Cars We Love & Who We Are
More than the polished parts and hard to find pieces, the special interest vehicles people collect embody the character of each owner. “Cars We Love & Who We Are” profiles individual special interest vehicles and the proud owner committed to its preservation.
Conversations with People We Value
Talking with skilled professionals who support our passion for collectible automobiles.
Roads We Remember
Some roads discovered far from home reward us with a once in a lifetime driving experience. Others are old friends revisited to elevate our spirits and celebrate the joy of life behind the wheel.
In Search of the 7th Royale Series – All the Episodes Here
Conversations With People We Value #29
For some of us of a certain age, recalling the 1960s and 1970s rekindles recollections of passionate pursuits of cars we desperately wanted though not necessarily needed. In those days the path to finding a used high performance or collectible car passed through the dog eared pages of the regional Want Ad Press, the local newspaper classifieds or the classified section of the Sunday New York Times. Except for national magazines (Well beyond consideration for most of us) nothing else existed except maybe the bulletin board at the entrance to the local auto parts store, back when locally owned parts stores existed.
Want Ad Press
Back then good cars when advertised were gone in hours. Wildly eager to beat everyone else to that clean Corvette or 240Z or whatever it was that made our pulse race, we would impatiently troll the newsstand waiting for the bundle of Want Ad Presses to land at the curb. I personally spotted and followed a New York Times delivery truck until it reached its next stop at Rockland Stationers in Teaneck New Jersey to toss out its bundles of Sunday editions that contained the precious latest auto classified ads. It was 1:00 am on that Sunday morning.
Today the classic car buying world would be unrecognizable to our bell bottomed selves of yesterday. Choices of platforms for making vehicles available for sale fill communications channels some of which did not even exist a few years ago.
With that in mind Drivin’ News will take a look at today’s marketplace and compare the platforms now available for finding the vehicle we want. To help us in our journey will be friend of Drivin’ News, owner of Motorcar Manor and experienced classic car sales agent Matt Maisano.
Comparing classic car sales platforms
RM Sothebys auction
Today, whether looking to sell or to buy a classic or performance vehicle, the variety of platforms available offer significant choices far beyond anything we dreamed of in our early car buying days. A broad array of venues utilizing the full spectrum of available media exist with each platform possessing its own unique personality designed to appeal to a market segment with specific characteristics.
The mind boggles when considering how many classic vehicles change hands every day and the vast amounts of money associated with those transactions. […]
Conversations With People We Value #28
A number of weeks back Drivin’ News took a look at the birth and adolescence of the printed new car brochure from 1900 up to World War II.
Mirroring the explosive advancement in automobile design and execution as the Depression ebbed, the new car brochure came of age just as the world plunged into global warfare.
The creative outpouring poised to blossom in automotive literature would stall until millions of men and women would march off to war to save the world from the greatest tyranny civilization had ever faced.
Marked by the exhilaration born of war’s end, American consumerism exploded with an insatiable appetite for things decidedly modern, exciting and innovative.
With a population exhibiting a manifest destiny-like determination to create a better future, the years following WWII ushered in the dawn of the pinnacle period for a dominant American automobile culture and the accompanying golden age of the new car brochure.
As noted in Part I, the dawn of 21st century digital delivery efficiencies would doom the high quality, brilliantly photographed, aesthetically striking and increasingly expensive print bibles of the new car sales effort.
In Part II, Drivin’ News looks back at the high point of the new car brochure genre in the latter 20th and early 21st Centuries.
Evolution of the new car brochure, Paper to Pixel –
Books that sold the American dream
(Part II 1946 to 2010)
1952 Buick brochure
Just like the postwar automobiles they featured, new car brochures in the 1950s radiated a bold vitality with vibrant colors and striking presentations. They embodied the fruits of greater graphic design sophistication, the ready availability of high quality art and the emergence of photography as a powerful creative tool. Brochures grew in size. Artistic representations of new car models grew in size and in scale when compared to the stature of their blissfully confident diminutive drivers and passengers.
Lifestyle dominated every spread with family an important theme. Images on the page in the fifties displayed greater color saturation but continued to be lacking in detail due to period limitations of the printing process.
