When you open your edition of Old Autos, you’re supposed to find ‘Historical Sketches’ on the first page of the second section, but that long and dependable fixture at the paper has come to an end. My Dad, Bill Vance, passed away on Monday September 19, 2022, at the age of 86 as one of Canada’s most respected automotive historians. He had written for Old Autos since its beginning and it was always nice for us to hear, “Your Dad is Bill Vance? I love his column in Old Autos.” Dad was very proud to be able...

Archie and Katherine Haig, who dwell in southeastern Ontario, have owned their stylish 1976 Pontiac Grand Prix LJ two-door hardtop since day one. Archie ordered the luxury cruiser from the GM dealership where he was apprenticing as a mechanic those 45-years ago. Yet, not only was the big Pontiac purchased new, Archie even has images of the Grand Prix’s delivery, sitting on the car carrier at Davidson Pontiac/Buick dealer in Trenton, back in 1976. In its day, the LJ luxury package was a $365 US option that...

Owned by Derek Ebner If ever there was a Mopar car that was loved or hated for both its performance and unconventional looks, it has to be the 1970 Plymouth Road Runner Superbird with its eccentrically-high rear wing and its shark-snout front grille. But to Derek’s eyes, finding such a car was a dream. “It was pretty much the ultimate ‘barn find’ for a Mopar guy like me. I waited all my life for a chance to own a car like this and I wasn’t going to miss such an opportunity.” As the story goes, the...

We left off the story of the 409 in late 1962 with the arrival of B/FX class racers being produced at the year’s end, with hotter cammed engines, with new cylinder heads. For the 1963 model year, Chevrolet did a mild facelift of their family-sized hauler with new grille, tail ends, different bumpers and trim. The sports roof or “bubble top” as it was colloquially named was dropped for 1963. The SS package returned of course, as a big seller. New for 1963 were a couple of race engine developments;...

(Wherein we look at some lesser known movies and TV shows that featured classic vehicles) THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954 movie) If you’re a fan of the old “I Love Lucy” TV show, vintage travel trailers and old Mercs (that’s Mercs as in Mercurys not Mertz as in Fred, the Ricardo’s neighbour on the TV show) you’ll get a kick out of this flick with the red-headed chick. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz basically repeat their TV characters in this film with a few changes. On TV...

The minivan packs the greatest passenger/cargo space into the shortest possible vehicle. Although a few others such as some British manufacturers built minivans, it was Volkswagen that popularized it in the early 1950s. And while Chrysler brought it into the North American mainstream in the 1980s, a couple of Americans had tried the idea back in the 1930s. Buckminster Fuller, brilliant designer of the geodesic dome (dubbed the Bucky Ball), created a motor vehicle he called the Dymaxion introduced in 1933....