackled various restoration tasks, including a complete rebuild of the tricky hideaway headlamp mechanisms. Once back in his garage during 1995, Kevin spent the next 10 years sourcing myriad NOS parts and restoring and reassembling the car himself.

Finding NOS and date-coded parts for any 35-year-old car is challenging, whether it was back in the 1990s or today. But Kevin was able to find a few treasures for the car. For example, the Hurst T-handle that was stock on four-speed Judges had disappeared over the years, but Kevin discovered one at a swap meet for $85.

“That was a lot of money then,” Kevin says. “Today, if you can even find one, that’s a bargain.”

One hard-to-find piece of trim that had also walked away from the car was the special “The Judge” badge on the glove box. He eventually acquired one for $250. Other NOS parts included lug nuts, rear glass, AM radio, various exhaust components, console lid, headlamp doors, lenses, bezels and more.

One of the gems found in Kevin’s hunt for NOS parts was the rare manual-shift Code 273 Quadrajet four-barrel carburetor and the Code 952 distributor. The original M20 four-speed manual transmission was still with the car and all it needed was a thorough going-over. The Judge was offered with a standard three-speed manual transmission, an automatic or one of three four-speeds. The M20 was the wide-ratio, first-gear version while the M21 and M22 four-speeds had a close-ratio first gear.

The M20 cars featured either 3.23 or 3.55 rear gear ratios while the close-ratio transmissions were offered with taller gears. 

Four-wheel drum brakes were standard, but Kevin’s Judge has power front discs in the front, plus power steering. Pontiac 14×6-in. steel Rally II wheels with chrome lug nuts were standard, but trim rings were not. Goodyear’s Polyglas-belted tires were common muscle car fixtures in the late 1960s, and G70-14 blackwall tires were standard on the Judge. Kevin’s Judge has white-letter tires, a personal preference.

Like their exteriors, the interiors of 1969 GTOs had only minor changes from the previous model year. Wing vent windows were eliminated, the front grille and rear taillamps were mildly updated and the ignition switch was moved from the dashboard to the steering column. That locked the steering wheel when the key was removed, a federal requirement that was mandatory for 1970 models. The gauge face was changed from steel blue to black, and front outboard headrests were made standard on all 1969 model cars.

Kevin’s black vinyl interior also features a wood-trimmed three-spoke steering wheel.

The restoration of Kevin’s Judge was essentially completed (if they ever are) in early 2006. Since then, the car has been regularly driven, especially to local cruises and car shows. 

Love GTOs? Here are a few more articles for your reading enjoyment.

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1964-pontiac-gto-red-car

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1970-pontiac-gto-judge-convertible

https://www.oldcarsweekly.com/features/car-of-the-week-1966-pontiac-gto

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

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The post Here come the Judge! The first-year 1969 GTO Judge appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

Dallas Israel of Oregon considers his 1956 Ford Town Sedan to be a survivor, but not because it has its original paint, chrome and interior and low miles. It’s survived Israel learning to drive, going to college, three wrecks, a failed trade-in attempt and three marriages. Most recently, it survived the 2020 Riverside Fire in Oregon that came within a mile of Israel’s home.

“My father bought the car in 1959,” he said. “I learned to drive in it -— I have been driving the car since 1962.”

Israel’s father found the Ford through a friend that had used the car to haul a trailer. Such work can mechanically tax a vehicle, but Israel’s father knew the Ford had been well maintained during its chores.

Although Israel learned to drive on the 1956 Ford, it wasn’t his first choice for a car. That honor goes to an Austin-Healey, even if it was a short-lived affair.

“I got this (Ford) from him to replace my first car, a 1959 Austin-Healey Sprite, which was pretty fragile for a teenager. I had problems with the transmission and every time we needed to work on it, we had to pull the engine. Dad got tired of that and he paid me $150 to get rid of the Sprite, and he sold the Ford to me for $150, so he got his money back and got rid of the Sprite.”

The sale was back in 1965, and Isreal and the Ford have together ever since — including through some rocky periods. Those trials seem to have made Israel appreciate the ’56 Ford even more.

“There is a lot of sentimental value to it since my dad is, of course, gone,” he said. “I remember taking trips from Tracy [Calif.] to Bakersfield to see my grandparents, and I had my first date in the car. I can’t pinpoint one thing. It got me through college and just growing up.”

Israel didn’t immediately treasure the Ford, especially in college when everyone else was driving sportier two-doors. He set out to change his situation upon graduation in 1969 when he tried to swap his four-door Ford for his second roadster.

“When I graduated from college, I bought a ’66 MGB and I wanted to trade the Ford for the MGB and the guy at the British car dealer gave me $50 cash to keep the Ford. So I guess from that point on it has been like an old tire — they never really go away. That is why I call the car a survivor.”

Since the import car dealer refused the Ford, Israel kept it as a second car and split driving time between it and the MGB. It worked out in his favor, because Israel’s second dance with a British mistress went about as well as his first.

“My first wife redlined the MG too many times and blew the engine, so we kept the Ford and bought another car after the MG, but the Ford stayed.”

His first wife quickly developed a reputation for being hard on cars, and it wasn’t long before the Ford also succumbed to her heavy-handedness.

