This weekend, I flew out to visit family in beautiful South Dakota, and on Sunday afternoon Dad and I attended the yearly Canton (SD) Car Show. Walking through the entrance, the patina on this 1963 wagon told me I needed to grab a camera and start shooting.
The show included plenty of traditional car show fodder (Mustangs, Chevelles, Dart GTs), but also plenty of off-beat rides, including this AMC Spirit with small block Chevy power.
The bodywork on 1961 Chevy Nomad was impeccable! Most folks walking by probably thought this represented Chevrolet’s top of the line wagon that year, but we Curbside Classic readers know better- The 1961 line did NOT offer a 2-door Nomad wagon. Looking at this home built “phantom,” perhaps they should have.
They built this Buick Super well before my time, but based on it’s striking stance, I’m thinking I could use one.
Here are two Packards from the days before Dave. I’m seen pictures of my Grandpa’s 1948 Packard, but I find these two models from the mid-fifties much cooler.
Just for Chrysler week:
Plymouth Fury! Two door! American Mags! No rust! Sign me UP!
I had to travel from California to South Dakota just to find one James Dean Mercury with an unmolested body. You gotta love those suicide rear doors.
Here’s the last of the fifties model cars I photographed. A Starliner coupe with fender skirts? Please use the comments section to share your thoughts on this subject. I’m very curious to hear what the CC faithful have to say…
There were several other Chryslers at the show. This is one of the last 300 letter cars, a near perfect 1964 300 K.
Followed by this mid seventies New Yorker. It’s complete, but not exactly near perfect.
Something may be wrong with me, but this is my favorite Chrysler from the show. That intake manifold peeking out of the engine bay tells me the weakest link in this car (lean burn technology) has been replaced with fuel injected goodness. That makes this T-Top Dodge Magnum disco perfection!
Hmmm… This is the second 1974 Nova Spirit of America I’ve photographed this month. I checked this one over carefully, and based on the red carpet, along with the correct door trim and horn pad insert, I declare this SOA the real deal!
This 455 Buick Centurion may be very broughamy, but does it with so much style grace I offer it my unconditional love.
Look, a genuine Subaru SVX! I did not expect to see one of these at the Canton Car Show.
In closing, here is a Studebaker Avanti we encountered in a Canton parking lot. The round headlight surrounds and Studebaker badges identify this as the genuine article, rather than the later Avanti II.
That’s all I have- Thanks for viewing my tour of the Canton Car Show!
That ’61 Nomad speaks to me. Very intriguing.
I talked to the owner, and almost all parts are from the Chevy parts bin. The doors are off a two door model, and since the wheel base matches, the trim bolted up perfectly. He also added a third taillight to each side, to make it a true top of the line Chevy (Thought I’d taken a picture of them, but no…).
He’d just got back from the Hot Rod Magazine Power Cruise. The interior still needs some work, but the body and driveline are complete.
I’m thinking it was a Sedan Delivery that someone reworked as a wagon, removing the panels and somehow getting glass to fit in the frames. The side-glass on those is just two flat panels; easy to obtain.
Chevy did not build a sedan delivery in 1961.
I just checked an image-search engine; there are several displayed.
And here.
I suppose it’s possible they were done by a contract assembler off the line…
If you’d followed the link for this image, it would have told you that it was a one-off custom, built the same way the Nomad was: using parts from a two-door sedan.
The demand for sedan deliveries dried up, and a the costs involved for a coach-builder to make them would have been prohibitive. The Corvair van, along with the pickup-based windowless Suburban made the sedan delivery obsolete.
I’d take that AMC Sprint but I’d prefer it to have at least Chrysler power so you could argue that you had at least raided the parts bin of a company that would eventually purchase AMC.
I like the Buick Super, I assume it still had Straight 8 Fireball power?
The New Yorker and Centurion are speaking to me, perhaps because the come from a time when luxury and near luxury cars at least seemed to know what they wanted to be. Not chasing the Germans and Japanese.
Wait until Thursday- I’ve got a posting on an AMC with genuine (but unusual) AMC power.
I always thought a Gremlin or Spirit with a later Jeep four with FI, would be the cat’s backside. Plenty more power than those cars had in the day; and genetically “pure.”
Had AMC the resources when the Gremlin was in its prime…that’s exactly what they should have done and maybe wanted to do. The Jeep Four is just the AMC six with the two center cylinders cut out of the block casting.
How hard is it to get parts, particularly speed parts for the AMC V8? There is a guy running a Javelin over here in a not-quite-historic class who has been allowed to use a Dodge Nascar-based V8 on the same “later-related” basis. The class is for historic cars but with freedoms to make them a bit easier and cheaper to run rather than strictly period components.
