What do you think about this press release stating certain luxury car owners get special parking privileges at a sports arena? Is it unfair to other car owners? Is it the wave of the future? There was a period when Cadillac owners received special treatment without a corporate buy-in. My, hot times have changed.

PRESS RELEASE:
LEXUS CUSTOMERS NOW HAVE RESERVED PARKING AT WACHOVIA CENTER IN NEW DEAL WITH COMCAST-SPECTACOR
 
(Philadelphia, PA – December 10, 2007) Lexus drivers in the Greater Philadelphia Region now can have priority parking at the Wachovia Center as part of a new sponsorship package between Lexus and arena owner Comcast-Spectacor.
 
“Lexus continues to be a great advertising partner of ours,” said Comcast-Spectacor President Peter Luukko. “As we continue to look for new and exciting opportunities for our fans and our sponsors, Lexus remains a terrific partner.

“As a result of this new arrangement, we’re able to offer our customers who drive Lexus cars an opportunity to park in a specially designated space with other Lexus owners.”
 
As part of the new three-year advertising and sponsorship package, Lexus drivers can park in a designated Lexus parking spot in either of two lots in the Wachovia Center (C-Lot and E-Lot). Additionally, these new parking sections will feature Lexus advertising prominently featured on the light polls.
 
The new sponsorship package also includes advertising signage inside the Wachovia Center where Lexus already owns the naming rights to the arena’s private, exclusive courtside club. Lexus commercials will also air during Philadelphia Flyers and 76ers broadcasts on Comcast SportsNet. Additionally, Comcast SportsNet will now air a Lexus sponsored “Sports $ense” segment regarding the financial sports news.
 
Comcast-Spectacor (comcast-spectacor.com) is the Philadelphia-based sports and entertainment company which owns the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL), the Philadelphia 76ers (NBA), the Philadelphia Phantoms (AHL), the two arenas in which their teams play, the Wachovia Center and Wachovia Spectrum, four Flyers Skate Zone community ice skating and hockey rinks and Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. In addition, Comcast-Spectacor is also the principal owner of Global Spectrum, the fastest growing firm in the public assembly management field with more than 70 facilities throughout the United States and Canada; Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage service provider; New Era Tickets, a ticketing and marketing company for public assembly facilities; Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company; and 3601 Creative Group, a full-service in-house advertising agency. In a partnership with Disson Skating, Comcast-Spectacor annually produces 10 nationally televised figure skating spectaculars on NBC.

Recently, I was forwarded a link to a CNN article featuring famous musician Neil Young and his plight to install an electric/biodiesel powerplant in his 1959 Lincoln.

Apparently, the car’s 430-cid V-8 gets 10 mpg, and Johnathan Goodwin, who is yanking the engine in order to install the hybrid engine, says the new power source will get 100 mpg. He expects the change to take 45 days.

Now, I’m all for doing things to make sure our kids have as clean of a place to prosper as we did (I’m an Eagle scout who has planted more trees and picked up more garbage than there are old-car fallacies to be shared), but this article used Young’s project as a chance to attack the old car hobby. Phrases written or quoted by author Sean Callebs include “gas-guzzling,” “big polluter,” and “old, inefficient,” and, like many other who make similar assumptions, infers that American cars are gross polluters.

American cars are not necessarily gross polluters. I don’t keep up on modern cars, but even I know that, since at least the early 1990s, Ford has been selling cars that run on E85, and GM has been experimenting with electric cars on the road for years. And Honda, Toyota and Nissan all offer large SUVs, some even big trucks with “gas-guzzling V-8s,” to people just interested in driving them only to pick up kids from soccer practice or fetching basil from the local Piggly Wiggly. Why aren’t these companies considered guilty of offering “gross polluters?” If these companies are so good, why can’t they offer a car that gets the kind of 50-mpg-range gas mileage that Geo Metros offered in the 1990s? People who make the assumption need to visit more than a Honda or Toyota dealership to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the modern automotive market.

But I digress. Our old cars are not used frequently. Therefore, the amount of fuel they actually burn and the pollution they create is negligible. I seriously doubt Young is driving his Lincoln enough to worry about the amount of fuel it consumes.


Also, car collectors keep their cars in a finer state of tune to better preserve and enjoy them. And good running cars get better gas mileage and spew less emissions. Many non-car people treat their cars like appliances and don’t do preventative maintenance. Their cars only go in the shop when there’s a problem or their cars stop working altogether.

And when it comes to being gross polluters, I’m not sure this is true, as I have never seen an emissions test for a 1959 Lincoln, Model T or 1965 Corvette. My personal emissions test experience is limited to a 185,000-mile 1978 Chevrolet Malibu Classic coupe with a 305-cid V-8 that always passed with flying colors. At the same time, I knew many people with much newer four-cylinder cars that struggled to come under the limits dictated by the test.

Furthermore, re-using old cars instead of using new energy to build new cars saves energy. Even crushing cars takes energy, not to mention the power used in processing the metal.

There are many collector cars that get good gas mileage, and by that, I mean fuel ratings in the 20 mpg range or better. Corvairs, Ramblers, Model T’s and A’s, and even many big, six-cylinder-powered 1950s and 1960s sedans can get good gas mileage.