By the mid-1950s four-color photography gathered support as a tool considered superior to high-end illustration as a source of hero imagery. Research decidedly favored photography over illustration as the superior technique for delivering visual […]
Cars We Love & Who We Are #22
What is it about a life that defines a person? I have come to believe that the world around us mimics how we define ourselves. While at a large regional classic car and hot rod event, I encountered a man showing a stunning 1912 C-Cab Ford truck hot rod. Knowledgeable, affable and friendly to all, he offered me a look at a gallery of photographs displaying vehicles he had designed and built as well as others he had modified after purchasing them for his collection. He possessed a visionary flair for bringing all types of mobile machinery to life. Clearly from his interactions and conversations with others that I observed, the world viewed him for the respected and gifted hot road visionary and fabricator that he is. Oh yeah and he was in a wheelchair. No big deal, certainly not for him. Meet Rory Sevajian.
A hot rod life defined by abundance not lack
Rory Sevajian with 1912 Ford C-Cab
When Rory Sevajian flashes his ready and welcoming smile, you find yourself drawn in and comfortable in his engaging company. The fact that regardless of the event, he has brought some stunningly unique thundering eye candy that he designed makes him and his creations a magnet for interested observers and show trophies.
His passion for building unique performance and special interest vehicles came to life in Rory’s early teen years.
Rory says, “As a little kid, I was always interested in all these things. I hung around with all the older kids that had cool cars and learned from them.” Also, Rory’s father used to take him to the New York Auto Show at the New York Coliseum in the early 196os. Rory recalls saying, “I was really young. The cars there were nothing like you’d ever seen before. Even to this day, today when you go to auto shows, there’s no comparison to what was done in the 50s and 60s.”
As a young guy without a lot of money, Rory developed a philosophy that continues to guide his efforts today. Quote: “Start out with junk and make it into something special.” Almost as a design principle, even Rory’s most striking creations humbly start out as “junk. Then, benefitting from the magic of his transformative vision he brings to life something very special.
So for almost […]
Here’s this week’s question:
Most taxis found in American cities in the mid-20th century were made by one company. Name the company.
Answer to last week’s question:
In “Little Old Lady from Pasadena” what car did she drive and what was the car’s color? – Shiny red Super Stock Dodge
About the blogger
Burton Hall has written for an automotive client list that includes Audi, BMW, Jaguar, Maserati, Ferrari, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Peugeot and Volvo. He has also written for The Washington Post, AutoWeek, Corvette Monthly, Jaguar Magazine, BMW Magazine, Hemmings.com, Hagerty Magazine and numerous auto restoration buff books.
A member of the Society of Automotive Historians, he, in 2014, created and has since taught the adult school program “Collectible automobiles as a passion.” In 2020 he originated and has since produced the Drivin’ News blog.
As a classic car hobbyist, He owns a 1961 Corvette that he bought in 1967, a 1953 Jaguar XK120MC Drophead Coupe that he restored after finding it disassembled in a barn in 1980, a 2003 BMW 330i he bought new and a 1951 MG TD that presently serves as a planter and centerpiece in his garden. All are great drivers, except the MG which has a few bugs.
RECENT POSTS
02/02/26 – A Winter Rebirth? Deciding Whether to Recondition My Aging Daily Driver
01/12/26 – Aging Beloved Daily Driver Quandary: Refresh or Replace
12/08/25 – Visiting old writings from the Hemmings bible
11/10/25 – A Car Guy Offers Lessons in Taking Misfortune in Stride
10/20/25 – Intuitive Genius Wielding a Hammer and Chisel
09/05/25 – Classic Autos and Autism, Sharing a Journey to Betterment
08/11/25 – Every Car Tells a Story, Here are 6 Good Ones
07/20/25 – 2025 Mille Miglia; Hot Town, Summer in the City
07/01/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale – (Part 3. Episode 20 – A Snowball’s Chance)
06/14/25 – In search of the Lost 7th Royale – (Part 3, Episode 19 – Frozen Freeway to Freedom)
05/29/25 – In search of the Lost 7th Royale – (Part 3, Episode 18 – End Game)
05/15/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale – (Part 3, Episode 17 – The Best Laid Plans)
05/01/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale – (Part 3, Episode 16 – Bugatti Royale Resurrection)
04/17/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale – (Part 3, Episode 15 – The Ultimate Barn Find)
04/09/25 – In Memoriam – Driving My Sister to Mobile
03/20/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale (Part 3, Episode 13 – Return to a Heart of Darkness)
02/20/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale (Part 2, Episode 11 – A Wounded Bird Points the Way)
02/06/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale (Part 2, Episode 10 – Harrowing Escape into an Unknown Future)
01/23/25 – In Search of the Lost 7th Royale (Part 2, Episode 9 – Priceless Bugatti Lost in the Fog of War)
01/10/25 – Automotive Crimes and the Man Who Solved Many of Them, Talks AirTags, Fobs and Much More Pt. 2
12/04/24 – Jaguars Trans-formation into the New Coke of Automobile Re-branding
11/21/24 – New York City Automotive Crimes and the Man Who Solved Many of Them Pt 1
10/20/24 – The Charming Terror of Driving on Ireland’s Back Roads
09/14/24 – A Secret Sauce and Successful Recipe for Mixing Kids and Classic Cars
08/25/24 – America’s First Car Show for Kids?
