By Nigel Matthews

When Porsche introduced the Cayenne SUV in 2002, a number of Porsche purists and even automotive journalists felt that the company was making a big mistake entering the luxury high-street SUV market.

If they had done their homework, they would have known that this was not Porsche’s first four-wheeler capable of tackling muddy fields. Dr. Ferdinand Porsche built three prototype-tractors in 1934.

The success of these well-built and typically Porsche “over-engineered” machines led to the production of a range of tractors fitted with one- to-four-cylinder engines.

The one-cylinder model was called the Junior, the two-cylinder the Standard, the three-cylinder the Super and the four-cylinder the Master.

There was a model suited to every farmer’s needs. Porsche partnered with the tractor manufacturer Allgaier Brothers; they built 35,000 Porsche tractors until Mannesmann (now owned by Vodafone in a $185 billion US takeover in 2000) took control of building the Porsche tractor in 1956. Mannesmann continued production until 1963 at which time a total of 125,000 units had been built.

A Porsche "Coffee Train" tractor's smooth lines were not for aerodynamics, but to prevent damage to the coffee plants. Photo: PorscheTractors.com

Approximately 1,000 made their way to North America. One beautifully restored, 1959 one-cylinder, 82-cc. Junior, producing 14 h.p, was offered for sale at RM Auctions annual Monterey event. The estimated sale price was $16,000 to $20,000 US. The hammer fell at $28,600 and included the 10-per-cent buyer’s premium.

The new owner has a magnificent example in a condition better than the day it came off the production line. The air-cooled diesel engines were cooled by a fan-duct system that was driven by the crankshaft-driven generator.

If you have ever worked on a type one Beetle or a Porsche 356, this will sound very familiar.

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld is a huge Porsche collector and attended the 59th annual Pebble Beach Concours, bringing two Porsche racing cars; he achieved a second-in-class win with his 1970 Porsche 908/03 race car. The (slightly slower) one-cylinder Porsche model 108 Junior would make a nice addition to his or any other serious Porsche collection.

By Nigel Matthews

The Russian car Gorkovsky Avtomobilny Zavod — translated from Russian, “Gorky Automobile Plant,” or simply known as a GAZ — was a product of a joint venture between Ford and the Soviet Union which became the largest auto plant in Europe.

The first model off the line was based on Ford’s new Model A, and was called the GAZ-A. The Canadian equivalent likely would have been the GAZ-EH.

The first GAZ I encountered was in 2006 at a Barrett-Jackson auction. It was a 1974 Gaz-13 “Chaika” Limousine used by a Kremlin official. That car surprisingly sold for $43,200 at this all-American show.

I was pleasantly surprised to see a photo of a smaller version cross my desk and wondered how this car, which looked almost brand-new, ended up in Canada. What was the story?

The only way to find out was to call the owner, Mikhail Molchanov. He told me he had owned the 1959 GAZ-Volga in Russia for many years. He left it behind when he immigrated to Canada but planned to have it shipped at a later date.

He purchased two other Volgas to provide a sufficient supply of parts so the car could be restored in Russia, which took three years. When completed, it was shipped to B.C.

This second-generation model has a different grille, with horizontal bars and a large star in the centre. The story goes that one of the Russian generals disapproved of the first-generation grille.

So the designer thought that, if he placed a big star in the centre, the general could hardly disapprove of that and they got away with it. The third-generation cars had the leaping deer removed from the hood, because it was not very pedestrian-friendly. Not many cars are.

If you see this magnificent car — which looks like a cross between a Studebaker and a Ford — on the streets or at a car show somewhere in British Columbia, take a good look at it, because I doubt you will ever see another one in Canada.

Nigel Matthews is the sales and marketing executive for Hagerty Canada

By Nigel Matthews with Philip Powell

For the first time in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance’s 60-year history a white car won the best of show award in 2010.

A 1933 Delage took the honour at the prestigious Carmel, California, event and to be perfectly honest, I did not think the white colour scheme was going to pull it off. However, the car looked stunning and simply glistened all day on the 18th Fairway with a non-stop crowd milling around it.

A car that was born in the depression and restored in the recent recession, the Delage D8S certainly gives a new meaning to the phrase elegance.