“My first wife totaled it,” Israel recalled. “She pulled out in front of someone. I always wanted to try my hand at restoring something, so I fixed it. I drove it without a bumper and one front fender until I could start piecing it together again.”

Israel eventually had the Ford back together again and looking good, but that was not to last.

“An old lady pulled out right in front of me and I had no chance to stop,” he said of the second accident.

“The (third accident) wasn’t that bad, but the hood opened itself up and hit the windshield. That caused damage to both front fenders and the hood, so that was an ordeal.”

After each accident, Israel repaired the damage and had the car repainted in its original Georgia Peach and Colonial White two-tone. He said decent body and trim parts were relatively easy to find on the West Coast, with the exception of the replacement hood. He ended up finding a different hood in Arizona that wasn’t nearly as straight as the seller sold it to be. With some work, it’s still covering the Ford’s original 292-cid V-8. That 292-cid V-8 also received some attention, eventually getting a rebuild that included a bore of .030 inch that raised the displacement to about 312 cubic inches with a four-barrel carburetor.

He also noticed the front frame cross member had rusted — a common occurrence on 1955 and ’56 Fords -— but he easily found a replacement.

The years and miles took enough of a toll on the old Ford that Israel eventually had the car reupholstered in the original materials. That was in the late 1980s or early ’90s. Thanks to Israel’s care and the mild West Coast climate, the Ford never required a frame-off restoration. It’s been more of a rolling project; whenever it needs something, Israel has repaired it.

“It’s been a very good car, all in all,” he said. “It runs like a Swiss watch and of course I don’t hot rod it — it is just a nice cruiser, a nice driver.”

Sure, a small part of Israel wishes his father had bought a sportier Crown Victoria or Sunliner version of the 1956 Ford Fairlane all those years ago, but he’s more than content with the Town Sedan. Since it’s been in the family for so long and it carries so many memories, he has absolutely no plans to ever part with it.

“It just hung around all of these years,” he said. “I told my son if he wants it, it would be nice to keep it in the family for the next 30 years or so.”

The Lifeguard ’56 Fords

The 1956 Fords closely resembled the 1955 Fords they followed, but the basic design of the 1956 Ford actually went back to 1952.

Following the wildly successful 1949-1951 Ford design, Ford completely restyled its cars for 1952 and put the new body on a new chassis. The redesign gave more flair to the rear of the cars, which had a quasi-fin in which round new taillamps and their supporting metal extended several inches beyond the trunk with jet exhaust-like flair. The cars looked lower with a stamped character feature in the design of the rear fenders. The headlamps were now frenched into their bezels for a very custom look, and the grille was an open and airy evolution of the grilles immediately before them. The new body was called a “Ford Coachcraft Body,” which suspiciously recalled Coachcraft, a California coachbuilder that had been building custom bodies since 1940 — some of them on Ford chassis. The Fords were advertised as “The big new ’52 Ford” and “the only completely modern car in its field.”

A six-cylinder was available for the thrifty-minded and to keep Ford in step with its competitors Chevrolet and Plymouth, which only offered sixes. However, Fords of this era could still be fitted with the famous flathead V-8 engine that also kept them one step ahead of the competition.

On the outside, Fords were simply given different trim and grille treatments from 1952 to 1954 model year. The big change for 1954 was the new overhead-valve V-8 that helped Ford keep pace with performance and technological advances.

For 1955, Chevrolet and Plymouth were all new and all modern from top to bottom — new bodies with wrap-around windshields and new V-8 engines. Ford was still able to sell its cars as being new — “Discover the thrill of a totally new Ford,” said ads — even though the engine and body were based on the 1954 components, but with major updates and improvements. Very few people knew the 1955 272- and 292-cid V-8s were based on the new-for-1954 239-cid V-8, and the 1955 body, now labeled as a Crestmark body, was a serious update to the 1952-’54 body given new outward sheet metal and a new cowl to accommodate 1955’s wrap-around windshield.

The 1955 Ford design is credited to Franklin Q. Hershey, who also designed the original Thunderbird that inspired full-size 1955 Ford styling. Like the Thunderbird, the big 1955 Fords used hooded headlamps and small fins atop Ford’s now-trademark round taillamps. The peaks of the hooded headlamps and tailfins were visually connected by a straight line that also formed the beltline, giving the Fords a cohesive modern look. Adding to the modern appearance was a lower top to the trunk and a hood that barely domed above the top of the front fenders. Graceful new side trim on the top new Fairlane model began atop the headlamps and then curved down the front fenders to a dip in the door. The trim then checkmarked back up the doors and then ran parallel to the ground until terminating in front of the rear taillamps. An exaggerated interpretation of this trim also appeared on Ford’s 1955 Mystere concept car.

Ford also shuffled model names for the new 1955 models. In 1954, Crestline was at the top, but was replaced in 1955 by the Fairlane; the midline Customline and low-line Mainline names were carried from 1954 to 1955 and ’56. The Fairlane series was the most diverse with the most models: a Sunliner convertible, the Crown Victoria with additional trim including a novel stainless band that stretched over the roof to form a B pillar; a Skyliner variation of the Crown Victoria in which the front half of the roof had a see-through Plexiglas panel; the Club Victoria two-door hardtop; the Town Sedan four-door sedan; and the Club Sedan two-door sedan. In 1956, a four-door hardtop was a must and Ford added this model with the Fordor Victoria during the year.

