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We wouldn’t note somebody’s passing in these pages if they didn’t somehow influence the old car hobby as we know it today, but this year in particular saw the deaths of many people who didn’t merely influence the hobby – they shaped it, kickstarted it, and breathed life into it. So in a way, none of these people truly died; instead, they live on through what they left behind.

Perhaps no more significant death in the old car hobby occurred this past year than that of Ernest Hemmings, pictured above, who died in February at the age of 89. While Ernest hadn’t been directly involved with the Hemmings Motor News group of magazines for many years, it was his vision – to create a marketplace for collector cars, parts, and services – that led so many people to enjoy the hobby of old cars over the last 60 years. For a closer look at his life and accomplishments, take a look at the May 2015 issue of Hemmings Motor News, in which we paid tribute to our founder.

Lord Montagu. It’s a vast oversimplification to describe Lord Montagu, who died in August at the age of 88, and Ernest Hemmings as trans-Atlantic counterparts, but they both began their work in old cars at about the same time, and they both founded institutions dedicated to the hobby. Like Hemmings Motor News, Montagu’s effort – what became England’s National Motor Museum – remains a respected cornerstone of the hobby today, and Montagu’s various publications – including the Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile – serve as invaluable references.

Leo Gephart. Where would the collector car scene be today without collector car auctions? And where would collector car auctions be today without Leo Gephart, who served as the catalyst for the creation of the Auburn Auction Park and for the creation of Barrett-Jackson. Gephart, described as “one of the three kings of the collector car trade,” also founded a number of other collector car-related businesses along the way and probably bought and sold more old cars than anybody could count. He died in April at the age of 85.

Tom Hoover. While he’s best known as the “godfather of the Street Hemi,” if it had to do with performance at Chrysler within the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s, Tom Hoover probably was behind it. He helped found the Ramchargers drag racing team, he helped put Chrysler products in NASCAR winner’s circles, and he even breathed on performance versions of the slant six and Dodge pickups. Tom died in May at the age of 85.

George Barris. Certainly the most memorable automotive customizer, Barris, who died in November at the age of 89, made his name in Hollywood both by customizing cars for TV and film stars and by customizing cars into TV and film stars. His most well-known accomplishment may be the Batmobile from the Sixties TV series, but he’s also known for the Munster Coach, the Banacek AMX 400, and the Super Van, as well as for a sea of model car kits that turned kids of the Sixties into car enthusiasts.

Erik Carlsson. Rally racing might have never developed into a sport of madmen pushing tiny cars with itty-bitty engines to their utmost limits and beyond were it not for driver Erik Carlsson, who drove (and usually won with) Saabs from the late 1950s into the early 1970s. He died in May at the age of 86.

Other 2015 deaths of note include racers Manfredo Lippman and Robert Manzon; Yutaka Katayama, father of the Datsun Z; race car designer Gerard Ducarouge; Eldora Speedway founder Earl Baltes; racing broadcaster Steve Byrnes; drag racer Elliott Platt; Oldsmobile drag racer George Berejik; journalist and racer Denise McCluggage; concours darling Margaret Dunning; collector Bob McDorman; Lowrider magazine co-founder Sonny Madrid; hot rodder Tex Smith; racer John Greenwood; author Michael Argetsinger; NASCAR driver Buddy Baker; hot rodder and catalog founder Ed Almquist; racer Guy Ligier; Hurst/Olds co-creator Doc Watson; Corvette tuner Dick Guldstrand; racers Bill Golden and Hubert Platt; artist Art Fitzpatrick; hot rodder Bill Burke; Formula 1 driver Jean-Pierre Beltoise; Mini designer John Sheppard; and automotive journalist Ronald Barker.

Images from the brochure collection of Hemmings Motor News

Arguably influenced by the Jaguar E-type and a runaway sales success from the moment it hit U.S. shores, Datsun’s Z car inspired a generation of sports car lovers and famously contributed to the demise of the traditional British roadster. The 280-Z represented the final evolution of the original 240Z, following the short-lived, larger-engine’d 260Z and available in both two-seater and 2+2 body styles.