So let’s stop letting uneducated citizens make assumptions about old cars. In today’s dark, political climate when everyone’s rights can be robbed by a loud but influential minority, give people the facts and call them on the carpet when they abuse them.

After giving a presentation last weekend to the Minnesota Region of the Antique Automobile Club of America, I noticed that the interest in auctions seems to be growing even more. I'll credit that to the televised auctions that have been cropping up with increased frequency. From my experience this weekend, I can only assume that the interest is wide-spread, so I figured readers of this blog would be interested in the press release I just received and posted below:

Russo & Steele's Monterey sale will be aired on ESPN Classic beginning tomorrow, Nov. 20, at 10 pm EST. It looks like the auction has been cleverly broken up into themed episodes, including "fast Fords," "Super Shelbys," "Chevy Performance" and "Mopar Mania."

I've always advised people to attend a couple auctions before bidding just to see first-hand how it all works, and this is a good way to get a primer before buying a bidder's pass and raising your hand in the air. Of course, there's no replacement for being there in person, either.

If you check out this televised auction, let me know what you think!

After a two-year hiatus, I’m looking forward to walking the newly remodeled fields of the Antique Automobile Club of America Eastern Fall Meet at Hershey. When I’m not combing the grounds for Cadillac parts, I’ll be looking forward to meeting readers at our spaces in the Orange Field (spaces 24-28) and the Green Field (spaces 1-2). I hope to see many great car parts for our Swap Meet Showdown contest and hear great tales of car part conquest. Several contributing authors to Old Cars Weekly will also be meeting at the Old Cars Weekly spaces at Hershey, so if your timing is right, you may get to meet one of your favorite authors.

But there’s more to Hershey than walking through acres of parts and cars for sale and taking in the Saturday-only car show. There’s also The Hershey Auction at the Giant Center by Kruse International, which will be held Oct. 11-13 to benefit the AACA Museum. A new RM Auctions sale at The Hershey Lodge and Convention Center on Oct. 11-12 will offer an additional opportunity to check out great cars, and in a dry setting if the weather at Hershey follows its regular wet pattern.

If you’re still looking for more action at Hershey, you’ll be happy to learn the Blackhawk Exposition Sale has returned to Hershey. Rob Williams will be setting up some of the collection’s finest automobiles in the Great American Hall of the Hershey Lodge. Many of the hobby’s most important figures gather around the spectacular cars of the Blackhawk Collection to socialize and gaze on beautiful metal, and to contemplate the prospective purchase of one of these fine cars. This display will be open evenings Oct. 11-13. You can bet I’ll try to attend all of these great events at Hershey, and if I’m lucky, I’ll do it with a Cadillac part in one hand and a Hershey bar in the other!

While at the Barrington concours in Barrington, Ill., last weekend, I encountered several examples of a feature that drives me absolutely nuts: club award badges drilled into the firewalls and cowls of vehicles.

The cars being drilled into aren’t just daily drivers – they’re pristine show cars that have been judged among their peers as top-flight examples of their kind. Often times, they are also very valuable cars, in both the historic and financial sense. For the quality of their restorations, cars and their owners have been rewarded with a tiny badge, which is great. But permanently affixing them to the body of a car is not the way to preserve that car for history.

I’m not going to mention the specific club badges I have seen through the years affixed in this manner, because many well-respected clubs are “guilty” of producing these badges.
In earning these badges, the club is rewarding the owner for bringing the car back to its original configuration. All of the wires must be of the correct type, the interior fabrics must be of the original style and the appearance must be as it was in the period the car was built. But adding one of these badges, which were not created in the time period the car was built, is adding a non-original feature. So, by judging a car as being so correct, isn’t it hypocritical to add an item that detracts from the car’s correctness? If it were a non-club badge permanently drilled into the car or even bolted on, wouldn’t the car be docked points for this feature?

I’m not fortunate enough to own a high-point car, but even I have an issue with drilling parts into my daily car or even modifying its appearance or mechanical function in even a temporary way. When I see it on a Classic car or other high-point car, it blows my mind.
Am I overreacting? I don’t think so. What do you think?

A reader asked that, because 1958 Cadillac Eldorado production numbers are lower than those for 1957 Eldo models, are 1958s worth more than 1957 Eldorados? Here's what I think:

For a long time, 1958 Cadillacs were the “black sheep” of 1950s Cadillacs, because many people found them to be very heavy-looking in a time when cars were getting lighter and more airy. Tack on the extra chrome and other trim of 1958 Cadillacs (mainly Series 60 and 62 models), and 1958 Cadillacs looked as heavy as the Queen Mary herself when parked next to more lithe Chrysler and Ford products from the same year. As a result of this prevailing negative attitude towards 1958s, those fans of 1958 Cadillacs formed their own chapter to the Cadillac LaSalle Club many years ago.
 
Today, of course, 1958s have become cherished collectibles for their part in the excess that was GM styling in the late 1950s. As far as comparing the 1958s to 1957s, it’s a close call, but the 1957s still seem to have the edge for their slightly cleaner styling. Either way, Eldo convertibles seem to be back on their way up the price ladder and both are equally appreciated.

What do you think?