For 1956, Fords were simply updated. After all, why mess with a good thing? While Ford was updating its trim to the carried-over sheet metal, it incorporated a few tricks common among all manufacturers to make existing bodies looks lower and longer. Most notably, ’56 Ford parking lamps went from round to oval and the side trim became wider.

Fords for 1955 had V-8 engines that displaced 272 cubic inches or 292 cubic inches in the Thunderbird V-8 (the overhead-valve six displaced 223 cubic inches); these engines were mounted in a beefed-up frame incorporating a ball joint front suspension system. Starting came from a six-volt electrical system. For 1956, the V-8 engine choices remained the same but with the added availability of a 312-cubic-inch Thunderbird Special engine that came standard with a four-barrel; dual four-barrel carburetors became available for race applications later in 1956. All engines in 1955 and ’56 were touted as having “Trigger Torque” power. Ford also made a 12-volt electrical system standard in 1956 and routed the exhaust through the back bumper that year.

While the subtle styling changes were applauded and the mechanical improvements welcomed, Ford marketing was focused on new safety enhancements marketed under Lifeguard design. It didn’t replace Ford’s promotion of Thunderbird styling and Thunderbird performance, but Lifeguard design marketing certainly overshadowed them.

Lifeguard design came from Ford-funded research at Cornell University’s Medical College that showed that most harm to vehicular occupants in a collision was caused by being thrown from the car, harm from striking the instrument panel and windshield and impalement by the steering wheel and column.

Ford claimed that “Lifeguard design means greater protection for you and yours against injuries resulting from accidents. It embraces a whole new family of safety features” designed to prevent harm to occupants in a collision. Those standard safety features included double-grip door latches to keep doors from springing open in an accident; a deep-center steering wheel that “gave” to protect the driver from being hurt by the steering column and wheel; a shatter-resistant Safety-Swivel Mirror with “give;” and a seat track designed to keep from sliding forward in a collision. Optional Lifeguard equipment included seat belts and cushioned instrument panel and visors.

In this day of lane alerts, automatic braking and backup cameras, such basic safety features are appreciated. However, car buyers in 1956 had little to no interest in safety. In an article for Old Cars Weekly during the 1980s, Tim Howley said he knew many 1956 Ford owners. “They all raved about the car’s good looks and snappy performance and cursed the seat belts. Research showed that less than six percent of buyers were influenced by the safety pitch. In fact, research strongly indicated that the safety story was turning buyers away to Chevrolet.”

Indeed, Ford led Chevrolet in sales through the first half of 1955, but Chevrolet came out slightly ahead by the end of the year, leaving Ford second in sales — 1,435,002 Fords to 1,682,708 Chevys. In 1956, the comparison was more dire for Ford, which recorded 1,392,847 car sales against Chevrolet’s 1,574,740 cars. Ford would rebound in 1957 when it again outsold Chevrolet.

Although 1956 Fords looked great and handled and performed well, Howley said they had a “so-so reputation” when new. “Buyers complained about poor gas mileage (13-17 mpg with four-barrel 292 V-8), body squeaks, leaks, rattles and generally poor quality workmanship. The interior vinyl, while bright, was cheap, and quickly took on a flophouse look. The dual exhausts through the bumpers soon rusted the bumpers. The soft stainless steel grille dented easily. By 1959 or ’60, most ’56 Fords looked worse than cars 10 years their seniors.”

Certainly these observations weren’t consistently experienced and the 1956 Ford has had a strong following for decades, including right up to today. The most sought-after examples remain the Sunliner convertible, the Crown Victoria and Crown Victoria Skyliner and the Victoria hardtops. Ford’s station wagons were in their own series and they have a following of their own, especially the two-door wagons in which the Parklane two-door wagon was at the top.

Today, any surviving 1956 Ford is a handsome treasure from the nifty ’50s, when Ford was building beautiful cars that performed as well as they looked.

Crown Victoria Association
Recognizes 1954-1956 Fords
www.thecvaonline.com

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The post Car of the Week: 1956 Ford Fairlane appeared first on Old Cars Weekly.

My 16th birthday was getting close, just two short months from being able to get my driver’s license. It was May of 1989, and the time had come to start shopping for my first car. A family vacation to California the previous winter had set my sights on finding a Volkswagen Bug. By the late ’80s, the old VWs had just about disappeared from the roads back home in Wisconsin. But in southern California, they seemed to be everywhere. I was drawn to their small size, their simplicity and their very dated but unashamed styling.

The problem came when I told my dad, a devout Chevy man, that I wanted a VW Bug. A very strong “Buy American” man, in addition to his Chevrolet loyalty, he would have none of it. I still remember his simple counter offer to me: “How ’bout a Chevette?” Now, I didn’t know a whole lot about Chevettes at that time. I knew they were small, and I knew that there were lots of them around (this was the late ’80s, after all), but that was about it. Despite my lack of knowledge, I agreed to look for a Chevette as my first car. It seemed like a fair compromise.

A few weeks later, Dad pulled into the driveway with a little brown two-door Chevette. As chance would have it, a co-worker of his was selling a 1984 Chevette and let my dad take it home for the day. That not only allowed us to see if I’d like the car, but more importantly, if I could drive the car. You see, this Chevette had a five-speed manual transmission and I had never driven a stick shift before.