This eight-page brochure illustrates how the 280-Z has grown into the role of Grand Tourer: “More comfort, more luxury, more overall performance with all the traditions of the 240-Z and 260-Z updated, embellished, refined.” The new 2,753-cc SOHC straight-six engine sported Bosch L-Jetronic fuel injection and made 149 hp (170 hp by the old gross rating) and 163-lbs.ft. of torque (177 gross), while the standard four-speed manual could be swapped for a three-speed automatic.

It’s interesting to remember that the 2+2 model was a true family-sized car, measuring a generous 185.4 inches in length over an 102.6-inch wheelbase, compared to the 280-Z’s 173.2- and 90.7-inch measurements. Neither represented a great bargain anymore, with prices ranging from $6,594 to $7,394, before adding options like air conditioning ($485); those MSRPs were the rough equivalent of today’s $27,500 and $30,840.

Still, the 280-Z would have a few years before being replaced with the tech-laden 280-ZX… but that’s a story for another brochure. What are your favorite Z-car stories?

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge.

Could’ve sworn we previously ran these two images of San Francisco that Those Old Cars recently posted, but after a review of our voluminous (750-plus) carspotting archives, it appears not, so let’s take a dive into the shot of Chinatown – looking north on Grant Avenue – in the Fifties, above, and Fisherman’s Wharf about a decade later, below. As always, try to come up with some dates for the photos based on the ages of the cars in them. What do you see here?

Does any vehicle more exemplify the Choo-Choo Customs excess of the Eighties than this 1984 Chevrolet El Camino IROC-S for sale on Hemmings.com? It’s got the Camaro nose, of course, and along with that, the wild graphics, the chrome roll bar and add-ons, and plenty of other flash to go with it. A closer look at its clean interior and sanitary engine bay, however, reveals that this El Camino appears to have been well preserved over the years – a real gem despite (or maybe because of) the add-on excess. From the seller’s description:

The El Camino IROC-S Series was a limited custom offering that produced approximately 15 vehicles characterizing an IROC Pace Truck. Each vehicle was distinctive and individually numbered by Choo Choo Customs for GM. This vehicle was sent back to Choo Choo and converted into an IROC-S. It has the documentation and dual certification stickers as to its authenticity. It is believed to be the only one created using a 1984 model and carries a Number 15 gold plate.

Original 305 V-8 engine and drivetrain/original interior seats and carpeting/wheels, tires, and strobe light are owner additions/newly repainted to restore original customized appearance/

Photos by Bill Hall and Derek Klein.

Day 2 started early for the crews. The cross-country expedition from the LeMay/America’s Car Museum to The North American International Auto Show in Detroit has wound east of Bend, Oregon, and is headed for Boise, Idaho. Ahead of us lies the high desert of Eastern Oregon.

The cars are settling in nicely, and the crews are all feeling a sense of accomplishment for navigating the snowy pass the night before. The morning is clear and cold, and we are sure to give the cars plenty of warm-up time as we deal with the small items that plague old cars in winter; frozen locks and sticky weatherstripping. Each of the cars cranks easily and idles well.

A lot has been made about the preparation the cars have gone through to be ready for the trip. Specifically, the precautions that have been taken to protect the cars from the elements and road salt. Each of the three cars is wearing a clear vinyl wrap on the rockers, quarters, front fenders and hood. In the case of the Chrysler, it extends over the headlights and light surrounds. The weatherstripping on the door, tailgates and trunk lids are new, and each car has had its lower components and underbody painted during the extensive mechanical refitting necessary to make each car roadworthy. Liberal use of greases and protective undercoatings were employed in the mission-specific preparation. The result is a better weatherproofed car than was ever available in period.

Although the snow and slush provides for dramatic images, the expedition has not run into the use of road salt yet. Though with weather pushing through the Midwest, we expect to see it used from Kansas to Michigan. Once in Detroit, the cars will be treated to a thorough cleaning with a de-salinization wash and detail before they are trucked back to the LeMay Museum.

