2012 AACA Hershey Fall Meet

If you're in to cars, especially antique and classics. Then you've likely heard of the Antique Automobile Club of America's annual Eastern Fall Meet in Hershey, Pa. Or better known just as Hershey. I've attended the fall meet several times, and one thing that I can say is be prepared. I visited for two days, and that isn't enough. In order to take in everything, you need all four days of the event in order to see it all. It doesn't matter what your passion is. You can find here. Looking for headlights for your brass era classic? Got em. Owners manual for your 63 Ford Falcon? Check. Tires for your hot rod? How many you need? How about a new toy for the garage? There were cars for sale from $2,000 to $400,000.

I spent all of Friday cruising the swap meet and the car corral and found some awesome buys. How about a 1960 Rambler. Completely restored, ready to go with low miles. It could be yours for $9,000 o.b.o. You couldn't even restore this car for that money. I also found a 1973 Ford Gran Torino 4 door. 73k miles, all original paint except for one door. This one was turn key and ready to cruise for $3,995. 1936 Chevrolet sedan, $14,000 o.b.o. How about a 1913 Hupmobile for $34k? I also found a 1953 Nash Healey for the bargain price of $195,000 o.b.o. 1939 Packard, $195,000. 1938 Lincoln V-12 Convertible, $237,500. This is just some of the cars available for sale. And this doesn't include the auction that RM Auctions has put on for the last few years.

In the swap meet, there are literally thousands upon thousands of swap vendors. Selling everything from parts to project cars, toys and literature, cleaning supplies, tools, garage art, clothes, you need it, it's likely you can find it here. The swap meet tends to be a car show in itself as many vendors have cars on display that are either shown on Saturday or are for sale. While walking around we were able to see an early Stanley Steamer chugging around and also spotted a Volkswagen Kubelwagen. I will say that AACA really has this down when it comes to organizing a swap meet. Every area of it is paved, as it's held in the parking lot of Hershey Park and the Giant Center. So along with being paved, it's almost entirely flat making it easy for walking around and for carts and scooters to get around. I brought my trusty wagon with me (that was given to me by my parents when I was young), but decided to leave it in the car as it was cold and windy. So that limited me on my purchases of what I could carry with me. So with that I stuck with paper items and small toys for my expansive VW memorabilia collection.

Friday morning I awoke to sunny skies, but still a little chilly. I paid a visit to the AACA museum just a few miles from the meet to take in their fantastic display. Afterwards I headed back to Hershey Park for the car show part of the fall meet, and again amazed myself as a Hershey veteran. There were 38 classes listed in the event program, but it's nearly tripled due to sub classes. Meaning that there are classes for say, production cars 1957-1958 (excluding chevrolets), followed by a sub class for just 57 and 58 Chevrolet cars. And then within that class, there's probably 50 cars. So that should give you an idea of the shear size of the car show. There's classes for military vehicles, commercial trucks, buses, fire engines, race cars and everything in between. I ended up disappointing myself in not bringing additional memory cards with me for my camera as I ended up filling the car full at 1231 pictures.

I've broken down all the photos I took in to sub albums that can be found here, Enjoy!

By: Austin On 16:19

Continue Reading

Saabs of our lives: Saab museum saved

News this morning from Trollhättan. It appears that the Saab automobile museum has been saved.  The city of Trollhättan, SAAB AB and The Wallenberg foundations have all stepped up to the plate with a combined bid of $28 million Kroner or $4.14 million dollars to save the museum from being broken up. Hemmings Motor News reports that some individual bids for cars were being accepted, but it is not known if the sales will go through or if all of the cars will remain in the collection. Saabs United reports that over 500 bids were submitted for the museums collection of cars. So right now the good news is, that even if Saab does end up going away at the end of bankruptcy proceedings, the history of the brand will continue on. 


Source: Hemmings Motor News, Saabs United

By: Austin On 07:59

Continue Reading

Hot Rod of the Day: 1932 and 1930 Ford Model As.

Here's a sort of old meets the new. A relatively stock looking 1930ish Ford Model A, with a very much traditional 1950s look 1932 3 window (deuce coupe) Model A.

By: Austin On 19:47

Continue Reading

Barrett Jackson to auction JFK Hearse

I'm sure everyone remembers the Barrett Jackson Scottsdale auction  from January 2011 when a 1963 Pontiac Bonneville naval ambulance was sold. A rare vehicle sure, but it was claimed to have been the very ambulance that carried President John F. Kennedy from Andrews Air Force Base to the White House hours after his assassination in Dallas, Tx. Mystery surrounded the car and the lead up time prior to the sale. Was it really the car? Some say yes, lots of facts pointed to no. No one really knew for sure. Either way, the car sold for over $100,000 though no where near what the seller was thinking he'd get.

That brings us to the 1964 Cadillac hearse pictured here. This hearse has a solid, verifiable, and most of all documented history that it was in fact the very hearse to carry President Kennedy from Parkland Hospital in Dallas to the airport to be transported back to Washington D.C.

However, this time around O'neal Funeral Home documented the cars history. The 1964 Miller Meteor bodies Cadillac shows less than 50,000 original miles and is in fantastic condition and shows only 3 owners from new. The hearse has been for sale for a while, going through several auctions being offered for as high as $900,000 in 2007 with no sale. So it should be interesting to see what the car will fetch when it rolls across the block that is the Barrett Jackson circus in a few weeks. I'm sure the car will get coverage on Speed, so make sure you watch January 15th-22nd, 2012. We'll keep you updated.

Source: Hemmings Motor News. Picture: Barrett Jackson.

By: Austin On 07:39

Continue Reading

Rumble down under

Welcome to Murray Country from Bandit Films on Vimeo.

Very cool video from our friends in Australia featuring an American car collector and his 1970 Plymouth Superbird. 

By: Austin On 13:36

Continue Reading

And you thought American La France only made fire trucks

Here's an interesting story from our friends over at Hemmings Motor News. So you thought that American La France only built fire trucks? Think again. Between the years of 1907 and 1914 ALF actually did build speedsters for consumers to buy. These of course being speedsters on a grand scale, as they used the traditional frames and engines from their fire truck counter parts which were heavy duty to say the least. It's not clear how many were built, but they are definitely few and far between. We recently came across a 1914 model at a recent car show for the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix this past July. As you can see from the Porsche 356 parked next to it, there's nothing small about this speedster.

(link via Hemmings)

By: Austin On 08:15

Continue Reading

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to Autobahn Automotive News. In this blog you will find some of the latest news to come out of the automotive industry. We will have product anouncements and news from all corners of the world, event happenings, and even some automotive history. So sit back, put on your driving gloves, and let's hit the gas!

By: Austin On 13:22

Continue Reading