Out to some seldom-used country roads we went. Dad demonstrated to me how the clutch and shifting worked and then it was my turn to give it a try. Well, what transpired was a sort of lurching and bucking that professional bull riders must feel, followed by the stalling of the engine — over and over again. But with never-before-seen patience, my dad just kept telling me: “try it again.” Countless attempts later, I was getting the hang of it and my launches became fairly smooth. Feeling good about myself didn’t last long, though, as my next lesson was starting off on an incline without rolling backwards. More bucking, lurching and stalling ensued, but eventually I gained that skill as well.

That little Chevette took a lot of abuse during my “training.” And as strange as it sounds, I felt as if my dad wasn’t the only one exhibiting patience with me that day. The Chevette seemed eager for me to learn to drive it, firing back up immediately after each stall, taking the punishment and willing to take more. A bond was being formed, a bond between a young car guy and his first car. Obviously, once I learned how to proficiently drive the Chevette, I bought it.

The next month or so was nearly torture for me. I owned a car, but didn’t have my license yet. Hours were spent in, around and underneath my Chevette getting to know everything I could. I read the owner’s manual cover to cover, bought a Hayne’s manual to learn about the inner workings of the car’s systems, and with my dad’s help, I learned to change the oil, spark plugs, filters and other maintenance.

With some research I discovered that despite there being a million Chevettes on the road, my particular car was somewhat a rarity. Only a very small percentage of Chevette’s had the five-speed manual as most were automatics or four-speed manuals. Mine also had the Exterior Sport Décor (Chevy option code Z13). Not very common on Chevettes, this was strictly an appearance option which added Chevette “S” decals and eliminated nearly all the chrome/bright work, replacing it with blacked-out trim with red/orange accents. This was a common styling trick with U.S. carmakers during the ’80s to give vehicles a sportier, perhaps more European look.

The day came when I finally received my license and the newfound freedom that I felt was unlike anything I had experienced before. I had many memorable times with that Chevette; My first date, my high school graduation, heading off to college for the first time with the car packed to the gills and countless road trips with my buddies.

Throughout my ownership, the Chevette was an incredibly reliable machine, never once breaking down or leaving me stranded. It always started, even on those Wisconsin winter mornings when the temperature was 20 degrees below zero. I absolutely loved my faithful Chevette, no matter what others thought about it. Admittedly, being a Chevette owner required having a bit of a thick skin; I took my share of ridicule and there was no shortage of jokes. Nicknames like “Poor Man’s ’Vette” and the “Shove-It” were just the beginning. I remember some friends making a spoof of the song “Little Red Corvette” by Prince that went something like “Little Brown Chevette….Baby you’re just too slow….Yes you are…”

After three plus years and more than 40,000 miles I (regrettably) traded in my Chevette. Now, nearly 30 years have passed since the day my dad pulled in the driveway with that little car, and I still miss it. Since then I’ve owned more than 80 cars and I could probably tell a story about each one of them. Nearly all of them were faster, more valuable and considered “cooler” than my Chevette. But if there’s one car I could have back again, it would no doubt be my very first car, my little brown 1984 Chevette. I keep hoping that by some miracle, it has survived all these years, perhaps stashed away in a barn somewhere. And someday I’ll see it for sale alongside the road or on the internet. I would no doubt buy it and bring my first car back home with me where it belongs. Certainly there are those who’ll wonder “What’s the big deal…it’s just a Chevette?” but it was my Chevette, and I will forever have an attachment to it.

The story of my first car proves that any car can turn someone into a “Car Guy” (or Gal). It doesn’t have to be a GTO, Mustang, Camaro, Bel Air or Challenger. A car that is seen as “cheap”, “dorky” and “ugly” by most car enthusiasts can cause another to fall in love. They say that love is blind and I would agree with that, with one small change: I’d say that “First Love is Blind.”

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This is what Robert had to say about his GTV…

“This is the 2000cc model of the Alfa Romeo GTV. It has mechanical (Spica) fuel injection with an “Inezione” call out on the rear deck. Modern for it’s time with a 5-speed and disk brakes all around. I have owned it for over 20 years and drive it as often as I can. People usually think it’s an old Ferrari, I think because of the color.”

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Ray Otto has a jumbo-sized affinity for tiny little cars. He’s got a bunch of the little rascals — 14 at the moment.

He has three Nash Metropolitans at last count. But his real claim to fame in the microcar world is his fleet of rare NSU Prinz models. He’s got 11 of those.

Otto never planned on being known as the “NSU Prinz” guy, but he has certainly become visible in micro car circles for both his knowledge and his collection, and also for the parts that he has distributed to help other NSU Prinz owners.

“I’ve been lucky, almost every car I’ve purchased has had some extra parts with it,” he chuckles. “I was kind of the go-to guy for parts and stuff and I shipped a lot of stuff to Canada and all over the U.S. to keep them going. You can only use so much stuff yourself, so you gotta spread it around.”

“Yeah, I know a lot about ’em, but there are people out there that know more than I do!”

Otto, a resident of Foley, Minn., certainly used all his knowhow and resources to restore one of his favorites — a red 1960 Sport Prinz that he likes to show off at big car gatherings like the Iola Car Show in Wisconsin, where he had it on display last summer.

