Herea thought. Commonplace terms liketest or test are self – explanatory – one about getting blood tested, the other, stress. A test however is the test of a vehicle, not of a road. Strange, isnit? It was George Carlin who got me thinking on these lines when he said, crime fighters fight crime and fire fighters fight fire, what do freedom fighters fight?

HAVE YOU EVER DREAMED ABOUT JUMPING INTO A FULLY MODIFIED EXTREME 4X4 CAMPER

and making it your home on wheels for… as long as you feel like it? How about exploring both sides of the world and meeting people on almost every continent on Earth while having that fully outfitted 4×4 camper to keep you comfortable, no matter if you are deep into Mexico or driving across Siberia? For the past 40 years, Gary

John Soden, Langley, Berkshire
“Give the customer more than he has paid for”, is unlikely to be something you will hear these days, but that was the marketing catchphrase used by Nash Motors back in the Thirties. It is certainly borne out by John Sodens remarkable Big Six Model 1067 Town Sedan, an original, unmolested, unrestored survivor which has only done some 3800 miles since being manufactured back in 1932. Former General Motors president Charles W Nash set his sights on producing reasonably priced, quality, affordable automobiles for the budget – conscious middle classes, a cut above the more common Fords and Chevrolets.
He certainly succeeded, putting innovative engineering before fashion and from 1916, when the company was founded, introduced a succession of clever and practical gadgets into many of his cars. Nash had flow – through ventilation systems, subsequently adopted by most other car manufacturers, air conditioning, twin spark plugs per cylinder, overhead valves and nine crankshaft bearings on some of the larger eight cylinder engines, synchromesh gearboxes, centralised chassis lubrication and adjustable suspension. They were well made, comfortable and considerably more refined than the cheaper makes.
As John also has an immaculate 1930 Ford Model A Fordor Sedan he can make a direct comparison and confirms that the Nash is much more sophisticated. The Ford is clearly cruder and far less comfortable to drive, though it still gets more use than the Nash. Hes owned the Ford for eight years, but was unable to resist the temptation when a friend was reducing his collection of old cars and offered him the Nash.

Oldsmobile. What does the name conjure up? Retired, respectable Americans trundling to church on a Sunday morning. Grandpa driving, hat perched above large ears, grandma with butterfly spectacles.
That image must be partially due to the Olds bit of the name, but if Oldsmobile only built rakish two – seaters, it wouldnt have caught hold No, the name was just part of it – for too long, Oldsmobile played it safe in the upper – middle bracket for General Motors, losing distinction with the Buick and Pontiac brand niches until it was phased out entirely.
That something like this was allowed to happen is particularly strange and sad when you take a whistle – stop tour through Oldsmobiles notable achievements. It produced the first car now regarded as an American classic, the Curved Dash model of 1901, which was made on a production line years before Henry Ford introduced his moving version for the Model T. The comapny managed to increase its sales during the Depression while others were going bust; it introduced automatic transmission in 1939 and a short – stroke, high – compression V8 in 1949. Its people created one of the boldest and best American cars of all time in the front – wheel drive Toronado of 1966 and nailed the muscle car sector with the 4-4-2 and the Hurst/Olds models.
It didnt end there; it just got less obvious. Did you know Americas best – selling car of 1976 was the Oldsmobile Cutlass, shifting half a million and out – doing anything Chevy or Ford offered? It was still innovating in 1981, and successfully: a fifth of all Oldsmobiles sold were diesel powered. In 1985, Oldsmobile edged out Ford to become the second – best selling automotive brand in America behind Chevrolet.

Despite a reputation for getting bored and quickly moving his cars on, Kevin Greenwell might finally have found the car hell never sell…
The first time I spotted Kevin Greenwells 1954 Oldsmobile Super 88 I thought I was looking at a vehicle far more customised than it actually is. Yes its been lowered a couple of inches and that stunning green paint, thought to be a Volkswagen colour, is somewhat newer than the era of the car, but I have to remind myself that those wheelcovers, so beloved of leadsled Mercurys and later kustoms were actually fitted at Oldsmobiles factory – although admittedly on the 1953 models.
You dont get to see very many Oldsmobiles compared to the number of Chevrolets or Cadillacs of a similar vintage in the UK and for Kevin thats a lot of the appeal of the car.
“Ive owned a few American cars over the years, and while the Tri – Chevys and Mustangs are nice cars, its the unusual stuff that always ppeals to me” says Kevin, before reeling off an impressive list of previous motors that includes a 1955 Ford Sunliner, 1959 Ranchero, 1967 Dodge Monaco wagon, 1957 Skyliner Retractable, 1972 Dodge Dart and several Fifties Cadillacs. “I dont tend to hang on to cars for long,” laughs Kevin, “I change em like I change my socks.”
Having just one garage means owning one classic at a time, so after selling a nice 1962 Lincoln Continental convertible Kevin found himself with a space to fill and the money to do it. “I like cruisers and I saw the Olds advertised in Custom Car magazine on a Thursday,” remembers Kevin. “So I phoned John Tilley, the seller, and when he told me he had a load of people coming to look at it on Saturday, I went straight up and bought it on the Friday.”

August is the vacation month, and reality takes a big one during the Pebble Beach con – cours weekend in Monterey, California. Money seems to perfume the air and gurgle out of the drinking fountains. Economic recessions are strictly banned, especially at the star auctions where the crack of an auctioneers gavel signals the liquidation of another sculpture in lacquered metal and leaking oil.
Which one of you, I wondered as I scanned a ballroom full of seemingly sane people at the RM auction in downtown Monterey, got out of bed this morning saying, “Yes, I will pay $560,000 for a 1911 Simplex Model 50!”? If youre like me, you wouldnt know a 1911 Simplex from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Its roughly the size of a UPS truck, rides on tires hardly wider than your palms, and would be quite thrilling at any speed over 50 mph, even if its four – cylinder engine displaces 597 cubic inches. Yet somebody will pay two – and – a – half times the current U.S. median home price for one.
Actually, nobody did pay it because the $560,000 top bid fell short of the reserve, set by an owner who apparently thought that accepting just a half – mil and change for his Simplex would make him a chump. Maybe it would. Howwould I know?
Many of the cars that change hands in Monterey are the gods on the Mount Olympus of cardom. A1937 Mercedes – Benz 540K went for $9.7 million; a 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa prototype sold for $16.4 million, a world record for a car at auction. To the likes of me, such prices are incomprehensible and thus completely abstract, like being told the number of sand grains on Pismo Beach. However, one car I do know well, a 1973 Lamborghini Espada, worth maybe 40 grand in the want ads, crossed RMs block for $55,000, affirming my suspicion that an auction, especially one at Pebble, is a bad place to look for deals.