The crews have upgraded their communication with short range walkie-talkies for each of the vehicles. LeMay/ACM CEO David Madeira, in the lead Mustang, is quick to point out sights or crack a joke, and the banter between the ACM crew is friendly and funny. But most of the time, the airwaves are silent, as the drivers are immersed in the natural wonder of the surroundings and the time-capsule vehicles traversing the roads.

Heading into Boise, the team stopped at a microbrewery for an ACM enthusiast gathering before packing it in for the night. Halfway through an intersection, the Mustang stalls…the third time today. We believe there are a few issues with the little Ford that are competing for our attention – the starter, carburetor and ignition switch to name a few, and we are anxious to take a look at them when time permits. But it’s nothing to dampen our enthusiasm for the adventure we are on, and what challenges we face on the road then next day.

William Hall is a writer, car collector and classic car broker based in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

Photos courtesy Goodguys.

While pretty much anybody else would start small, the first car show Gary Meadors put together attracted several hundred street rods, and in the decades since, Meadors – who died Sunday at the age of 76 – managed to gather many more than that under his Goodguys network.

A hot rodder from the start, Meadors cruised his hometown of Dinuba, California, in a 1947 Plymouth lowered to the ground and fitted with a hopped-up Chrysler six-cylinder. His car enthusiast organizing activities began in the late 1960s when he co-founded the Nor Cal Early Iron car club and continued into the early 1970s when he organized that first car show, the National Street Rod Association’s West Coast Mini Nationals in Lodi, California, which attracted more than 550 cars.

Over the next decade, he continued to organize NSRA shows, but in 1983 decided to break from the NSRA and start organizing his own shows under the Goodguys banner. Along with the shows, he included vintage drag racing, and he soon started to expand across the country, adding dozens more venues and dates to his show calendar. These days, Goodguys has about 70,000 members and puts on about 20 shows. While the majority of those shows take place west of the Mississippi, the largest gathers more than 6,500 cars in Columbus, Ohio, every year.

Meadors handed the reins of Goodguys over to his son Marc after suffering a heart attack in 2007. For his contributions to the world of hot rodding, he’s been inducted into the Hot Rod Industry Alliance Hall of Fame and awarded the HRIA’s Lifetime Achievement Award as well as the ISCA’s Legends of Hot Rodding Award.

Photo by Patrick Ernzen, courtesy RM Auctions.

Maintaining a list of automotive auction records isn’t exactly easy or straightforward. Every auction house wants to claim a record every time it has an astounding sale, but sometimes those records can come down to splitting hairs: Does the highest price paid for a one-of-37 competition version of a certain model with a manual transmission and drum brakes really warrant a record, or should we only concern ourselves with the high-level makes and models?

What’s more, collector car auctions take place across the globe these days, which means multiple currencies. If one auction sets a record in U.S. dollars, but another one sets its own record in British pounds and currency values fluctuate between the two auctions, which record counts?

Do we count premiums and commissions in the record price? Do we adjust for inflation? Do one-offs, race vehicles, and customs serve as adequate benchmarks when they demolish previous record prices?

Nevertheless, we’ve given it a shot, and after a few years of tinkering with the formula, we believe we’ve got it down pat enough to compile a list of all the collector car auction records we could confirm in 2015, in alphabetical order:

Photo courtesy Barrett-Jackson.