“I got my first [NSU Prinz] at a farm auction. I kind of thought I knew cars and there was a German Prinz automobile for sale, and $85 later owned a car I know nothing about…. That was probably 15 , 17 years ago… Then this one came up in Pewaukee, Wis. A guy had this and a coupe, and I wanted to buy both of them. They were together.”

The affable Otto fully expected to rebuild the non-running Sport Prinz, get it humming and looking good and eventually have some real fun with it. The trouble was it needed a lot of work — the engine was frozen for starters. Then he wound up having to beat cancer, which further delayed some of his microcar activities. Finally, when he started to regain his health, he got serious about getting his little red baby back on the road.

“This one the original owner bought in 1960, and in 1961 he seized the engine up on it,” he recalled. “So it went into a warehouse and went through a series of owners and warehouses. The seats were stolen and it was in really rough shape. We bought it and I cut the whole back end engine area out of it. I was going to put a 3-cylinder Geo Metro engine into it, but it became too [complicated]…

“So I pushed it into a corner and left it. It sat for a number of years, but after I was done with my chemotherapy from cancer, I said ‘If we don’t get this car going now, we never will.’ So I proceeded to weld everything back into the car that I had taken out, and took an engine out of one of my parts cars and put it together. It’s been going like this for probably 10 or 11 years now.”

FROM TWO WHEELS TO FOUR

Building automobiles most certainly was not in the plans when Christian Schmidt and Heinrich Stoll founded their NSU Werke operation back in 1873. Their main goal at the time was manufacturing sewing machines. The company settled in Neckarsulm in Lower Swabia in 1880 and eventually went into the bicycle building business. The name officially became NSU in 1892, and it was about that time the company began assembling motorcycles — a venture that lasted into the 1960s.

The company unveiled its first car, a luxury model built under license from the Belgian Pipe Co., in 1905, then began offering its own smaller models through the 1920s. In 1934, Ferdinand Porsche developed three prototypes of his “People’s Car” vision and reached a deal with NSU to be involved, but NSU eventually backed out of the arrangement and instead returned its focus to motorcycles and scooters.

In 1957, the company returned to the automobile business with a new two-cylinder Prinz econocar. Only 29 of the two-door sedans were reportedly sold in the United States in the model’s 1958 debut year. The tiny NSUs had a back seat and room — albeit very cozy — for four passengers. The 35.6cc vertical twin-cylinder four-stroke engine was mounted transversally at the back and produced 26 hp. The engine had twin ignition coils and a Dynastart starter/generator, unit while the chassis rode on four-wheel independent suspension. The chassis had only two lubrication points. The motorcycle-style four-speed gearbox used constant-mesh gears for “easy and silent gear change,” according to the company, and operated with a single-plate clutch. Curved rear glass permitted broad visibility. Luggage and the spare tire fit into the front storage compartment. Standard equipment included a fresh-air heating/ventilation system.

The cars carried a base price of $1,383 in the U.S. and weighed in at a feathery 1,080 lbs.

In 1959, the company added a Sport Prinz coupe model with a more powerful (36-hp) engine that gave the cars a claimed top speed of 65 mph. The Nuccio Bertone styling was much different than that of the sedans and featured a fastback profile with tailfins, a raked wraparound windshield and back window, triangular rear quarter windows and wind-down windows. Standard equipment included a heater/defroster; locking glove compartment and ashtrays; and provisions for radios. The engine, four-speed gear box and differential made up a single unit, with a backward-hinged engine cover at the rear.

Distribution in the U.S. rose to a reported 3,247 for all models in ’59 before dropping slightly to 2,493 in 1960 — the same year the company began offering a Prinz 30 model sedan that had the peppier 36-hp power plant.

NSU was reasonably successful with its microcars in the U.S. and elsewhere until the mid-1960s, when it made the ill-fated decision to switch from motorcycle-like two-cylinder engines to Wankel rotary engines, which it put in its new Spider model. The change had disastrous results, as the rotary engines with plagued by problems, got poor gas mileage and ultimately got the company tied up in too many warranty claims. In 1969, NSU merged with Auto Union and eventually disappeared for good in 1977.

ANOTHER SMALL VICTORY

One of the joys of microcar ownership is often trying to figure out how to make things work with limited parts availability. Owners often figure out how to adapt things like brakes, tail lights and even drive trains from other manufacturers when authentic replacement parts — usually from donor cars — are not available. Otto has many such stories. Fortunately, he enjoys the challenges and has plenty of experience solving such problems.

The biggest challenge he faced with his broken-down ’60 Sport Prinz was getting an engine into it that would run. The rest was pretty much straight-forward restoration work — paint, bodywork and upholstery.

“The engine was in parts. He had seized the engine up. It’s an air-cooled engine, and Americans don’t know how to drive air-cooled engines,”Otto says. “You have to keep the RPMs up to keep the air going through it. The engine and transmission are a combination unit and it takes a quart-and-a-half of oil, so just by inherent design they drip oil a little bit and if you don’t keep track of it they’ll seize up. So this one was seized up at under 14,000 miles. So I took [an engine] out of another parts car that I had purchased. It’s not the original engine from this one, but it’s comparable.”

