Thanks, I had Twilight on my Olds 88. In Ford talk it would be "Autolamp" I wasn't sure if it was that or the feature that dims the highbeams when an oncoming car is approaching. Ford called that "Autodim" I know Cadillac had it too, but can't remember the name.
I like that car too. The front end reminds me of some gigantic WW2 aircraft...and the weird materials inside are very representative of that exact point in time. The extreme faux woodgraining, buttery bakelite-catalin style plastics, odd steering wheels, weirdo fonts on the gauges...it hit a peak just before the war. I admire the preservation on that car, too...I dare say it's worth around the opening bid just for how it has survived, its rarity, and with the slushbox, even the ease of taking it out for a drive.
Cadillac had an auto-dimming feature with a pod that sat on top of the dashboard called "Autronic Eye." They moved this feature to the inside of the left front fender in 1964 and later behind the grille.
I own a '63 and a '64 Studebaker, and I think a lot of people would be amazed to know that '57 and '58 "Packardbakers" routinely bring more on eBay than earlier '50's "real" Packards in same bodystyle and similar condition, with the exception of Four-Hundreds and Caribbeans. But it's true, and this seems to have happened in the past two or three years since I've been looking at them.
I could enjoy a '57 Packardbaker wagon, blower, 3-speed and O/D, and roof rack. It looks like a trim, intermediate-size car, with a nice low beltline. Of course, not what the typical Packard owner back then was looking for though!
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I don't know why anyone would buy a '58 Packard-baker when they could buy the much more attractive '57 Golden Hawk, which is the same money.
I suppose there is some celebrity status and a touch of perversity in owning something completely hideous, but if I had money to spend that would be the last car I'd spend it on. As a former double-Hawk owner, I find the '58s completely unappealing. It is not attractive, it has no prestige, it brings up a very dismal point in history, and it's certainly not worth the cost of restoration.
So I find the allure elusive.
Besides, the value of "classic cars" is tied to supply and demand. It has nothing to do with merit.
I went to the little local car show today...several dozen cars, mostly hot rod stuff but a few oddities. Nice Borgward Isabella, Triumph 2000 (late 40s roadster style), insane custom 63 Country Squire, cool pair of 65 Mercurys - woody and 4 door HT, 57 and 59 Vette Fuelies, white on white Ferrari 328GTS, Ferrari 512TR, 60s Morgan, 2 Zimmers, RR SCI, Porsche 930 with original window sticker, and my fintail...which did receive some compliments. I went there with some other MB enthusiasts...one in a crazy custom W140 with Japanese bodykit, a 97K mile black on mushroom 560SEC in amazing condition, and a C55 with many engine mods. I had some pics...but user error erased my card :sick: ...however one of the guys there took a ton of pics, I might get some and post them, esp the ones containing my car. Not a bad little event, I didn't know it existed til the other day.
made a run from Philly to Long Island this weekend (GSEMike territory). some interesting stuff.
on the belt (gawd awful road), a lat 60s or somewhere around there continental mark 2 door. Decent shape, looked like a driver. Pretty sure I have never seen one like this before.
bunch of mopars. 67 baracuda, and a 69ish Charger (gen. Lee body style) in red. and a 70 or so challenger, on a rollback.
A Cobra of some kind (had to be a replica) on a trailer being towed behind a U haul at a rest stop on the jersey turnpike.
very nice '67 camaro driving around local streets.
I like the tack-ons on that 107...they say "80s" to me, not so much about performance. I have never seen those exact wheels before, very period correct. More interesting than boring old bundts.
I've developed a mild fetish for period tuned cars...as time goes on the more I want an AMG 126, especially a 6 litre widebody SEC.
I can't imagine it going much past 20K...anything more would shock me. Not saying that there isn't a ton of value there for that money, but there's little market love for the W210 E55.
