American neoclassic cars: reborn in the USA

What all of these neoclassic protagonists shared was a tacit acknowledgment that while the modern motor car had come of age as an efficient, safe and reliable means of travel, it was quickly losing its appeal as a symbol of individuality and pure recreation.

This trend was reflected in the high prices already being achieved by the great classic cars of the pre-war era: by the beginning of the 1960s, it was becoming fashionable to collect and restore the rarest and most glamorous cars of the ’20s and ’30s, although only a few genuine connoisseurs had the dedication to drive and look after a Duesenberg or a Mercedes SSK.

Thus, it appeared that there was a niche for a vehicle that would bridge the gap between the old and the new: cars created in the image of the greatest pre-war vehicles of a long-past era, but that drove (and could be maintained) with the ease of modern machinery.

The 1967 Excalibur SS, powered by a Chevrolet Corvette V8 © Getty

The grandaddy of the neoclassic cult has to be the 1963 Excalibur, brainchild of industrial designer Brooks Stevens.

Styled to look like a 1928 Mercedes-Benz SSK, but based on a humble Studebaker chassis, the first 300bhp, Corvette-engined Excalibur SS was very fast and became the car of choice for all-American secret agent Derek Flint.

Showbusiness types as widely divergent as clean-cut Tommy Steele, Tony Curtis and the pornographic film star John Holmes owned Excaliburs.

If the spare and basic cycle-winged Excalibur SS of the 1960s had a certain charm, they had become bloated and hideous by the ’80s: the TV series A Man Called Sloane showcased one of later iterations on this long-running theme.

The former Chrysler stylist Virgil Exner shares equal bragging rights (or blame) with Brooks Stevens when the question of who kicked off the neoclassic craze arises.

Duesenberg was momentarily brought back to life with a dramatic saloon car – here at the 1968 Boston motor show © Getty

Having already proposed a ‘modern’ Bugatti called the Type 101C, based on the very last post-war chassis from Molsheim, in 1964 he authored a feature in Esquire magazine that mused on how modern interpretations of marques such as Mercer, Duesenberg and Stutz might look.

On the strength of this story, Exner was then hired to style an all-new Duesenberg on the chassis and running gear of a 7.5-litre, 440bhp Chrysler Imperial limousine.

The Duesenberg name carried such a fine reputation, it was inevitable that somebody, at some point, would stage a revival.

The first of these made its debut in 1959 when a Mr Kollins of Detroit built a dramatic one-off coupe body on a 1950 Packard chassis and fitted it with a Duesenberg straight-eight engine, yielding an alleged 400bhp.

The revived Duesenberg Corporation of Indianapolis was formed in 1966, with Fred ‘Fritz’ Duesenberg – son of August Duesenberg, whom with his brother Fred had founded the original company in 1913 – as chairman of the board.

The split-’screen Stutz Blackhawk revival was beloved by a phalanx of stars including Elvis Presley, who bought the very first, and Liberace © Getty

The new model was to be a super-luxury four-door sedan in the modern style, rather than a straightforward ‘retro’ design like the Excalibur.

Exner’s shape was a mash-up of contemporary and 1930s American styling sensibilities.

Its flowing wheelarches housed chromed wire wheels that, shod with special, oversized 17in tyres, somehow managed to disguise the obesity of the car.

It was, claimed its maker, the longest production saloon car in the world, at 20ft 4¾in, and boasted more head- and legroom, wider seats (trimmed in cashmere) and a bigger boot than any of its rivals.

At 6000lb, it was half a ton heavier than any other American car.

European dalliances in the neoclassic scene included Alfa Romeo’s Gran Sport Quattroruote Zagato

Twin fuel tanks gave a 32-gallon capacity, but with consumption in single figures it probably needed them.

The hedonistic specification included six-position powered seats, mahogany dash panelling, an ‘autopilot’ system (although it wasn’t specified exactly what form this took) and ‘four-season’ climate control.

Painted in burgundy with a vinyl roof, the prototype was launched at the Sheraton Hotel in Indianapolis and then went on a tour of the country clubs of Texas.

At $19,500, the Duesenberg was double the price of a new Rolls-Royce, yet at launch the maker claimed it already had 25 deposits of $5000 each from serious buyers.

The first of these was chewing-gum tycoon Phil Wrigley; Elvis and Jerry Lewis soon joined him.

The Arkley SS was a glassfibre-bodied sports car with MG Midget or Austin-Healey Sprite underpinnings

A proposed 50 cars were to have been produced in the first year, increasing to 200 in 1967.

Limousine and convertible versions were planned, but the project hit trouble when the prototype was seized by US Marshals and it was revealed that Duesenberg had failed to pay any of its salesmen commission.

Exner’s efforts were not wasted, however.

He reprised his Duesenberg style for the Stutz Blackhawk, a plush two-door coupe with gold-plated interior fittings that almost stood on its own merits as an evocation of a classic American name.

