News and chewing gum for the eyes

MORE TALK, LESS SPLUTTER

While Classic American and American Car World magazines are the worthy mainstream of American automotive publications originating in the UK, some of the owners’ club offerings manage to add very-readable special interest exclusives thanks to the pure enthusiasm of their editors. A case in point this month is TalkFlite, the neatly-produced glossy of the Chrysler Club in the UK, which in its belated Spring issue offers a fascinating one-pager on a 2003 Imperial Eagle Super Coupe concept car. Editor Peter Grist visited its creator in the US and got the full story.

The Eagle is not an official Daimler Chrysler concept, but the brainchild of Virgil Exner Junior, son of Virgil M Exner Senior, one time head of styling and vice president of design at Chrysler in the fifties. You know, big-finned Chrysler Saratogas and stuff. “Junior” himself is also a notable designer in his own right, apparently being responsible for the Fiesta while working in England. Now retired to Florida, “Junior” was approached by the Imperial Owners Club of America to come up with a new model.

In line with some of Daimler Chrysler’s more outlandish designs, the Eagle would be capable of packing a mountain of horsepower, thanks to its long swoopy hood. In this instance “Junior” has allowed for an all-new X20 “double ten” engine created by mating two blown, staggered and opposed Viper V-10s. That’s 1,000 cubic inches and 1,200 brake horsepower ! TalkFlite on the web can be found at www.chrysler-club.com, while a copy of the mag should be available from your local Chrysler dealer.

Another Mopar mouthpiece is Connected, a low-budget-but-extremely-readable bi-monthly put out by the charismatic Tony Oksien with a little help from his friends at the Mopar Muscle Association. Typically 60 pages of A4, Connected has to be a bi-monthly because it takes nearly two months to read it !
Good punchy stuff. Check this mob out at www.mopar.uk.net.

Another glossy available through some of the Chrysler dealer chain is Mark Askew’s Jeep World, perhaps the healthiest one-make bi-monthly from an advertising point of view, though we dare to say much of the editorial copy would benefit greatly from sub-editing. If you’re looking for a used Jeep, the mag boasts the UK’s biggest Jeep-only classified section. There’s a website at www.jeepworld.co.uk.

There are a couple of multi-make American car clubs that issue regular magazines, including Motorvatin’ USA, which carries news from many enthusiast groups and generally does a good job in reporting on the club scene around the country. The other title, which is published by a club that shall remain nameless, deserves an award for the most boring layout and content and which consistently slaps an out-of-focus and badly-cropped snap taken with a 1954 box Brownie on the front cover. Can’t wait for the next issue … the recycling bank calls.

Imperial Eagle Super Coupe

CADILLAC’S CONTINENTAL PUSH
 

Three Continental car distributor companies --- two in the Netherlands and one in Switzerland --- are understood to be in discussion with GM to expand sales of Cadillac models in Europe. The current dealer set-up, which operates through Opel dealers, has been something of a disappointment, with less than 800 units (all Seville STS models) being sold during 2002. Existing agreements are due to expire at the end of September.

Having already abandoned Cadillac sales through selected Vauxhall outlets, there appears to be no plan to re-launch in the UK, though GM’s Continental European plan is to launch the Caddy XLR sportster
at the end of this year or early next year and follow-up with the SRX sport wagon and a 2005 STS.
The fall in the value of the US dollar against the Euro is said to be a factor in the plan.

The XLR’s platform (we used to call it a chassis) will be the basis for the next generation (2005) Corvette, part of a planned quality upgrade for Chevrolet’s sports model. But while the XLR gets the 4.6-litre Northstar powerplant, the Vette will continue with the 5.7-litre 350.

Cadillac XLR

ALMOST ALL THE WAY WITH CHEVROLET

Cubans are renowned for their ingenuity in keeping fifties American vehicles serviceable, of necessity as the US Government operates a trade embargo and the country is still in a very poor economic state. So it should not have been that great a surprise to the US Coastguard to encounter in mid-July a 1951 Chevy truck with 12 potential immigrants as crew steaming its way across the Florida Straights at a steady six knots.

