I really should spend the first Saturday of every month at the Palos Verdes Car Show. There’s always unusual cars to photograph, and unlike some shows, each month offers new, previously unseen cars for the camera. But things aren’t all sweetness and light here at the Palos Verdes Show- The show is set in a local parking lot, which crowds the cars together, and the early morning schedule places the sun low in the sky which lays shadows across the cars. So if the setting ruined a picture of your favorite car, my apologies.
As you can tell from our initial picture, October was Shelby month at the show, and the parking lot included an entire section of Carroll’s creations. I don’t typically include the usual car show fodder in my reports, but some of these Shelbys were on the rare side of he spectrum, including these two first generation Shelby Mustangs.
In addition to those early Shelby Mustangs, I also found this AC Cobra, which appears to be an early small block car. Of course, a little research into the world of Shelby cars called that into question as well, since Shelby built some “continuation” Cobras a few years ago. This could be one of those (or a reproduction car) but it’s got a very original look, and I’m guessing its genes go back to Shelby America.
In contrast, I’m very confident this car is a reproduction. Shelby only built six of Pete Brock’s stunning coupe, and their extremely high book value tends to keep them out of local car shows. Shelby built this roofline to increase the Cobra’s top speed at Le Mans, and I’ve always loved the look. If I ever build a kit car (possible but unlikely), it will roll out of the garage looking just like this.
While not a Shelby product, Carroll helped design this Sunbeam Tiger, which follows the same basic pattern as the AC Cobra. To help move Alpines, Sunbeam placed a Ford small block V-8 between the frame rails and called it a Tiger. You could buy this car at the local European import dealer for a time, but after Chrysler purchased Sunbeam (as part of the Rootes group), they dropped this Ford powered hot rod.
You can understand Chrysler’s reluctance to put these cars in their US dealerships, since the valve covers make the source of the power plant very clear. It’s a shame Chrysler never dropped in their own excellent small block to create the Alpine II.
I mentioned earlier that the cars are stuffed into tight parking spaces at the car show, but I felt this Allard J2X deserved a shout out, despite its poor placement. This car dates back to the mid-fifties, and represents one of the earliest examples of an European sports car supplying a light weight platform for an American V-8.
To my knowledge, Allard never offered a small displacement version of their cars. Instead, they built sports car chassis with off the shelf components, and dropped in a variety of American V-8s. Rather than building elegant, clean sheet designs in the Bugatti tradition, Allard modified common components to suit his needs. For example, the front axle of the J2X started life as a Ford solid beam axle, which was then chopped in two and set up with two center pivots to create a crude swing arm front suspension.
Once again, I’m not positive this is an original car, but if you look at the inside of the passenger’s footwell, you can see a period correct frame structure. This car may not have come out of the Allard factory, but it’s also not a recently built fiberglass reproduction.
To wrap up our section on English sports cars with bigger engine transplants, I offer you this clean MGC GT. While the car is very similar to the MGB, sharp-eyed enthusiasts know that those multilayered hood bulges combined with a transverse chrome strip identify this MG as the six cylinder C model, sold for only three years. In this case, the larger engine came from the British Leyland parts bin, rather than an outside engine supplier. Like many tales from the British auto industry, the story behind this car is fascinating, but I’ll refer you to an article written by Paul, rather than attempting to tell it here.
Having owned and discarded an MGB Roadster, I’m pretty familiar with the nameplate and this is the only Morris Garage model that holds my attention. I’m getting to the point where I prefer a solid roof over my head (except on sunny Saturday mornings), and the Gran Touring vibe the straight six adds to this platform is enticing. I do find it weird that addition to adding the engine on this car, they MG also improved the front suspension, only to toss all these improvements in the dust bin. You’d think the chassis improvements would have made their way to the MGB, but it soldiered on with the old suspension until the end of production. This wasn’t the first time MG improved on their existing car, only to drop the newer technology and carry forward with their basic model- The same thing happened when they dropped the MGA Twin Cam in 1960, and continued to build the pushrod version for several mores years.
While not everyone’s cup of tea, this late sixties Toyota Corona Coupe has to be my favorite car at the show. I’m not referring to this generation Corona, but rather to this specific car. Not only is it the relatively rare coupe, but the owner has made all the right changes. In addition to the Minilite look wheels and J-spec rear view mirrors, the engine bay holds a very interesting upgrade.