Makes

American Underslung – 1908 roadster, Bonhams Amelia Island (March), $1,738,000

American Underslung – 1910 toy tonneau, RM Sotheby’s Monterey (August), $1,815,000

Aston Martin – 1962 DB4GT Zagato, RM Sotheby’s Driven by Disruption (December), $14,300,000

Bizzarrini (non-race) – 1968 5300 GT Strada, Artcurial Paris (February), $1,343,786

Iso Grifo (non-race) – 1965 A3/C Stradale, RM Sotheby’s Paris (February), $1,172,643

Jaguar – 1953 C-Type lightweight, RM Sotheby’s Monterey (August), $13,200,000

Land Rover – 2015 Defender, Bonhams charity auction (December), $606,400

Lea Francis – 1949 2-1/2-Litre Sports, Bonhams Monterey (August), $110,000

McLaren – 1998 F1 LM spec, RM Sotheby’s Monterey (August), $13,750,000

Stutz – 1932 DV32 Super Bearcat, Bonhams Amelia Island (March), $1,012,000

Veritas – 1949 Scorpion cabriolet, Bonhams Monterey (August), $907,500

Photo courtesy Bonhams.

Models

Aston Martin DB5 – 1965 DB5 cabriolet, Bonhams Paris (February), $2,400,000

BMW M1 – 1981, Bonhams Amelia Island (March), $605,000

Buick GNX – 1987, Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach (April), $165,000

DeTomaso Pantera – 1971/Ring Brothers, Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale (January), $330,000

Dodge Charger Daytona – 1969 Hemi four-speed, Mecum Kissimmee (January), $900,000

Ferrari 250 LM – 1964 chassis 6105, RM Sotheby’s Monterey (August), $17,600,000

Ferrari 512BB – 1980 chassis 34249, Bonhams Amelia Island (March), $359,700

Ferrari Enzo – 2005, RM Sotheby’s Monterey (August), $6,050,000

Fiat 8V – 1953 Supersonic by Ghia, Bonhams Monterey (August), $1,815,000

Ford RS200 – 1986 Evolution chassis 106, Gooding & Co. Monterey (August), $539,000

Iso Grifo 7-Litre – 1969 chassis 7L920241, Artcurial Paris (February), $431,025

Jaguar XK120 – 1952 Supersonic by Ghia, RM Sotheby’s Monterey (August), $2,090,000

Lancia Aurelia – 1955 B24S Spider America, Bonhams Monterey (August), $1,952,500

Mercury Cougar – 1968 XR-7 GT-E 428CJ Ram Air, Owls Head (August), $228,800

Porsche 356 – 1965 C/Janis Joplin’s, RM Sotheby’s Driven by Disruption (December), $1,760,000

Porsche 956 – 1982 Le Mans winner, Gooding & Co. Monterey (August), $10,120,000

Porsche RS60 – 1960 chassis 718-044, Gooding & Co. Monterey (August), $5,400,000

Volkswagen Beetle – 1963 Herbie, Barrett-Jackson Palm Beach (April), $126,500

Volkswagen Thing – 1974 Acapulco resort car, Gooding & Co. Amelia Island (March), $52,800

Notes: All prices include commission, when reported. All overseas sales converted to U.S. dollars at the time of the sale.

Photo courtesy Mecum Auctions.

In addition, the 1998 McLaren F1 LM spec and the 1962 Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato successively set the auction record for British cars and the first Ferrari 250 LM mentioned above set the auction record for any car sold at an Arizona auction.

All that said, we acknowledge that auction records are a field full of dispute – that’s why we started keeping track, after all, to try to minimize and straighten out those disputes. If you believe any of these figures or records are in error, or if you believe there’s an auction record missing from the list, please let us know in the comments with evidence to back up your claim.

Earliest proposal by ex-GM designer George Lawson was called the Tin Goose, had pivoting, skirted front fenders. Tin Goose sketches appeared in early ads (below), but later ads showed Alex Tremulis’s updated Tucker drawing.

Forget the movie. Forget the legend. Detroit did not put Preston Tucker out of business. What killed Tucker in 1948 was a simple lack of money.

Preston Tucker ultimately raised about $26 million. Financial historians have estimated that Tucker would have needed at least $100 million to even come close to succeeding. They based that estimate partly on the vast sums that Kaiser-Frazer burned through between 1946 and 1954, noting that Henry J. Kaiser was a respected industrialist with a good ties to bankers, suppliers, unions and distributors. Preston Tucker had nothing comparable.