Otto did the bodywork, paint and all the assembly and troubleshooting himself, but he is quick to credit his wife Joan for the lovely upholstery work.

“My wife did the interior on her Singer sewing machine at home. She’s my sidekick,” he says. “The problem is there is zero parts availability. The taillights are reproduced in Brazil … The hubcaps are made in Argentina. I modified a Volkswagen Beetle headliner to work in this one. We had the chrome done at a professional shop, but otherwise I painted it and did the bodywork. It was pretty much rust-free except for one rocker panel that had rusted out.”

“Some liberties have been taken. The seats are from a Sports Prinz, but I kind of jockeyed the patterns … The master cylinder for the brakes is the same as a BMW Isetta, but this master cylinder is actually from a Volkswagen Beetle. On the Sports they didn’t really have much for options. On the sedans they had a few things with the chrome on the front bumpers with the turn signals and stuff like that, but for the Sport Prinzes there wasn’t much. There was a little scale you could use to weigh your luggage so you knew how much weight you were putting in the front of the car. But as far as actual stuff to go on the car, there wasn’t much that went on it.”

Otto has been driving Prinzes for so long that he’s getting pretty good at it. He isn’t ready to take off on any coast-to-coast journeys in one, but he’s pretty happy to tool around the streets and country roads near his home. The driving experience might best be described as “unrefined”, but Otto kind of likes it that way.

“It can be a real handful. We are from central Minnesota, and a lot of the country roads have wheel tracks from modern cars — wider than this,” he notes. “So with bias-ply tires and the wheel tracks, you can wind up wandering a little bit. But you’re only going about 50 mph. It will go 60, but it likes 50 better. So you are never in real danger. It’s noisy and hot and loud. It’s German engineering ‘quote-unquote’ and its finest. [laughs].”

Otto says only about 200 of the Sport Prinzes were believed to have been sold in the U.S., and he’s not sure how many might still be around. He knows of only “maybe two dozen that were running.”

“I don’t like the word rare … but it’s unusual. Just the uniqueness, is what I like. I sort of walk to the beat of a different drummer, you know. I would never knock anybody’s Mustang, Camaro or Chevelle. It’s a car they love. But I just could never get into ‘em. I never had an opportunity when I was young to get into ‘em. We drove rusted-out ’59 Fords and stuff like that, and I just like having something different and I love the education part of it and showing it and telling people about it.”

“And the only time I part next to one is at home!”

SHOW US YOUR WHEELS!

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We’ve never lusted after an old Volvo before, but that changed when we stumbled across this great piece of Swedish awesomeness hanging out in Prescott Valley, Ariz. It’s a 1964 Volvo 544, and these things are just so odd and unusual that we need to own one at some point.

So many parts of this car remind us of other cars — Dodge, Volkswagen … maybe even a ’40 Ford. It’s all rolled up into one funky humpback package.

The seller says he found the car in North Carolina and it has been sitting for much of the past 20 years. He claims it’s a very original car, right down to its factory Volvo AM radio.

We love ABBA. We love IKEA and Swedish meatballs and Saab. We’d love to visit Stockholm some day. And for only $9 500, we love this!

CHECK IT OUT

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“This is my 1951 Jowett Jupiter which I have owned for over 30+ years. It resulted from a ground up restoration to original and finished in 1990. An unusual British made car that was made for the American market in the early 50’s which had great success at LeMans winning its class in the early 50’s, it has many unique features. This includes a four cylinder opposed engine, all aluminum body, torsion bar suspension, dual carbs, and-4 speed column shift.”

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It took Mark Harrell quite a while to figure out exactly what kind of four-wheeled automotive treasure his dad dragged home one day back in 1968.

About 45 years, in fact.

David Harrell was an over-the-road truck driver who like to tinker with mechanical stuff when he was home. After a long trip to Texas back in ’68, he came home and told his family he had a surprise in the back of his semi-trailer. The senior Harrell had found a weird-looking little French car for sale along the road in Texas and decided it needed to come home with him to Wisconsin.

The beat-up white 1961 Renault 4CV actually changed hands a couple times within the Harrell clan over the years before Mark got his turn with the car. 

“It sat for a long time, yeah,” recalls Harrell, a resident of Marshfield Wis. “ I finally asked my dad one time what he was going to do with the car, and he says, ‘Why, do you want it?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, what do you want for it?’ He said $400 — that’s what he originally paid for it. It had sat in his garage for the longest time. My oldest brother [Mike] actually got it from my dad for $400 and he had it for a while, then sold it back to my dad for 400 bucks. And my other brother [Danny] worked on it for a while, too. So 400 bucks was going back and forth between two of my brothers and my dad and me.

“We knew it was a Renault, and that was about it,” Mark laughs. “My dad liked working on engines and stuff, and he just thought it was cool. He didn’t know what it was, no. And I didn’t either – not until I retired out of the Army in 2013 and we decided to find out what it was.”

The family might have treated the little Renault a little differently over the years if it had known exactly how unique the car is. It turned out the car was probably one of the rarest little buggies Renault had ever produced: A 1961 C4V Resort Special. It’s one of 50 such critters that were built for a resort complex than never materialized in Florida, and one of just 12 survivors that have been accounted for.