The fleeing Cubans had mounted the truck on a pontoon made from 55-gallon drums and fitted a propeller to the Chevy’s drive shaft to reach within 40 miles of the American coast. However, Uncle Sam was not amused, the inventive-but-hapless Cubans were returned to their island and the Chevy truck sent to the bottom of the sea. A sad story all round, don’t you think?

Images from U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images

“ WHAT ON EARTH WAS THAT ? “

If you were driving a 1999 or 2000 Lincoln Continental and the side airbags suddenly deployed with no apparent reason, rest assured you were not alone in your experience. Ford has recalled 43,500 cars for recalibration of the sensors, which have shown a tendency to deploy when stones or other road debris strike the body near a sensor.

There’s also trouble with 17-inch chrome road wheels on 2003 Lincolns, where improperly heated rims have cracked at the lug holes, leading to a recall of 1,700 cars.

Meantime, GM’s got a problem with many GMC and Chevy vans, pickups, Blazers, Jimmys and Suburbans made between 1994 and 1997suffering from windshield wiper motor failure as a result of cracked solder joints on the dash cluster circuit board. Almost 1.8 million affected vehicles are being recalled, meaning that no less than 3.5 million GM light trucks and vans have had to have the same fix in the last five years.

RAM VAN’S GONE, GRAND AM’S GOING

After a production run of 28 years, the full-size Dodge van has come to the end of its life with the shutdown of Daimler Chrysler’s dedicated truck plant in Ontario, Canada. The last unit, a Ram van, rolled off the line on June 12, the last of 2,309,344 vans and wagons manufactured since 1975. Most successful year was 1985, when 125,207 models were produced.

Grand Am is to disappear as a Pontiac model name with effect from the end of next year, when it will be replaced by an all-new two-door that has yet to be named. The decision has been made despite the fact that Grand Am is currently the marque’s top-seller, beating the Grand Prix into second place with 150,818 units sold in 2002 against 130,141.

PARTS OF THE WORLD I NEVER THOUGHT I’D SEE

Not to say Motown won’t always be the heart of the America auto industry, but it’s amazing how economics and the “shrinkage” of the world means our vehicles are increasingly comprised of, and kept alive by, parts produced in the most unlikely places. A trip around the shelves at any US parts store would show just how far this process has literally traveled.

China is perhaps the fastest-growing source, producing tons -- and I mean tons -- of the heavier steel items such as brake drums, hubs, cylinders and discs, and wheel and clutch bearings, albeit most of the castings being finished in the States. Taiwan used to have a monopoly on the punching-out of chrome goodies for your engine bay, but now the mainland seems to have taken over most that business too. It’s all down to manufacturing costs.

Word is that both General Motors and Ford -- currently each importing around $1 billion of OE Chinese parts – are aiming to bump-up their spend to a whopping $10 billion by around 2010.

Aftermarket Anchor and Hayden motor mounts emanate in hordes from India and South Korea , while Fram oil and fuel filters for popular American applications often come in the company’s famous orange packaging, carrying (in addition to fitting instructions in a thoughtful three languages) a line to say the filter was made in China, Mexico or Israel among other places. Here’s a box of genuine GM interior bulbs – made in Hungary. A Sealed Power (part of Federal Mogul) timing belt – made in Slovenia of all places. I thought I’d seen it all when a genuine FoMoCo water pump special-ordered for a US V6 model turned out to have originated in Brazil, but then a consignment of copper brake and fuel lines came in from an American supplier marked “Made In Russia”. There was no love sent, but the product was very reasonably priced.

But what’s this? An AC Delco Camero / Firebird windshield washer pump… “Made in the United Kingdom”. Perhaps all is not lost.