In January of this year, at the request of Jim Patterson of Louisville, Kentucky (not to be confused with Jim Pattison of B.C.) I flew to Blenheim, Ontario to the RM Restoration workshops to view and document his one-off 1933 Delage D8S de Villars Roadster.

Patterson had purchased the car at the RM auction in Monterey during August of 2007 for $3.74 million dollars. The car was very nice and had undergone a recent restoration but it was not up to the exacting standards of the Patterson collection, which consists of numerous curvaceous French automobiles, filled with outstanding examples from Bugatti and Delahaye, as well as Delage.

Intrigued by the restoration process, Patterson thoroughly researches each vehicle’s history, and then ensures that the restoration is correct in every detail. In this instance, the vehicle’s provenance is both distinguished and brief, beginning with first owner Aurelio Lerroux, the son of Alejandro Lerroux, then Prime Minister of Spain. The second owner was a Sr. Rico, friend of Aurelio Lerroux and the brother of the mayor of Madrid.

The car then passed to the Gran Hotel Velasquez in Madrid where, oddly, it served as VIP transportation for several years. Later, it was put into storage, hidden from curious eyes for some 40 years, having had just three owners. For sheer glamour, few could have matched the 1933 Delage D8S Roadster, which was the star of the 1934 Paris Auto Salon, it then went to the Delage showroom on the Champs d’Elysees where it was advertised for over 100,000 francs, an exorbitant price in those years.

That the car was a prototype is confirmed by the Coachbuilder concept drawings, which are still with the car. Clearly, Carrosserie deVillars seized a one-time opportunity to showcase their daring concept on the new D8S chassis -the most exclusive and powerful Delage had to offer. The result is a masterpiece, the finest work presented by two of the most innovative French companies of that era. Fortunately, the car’s designers were given an outstanding platform on which to apply their artistry.

The D8S was a marked improvement of Louis Delage’s D8 masterpiece, with a lightened and lowered chassis, a shorter 130″ wheelbase, and an upgrade of the D8′s in-line, 4-litre pushrod overhead valve straight eight to 145 bhp @ 4500 rpm, enough to make it quicker than a blown Bentley of the period.

During the early stages of development, the engineering team was also designing a new military aircraft engine. Deciding to link the two, Delage asked his staff to produce a cylinder head with specially made short springs located next to the valves to help prevent breakage. Even the D8S carburetor was an aviation type, surrounded by heated oil to avoid icing. Interestingly the coil and distributor are from Delco-Remy rather than French supplier Marchal. The brakes are cable-operated although, unusually for the period, they’re vacuum assisted. All of these unique engineering features remain as originally installed and have now been restored to as new condition by the skilled RM craftsmen.

One of the design objectives was to make the hood as long as possible, allowing nothing to interfere visually with the unbroken sweep from radiator to windshield. Typical cowl vents would have marred the effect and so vents were slotted in under the hood, opening into the cowl area to supply fresh air to the cockpit.

A foolproof system assured that the vents aligned with the hood opening mechanism to prevent damage. As a further example of attention to detail, the jack is mounted securely to the steering box. A handy wrench is attached to the fuel pump. Even the headlamps are a work of art, with diffuser lines worked into the silver-plated bowls.

However, it seems likely that they succeeded in designing a car equally impressive with the top up as well as down. Inevitably not everything is what it seems in a restoration of this kind. For example, when Don McLelland, the Project Manager first examined a photo from the Paris show it became apparent that the body chrome mouldings were originally concave in shape. Yet the current mouldings were convex. As the crew disassembled the car, they noted that the structural wood below the surface of the steel skin actually had cut-outs and grooves placed by the coach-builder to fit concave mouldings. RM removed several fill-in wood pieces and repaired the steel door skins to allow sufficient room, then accurately reworked the mouldings.

Patterson’s Delage D8S has now been returned to its original white colour scheme though the finish is extraordinary, even for a renowned classic.

Writing this story and having it published in my name prior to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance presented a problem. I judge at the event and had to distance myself from any conflict of interest, despite not judging that particular class or having a best of show vote, it was simply the right thing to do. Philip Powell and I worked on this project and article and I’m happy to bring this to you today.