Most car shows here tend to be Sundays, with driving events on Saturdays. As I too work maybe 9 out of 10 Saturdays, I can sympathize. There's much less of a social car community here than in California or the east coast too...I'm lucky to find a few "get togethers" for MB here a year.
one of the guests showed up with a mint 380 SL convertible, maroon with black top. nice car. someone then pulled up across the street with a pre 57 tbird. it had a beautiful creamy white paint job, which everyone complimented. black and white tuck and roll seat. then the guys started talking about how those 50's convertibles had underpowered 6 cyl engines in them and were not really all that great. since i didn't know if it was a 55 or 56, i kept my mouth shut. about an hour later, when the owner started it up, you should have seen the faces. it had a quiet little rumble to it, but everyone figured out it was not a 6 under the hood. wiki'ed it and it is a '56.
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my neighbor has an SL mercedes convertible. 99% sure it is a 300SL. Never did find out the year, but it is of the generation that seem smaller than the boats from the 70's/ I guess this would be from the mid-90's someplace?
Really sharp looking. Red, think he has a hard top. pretty sure he got it when he was part owner of a Mitsu dealership in myrtle beach a few years back.
I like the '84 Chrysler Laser and, to my eyes, the '42 Olds is beautiful. I know the Laser was a so, so car, even for its day, but I admire what Chrysler designers were able to do with that K-car platform.
As for the '42 Olds, I think the styling was as nice as any of the pre-war European luxury brands. And, sure, the engine and suspension weren't nearly as leading edge as the better Europeans, but how many European luxury cars were available with a fully automatic 4-speed?
When the car had a dead battery - it could be pushed up to 35 mph and then turn on the key and shift into Lo. The compression would start the engine & you were on your way.
When the car had a dead battery - it could be pushed up to 35 mph and then turn on the key and shift into Lo. The compression would start the engine & you were on your way.
I think most automatic-transmission cars were like that back in those days. I believe it had something to do with having a pump at the rear of the transmission? My '57 DeSoto's owner's manual has the procedure for push-starting listed. In its case, I think you only had to get it up to 15 mph.
Some of the old Hydra-Matic equipped GM models started in 2nd when the shift lever was in "Drive", unless the shift lever was placed in "Low", or the accelerator was floored, while other models started in first. For example, the '50 Olds started in second, while the Pontiac and Cadillac of the same year started in first. The Hydra-Matic units may have been the same, but programmed differently, but I'm not certain about that. If you placed the lever of that same '50 Olds in Low, it started in first. However, the '52 Pontiac, which featured "Dual Range Hydra-Matic, started in first if the lever was in Drive, but started in second if the lever was in Low. Rather counter intuitive. With the lever in Low, the transmission would immediately downshift from second to first if you floored it. Depressing the accelerator less than fully didn't activate the downshift.
Oh yeah...IIRC all MB automatics from the 60s to the 90s had second gear start that could be overriden by flooring it to make a downshift. Switchable units starting in the 90s allowed the driver to select a 1st or 2nd gear start - my E55 has this and so did the C43.
What I meant in my original post is my fintail's engine can be turned off, and the car can be started while in 2nd gear (the lowest selectable).
Didn't some Ford automatics let you start off in second gear?
Yes, you could do that with the 'Cruise-o-matic' 3 speed auto that Ford put in their cars in the late 50s and 60s. In fact, you could also do it in Ramblers of that vintage (my father had one). I am less certain of the Chrysler 'Torqueflite', but I seem to remember that you could with that one too. Chevy automatics of the time, of course, only had two gears.
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My fintail can be started in 2nd gear from a stop, it just slowly creeps along...can other old automatics do that?
Both my '63 and '64 Studebakers start in second gear, unless you manually put the "Flightomatic" into "L". That's kind of a drag with the '63, which is factory Avanti-powered! I wish it had the Powershift automatic trans, which at least could be manually shifted through three gears.
Fintail, I'm sure you know this, but Studebaker dealers usually handled M-B up until they broke off in '65.
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Yep, it's weird seeing old promo material with a 300SL and a Studebaker on the same piece of paper.
When I say "start" in second gear, I mean the engine starting, not the car moving away from a stop. My fintail doesn't have to be in P or N to start, if you have it in "2", the engine can also be started with no drama at all...just seems weird to me.
Thinking of the automatic in that car, it is just weird all around. No torque converter, 2nd gear start (from stop), and I am pretty sure my car says "0" instead of "N" for neutral.
