James-Wahl Motors

Chrysler 300 Club International had these done. https://chrysler300club.com/rcmstuff/clubstore/pics.html

1970 Jaguar E-Type. Northern Illinois, not all flat

A Highlander was offered in 1961. I’ve only ever seen one and heard of another. I think I saw a ‘62 as well. Never saw one from the 50s.

Agree on Leatherique if you need to soften up cardboard hard dried out leather. Requires multiple applications but it works. Lexol is good for maintenance of leather that has not completely dried out.

Now I can’t remember if I actually met him in person but I did try to buy a car from him in the late 80s. I was in Florida then, just a punk kid, though seeking university education. He wasn’t impressed. Then he offered to buy my very similar car. Which I still own.

The ‘60-‘61 Chrysler has an impressive curved backlight. With the tailfins there is no question about which way the car goes.

https://www.tripplite.com/company/company-history Tripp-Lite still exists. Headquartered in Chicago. They even have an antique car in their lobby with Trippe lights fitted. I forget the model.

So sorry to hear this. I had the privilege of working with him in person on a couple writing projects in 2000. I didn’t know who he was when I signed on. We stayed in touch occasionally over the years, he visited us in Chicago and we stayed at their place in Los Angeles. He was a warm, enthusiastic and modest guy. A wonderful man who made a lifelong impression on my wife and me.

You could be correct also! I just looked in the ‘61 Chrysler owner’s manual. The station wagons do use this location for the rear window lift switch. Confirmed it’s the defogger switch location in hardtops and sedans, if equipped, and just learned the defogger has two speeds.

Does anybody have or can point me to complete results for the 1957 Daytona Beach Speed Trials? I found the Top 5s in Sports Illustrated. Mostly interested in the rest of Class 6 and Class 7 Flying Mile and Standing Mile Acceleration. Also Century Club runs. Thanks!

They all have it. It’s for a rear window defogger, which was an option. If the car doesn’t have the defogger then there is a dummy knob there, no switch. Opposite side has “ANTENNA” for a power antenna. Also an option. Also gets a dummy knob if the car didn’t have a power antenna.

Getting back to the original topic, a few of you are denying GM changed course on the ‘59 styling because of Chrysler. I had always heard that story. I’m looking at the book Designing America’s Cars: The 50s by the Auto Editors of Consumer Guide with Jeffrey Godshall. It is quite specific, naming names and has a few photos of full-size GM clay models from early 1956 intended for 1959 production that were a continuation of the 1958 style. Some quotes from the book: “the younger designers, led by future design vice-president Chuck Jordan, revolted after spying Virgil Exner’s clean-lined radically finned ‘57 Plymouths through a factory shipping yard fence. They scrapped what GM had been planning for 1959 and started over.” They also refer to it as a “crash program,” “frantic efforts,” “late -‘56 frenzy to outfin future Chrysler products,” that they “threw out the ‘58-based designs on which they started,” and it was a “hurried corporate scramble to change design directions.” There’s a lot of detail and I’ve found these guys generally do their research.

Earlier this century we were out east in our 1961 Chrysler 300-G visiting family after a 300 meet. Then we were waiting to catch a ferry from Connecticut to Long Island to visit a Chrysler collector friend. Went to start the car to load up and…nothing! I was going through the troubleshooting process when a woman drove up in a Chevy Tahoe headed for the ferry and asked if we needed a jump. I said I didn’t think so. She said did you try jumping the relay? I said yes. She asked did you bang on the starter with a hammer? I said yes. Turns out she worked in sales for an automotive electric concern. I had a tow rope so I convinced her to tow us on and off the ferry, and the ferry operators to let us do that. I called our friend who met us on the other side with a rebuilt starter he had on the shelf. As we contemplated changing the starter right there, he said have you ever push started one of these? I said no, but it’s a cast iron Torqueflite automatic with a rear pump, so it’s supposed to work. He said he hadn’t tried it either but it would be a lot easier to change the starter in his garage than this parking lot. So we pull started it with his Subaru Brat. Fired right up! We had one more small ferry to catch. Left the Chrysler running, which the ferry guy wasn’t too happy about but understood when we explained the situation. Made it to our friends place, went out to dinner and changed the starter the next day. That starter is still my car.

The local Triumph club guys pushed back on me on this too. I wanted to like the car. I did find a contemporary road test of the TR7 that did mention the gross understeer, so I don’t think I’m crazy. If this continues to be a fruitful discussion/hijack I’ll see if I can dig that up. My points of reference include another competitor: I took my drivers test in a fairly new 1982 Fiat Spider, which other than styling is a more appropriate competitor than the X1/9. I flogged that thing for most of its first 15K miles before my mom sold it (I owned one of my own later on.) A great handling car, and quicker and faster than the TR7. Also, while I don’t claim to be a racing-level driver, I posses basic track skills. I’ve received a lot of track driving instruction and have had numerous track days around the country in many cars over the last 20 years in a professional capacity. So, yes, that was with newer cars, which that part might not be fair to the TR7, but I do work on my own stuff and like the way my E-Type drives! 🙂

Around 2004 I bought a TR7 convertible because I thought they were cool when I was kid, and I was down in Kansas City with an empty trailer. It was indeed a pretty awful car. It actually ran pretty good, but - I know this is going to sound cliche - it had some electrical problems. Mainly the alternator would occasionally not charge; a local rebuilder eventually figured it out - on the second try. My main issues with it were it was slow and handled poorly. I took it to an autocross; turned into the first corner and the car kept going straight. Had new tires on it. I sold it on a Saturday morning in 2007 for about what I paid for it, hopped on a plane and drove home in an E-Type which I still have.