In the US, these Coronas came with push rod motors. This coupe has been upgraded with a twin cam engine, either the 8 R-G (1.9 liters) or the 18 R-G (2.0 liters). The Japanese market offered this Corona Coupe with the 8 R-G motor, but since this is a left had drive car, I think it is a US car upgraded with the 18 R-G. Not only are the 18 R-G engines a bit more common, but the owner provided a hint on the C-pillar.
I guarantee this isn’t a 2000 GT, so I’m going to assume the “2000” in the badge refers to engine displacement. Overall, a pretty cool car!
Every time I visit the show, there’s some surprising combination of cars. This week, there were four Thunderbirds, spanning four decades of production, starting with this first generation car.
This second generation “Squarebird” sat next to it, looking resplendent in cream.
This fourth generation car sat over by the bank building, continuing our light color theme. If it weren’t for our next car, I would have skipped these cars, but I wanted to set the stage for:
Our MN-12 Super Coupe. Painted a sinister black, the vibe from this supercharged bad boy shows how much things changed in the twenty five years between the fourth gen car and this muscular coupe. You could see Bruce Wayne driving those earlier Thunderbirds, but this one was built for Batman.
In addition to our series of Thunderbirds, there were also two fifties era luxury cars worthy of attention. We’ll start with this 1957 Cadillac hardtop.
Based on the trunk lid bling, I’m guessing it’s a Fleetwood….
While this ’57 Eldorado Biarritz convertible sat kitty corner from it’s four door cousin. Back in 1957, weren’t all Cadillacs equipped like this one? I know all Chevies were two door hardtops with fuel injected V-8s….
There’s lots to like on this car. Check out the perfectly detailed engine bay,
that goes along with this pristine interior. Yes, it’s just another boring Palos Verdes car show…
So boring, someone brought a Station Wagon. Some of you may recognize that blue Chrysler coupe out back from my last car show post, but we haven’t seen this New Yorker wagon before. I tried my best to get a good picture for everyone, but between the sun dazzle, tree shadow and black paint, this was as good as it gets. Despite these issues, the car demanded inclusion today.
Finally, we have this 1968 Camaro SS/RS survivor with a very unusual paint shade. Once again, the lighting sucks, but trust me- That’s the factory paint and striping. Not my first choice, but someone must have liked it.
It’s not obvious in this shot, but the stripe on this side shows forty years of wear and tear, validating it’s originality. The bumper guards and vinyl top tell us this was a loaded car, and all the pieces remain in place.
Even better, it’s a big block car. Whoever has kept this car in the family now has an extremely valuable property.
I’ll let our baby blue survivor wrap up the car show report. As always, there were lots of interesting cars, and I’ll see if I can get up and check the show out next month for another report.
Related Reading:
PV Car Show: February 2014
AC Cobra: Is it a Real Cobra?
Sunbeam Tiger: The Other Cobra
Allard: Proto Cobra
MGC: Needs a V-8
Toyota Corona: Stodgy Thy Name is Corona
Thunderbird: The Most Revolutionary American Car
Chrysler New Yorker Wagon: Exner’s Finest Truckster
Chevy Camaro: The Morning After
Looks like a great way to spend a weekend morning! I think my favorites are the Corona (agreed that it’s done perfectly, plus I love the coupes anyway) and that big black Chrysler wagon. Lots to like though! That Thunderbird SC with the dark-over-light paint is a nice example of a “modern classic” too.
Wow I love that ’64 white Tbird. I’d repeatedly raise and lower the top just so I and anyone watching could be amazed at what could be done with switches and relays back then. BEAUTIFUL car !
I enjoy taking my ’74 Thunderbird to car shows and am always hoping for a few other biggies to show up. Normally I am disappointed…it’s the usual collection of Corvettes, Camaros and Mustangs. Where are the Ninety-Eights and Electras? My experience is if the show is at a public event, such as a town festival where there is a large general public attendance, the Tbird gets lots of comments and lookers. You know…”Oh, Aunt Sally had one!” or “Uncle Bill had one just like this!” and “I haven’t seen one of these in years!” But if the audience is generally just “car show” people, such as an event sponsored by a cruise club…the biggies are ignored. This website is great because I know I am not alone in liking the big plushies. Please post more car show finds of average cars owned by average people. And isn’t it true…you meet the nicest people at the car shows?