Harrell still shakes his head in disbelief when he recounts finding out how rare and unique the car is.

“Once we put some feelers out there online we had a lot of people coming back from California and Florida and other places telling us, ‘Even in the condition it’s in, don’t get rid of it! You can sell it like that, or restore it if you can. It’s a very rare car!’ Once we found out what it was, we figured we can’t let it rust away. We’re gonna save up some money and find somebody reputable to work on it and get it back to the way it was supposed to be. And, of course, we found some pictures of them online, and we thought, ‘Wow, this is really going to be cool if we can get this running again.’”

BORN FOR THE BEACH

One of the more interesting and successful cars ever built by Renault — the 4CV — traces its roots back to one of the worst periods in France’s history: the German occupation during World War II from 1940-44. Partly because his company continued to produce the Juvaquatre automobile after WWII broke out, Louis Renault was arrested by the French government soon after the liberation of Paris by the Allies, accused to collaborating with the Nazis. The Renault company had fallen under German control during the war, and after the Allied invasion, Louis died in in prison in 1944. Pierre Lefaucheaux, who had fought against the Nazi occupation, was then put in charge of the company, and shortly thereafter the firm was nationalized and given the name Regie Nationale des Usines Renault.

While the company was under German control, company brass were given orders to focus only on military and commercial vehicles. Fortunately, there was a plan afoot within company walls to continue work developing a small vehicle that company officials believed would be popular and practical when the war ended. Somehow, the Nazi honchos in charge of overseeing what was happening at the Renault factory did not keep a very close watch on the store, and work on what would become the 4CV continued in secret.

A new protype of the 4CV had actually been tested during the war, and it was destined to lead the Renault lineup of the 1950s. The 4CV first appeared at the Paris Salon in 1946, powered by a rear-mounted 760cc four-cylinder engine that produced 16 hp and featuring four-wheel independent suspension with coil springs. Lockheed hydraulic brakes did the stopping.

Top speed was about 55 mph and the car tipped the scales at just 1,146 lbs., helping it achieve up to 47 mpg.

The 4CVwent on sale in 1947 in Europe and was known in France as “La Quattre Chevaux” (4 hp). Initial prototypes had two doors, but the production cars were four-door models. By 1949, the 4CV was on sale in the United States and known by some as the “Green Renault” because its sole U.S. distributor was the John L. Green company. The 4CV was certainly different than anything on U.S. roadways at the time, with its pudgy appearance and sloping tail. It had rear-hinged “suicide” front doors and sliding windows.

By spring of 1949, Renault was turning out 300 of the tiny four-door sedans each day. By 1952, the 4CV represented one-third of the total production of all French automobiles with more than a quarter million produced. Production continued until 1961, with a slightly smaller 757cc engine used from 1951 onward. A small number were assembled in England, and also in Japan under license.

Certainly one of the rarest — and most collectible today — 4CVs ever built were the memorable and obscure 1961 Jolly Resort Specials. Italian coachbuilder Ghia had done a number of open-air (no doors, windows or enclosed top) Jolly conversions on Fiat 500 and 600 chassis, and Renault opted to do the same with its 4CV for an order of 50 cars for a planned Florida resort. The cars came in either white, a pale blue or coral color, and all had weather-resistant wicker seats and removable surrey tops.

The order of beach cars materialized, but the planned resort never did. They were unwanted orphans right from the start.

“The cars were just sitting around, and a few got distributed,” Harrell said. “We know there is one in Australia and we know there are a few back in Europe and a few in the United States. According to all the Renault enthusiasts and guys who know the history, out of those 50 they can only account for 12.”

HAVING A JOLLY TIME

Where his Jolly had been and what kind of life it had led before it wound up in his father’s semi truck is still a bit of a mystery for Harrell. As far as he can tell, his dad was the second owner of the Renault. How the first owner wound up with the car is anybody’s guess at this point.

“The guy in Texas probably got it in like ’62 or so… The car doesn’t lean into corners. It doesn’t have torsion bars, so it doesn’t corner, and I think he flipped it. So he didn’t want the car and there was damage on the driver’s side, I think. Anyway, I think my dad was probably only the second owner of it and then it was in our family that whole time. It had 9,000 miles on it when I got it… It was originally white. It did run a little bit when he [first brought it home], but there was some damage to it.”

“Everything was wrong with it when I got it. My one brother decided to take the whole engine apart and work on the engine. Then the other one had done a bunch of Bond-O on it. It was a mess by the time I got it. It been stored on a farm at my father-in-law’s … I’m surprised it didn’t rust away because it was stored on gravel the whole time. We were very lucky that there was minimal rust on the whole thing.”

Harrell eventually turned to a nearby restorer, John Draxler, owner of Nostalgic Auto Crafters in Hewitt, Wis., to turn back the clock on the Renault. There were plenty of stops and starts, parts chasing and hurdles to climb over during the three years Draxler worked on the car. Eventually, the project turned into the quintessential “every nut and bolt” restoration: chassis, drivetrain, body and interior.

“The engine parts were easy to find because when they built this they put a Dauphine engine in it, and Renault built a lot of Dauphines. And they didn’t want to redesign an engine just for an order of 50,” Harrell pointed out. “The little things on the body were the hardest to find — the tail lights, the bumpers, the side mirrors … Everything on the outside was tough to find. We were very lucky that the signal lights on the front were glass, and you can’t find them anywhere, but we had them, thankfully. They were in a box of parts that my brother had. We were fortunate on some stuff.”