It mixed retro features such as side pipes and freestanding headlamps with modern styling, featuring bodywork built in Italy on a Pontiac Grand Prix chassis.

The outrageous Panther De Ville

It seems entirely appropriate that the first owner of a Blackhawk, once the world’s most expensive automobile, was Elvis Presley; it was reportedly the favourite car in his massive fleet (he had five, and even gave them away as presents), and the last he ever drove.

Frank Sinatra, Muhammad Ali and Sammy Davis Jnr were other notable Stutz owners.

Europe has not been immune from the genre, either.

You could argue that the 1969-’78 Volkswagen 181 ‘Thing’ and the Vignale-bodied Fiat 500 Gamine were neoclassical designs, the latter likely inspired by the 1965-’67 Alfa Romeo 4R, or Gran Sport Quattroruote Zagato.

Like the Duesenberg, the creation of this faithful but not slavish evocation of an Alfa 6C-1750 was the result of a magazine article, in this case a 1964 issue of Italian motoring title Quattroruote that proposed the idea of a Zagato-bodied, ’30s-style roadster based on modern Alfa Romeo Giulia 1600 TI mechanics.

Cover the long nose and wide rear wheelarch of the Archer, and its Fiat 124 Sport Spider origins are clear to see

Drum brakes and centre-lock wires gave the 4R an authentic feel, and the 92 that were built definitely rank among the more noble efforts in the neoclassic pantheon.

Although it would be a stretch to mention the Arkley SS, the Dri-Sleeve Bugatti or the Opus HRF in the same breath as the Excalibur or the Stutz, the UK is probably the second home of the neoclassic – if only because of Bob Jankel and Panther.

If his J72 was a respectable Jaguar SS100 evocation, then the De Ville is harder to make a case for.

Handbuilt at the rate of two a month, this 17ft-long, 4500lb Bugatti Royale pastiche cost £22k more than a Silver Shadow – and the price quadrupled between 1974 and the car’s 1985 demise.

Some 62 examples were built (including seven two-door convertibles and a single fixed-head coupé) around Jaguar components, a tubular ladder chassis and BMC ‘Landcrab’ doors reskinned in aluminium.

The Spartan II had a T-top roof and more manageable dimensions from its Nissan 300ZX donor

The Excalibur’s strongest challenge probably emerged in the shape of the Florida-built Zimmer Golden Spirit.

It had no connection with geriatric walking frames, but was the brainchild of Paul Zimmer, a businessman who had made his money in housing: by the 1970s, he’d amassed so much money he decided he wanted to branch out into ‘fun’ ventures such as yachts, motorhomes… and cars.

Zimmer was inspired to build a neoclassic after buying an Excalibur in 1978.

He liked the idea, but felt he could do better and two years later the Zimmer Golden Spirit was born in a factory in Pompano Beach, Florida.

Available as a coupe, convertible and a truly horrific four-door saloon, the Zimmer range would sell healthily for nearly a decade, benefitting from exposure in Dynasty as Blake Carrington’s car of choice.

The Chevrolet Camaro-based Phantom by the Johnson Motor Car Co

Basing its vehicles around the 5-litre V8 drivetrain of a Ford Mustang, the original Zimmer outfit would likely have continued in production had the parent construction company not hit trouble in the late ’80s.

The specification was appropriately hedonistic.

The wire wheels were chrome-plated and the car’s painter signed his name minutely in the coachline. The steering boss and the Zimmer mascot were 22-carat gold-plated.

Latterly, Zimmer built a conversion of the Pontiac Fiero called the Quicksilver, but its real legacy is providing the inspiration for an increasingly grotesque breed of neoclassic landfill, some of which, incredibly, is still with us today: take a look at the Phillips Berlina, Clénet S1, Classic Tiffany, Spartan II, and the Johnson Motor Car Company’s Phantom if you have the stomach for it.

Hardly distinguishable from each other, most of these travesties of the automotive world plunder their centre bodywork from everyday GM and Ford fare; add some curving glassfibre wings, running boards, a generic upright chrome radiator and a set of bolt-on wires, and it’s a done deal.

The spectacular Zimmer Golden Spirit began life as a Ford Mustang – Zimmer Motor Car Co ran from 1980-’88 and 1997-2020

A rare exception is the Archer, produced by Archer Coachworks.

These simply feature a Fiat 124 Spider body (complete from firewall to rear wings) plonked on to a chassis, followed by the obligatory flowing fenders, grille, flexi-pipes and wire wheels.

Who buys these cars and why is truly a mystery to me, but I suspect that most wouldn’t know a Mercedes-Benz SSK if it ran them over.

As a way of parting daft people from their money, though, such objects of visual pollution have their place in the world.

They say nostalgia is not what it used to be. Neither, it appears, is bad taste.

Images: Getty/Classic & Sports Car Archive

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Martin Buckley

Senior Contributor, Classic & Sports Car