Articles by David Burrell

It's 50 years ago, on April Fools' Day, that Chrysler in the USA gathered the media to see its new sporty, compact two door hardtop, the 1964 Plymouth Valiant Barracuda. Based on the plain, simple Valiant, the Barracuda featured the largest rear window ever used on a production vehicle at the time and a fold-down rear seat, which added immensely to the car's versatility.Two weeks later Ford released the Mustang and for a long time the Barracuda lived in the shadow of its rival. The reason is as simple as it was visible. Chrysler cut costs in the styling area and did not differentiate the Barracuda too greatly from the Valiant. Ford however, took a bigger risk and radically reshaped the Falcon into the Mustang. They reaped the reward with 400,000 sales in the first 12 months. The Barracuda managed 90,000.The Barracuda name came from John "Dick" Samsen, one of the principal stylists of the car. Chrysler executives originally wanted to call it the Panda, but Samsen and his mates believed a stronger name was needed and kicked up a fuss.The rear window glass was a technological triumph for it suppler Pittsburgh Plate and Glass (PPG). It was the largest piece of glass used on a car at the time, and Samsen says they had a lot of trouble with it. PPG was not able to hold the shape in production and it had more of a bubble shape than was originally intended, according to Samsen. The glass in the advertisements and brochures were photoshopped to look smoother.Chrysler learnt its lesson with the 1964 Barracuda. The second generation version looked very little like the Valiant and the third generation, made from 1970 to 1974, was a standalone model. Production ended on 1st April, exactly a decade since the start.These days the 1964 Barracuda has a strong following among collectors and the fabulous one-piece wrap-over rear glass, which defines the aggressive fast-back roofline, attracts loads of lookers at car shows. No longer is it in the shadow of the Mustang. The first generation Barracuda's are relatively rare in Australia. Good ones fetch up to $25,000.The 1971 Barracuda's, with the massive 7 litre Hemi V8, have now become one of the world's most collectible cars. Only 108 coupes and 11 convertibles left the factory with the big Hemi engine that year. A restored convertible recently fetched $1,300,000 at auction and an unrestored coupe went for $600,000. That's a big shadow to cast!David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au 

Sixty years ago this February, Mercedes Benz unveiled the road going version of its race winning sports car at the International Motor Sports Show in New York. Crowds flocked to the stand and looked on in awe at the 300SL, it's gullwing doors creating an iconic and visually enduring image which other car companies have desperately sought to eclipse ever since, but to no avail.The gullwing doors were a design necessity as the high-sided chassis rails prevent normally hinged doors being used. Underneath the svelte shape was a three litre six, boasting 158kw, and to get the bonnet low the engine was slanted 45 degrees to the left. Top speed was about 260kph. Zero to 100kph came in 10 seconds through a 4 speed manual gearbox. Drum brakes provided retardation.The 300 SL was initially conceived in 1952 as a purpose-built racing sports car. It was designed by Rudolf Uhlenhaut who gave it a super light (hence "SL") tubular frame which boasted impressive torsional stiffness and weighed only 1,295 kilograms. Right from the get-go it was a race winner, greeting the chequered flag in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, at the Nurburgring and in the Carrera Panamericana in Mexico.At the beginning there were no plans to make the 300SL into a road car, but in 1953 the Benz Board was persuaded by its American importer , Max Hoffman, that a luxury, road version of the race car would have instant appeal for his rich and famous American clientele.Hoffman was right. Despite its jaw dropping $7300 US dollars price tag (by comparison, a fully optioned Cadillac Eldorado convertible went for $4500) the 300 SLs became the must-have car for the jet set and Hollywood's elite including Clark Gable, Kirk Douglas, Alfred Hitchcock and Sophie Loren. Of the 1,400 built, 1,100 went to the USA.These days a 300SL sells for serious money. Clark Gable's recently went for $1.85million. Production of the Gullwing ceased in 1957 when it was replaced with an updated, more luxurious and more driveable300SL in convertible and removable hard top formats. Mercedes knew that the 300SL had the potential to be a style icon. In 1955 the United States Patent Office granted them a patent on the design (design number 176,278).David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au 