Rebuilding the wicker seats turned out to be a combined effort between the couple’s son Brian and a wicker artisan in North Carolina.

“Brian is a welder and fabricator so he fabricated front seats for us and we’d go over to the shop where it was being worked on and we built up boards or a milk crate and figure out how high we had to make it,” Mark noted. “Then he took the back seat and put the same design on it. We took a piece of the old backseat along with all the frame work and we sent it to North Carolina. We found a person there that would wicker it. It’s not easy to find somebody to do that kind of work.”

One of the big decisions Mark and his wife Dorothy faced was what color to paint the Renault. A fresh coat of white would have returned the car to its original look, but the pair decided on something a little more eye-catching: a two-tone blue and white.

“We wanted sometime to really make it shine, really make it pop,” he said. “The blue is Laguna Blue, which is perfect because it’s a beach car. We saw that color on a Corvette at a car show. The gentleman actually had the color code, which is all I really needed.

“The Arctic White is actually whiter than white. …We really like the way it turned out. The chrome really looks good on it, and the contrast between the two colors looks good.”

Harrell made two modifications to the car’s electrical system for the sake of safety and reliability. He installed a push-button starter and a safety knife switch on the battery to turn off the battery power.

 “[The battery] loses juice, for whatever reason, and I was actually able to find the same type of coil, but it’s got like a little booster. That helps. And we put a little heavier type of wire in it… It’s temperamental, being a 6-volt system. I’ve got a little breaker on the battery because for some reason the 6-volt system likes to trickle out the juice. I’ve talked to guys who said to put that little breaker on that goes across the battery post and we disconnect it.”

The switch on the battery also makes the Jolly a little less flammable, Harrell says.

 “The gas tank is about 10 gallons … and one of the worst designs ever. They put it right above the battery. With gas, you’ve always got the fumes, and you’ve spark right there. We’re thinking some of those 50 probably burned to the ground and that’s maybe part of why only 12 are left. When I fill it up I’ve got a little 1-gallon can and I disconnect the battery.”

Harrell joked that the scary gas tank location isn’t the only reason operating the Resort Special can be a little on the adventurous side. There are no doors to lean on or grab onto, no protection from mother nature, no seat belts to keep you planted in the wicker seats, and minimal cornering agility. Even the foot pedals are a bit of challenge.

“It’s hard to drive because the brake and gas pedals are so close together,” Harrell says. 

“I think it was made for people with flip-flops or sandals on!”

“People have had these things up to 60 [mph] … Ah, I dunno, it’s a little engine that gets hot. I don’t want to do that. I’m not in a hurry when I drive it. I don’t drive it over about 35 miles an hour. It think it goes up to 40. It’s a small engine, only 850cc. Some of them were like 750, but this one’s an 850, still a four-cylinder 3-speed manual. When the wife and I drive around we always take the top off. The bars just set on a peg in the back and just come right off. It’s just fun to drive around without the top on. [The top] will rattle and the wind catches it. It doesn’t fold down, so you either put it on and leave it on, or take it off. At car shows we always put it on because that’s the way it looked.”

Harrell says the car has mopped at car shows around Wisconsin in the years that he has been showing it. Collecting trophies is fun, but he says what he and Dorothy enjoy most is showing up early for a show and taking their car out on joyrides around the different towns they travel to.

Occasionally, people will mistake the C4V for the similar looking Fiat Jolly. A few recognize it as a Renault. Almost nobody knows it is a long-lost beach car and one of the few survivors of its kind.

“We get heads turning when we drive it through town,” Harrell says. “The back end with the louvers looks like the hood of a Volkswagen. People think we chopped the top off a Volkswagen. And a lot of people think it’s a golf car because of that goofy Surrey top on it. I tell them this would be the most expensive golf car you’ll ever have! [laughs].”

Harrell cringes at the idea of ever parting with his fabulous little Renault. It’s been in the family since he was 8 years old, and finding out how significant the car was and then embarking on a mission to restore it to prime condition has been a very meaningful journey. His father David and brother Mike have both passed on, but he knows they would both be thrilled with how the rags-to-riches story of the 1961 buggy turned out.

“Everybody is always telling us if you ever want to sell it, go to Arizona or Florida to the resort communities because somebody is going to pay dearly to have this thing,” he says. “Some people have suggested I get ahold of some big hotel companies in France — since it’s a French car — so one of them could have it in their lobby, so it will always look nice.”

“If I ever do sell it, I never want to see it again!”

SHOW US YOUR WHEELS!

If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

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“One of only three Singer Le Mans Special Speed Models imported new into North America via Revecomb Motors of Vancover, BC. This car was sold to its first owner in San Diego, California, where it became a well-known sight at Four Cylinder Car Club events in the 1950’s. It was used in local competition and featured in the Salon section of the March 1953 issue of Road & Track magazine. Only 135 Special Speed Models were produced in 1936 by Singer Motors in the UK, which has no connection with the Singer Sewing Machine Company in the USA.”

“This Singer has never been restored and its condition and patina reflect many years of enjoyment and care.”

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