And the shift patterns are less than normal:
Floor shift auto fintails are very rare, and as you can see, the gear layout is backwards from a normal car. Mine is a column shift...if you don't move the lever forward-away from you when selecting park, it will not engage and the car will roll away easily. Selecting the gears requires more than straight up and down movement, which when shifting for yourself reminds me of a column shift manual.
Chrysler Torqueflites always accelerated from a stop in first, regardless of which button you pushed or where you set the shift lever. Well, okay, if you selected "R" the car wouldn't start in first, but I think that's implied.
Pre-'56 Hydra-Matics didn't have torque converters, either. I think some Hydra-Matics included a torque converter, beginning in '56, but I'm not certain. What I know is that GM introduced a modified (my term, not GM's) Hydra-Matic for '56. It was still a four speed (the three speed Slim Jim came later), but it shifted more smoothly than the old units. The new units were used in Cadillacs and Oldsmobiles, but Pontiacs (the lower line ones, at least) used the old unit for another year or two.
The pre-'56 Hydra-Matics were really rugged and efficient, but they shifted somewhat hard, with little slippage, similar to older Mercedes.
I wonder if MB copied some aspects of the Hydramatic when designing its torque converter-free unit, as what you describe sounds very much like the MB unit. It was the first in-house automatic used by the company, previous autos (only in Adenauers I think) being Borg-Warner units. Harsh shifts, 4 speed, no converter, durable...very coincidental.
In thinking about the MB automatic's similarities to GM's Hydra-Matic, it certainly was possible that MB engineers used the GM transmission as a model, or did some reverse engineering. That seems more likely than designing something so complex from scratch, and randomly introducing a similar transmission. Copying certainly isn't unusual in the automotive industry, nor is it a bad thing. It would really be interesting to know for sure. Do you have any sources that could yield some clues on this, if not a definitive answer?
It's also possible that, since I'm not an engineer, and don't know the details of these MB and GM transmissions, that there are important differences in their designs.
I've never learned any of the history of the first MB designed unit, other than as far as I know it was introduced on the fintail. The early 60s is a pretty late start for an automatic...no doubt they had time to reverse engineer something, and GM makes notoriously sturdy slushboxes, so they knew who to study. It'd be interesting to learn more about why the units were featured as they were.
The first MB automatic was actually a Studebaker automatic delevoped by Studebaker and Borg Warner for the 1950 model year. It was so good that Ford wanted to build it under license, but Studebaker refused. By 1956 model year, Studebaker could not afford to built it with declining sales, so the tooling was shipped to England where it was built for Jaguar and MB cars until the early 1960s. Stude then used a version of the Ford auto trans. I still own and operate a 1955 Studebaker Commander automatic (since 1979) and owned a 1960 Lark automatic (1968-1974). See my website at stude.net. I had a Jaguar mechanic fix the 1955 automatic and a Ford mechanic fix the Lark automatic. Both cars would push start with the trans set in Low at about 20 mph. I lived in Chicago and started the Lark that way many times.
I wonder if my fintail can be push started like that...I have a suspicion it can, although I am afraid to try it, the vision of car parts laying in the middle of the road behind a disabled old beast comes to mind.
I think the B-W units are found only in Adenauers...come to think of it, I can't recall seeing one, or an automatic fintail, with a defective unit.
...spotted a flat black rat-rodded 1954 Chevrolet 210 sedan with red wheels and grille going south on Bingham between Martin's Mill Road and Knorr Street and a black 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Sport Coupe with Cragar wheels going east on Rhawn near Tabor in NE Philly.
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I could enjoy a '57 Packardbaker wagon, blower, 3-speed and O/D, and roof rack. It looks like a trim, intermediate-size car, with a nice low beltline. Of course, not what the typical Packard owner back then was looking for though!
I suppose there is some celebrity status and a touch of perversity in owning something completely hideous, but if I had money to spend that would be the last car I'd spend it on. As a former double-Hawk owner, I find the '58s completely unappealing. It is not attractive, it has no prestige, it brings up a very dismal point in history, and it's certainly not worth the cost of restoration.
So I find the allure elusive.
Besides, the value of "classic cars" is tied to supply and demand. It has nothing to do with merit.
http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/capsule-review-mercedes-benz-300sel-6-3/
Do you ever get to smoke the tires on your own fintail?
