By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

The worst accident in all of motorsports history, the 1955 Le Mans Disaster is a great example of why we have rules in racing. With out rules, chaos presumes. Almost two hundred people were hurt or killed because of a lack of rules regarding brakes, body panel materials, and proper safety barriers. Read more about the historical crash at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Michael Berenis

Tampa Sports Car Examiner

Due to a lack of build ethic and proper safety tactics, the driver of this 1955 Chevy was ejected from the flying rubble and lived to tell the tale. Not everyone is as lucky as this guy, he was up and walking away before the car was even done flipping. Read more about the miracle caught on tape at Tampa Sports Car Examiner.

By Brian Lohnes

BangShift.com

Chevy Nomads are one of the few cars that will be eternally cool. Maybe that’s why Robert “Nick” Nichols wanted one and was willing to wait for it—for 50 years to be exact! Acting on a promise from his wife he was finally able to score a cherry 1955 two-door wagon and put all those years of planning into action. What he ended with is a car that is eternally driveable, sprightly, and able to be cruised across the country if he ever chose to do so.

This is an example of some creative thinking, great use of factory and aftermarket parts, and a guy seeing through his vision for a car that he had dreamt about for decades. Nick told us that he shows and drives the car as much as possible, and as a retired member of the US Army, he has certainly earned the right to do so.

We thank Nick for his service and for letting us crawl all over his hot rod. Click here to see the photos and get the skinny on one totally bitchin’ Nomad.

By Dan Strohl

Hemmings

Kinda. It’s one of those eternal mysteries of gearheaddom: Why did GM never actually produce the Waldorf Corvette Nomad even though, from what we hear, demand for it was high then and a simmering interest in it has remained among old car people to this day. Heck, there’s a homemade clone of it that occasionally shows up at our Hemmings cruise-ins. Of course, the roof later got plopped on the full-size Chevrolet station wagon, the Nomad name lived on into the 1970s and the Corvette became an icon, but the combination of the three never progressed beyond that one show car. Continue reading at Hemmings

By Rob Einaudi

Editor-in-Chief

After letting this rust-bucket T-bird sit in storage for many years, Trong finally hauled it home and started one of the more ambitious projects I’ve seen on CarDomain. Check out his ride page for the full scoop.  

Austin Healey might have existed as a brand for less than eighteen years, but the success of its cars is still evident at any large auction or car show. I’ve always been enamored with the company’s first product: the 100, and it is a 1955 example of this classic that an Olympia, WA-area collector let me drive.

Brainchild of small-volume sports car builder Donald Healey, the prototype Healey 100, (correctly pronounced “hundred,”) was unveiled at the 1952 Earl’s Court show in Great Britain where it literally stopped show-goers in their tracks. The height of its curvaceous steel and aluminum body belied its ladder frame construction. Executives from BMC’s Austin division made the decision at the show to bring Healey’s car to production.

The Austin Healey 100 BN1, the first of the line of Big Healeys (a nickname differentiating the 100/100-Six/3000 line from the upcoming, and much smaller Sprite,) debuted in 1953 with specifications that seemed less than sporty. It featured the frumpy Austin A90 sedan’s inline four-cylinder engine and four-speed transmission. Healey specified a high state of tune, though, so horsepower was a more impressive 90. The engine’s improved torque also made the ultra-low first gear superfluous, so it was blanked-off. Electric Laycock d’Normanville overdrive, however, was standard.  At $2,985 it slotted above BMC’s MGA and Triumph’s TR-2, yet below the Jaguar XK120 in terms of price, luxury and prestige. Continue reading…

Continue reading "Big Healey Provides Big Fun" »

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) is perhaps the greatest street racing film of all time (sorry Fast and Furious fans). And the ’55 Chevy used in the film is one of the greatest hero cars ever. In fact, it was so cool that it was also used again in American Graffiti (as the car driven by Harrison Ford). The same car.

Actually, there were three cars built by Richard Ruth for Two-Lane, and two of them were used in American Graffiti. The main car from Two-Lane was also used as the main car for American Graffiti. It was built with a 427 crate motor, M-22 Muncie, 4.88 Olds rear, fiberglass front end, doors, and trunk lid, and straight axle front suspension. It was heavily modified in the 80s and now barely resembles the car from either movie. The second car was the camera car for Two-Lane, and was used for all the interior shots. It was similar to the main car, but was built with a 454 crate motor. This same car also provided the engine sounds for the Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit. It was restored to the condition you see in the photo below. The third car was used as the stunt car in both movies, and was rolled in American Graffiti. It was an all steel-bodied car equipped with a 454 crate motor, TH 400 automatic, and Olds rear. Sadly, this car was crushed in the late 70s. Some links and more photos after the jump.

Continue reading "'55 Chevy from Two-Lane Blacktop and American Graffiti" »

I recently saw two interesting, but wildly different, cars on the Hemmings online classifieds for the same price. The first, a 1957 Ford Thunderbird, proves that blackwall tires instantly testosterone-ify any vehicle from the 1950s. Normally, I’m not that much of a fan of first-gen T-birds; leave ‘em to the lost-in-the-‘50s, sock-hop-and-James-Dean types. But the blackwall tires, the body color wheels and the McCulloch blower underhood all have me reconsidering early Birds. The second, a chopped, slammed and apparently stretched 1955 Porsche 356A, proves that, well, it doesn’t really prove much. The ad doesn’t state whether it’s a repro body or not; either way, some Porsche purist will have a heart attack at the sight of it.

I met Barry Wolk a few years ago at the Glenmoor Gathering and immediately knew he was my type of car guy–he appreciates collector cars of all types, but his garages are full of vehicles that are just a little out of the ordinary. And he has a thing for Continentals: witness his 1955 Porsche Continental, his 1956 Continental Mark II convertible and his latest project, a six-door 1968 Lincoln Continental limousine. Limousines make for difficult restoration projects due to their coachbuilt nature and extremely limited parts supply. But Barry has been more concerned with the serious rust issues and a previous restoration that relied heavily on body filler and rock-hard primer. He’s getting into some major sheetmetal work now, and I’m looking forward to seeing this one finished.

I was in San Francisco this weekend, and while getting an ice cream with my daughter at Mitchell’s, this incredible ’55 Chevy pulled up. I only had a few seconds to talk to the owner before the sugar high kicked in and my daughter dragged me away, but I did learn that it was originally a straight-6 car, and that it now has a rather healthy 327 under the hood. It was a long resto (he got the car in pieces) and the guy said he has over $60k invested. I can honestly say this is one of the nicest Tri-Fives I’ve ever seen. Here’s another pic.