The Centurion speaks to me as well; for some reason I find myself attracted to cars I wouldn’t have been caught dead in when they were new. The only things that would make this car better would be for it to be a couple of years older (without the super size bumpers) and if it were a convertible. When I was very young my uncle had a suicide door Mercury just like the one above, only in bright yellow. I was “devastated” when he traded it in on a ’55 Olds but I found out later the Mercury was on its last legs.
A lot of nice cars,the Avanti and the letter car are so elegant.
The black Chevrolet wagon is a 1963 model, not a 1962. Love the Avanti!
Mr. Bill (Avanti guy)
Sorry, I’m not a Chevy guy. Thanks for the info- fixed. D/S
Want that ’58 Plymouth Fury.
I bet it would get annoying from everyone saying, “You should paint it red like Christine!” then trying to explain that the ’58 Fury was ONLY sold in this light cream color, and if you wanted a ’58 Plymouth in red that looked like Christine, it would actually be a Belvedere.
Regarding the Studebaker, I don’t think the fender skirts add anything. The lines of the original were close to perfect, and I think they look better with the rear wheel openings uncovered.
Definitely agree with you on that point!
Oh, my. Where to start. Of course, I love all of the Mopars. However, the New Yorker in baby blue was not one of my preferred color combos.
That Avanti is the spitting image of the one owned by my original car-mentor Bill down the street. Only he had aftermarket wheels on his. Wow, did I love that car. Actually, genuine Studes got square headlights at the end. The change from round to square happened somewhere early in the 1964 model run. Bill’s car was a 64 with round lights, which made most folks think it was a 63. This one lacks the “Supercharged” badge on the front fenders, marking it as one of the milder R-1 versions.
That 49-50 Mercury is really cool, as is that Buick fastback. I am a sucker for late 1940s iron.
J.P.: The Studebaker plant closed the first week of December 1963; and it was not a sudden move. The closing coincided with the expiration of the contract S-P had with the UAW. Talks had been suspended many weeks earlier; so apparently the plan was in the works to close the South Bend operation at the very least.
I would suspect that the squared-bezel Avantis made as 1964s were probably either the first Avanti IIs or cars left in the plant and finished by Avanti Motor Company.
I do not believe that this is correct. Every model got some changes for the 64 model year that probably began production in late summer of 63. Hawks got a new deck lid and Larks got all new sheet metal. The square headlights were the Avanti change. Only a few got round lights, likely early ones. With such low production it may have been possible to specify roundies out of spare parts.
JP- I agree with you, the last Studebakers did have the square bezels. Since the Avanti II never used round bezels, the car I photographed should be genuine Studebaker. D/S
Am I the only Packard fan here?Once a Packard was a serious rival to Cadillac and even Rolls Royce.
No you are not. Some of us have simply cried our eyes dry over what could have been. We have no more to give. (Although Packard did give GM an excellent young man named John Delorean.)
That red and white Clipper has one of the more unfortunate 2 tone concepts. It makes the car look like it melted a little. I like the lower side scallop, and I like the upper treatment, but together they just look bad.
Perhaps it should have been a 3-tone treatment instead
Unbelievably bad. Worst two-tone ever! How did they let this get out the door?
A one colour paint scheme would improve it no end.
I like the red and white scheme! The 1950s Packards I’ve seen have all had the severely horizontal colour splitting, like the pictured yellow one. To see a non-straight-lined Packard paint job is quite refreshing.
The Buick Centurion really stands out in that pretty color combination and with the Rallye wheels. I just love rally wheels, on anything, and this is maybe my favorite design.
That looks like a welcome mat in front of the door. Wipe your feet please!
What’s the red car beside the Nova?
2005-2012 Corvette.
Yawn.
D/S
LOLOL.. Only here 🙂
I love this place!
The Avanti is beautiful and timeless…even today they still look great!
+1
That New Yorker pushes my buttons, especially if it has that deeply tufted interior trim.
I want to see some more photos…….since……..I’m just 30 minutes away, and missed this show in Canton, SD. Nice collection of unique cars. That Avanti……grows on you…sometimes I feel like I want to get out some clay to make a model so I can change the backend. Front looks great with that long hood and notice the front bumper with those ninety degree angles (never seen that on a bumper).
Nothing crouches down like a sprung mountain lion……ready to pounce like that Buick Super (streamline style from Ray Loewy?)…except maybe the 53 Studebaker Starlite coupe, and…Loewy worked on the Avanti?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raymond_Loewy
“….spite the short 40-day schedule allowed to produce a finished design and scale model, Loewy agreed to take the job. He recruited a team consisting of experienced designers, including former Loewy employees John Ebstein; Bob Andrews; and Tom Kellogg, a young student from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. The team was sequestered in a house leased for the purpose in Palm Springs, California.”…..
The ’58 Fury is the most beautiful car of the bunch IMO. I could just stare at that thing for ho….. well, minutes anyway! The red custom thing that used to be a Studebaker is at the other end…
Looking to purchase 1974 SOA Nova! Seen picture of this one in the column of cars but couldn’t read on the sign a phone number or information