While those super expensive Aston Martins are out of the reach of 99.99% of collectors, there are other cars used in the movies and driven by 007 that will appeal to those with more modest budgets.How about a 1996 Z3 BMW? It appeared in Golden Eye and while it only was on screen for a minute or two they are cheap. A quick look on Carsguide suggests $11,000 will get you into one and I'm sure with a bit of arm twisting you could reduce that even more. Hairdressers paid over $70,000 when they were new.If a sports car is not your style, then there is always the 1997 BMW 750iL that Bond drove with his phone in Tomorrow Never Dies. When new BMW dealers were asking punters to part with $265,000. Right now depreciation is your BFF and you can snatch a high mileage example for under $7000. Be cautious though, it might be well shaken and mightily stirred.For a bit of Italian flavour, 1983 the Alfa GTV6 which 007 used in the movie Occtopussy makes for a cunning alternative. Some sell for as low as $3000 but good ones go for mid-teens. If something British is more to your liking, then what about the Triumph Stag? Bond drove a yellow one in Diamonds Are Forever while he was impersonating a diamond smuggler called Peter Franks. Around $15,000 seems a likely starting point for negotiations to get you into a true classic.Another British choice is the Sunbeam Alpine, which Bond drove in the first movie, Dr No. These are fabulous looking little convertibles. My neighbour in London had one and always referred to it as "the real Bond car". They range from about $16,000 all the way up to $40,000 depending on condition. As an aside, the Alpine was also the car of choice in the Get Smart TV series.But I'm saving the best two for last. In Man with the Golden Gun, Bond drives a red 1974 Rambler Hornet hatchback through the famous corkscrew aerial jump. Although the coupe never made it to Australia, 1,825 four door Hornets were built and sold here between 1971 and 1975. Many have been hot-rodded, but unmolested examples sell for less than $10,000 and are a bargain.So that leaves the red 1971 Mustang Mach 1 from Diamonds are Forever. A good one will set you back about $40,000 and there are plenty around. And yes, I know that's six times the price of the 750 BMW, but it looks way cooler!David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au 

With the 50th Anniversary of the Ford Mustang fast approaching (April 17, 2014 to be precise) here's the Carsguide quick reference guide that you can use to impress and bluff neighbours and friends.Who really devised the Mustang?In late 1961 Lee Iacocca, the then President of Ford America, gathered a group of smart young managers and engineers who met regularly at the Fairlane Inn in Dearborn, Detroit.  They called themselves the Fairlane Committee. Their purpose was to brainstorm ideas for new cars.From this skunksworks came the concept of a small, sporty car priced to appeal to women and men aged 18-35, who were predicted to account for 50 per cent of new car buyers in the 1960s.How did the Falcon help the Mustang?The Mustang was really a Ford Falcon under the skin. All the chassis and running gear was pure Falcon. That made the Mustang very cheap to make, easy to produce and allowed Ford to price it low and still make huge profits.Who engineered the Mustang?Don Frey was a key member of the Fairlane Committee and he directed all the engineering activities of the 1st generation Mustang. It was Don who decided to use the Falcon as the base for the Mustang. Frey had a PhD in metallurgy and spoke three languages (English, French and Russian). He left Ford in 1968 and was CEO of Bell and Howell where he was instrumental in the development of CD-ROM technology. He was also a board member of movie studio 20th Century Fox. He died in 2010.What did Hal Sperlich do?Hal Sperlich was Ford's Product Planning Chief during the 1964 Mustang's development and launch. He used market research data to identify the Mustang's target consumer segment and established the "package" for the car  its dimensions, pricing and options. Hal left Ford in the early 1970s and went to Chrysler, where he made automotive history again with the Minivan concept.Who styled the Mustang?As always, success has many fathers, but generally, the two names most commonly associated with the iconic Mustang look are Gale Halderman and Joe Oros. Oros was Ford's design chief while Halderman was a design director in one of Oros's styling studios. Both men received Industrial Design Society Design Awards for design of the 1964 Mustang.How many times did Henry Ford II reject the idea of the Mustang?Still feeling bruised after the Edsel fiasco, Henry Ford II went into ultra conservative mode whenever the idea for a new car was mentioned.  He rejected the Mustang four times before Iacocca, Sperlich and Frey convinced him to do it, by basically putting their careers on the line.David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au 

"A cousin bought it in 1953 from Rhodes Motors in Melbourne," Les said. "I bought it off him when he was 80 years old in 1975 for $500. In all those years he had put only 25,600 miles on it. Since then I've taken it to 49,600 miles," he adds. The Holden is not Les's first nor his only classic automobile. He's owned a stable of vintage cars. There was a rare 1930 Packard, a 1928 Dodge Victory Six sedan (which was fully imported from the USA), a 1929 Dodge Tourer and a 1929 Graham-Paige 612 sedan. "I have been a classic car enthusiast since 1970," he admits. In addition to just owning the cars, movie and TV companies have often approached Les to hire his vehicles for use as props in films and TV series. The Packard was used in a movie called Young Flynn, about the early days of Australian and Hollywood film star, Errol Flynn. The Graham-Paige and Dodges were used in some earlier episodes of the 1970's TV series Power Without Glory and the Holden was used in the last episode. The FX was also seen in the Snowy TV show, about the lives of those working on the Snowy River scheme in the 1950s. It was dressed up as a police car. And the sharp eyed among you might remember the FX when it was displayed in the Shannon's showrooms for many years. The Packard, Dodges and Graham Paige have all been sold in recent years and Les now only has the Holden. It has always been garaged and retains its original equipment which includes the mud flaps and radio, which were "luxury " options in 1953. Les has no intention of selling the Holden. "I believe the car will remain in the family for many generations as my sons and grandsons are all future owner-drivers," he said. David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au  