Cool article though, those 6.3s are awesome cars.
on the belt (gawd awful road), a lat 60s or somewhere around there continental mark 2 door. Decent shape, looked like a driver. Pretty sure I have never seen one like this before.
bunch of mopars. 67 baracuda, and a 69ish Charger (gen. Lee body style) in red. and a 70 or so challenger, on a rollback.
A Cobra of some kind (had to be a replica) on a trailer being towed behind a U haul at a rest stop on the jersey turnpike.
very nice '67 camaro driving around local streets.
and a few others that, as usual, escape me.
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Cool 107
I'd prefer it stock, would be one of cleanest-looking 107s around.
I never liked cars that look like what they aren't, and always liked cars that were what they didn't look like :P
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I've developed a mild fetish for period tuned cars...as time goes on the more I want an AMG 126, especially a 6 litre widebody SEC.
Most car shows here tend to be Sundays, with driving events on Saturdays. As I too work maybe 9 out of 10 Saturdays, I can sympathize. There's much less of a social car community here than in California or the east coast too...I'm lucky to find a few "get togethers" for MB here a year.
nice car.
someone then pulled up across the street with a pre 57 tbird.
it had a beautiful creamy white paint job, which everyone complimented.
black and white tuck and roll seat.
then the guys started talking about how those 50's convertibles had underpowered 6 cyl engines in them and were not really all that great.
since i didn't know if it was a 55 or 56, i kept my mouth shut.
about an hour later, when the owner started it up, you should have seen the faces.
it had a quiet little rumble to it, but everyone figured out it was not a 6 under the hood.
wiki'ed it and it is a '56.
Really sharp looking. Red, think he has a hard top. pretty sure he got it when he was part owner of a Mitsu dealership in myrtle beach a few years back.
2020 Acura RDX tech SH-AWD, 2023 Maverick hybrid Lariat luxury package.
As for the '42 Olds, I think the styling was as nice as any of the pre-war European luxury brands. And, sure, the engine and suspension weren't nearly as leading edge as the better Europeans, but how many European luxury cars were available with a fully automatic 4-speed?
I think most automatic-transmission cars were like that back in those days. I believe it had something to do with having a pump at the rear of the transmission? My '57 DeSoto's owner's manual has the procedure for push-starting listed. In its case, I think you only had to get it up to 15 mph.
What I meant in my original post is my fintail's engine can be turned off, and the car can be started while in 2nd gear (the lowest selectable).
That feature was intended to enable a controled start on snow and/or ice.
Yes, you could do that with the 'Cruise-o-matic' 3 speed auto that Ford put in their cars in the late 50s and 60s. In fact, you could also do it in Ramblers of that vintage (my father had one). I am less certain of the Chrysler 'Torqueflite', but I seem to remember that you could with that one too. Chevy automatics of the time, of course, only had two gears.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
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Both my '63 and '64 Studebakers start in second gear, unless you manually put the "Flightomatic" into "L". That's kind of a drag with the '63, which is factory Avanti-powered! I wish it had the Powershift automatic trans, which at least could be manually shifted through three gears.
Fintail, I'm sure you know this, but Studebaker dealers usually handled M-B up until they broke off in '65.
When I say "start" in second gear, I mean the engine starting, not the car moving away from a stop. My fintail doesn't have to be in P or N to start, if you have it in "2", the engine can also be started with no drama at all...just seems weird to me.
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Today's odd car - red oval window Beetle.
And the shift patterns are less than normal:
Floor shift auto fintails are very rare, and as you can see, the gear layout is backwards from a normal car. Mine is a column shift...if you don't move the lever forward-away from you when selecting park, it will not engage and the car will roll away easily. Selecting the gears requires more than straight up and down movement, which when shifting for yourself reminds me of a column shift manual.
The pre-'56 Hydra-Matics were really rugged and efficient, but they shifted somewhat hard, with little slippage, similar to older Mercedes.
It's also possible that, since I'm not an engineer, and don't know the details of these MB and GM transmissions, that there are important differences in their designs.
I think the B-W units are found only in Adenauers...come to think of it, I can't recall seeing one, or an automatic fintail, with a defective unit.
Other auto companies, including Nissan, used Borg Warner 3-speed automatics, but maybe BW made different versions.