My small block ’69 Camaro handled badly enough with the 327, I can only imagine what that 396 does to that ’68. I wonder if it plows ahead like the 70’s Ford broughams when you turn the wheel at low speeds?
Sydney Allard’s cars were offered with Ford side valve or Cadillac V8s but could also be had with the UK Ford 2.6 lifted from the 3 graces range, That one looks original but far better finished than when it left Allard’s works. Wire wheels instead of Hallibrand mags on that Cobra maybe not an original, Theres a replica 289 race Cobra in Auckland hand beaten alloy body etc they had to cast some wheels as they are nearly impossible to aquire.
I went looking for the site of the Allard factory when I lived in Putney Heath.
I’m pretty sure they had wires on the first Cobras. The wheels on the Daytona on the other hand are definitely not original which rules out a rocking-horse-poop sighting.
The Corona I think would have Watanabe wheels, the JDM version of Minilites.
Jim – that car looks to me like a Ferrari Daytona (rear body shape) replica based on a C3 Corvette (door window shape)
Thanks for sharing the photos Dave and an interesting selection of cars. The Chrysler V8 wouldn’t fit in the Alpine body, I believe they did try!
Cool selection. As expected, that big black Chrysler wagon is screaming my name. Yes, I know that these wagons were sort of PDDC mishmashes from 1960-64, and that its lines don’t perfectly gel with the 63 Chrysler’s styling, but I love it anyway. Any of these Mopar 4 door hardtop wagons is the ultimate wagon in my book. The NY probably even has rear air conditioning.
Did you see what kind of engine the Allard was packing? I think the Cadillac was most popular. Weren’t there some Chrysler-powered versions too? Going from distant memory, so maybe not.
The 57 Fleetwood was cool as well – we don’t see that many 4 door 50s Cadillacs at shows. The 57 and 58 models both fascinate me – there is so much to look at on them.
There was a hemi powered coupe which was a regular classic racer and I’ve seen on TV racing at Lime Rock
Count me in as being a fan of the Corona hardtop. These, however, were not offered with the 8R-G. The high performance Corona back in Japan was the 1600GT, powered by the 1.6 liter DOHC 9R. The 10R / 8R-G powered the larger and differently styled Corona Mark II GSS. The 10R is the same engine, just renamed 8R-G when Toyota dropped the timing chain tensioner.
Yup, although this car has been retrofitted with the later 2.0-liter 18R-G, as Dave suggests. (I’ve seen this particular car before.)
We rented a couple of Corona sedans back in the 66-67 era. They were solid cars, and even with the 2-speed automatic transmissions they got down the road reasonably well. I thought the brakes were weak though; I hope the owner of the 69 hardtop there has beefed up the ones on his car.
Great selection. I agree on the Corona coupe.
That supercoupe is purdy, and a 35th anniversary no less!
As somebody who has an 18-RG sitting in the corner of the garage, count me too as a fan of that Corona, but all these cars here were very, very cool.
What is the gray/silver thing at the top right of the second Allard picture with the slotted mags?
A very rough Fiberfab Jamaican. It appears to have been completed back when Fiberfab was still in business, and is a bit of a flashback time machine.
Up close, the fiberglass finish is quite crude, and you can see into the boy’s inner structure through those scoops behind the side glass.
For another example, check out this post: Fiberfab Jamaican
I don’t know how much the MGC’s suspension was improved over the B’s. It was certainly more modern, with tube shocks instead of lever-action dampers, but the changes were really made more to create room for the C-series engine in the engine bay. The six was a lot bigger (and around 200 pounds heavier just in bare engine weight) than the four and BMC didn’t want to pop for any structural modifications to the car — just as well considering how badly the C sold.
How worthwhile the changes (which involved a new front crossmember to accommodate the taller engine) would have been for the B is an interesting question. The reasons they didn’t do that I assume came down to money and the fact that MG was already thinking about replacements for the MGB, which they assumed would have Hydragas.
(Really, no one at MG figured the MGB would last as long as it did. Had things gone according to plan, it probably would have been replaced by the early ’70s and British Leyland fully expected it would fade out after the TR7 arrived.)