The Plexiglas bodied car was originally built by General Motors (GM) and Rohm & Hass, a chemical company, for the 1939 World Fair in New York City. Back in the day the car cost about $50,000 to build. That's $600,000 in today's currency. Based on a 1939 Pontiac Deluxe six cylinder touring sedan, the car caused a sensation at the World's Fair. The media tagged it the "Ghost Car". After the Fair it was shown around the USA and finally ended up in the Smithsonian, where it remained through the duration of World War II. From there, it went to a couple of Pontiac dealers in Pennsylvania before ending up in private hands in 1973. It was sold again at auction in 2011 for $308,000. GM collaborated with Rohm & Haas as a way to publicise the world's first transparent acrylic sheet product, branded as Plexiglas. Using Pontiac engineering drawings Rohm & Haas constructed an exact replica body using Plexiglas in place of the outer sheet-metal. The see-through body is attached to a steel chassis. The structural metal underneath was given a copper wash, and all hardware, including the dashboard, was chrome plated. Rubber door and window moldings were made in white. The car rides on its original U.S. Royal all-white tyres. Even the running board rubber is white. From the beginning it was an operating car however it cannot really be used on the road as the Plexiglas would stress fracture at the point where it is attached to the steel chassis. The odometer currently reads 86 miles. Such was the success of the 1939 car that GM and Rohm and Haas quickly built another for the 1940 World's Fair, held in San Francisco. That car, an eight cylinder Pontiac, no longer exists. David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au  

Steve Gant is the owner of a bright yellow 1970 HG 350 'Bathurst' Monaro GTS. He's had it since October 3rd, 1970 when he bought it new, as a 19 year old. We reckon it is the only one owner HG 350 Monaro in the country, and that makes it a national treasure."I was in my HR sedan driving past a Holden dealer near where I lived and I saw it on a ramp on the lot. I just knew I had to have it" says Steve. "So I stopped and looked it over. The sales representative came up to me and told me it was the Bathurst version. He said 'that car's got too much power for you, son'.At the time the dealer was concerned about a young "kid" hooning around in a powerful V8. The dealer's reticence to sell the car only heighted Steve's desire to own it. "I asked my parents to speak to the dealer and they convinced him that it would be ok, so I worked three jobs to pay it off" Steve now remembers.Steve's car was the 3447th Monaro out of the Brisbane Acacia Ridge factory and is a numbers-matching vehicle. There are 86,000 miles on the clock and is stock standard in every way. "I've done nothing to it at all" says Steve, "And why should I?"The four speed manual transmission that came with the car is still behind the engine. There's no power steering and the original AM radio sits in the dashboard. It is a car that those restoring a Monaro could use as a reference point.Steve is constantly asked why he's kept the Monaro for 43 years. "I've never had a reason to sell it", is his simple reason. "As I got older I stopped using the Monaro as a daily driver and now I use it about three or four times a year. "These days the big issue is ensuring the security and safety of this valuable car. "I store it at a very secure site" Steve says. And he needs to. Thefts of Australian muscle cars from the sixties and seventies happen a little too often for comfort. Some owners have resorted to engaging security personnel when they show their cars. Will Steve ever sell the Monaro? "No" is quick the reply.David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au

And so it goes. Another automobile icon fades from view because of 21st century safety regulations. After 64 years of production, the final Volkswagen Kombi will roll off the production line today -- this one in Brazil where the more relaxed safety regulations allowed the Kombi to continue, and where they have been built for the past 56 years.And it travelled a long way. The vehicle that came to symbolise the counter-culture around the globe started out as an idea on paper for the war ravaged VW to make some much needed money. The Kombi is now one of the few cars in the pantheon of true classics. More than any other automobile, the VW Kombi is an enduring image of the flower-power hippy era in the 1960s and of the wider surfing culture across the world.Cheap, plentiful and able to carry big loads with ease it was an ideal vehicle for a newly mobile, baby boomer generation. The first series Kombi was released for sale in 1950, after its appearance at the November 1949 Geneva Motor Show. Its heritage goes back to when the British Army occupied and ran the VW factory in Wolfsburg, Germany, after the end of Second World War.There are various versions of how the Kombi came to be, but the main facts are agreed. Needing a vehicle to move parts around the VW factory, the Army cobbled together a strengthened Beetle chassis, surrounded it with a utilitarian panels and created a small truck.In 1947 a Dutch VW dealer, Ben Pons, saw these little trucks while visiting to the factory. He thought that with some improved body panels it would make a cheap, sturdy and light truck to be used in the rebuilding of the war torn Europe. He sketched a design for VW managers and went back to Holland.Heinz Nordhoff, who was ex-Opel, and been installed by the Army to run VW, took up this idea and made it happen. The rest of the story is legend. Kombis have a strong fan base and devotes of the vehicle have their own language to describe the “buses”. Those built between 1950 and 1967, are known as split-window buses or 'splitties' because of the divided windscreen.Those built after 1967 have a one piece screen and are known as the 'bay window' Kombis. Prices for early models continue to rise, across the world. In Australia models from the 1950s can run to $45,000 and above, particularly the 'barn door’ versions in good condition.So if you are in the market for a real classic, buy a Kombi now. The price will only rise. Apart from their investment potential, we love the Kombi for many reasons. 