Preston Tucker had charm and charisma in spades but lacked the financial backing he would need to produce an automobile.

What Tucker did have was movie-star looks and a flair for salesmanship. He stood 6-2, was athletic, friendly, charming and highly confident. Born on a Michigan farm in 1903, he learned to drive at 11, became an office boy at Cadillac in his teens, then sold Pierce-Arrows, Stutzes, Studebakers, Chryslers, Dodges and Packards when he wasn’t working as a Detroit-area policeman. His mother said he joined the police force so he could drive fast patrol cars legally.

Tucker 48 belonging to the National Automobile Museum in Reno appeared at last year’s Ironstone Concours d’Elegance in Murphys, California. Wayne Craig photo.

His fascination with fast cars took him to the Indianapolis 500 every year and there, in 1926, Tucker met his idol, Harry Miller. Miller at that time engineered and built some of the world’s winningest race cars. In the 1930s, Miller and Tucker teamed up to assemble and promote, among other projects, the infamous team of 1935 front-wheel-drive Miller Ford V8 Indy race cars.

During the early years of World War II, and before Miller’s 1943 death from cancer, the pair dreamed up a radical passenger car, one with a huge, slow-revving engine set crosswise between the rear wheels. The crankshaft attached to stub axles, and each wheel would be driven by a hydraulic torque converter. The fuel-injected, 589-cid engine would develop 450 ft. lb. of torque at a mere 1800 rpm. At that engine speed, Miller calculated, the car would be cruising along at 100-110 mph.

Tucker engineer Ben Parsons initially tried to power the Tin Goose with a 589-cid flat six. When that didn’t work, he converted Franklin helicopter engines to water cooling and mated them to 1936-37 Cord four-speed transaxles. Michael Lamm photo.

After the war, Tucker hired engineer Ben Parsons to build the 589-cid engine. This six-cylinder horizontally opposed powerplant, along with many of the innovations Miller and Tucker had talked about, appeared in a running prototype called the Tin Goose. Tucker promptly announced that he planned to market a sedan based on the Tin Goose. The production car, he said, would be built in one of the world’s largest factories, the former Dodge B-29 engine plant near Chicago, which he’d managed to lease from the government.

Tucker’s front passengers could duck into a “crash compartment” if they saw a collision coming. The Cord pre-selector stood on the steering column. Michael Lamm photo.

The 1948 Tucker prospectus touted safety. The all-new Tucker would have clutch-type disc brakes, seatbelts, a padded dash, a recessed “crash compartment” for front passengers, a pop-out windshield and a central headlight that turned with the front wheels. His sales vice president, however, nixed the seatbelts, saying they implied danger.

The Tucker Torpedo, as it was initially called (later changed to Tucker 48) would carry six people and get exceptional fuel mileage. After World War II, car-starved Americans eagerly believed Preston Tucker as he promoted the Torpedo’s style and advanced engineering. As reality set in, though, it quickly became clear that the 589-cid engine and its two torque converters wouldn’t work. Nor did the disc brakes. Tucker substituted an opposed, six-cylinder Franklin helicopter engine converted to water cooling. At 166 bhp, the Tucker engine packed more punch than any car offered by Detroit that year.

Author Lamm drove Gene Clarke’s 1948 Tucker in 1973 for a driveReport in Special-Interest Autos (SIA #14). Clarke’s car is shown here 42 years later at the Ironstone Concours d’Elegance. Michael Lamm photo.

Tucker employees, meanwhile, scoured the nation’s salvage yards for transaxles from wrecked 1936-37 Cords. These four-speed, pre-selector gearboxes were refurbished and installed in prototype Tuckers.

In 1946, Preston Tucker hired Alex Tremulis and Gordon A. Lippencott (in 1947) to restyle the Tin Goose and make it more mainstream. Madly, furiously, hundreds of craftsmen cobbled together 51 running pilot models. The plan was to build 100 test vehicles, each incorporating improvements gleaned from previous cars. One car even flipped during testing at the Indianapolis speedway, but no one was hurt and the car survived.