Short Notes

Buick’s first sports utility vehicle, the 2004 Rainier arrives this autumn with the “basic” $35,945 2WD model powered by a Vortec 4200 straight six delivering 275 brake horsepower and exactly the same numbers in lb/ft of torque. There’ll be a 4WD too, with a V8 and a $39,295 price tag.

If you’re a Mopar freak and one of those people who like to carry a credit card they can identify with, you might fancy applying for the new Platinum Visa Chryslercard. Discount on motor insurance and special offers on Chrysler factory accessories are two of the benefits offered.
More info on 0800 587 0531.

A reminder: When e-mailing your AMPAR dealer with a request for prices and availability of parts, or when placing an order, would you please try and always give your vehicle’s VIN or chassis number? Even if you think it’s not needed a VIN gives the dealer the chance of picking-up on a wrongly-assumed model year and tells more about the spec of the vehicle than most owners imagine. Just the other day, one AMPAR dealer received an e-mail from a guy that began “ I need parts for a 1977 Corvette. I suspect it is actually a 1975, chassis number is 1237L7402814 (sic).” Although the number is a digit short, and the second character would have been a Z, it was reasonably certain (from the sixth character) that the car was in fact a 1977.
So, don’t guess the year of your car if you want parts that fit, and take the chassis number or VIN directly off the vehicle’s dash top or door shut sticker, not off the registration document. Remember, the data on the registration document is merely what some civil servant has typed-in, and the information he was given could have been incorrect in the first place.

Forthcoming Events

August 3 Run What ya Brung, Santa Pod Raceway, near Wellingborough, Northants (Contact 01234 782828)

August 8-10 NSVA 29th Van Nationals, Billing Aquadrome, Northampton (Contact 01280 860050)

August 9-10 Northern Mopar Nats, York Raceway (Contact Cathy on 01325 350268)

August 16-17 American Power on Wheels, Hanger 15, Cockerillkaai, Antwerp, Belgium – The Continent’s biggest American car show (Contact 0032 475 492648)

August 17 Can Am Car Club one-day event, Ringwood Football Club ground, near Bournemouth, Dorset (Contact Bruv on 01202 683695)

August 23 Chevrolet Corvette Golden Jubilee, The Ace Café, North Circular, London NW10 (Contact 020 8961 1000)

August 23-25 JeepFest ’03, Tong, near Leeds/Bradford (Contact 01302 534330)

August 23-25 Allstar Nationals, Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire (Contact 0137 974 0100)

August 24 ASCAR racing, Rockingham Motor Speedway, Corby, Northants (Contact 08700 134044)

August 25 Motorvatin’ USA August Bank Holiday Rally and Buick Centenary Rally, The Belvedere, Hardings Elms Road, Pipe Hill Road North, Basildon, Essex – M25, Junction 9 (Contact 01376 552478)

August 30 Pontiac Owners Club party, The Ace Café, North Circular Road, London N10 (Contact 020 8961 1000)

September 5-7 Goodwood Revival Meeting (Ford Galaxies and Falcons dice with Cortinas, Jags and Minis plus the RAC TT Race) (Contact 01243 755000)

September 6-7 NSRA Hot Rod Drags, Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire (Contact 0137 974 0100)

September 20 Cadillac Spectacular 2003, Centenary celebration organised by the Cadillac Owners Club, Crystal Palace Park, London SE19. Cadillacs from all over the UK, Europe and USA (Contact Alan Murphy 0151 327 2470)

October 4-5 Big Shootout, Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire (Contact 0137 974 0100)

October 12 Chrysler Club’s 10th Birthday Party, ChryslerJeep UK headquarters,Tongwell, Milton Keynes (Contact Peter Grist on 023 8044 5936)

October 17-19 1st Annual American Car & US RV Show, Bath & West Showground (A371) (Contact Stone Leisure on 020 8302 6069)

October 18-19 Halloween Showdown, Shakespeare County Raceway, Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire (Contact 0137 974 0100)

November 4-7 Speciality Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show, Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, USA (Contact 001 909 396 0289)