Philip Powell is the host of Marque1.com and Nigel Matthews is the sales and marketing executive for Hagerty Canada

Words & Photos by Nigel Matthews

The Steamworks Concours d’Elegance, which stretched from Gassy Jack Square to the west end of Water Street in Vancouver on Sept 4th, was protected by a tank! It was all part of a very well planned display of vintage military vehicles supplied by the Canadian Military Education Centre in Chilliwack.

As you might imagine, the organizers had to answer some serious questions from City Hall before the 36,000 kg (39.7 ton) tank was permitted to place one link of its rubber tracks onto the city street.

The T-55s lineage dates back to the T-34 and World War Two. More T-55s have been produced than any other tank; production figures vary ranging from 42,000 to as many as 57,000 used by 50 countries on both sides of the Iron Curtain. It is estimated that 39,000 are still used in military service today.

If mechanical specs interest you here are a few. Torsion bar suspension, five rubber-tire road wheels are mounted per side. Unlike other tracked vehicles there are no return wheels for the tracks; the track runs across the top of the road wheels on its return.

The V-12 diesel engine is mounted transversely and drives the rear sprockets, just like the Lamborghini Muira! The dimensions are as follows, length 6.4 m (21ft), width 3.3 m (10.8 ft) and height 2.4 m (7.8 ft)

The modified VW Bus with a Cadillac V-8 engine on display half a block from the tank (pictured above), produces 20 horsepower more than the T55s 580-hp. The tank’s top speed is 50 km/pH (30 mph) with a range of 600 km (372 miles). The amour plating is 203 mm thick so door dents are not a problem, but the very small shopping mall spaces of today would be.

As I made my way down Water Street, I met two police officers patrolling their beat and asked them which vehicle on the street they would like to take home? They both replied in unison “the tank”.

Where does one find a second-hand tank? Try tanksforsale.co.uk! You might find a ‘one owner, driven only on Sundays by a little old lady’ example for sale.

Nigel Matthews is the sales and marketing executive for Hagerty Canada

By Nigel Matthews

If you think the Dove looks like the Triumph equivalent of an MGB GT you would be absolutely correct, except it predated the latter by two years.

The Dove name derived from L.F. Dove and Co. of Wimbledon, a large Triumph dealership in London whose owner came up with the idea of building the car.

The exact number built is a mystery. But it is widely believed that Dove commissioned coachbuilder Thomas Harrington of West Sussex — the same people who built the Harrington Alpines — to build 100 examples.

Triumph Dove GTR4 - Flickr Photo: Rally Pix

Starting with a Triumph TR4, the craftsmen at Harrington removed the trunk lid, rear bulkhead, tonneau panel and gas tank. With these panels removed, Harrington fitted a full-length roof, rear hatch door, and end panel made out of fibreglass.

The fuel tank was moved into the spare wheel well with a filler neck and cap located in the end panel to the left of the licence plate.

The high roofline and relocated rear bulkhead and fuel tank made room for two rear seats that could seat two small children in relative comfort. With room for a weekend’s worth of luggage in a compartment below the rear hatch lid, the Dove had the makings of a practical family sports car.

The Triumph Italia, built in Italy by Vignale, is the only other Triumph from the ’60s that comes to mind as being this rare. Triumph Italia was built as a left-hand drive car and the chance of an Italia sighting in North America would be that much greater than spotting a right-hand drive Dove.

I am aware of only a couple of Doves in the U.S. and perhaps a maximum of 10 in Europe. Triumph thought that the stylish Italia posed a great threat to their sales market, so the solution was to stop the supply of rolling chassis to Vignale. History often has a habit of repeating itself. The Rootes Group (Sunbeam Alpine), which had a long relationship with Harrington, forced them to stop making the Triumph Dove.

By Nigel Matthews

Wooden shipping crates and automobiles date back to at least 1908.

Henry Ford was a firm believer in wasting nothing. He specified the type of wood and the dimensions of wood for use in the crates in which his suppliers shipped parts to his factories.

When the crates were empty, they were dismantled and wood was used in various areas of the Model T car he was manufacturing. Ford also produced charcoal from the waste wood under the brand name Kingsford — still a leading brand used today in the U.S. and Canada.

Ford Factory c.1914

Wooden crates and the shipping of automobiles from the U.K. led to Billy and Reggie Rootes venturing into the car-manufacturing business. They began taking control of struggling British car manufacturers and built a huge empire producing vehicles under the names Hillman, Humber, Singer, Sunbeam, Talbot, Commer and Karrier.

