Magazine Time Machine: Motor Trend February 1955

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Last week a co-worker sold me a crate full of vintage car magazines, more than 70 issues in total, so I thought it might be nice to share some of the highlights with my favorite Hoons. This is another issue chock full of amazing stuff that happened well before I was born. This Motor Trend didn’t have quite as compelling a cover as the issue of R&T that I leafed through back in the first installment, but it’s still pretty cool. These days, a cover like this could be described as #Dynamism. I’ve got a lot of well-preserved magazine issues, so here’s another one from the archives. Keep in mind, this paper was printed 60 years ago.

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One of my favorite parts of the whole magazine was the bit where they showed off this spy snapshot of the revised-for-1955 Mercedes 300SL racing car. They called it Mercedes’ “Secret Weapon”.
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Have you ever seen (or even heard of) a Glasspar Ascot? It had “sparkling performance” from a Studebaker flat-head straight six (though a 172 cube Ford industrial engine is also mentioned). Looks like it’d have been a riot. Could you imagine seeing this thing on the street in the era of boat tails and chrome and tail fins and rocketships?
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Nash was one of the first Detroit companies to introduce a “corporate face” with this new grille design debuting on the Ambassador and the Statesman to make them more congruent with the Nash-Healey. Take note Ford, it doesn’t always work…
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The new 1955 Jaguar. Oh man, this is one of my favorite Brit cars of all time. Elegant, fast, gorgeous, and stately. Wire wheels, fog lamps, that tall chrome grille, and the split windshield glass. It’d have been quite the choice between this and a 356 Continental Cabriolet, though. It’d sure be fun to drive the two back to back to get a feel for which one I’d have picked in the day.
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These old classifieds always make me sad. I know they were just ‘old cars’ back then, and didn’t really matter, but tell me you wouldn’t have jumped on an 18 year old Cord Beverly Sedan for 700 dollars.
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This is a 1937 Cord Beverly Sedan, by the way. (Photo from Wikipedia)
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A 32 Pierce Arrow Club Sedan for $550. A Cad-Allard for 2 grand? Oh brother. I need to invent a time machine. And a thing that changes now bills to 1950s bills. Make that happen, scientists.

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  1. Fred Talmadge Avatar
    Fred Talmadge

    All I “remember” from 1955 was that my parents had a Studebaker they claim was terrible. I was also 3 years old.

  2. nanoop Avatar
    nanoop

    “This Motor Trend didn’t have quite as compelling a cover as […]” Hey, I can hear the tires squealing on gravel even though my phone display!

    1. Bradley Brownell Avatar
      Bradley Brownell

      Yes, but…

      1. nanoop Avatar
        nanoop

        See, no tire squeal.

  3. mve Avatar
    mve

    These older magazines show how much, and how little, car guys have changed over the years. Who else but a hoon would get in a brand new sedan and race it in a gravel lot?
    I also love the honesty of these photos. There was no trick photography back then, so what you’re seeing is what really happened – two guys jumped in a Plymouth and spun it right in front of a photographer. He probably got pelted with gravel.

    1. theskitter Avatar

      I interpreted the picture as ‘melodramatically splashing through a puddle’, so it seemed tame to me. Also, my reaction to the Glasspar (which I have heard of) is acceptance, instead of the pessimism I feel for each struggling project in the front of today’s magazines. Maybe that just comes with distance.

  4. salguod Avatar

    I was about to point out what $700 is after inflation, showing how it wasn’t that good of a deal.
    Then I did the math.
    It’s $6,256.60 in 2015 dollars.
    Wow.

  5. Vairship Avatar
    Vairship

    Even then they had prank ads. Unless his name really is Harold Wanaselja (pronounced “wanna-sell-ya”)…

    1. Batshitbox Avatar
      Batshitbox

      Wanaselja is definitely a real name, and there’s even a couple that will sell you some car parts! (Made into a shed.)
      http://www.lwarc.com/mu_mgshed.html
      A pal of mine went to high school with one Stanley Wejehowski; a variant on Wojehowski that unfortunately for poor Stan was pronounced “Stanley Where’s-ya-house-key”, usually accompanied by a set of keys being jingled in his face.
      http://www.lwarc.com/images/i_mgshed-1.jpg