National Automobile Museum’s Tucker was one of three shown last September at the Ironstone Concours d’Elegance. This was the Harrah car that Lamm drove initially in 1971.

Wayne Craig photo.

Tucker tried to raise money by issuing stock and selling dealer franchises. The company’s shares, which had been as high as $5, plunged to $2 in 1948. Prototype development stopped, and production never began. In 1949, the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission started to question Tucker’s business practices and took him to court on mail-fraud and conspiracy charges. The press then also turned on Tucker.

Radio commentator Drew Pearson broadcast that Tuckers lacked a reverse gear. This had been true of the Tin Goose at one time but not of the 51 pilot models. The SEC trial dragged on, finally finding Tucker innocent in 1950, but the damage had been done. Tucker’s credit evaporated, and his suppliers refused to deal with him.

The courts then placed the Tucker Corp. into receivership. Tucker himself went to Brazil and tried to launch another car company there. Soon afterward, he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died in Michigan in late 1956, leaving his wife and five children.

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I’ve driven three Tuckers in my time. The first was in 1971, an unrestored car belonging to Harrah’s Automobile Collection in Reno. This Tucker had its original Torsiolastic suspension, which consisted of big rubber blocks and tubes vulcanized onto steel. The rubber on this 23-year-old car was so hard and brittle that I was warned not to drive over 45 mph and then only on smooth pavement.

Gene and Colleen Clarke drive and show their Tucker regularly. Gene traded a Cord for it nearly half a century ago. Michael Lamm photo.

The second Tucker I drove belonged to Gene Clarke, a restorer and teacher in Chico, California. Clarke had converted his Tucker to coil springs, and while it handled infinitely better than Harrah’s, I could still feel side gusts affecting steering at freeway speeds. The rear engine caused mild oversteer. Without further development, such a car, in my opinion, would have been a handful on ice or wet pavement.

The third Tucker belonged to Bill Hamlin of Ontario, California. Bill was an aircraft mechanic. He’d again installed steel coils all around, and he’d hopped up the engine. This car ran like a deer, well over 100 mph, and while it handled better than Clarke’s, it still didn’t take much steering input to cause an uneasy feeling of oversteer.

Today, 47 of the original 51 Tucker prototypes remain, and restored examples fetch over a million dollars. A New Jersey entrepreneur, Rob Ida, announced in 2001 that he planned to offer a fiberglass Tucker replica, fondly called the Glass Goose, and he has so far built several on various chassis. Ida is now working on an aluminum replica of the Tin Goose. And, of course, Francis Ford Coppola, in his 1988 movie, made Preston Tucker a martyr.

New Jersey constructor Rob Ida has built several fiberglass Tucker replicas, which he calls the Glass Goose. Rob Ida photo.

The truth is, though, that Detroit didn’t cause the Tucker’s demise any more than it caused the downfall of Kaiser-Frazer. Preston Tucker simply lacked funding, a fact exacerbated by the SEC and bad press.

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1948 Tucker Data

Base price (projected): $2450

Type of car: Rear-engine, rear-drive, 4-door, 6-passenger sedan

Engine: 6-cylinder, horizontally opposed, ohv, 334.l-cubic-inch (5.5-liter)

Horsepower & torque: 166 @ 3200 rpm (gross), 372 lb.ft @ n.a. rpm

Transaxle: 4-speed manual with Bendix vacuum-electric pre-selector (Cord sourced)

Dimensions

Wheelbase: 128.0 in.

Overall length: 219.0 in.

Curb weight: 4235 lb.

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Must be a holiday with all the empty spaces we see here, right? I mean, you could definitely squeeze another one in here and there in the parking lots shown in this aerial photo of downtown Hartford, supplied to us by Joe Sokola. As to where, we haven’t a clue, but it looks vaguely like the parking lots that we’ve seen in our last two visits to Hartford, and we’re definitely looking east toward the river. What do you see here?