American Dreamboats
Big Domestic convertibles offer top-down thrills in a sea of luxury. If you want to own the road in style, Matt Stone argues you can’t go wrong with these nine examples.
Page 26
The Class of '63
1963 was a banner year for the American auto industry, as the Split-Window Corvette, Buick Riviera and Studebaker Avanti all hit the streets. Jerry Burton examines these landmark cars.
Page 34
The Car Hoarders
There’s a psychological fine line between collecting and hoarding, but the sign that one has crossed it are all too apparent, says Jonathan A. Stein.
Page 40
The World As We Know It
Rob Sass and Dave Kinney have been watching the old car world and markets for years. Together they examine the happenings and trends of the last year.
Page 44
On The Cutting Edge
If it’s got four wheels and an engine, man will figure out a way to race it. Jeff Peek found himself deep in the throes of lawn mower racing, and lived to tell the tale.
Page 50
Shrugging Off Sandy
When Jonathan A. Stein visited Long Island and Queens following Hurricane Sandy, he found destruction and resilience.
Page 56
Milestone Moments In The Classic Car World: Since our Spring issue is the first of 2013, and some pretty big anniversaries are going to figure into it, with the Pontiac GTO, Mustang and Porsche Speedster coming in 2014, we’ve been thinking a lot about how to celebrate these big birthdays.
To that end, in this issue we honor the Class of 1963, a watershed model year of American car design: Peter Brock and Larry Shinoda brought us the Corvette Sting Ray; Raymond Loewy and his team came up with the wildly unconventional Studebaker Avanti; and Bill Mitchell (who had a hand in the Sting Ray as well) directed the talented Ned Nickles to come up with the brilliant Buick Riviera.
Continuing the theme of beloved designs, veteran writer and journalist Matt Stone profiles some of our favorite American convertibles, which are big enough – and inexpensive enough – to share the fun with the entire family.
On a slightly more serious topic, Executive Editor Jonathan A. Stein delves into the psychology of car collecting. He examines a phenomenon we’ve all seen – the hoarder who accumulates cars, leaves them to rot with no plan to restore them, and refuses to part with them under any circumstances. It’s often painful to witness, and Jonathan gets to the root of this seemingly incomprehensible practice.
Our experiential story has a bit of the flavor of some of the great April Fools Day stories for which Road & Track was famous in the 1960s and ‘70s. Being no fool, Hagerty staff writer Jeff Peek jumped at a chance to try lawn mower racing and found it both inexpensive and addictive.
Finally, we sat down with two New York families hit hard by Hurricane Sandy. The storm wreaked havoc on their homes as well as their classic cars, and now the process of re-restoring their beloved rides begins. We wish them – and all who were affected by the storm – nothing but the best.
– McKeel Hagerty