In 1920, the Rootes brothers were the largest distributors of cars and trucks in Britain. Their U.K .distribution methods were so successful that they moved into worldwide distribution.

By 1927, 6,000 wooden crates were leaving their distribution centre located in Chiswick. The majority of British car manufacturers were using Rootes to export their products, living up to their advertising slogan “cars packed, shipped and delivered to all parts of the world.”

The practice of shipping cars in wooden crates continued until the mid-1960s.

In 1973, Japan’s K Line shipping company built the European Highway, the first roll on, roll off, (RORO) purpose-built car carrier capable of carrying 4,200 automobiles. Today’s car carriers are capable of carrying 8,000 vehicles.

K Line "Thames Highway" Car Carrier

If you look closely at the top image of the Morris Minor packaged and ready for shipping to Vancouver’s Fred Deeley Motors, you will notice that the wheels and tires were removed and placed inside the car to reduce the crate height.

Above the Morris in the picture, you can see the MG sports cars were low enough to leave on the wheels and tires.

Porsche débuted it’s new and unique four-door Panamera to the public at auto Shanghai April of 2009, and is now available to anxiously waiting customers here in Canada.

The Porsche 911 is the core of the company brand, so it is no surprise that the Porsche designers have incorporated the timeless 911 shape into the four-door Panamera.

A 911 four-door sounds a little odd but, believe it or not, it is nothing new as the first one was built 42 years ago. Dr. William Dick, a Porsche dealer principal in San Antonio, Texas, wanted to give his wife something special for Christmas. The Dick family garage housed a fleet of cars that included a number of Porsches, a Ferrari and a Rolls-Royce, but not one of them was a four-door sedan. Dick sent the general manager of his Porsche dealership on a trip to Italy; his task was to visit the various coachbuilders with his idea of building a four-door Porsche 911. Only one of the firms took this request seriously and returned some design prints.

A contact in the U.S. suggested that Troutman-Barnes of Culver City, Calif., could handle such a project and that is exactly what happened. They began with a new 1967 911, cutting it in half through the roof and floor.

They built a new “B” pillar and added a “C” pillar to hang the rear door from. The rear doors were standard 911 front doors mounted in reverse and on opposite sides. A reversed left front door became the right rear door and vice versa. The Porsche factory made two non-adjustable rear seats for the car. The Fuchs aluminum mag wheels were replaced with chromed steel rims with hubcaps, to give it a more appropriate sedan look and to handle the additional weight.

Other luxury touches included the installation of electric motors, normally used to power the sunroof, into the doors to operate the windows.

Mrs. Dick received her four-door 911 for Christmas in 1967, at a cost of slightly more than for a Rolls-Royce.

Two cars were launched in 1959 that had a profound impact and will be remembered by many in Britain as one of their favourites.

The Mini was one and the other was the Ford Anglia 105E. The Anglia was a design way ahead of its time. The very distinctive rear window, which had a reverse slope, and the overall shape and functional rear fins gave it the appearance of a small, modern American car, not that there was such a thing as a small Ford in the U.S. of 1959.

Ford went out on a limb with colours that had not been seen before in conservative England. These included primrose yellow, light green and some of the Deluxe models were painted in an attractive two-tone combination.

Ford put a lot of thought into the design of the rear window. All too often the rear passengers in small cars had to endure less than perfect comfort due to headroom heights. The reverse-rake rear window solved that problem; the longer roof offered improved headroom and comfort, and it also helped with improved rear visibility in wet weather.

The engine was completely new and quite a departure from the side valve, flat-head of the 100E. The new engine was a high revving, over-head-valve, that produced 39 horsepower at 5,000 r.p.m. The four-speed synchromesh manual transmission was the first of its kind fitted to a production saloon built by Ford’s Dagenham factory.

The Anglia was built in a number of body variations, including a two-door, four-door, wagon, van and pickup. There was a Europe-only model called the Sportsman; this model carried its spare tire on the back, similar to the North American Continental kit.

English built Fords will be one of the celebrated marques at the 2010 All British Field Meet which takes place on May 22nd at Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver, BC. Come and see if you can find a Ford Anglia on display.