I refer, of course, to the birth of the one and only Pontiac GTO, the muscle car that started the muscle car revolution. The GTO was born in a time of cheap fuel and high horsepower dreams. Leading up to 1964 America's car companies had been engaged in a horsepower war with each other. All of it was focused on getting Detroit's full-sized cars to sixty miles an hour and down the quarter mile in the shortest possible elapsed time in order to give bragging rights on and off the track and in dealer showrooms. Consider Pontiac in 1963. They were building a performance image for the brand and went to extraordinary lengths to ensure their cars were quick. So, they slipped a massive 421 cubic inch V8 (that's 6.9 litres!) into their 2.5 tonne Super Duty Catalina coupe and sat back while young gents delivered smokin' 0-60s in a jaw dropping 5.4 seconds on skinny cross-ply tyres. That's quick, even today. And then guys at Pontiac had an even better idea. They decided to put the big engine in a smaller, mid-sized car. Enter the GTO. Many folk give Pontiac advertising executive Jim Wangers the credit for inventing the idea. Wangers himself tells a different story: "I came into the project only as a marketer. What really happened was that Pontiac chief engineer, John De Lorean , held regular 'what if' sessions at the GM proving grounds in Michigan. The birth of the GTO took place during one of these sessions. It was in mid-1963. A prototype of the 1964 Tempest coupe equipped with a 326 cubic inch V8 was up on a lift. One of the engineers, Bill Collins, remarked to De Lorean "you know, it would take us about 20 minutes to slip the bigger 389 cubic inch (6.5 litre) V8 into this  thing".  One week later they were back at the test track with the bigger motor in fitted. Needless to say, those who drove it were overwhelmed. And the rest, as they say, is the stuff that dreams are made of. Quite simply, the GTO is the benchmark by which all muscle cars are measured and will continue to be measured. You see, the GTO is the judge and the jury. David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au  

How it got those guards is one of the great stories of Australian automobile folklore. The HD was shaped in Detroit by Leo Pruneau and Don Laski in mid 1962. Ironically, Leo became Holden's design supremo in the early 1970s. Speaking to Carsguide Leo told us the HD story: "In 1962 Don and I had just finished the 1965 Opel Diplomat and Admiral and Bill Mitchell, boss of all of General Motors (GM) design around the world, gave us the job of doing the HD. We used many of the Opel styling themes on the Holden, including the rear window which is concave in side view and convex in plan view." Holden sent their top engineer, Reg Hall, to Detroit, to watch the clay prototypes of the HD sedan and wagon take shape. This smart idea meant the designers and Hall could overcome any engineering issues created by the styling as they went along. Leo picks up the story: "Originally we had the car with front mudguards very similar to the Opel's, and the HR Holden's, which were flush with the grille. But Mitchell thought the car looked too short - he liked really long cars - so he told us to make the front guards jut out ahead of the grille, like the Oldsmobile Toronado. Well, Reg Hall protested that it would be too hard to manufacture and told us cut them back. Then a week later Mitchell came back to the studio and ordered us to lengthen them again. Anyway, this lengthening and shortening argument went on for a couple of weeks and Don and I would cut them off and stick them back on again. Of course, Mitchell was always going to get what he wanted because he was the big boss. He convinced Holden's management to go with them and that's the way the HD went into the showrooms". Initial sales of the HD were strong but the styling was too futuristic for conservative Australians. When sales started to slow Holden brought forward its next model, the HR, with its blunter front end. Confounding the urban legend that HR was styled after the HD went on sale, photos in GM archives clearly show the HR shape was locked away a full year before the HD hit the show rooms, so someone was hedging their bets! When Leo was later transferred to Holden the first car he wanted to see was the HD "and those damned front guards!" he says today. David Burrell is the editor of www.retroautos.com.au