08/01/24 – Classic Trucks Loaded With Memories
07/11/24 – Making It Happen: Collectible Car Fair for Kids and Teens
06/20/24 – This Mr. “T” Sells 100-year old Fords to German Car Enthusiasts
06/06/24 – When Car Rustlers Stalk eBay, What Does eBay Do?
05/18/24 – Loving but Leaving the Blue Ridge
03/28/24 – Collectible Car Fair for Kids and Teens
03/14/24 – A Sharp Engineer’s Insights Inspires a Quantum Leap in Methanol Injection
02/29/24 – Betraying the Brand or Smart Business? Part II
02/15/24 – Betraying the Brand or Smart Business? Part I
02/01/24 – The Black Adder VI, An Outrageous Hot Rod Bentley
01/18/24 – Defining Collectible Car
11/23/23 – Amish Buggies, Where Worlds Collide but No One Crashes
11/09/23 – An Old Car Guy Goes Face-to-Face With Facebook Marketplace
10/26/23 – What’s a Burton
10/12/23 – Carvana Confusion – Dude Where’s My Car?
09/28/23 – Mobility Matters – Navigating life in a wheelchair
09/14/23 – MG Shatters Records on Hitler’s Salt Flats in the Shadow of WWII
08/17/23 – In search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 8)
08/03/23 – In search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 7)
07/20/23 – In Search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 6)
07/06/23 – In Search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 5)
06/22/23 – In Search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 4)
06/08/23 – In search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 3)
05/25/23 – In Search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 2)
05/11/23 – In Search of the 7th Royale (Part 1 – Episode 1)
04/27/23 – Charlie Ross, Gooding’s Master of the Auction Rostrum
04/13/23 – Trapped by a Forest of Trucks
04/03/23 – Hundred-year old Bulldog, Beloved but Doomed?
03/16/23 – Read the car, not the book and other words of wisdom that pave a path to Pebble Beach
03/02/23 – Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda with one of America’s most important cars
02/16/23 – A Silver Ghost story. Real or Fake. You decide.
02/03/23 – Fanfare for an uncommon man. A decorated soldier passes at 98.
01/19/23 – Dr. Fred Simeone’s Mona Lisa car legacy. Part 2. Fascinating backstories of cars he preserved.
01/05/23 – Dr. Fred Simeone’s love, vision and priceless racing legacy Part 1
12/08/22 – Driving to history, Visiting America’s oldest tavern and the man who saved it
11/24/22 – How to manage down a classic car collection
11/10/22 – Saving the farm, Barry Wood’s beach club in the Blue Ridge
10/27/22 – When the collection outlives the collector, a daughter’s point of view
09/29/22 – Benny Bryant’s 50-years of building Blue Ridge beauties
09/15/22 – Visiting a community built for car enthusiasts
09/01/22 – Reaching the heights of her dreams on the wings of a deHavilland Beaver
08/18/22 – 35 Below, 16 Dogs, 13 Days. Angie tackles Alaska’s Iditarod.
08/04/22 – Let’s create a Concours d’Elegance. OK…How?
06/23/22 – Does original matter anymore?
06/09/22 – Judged the 32 most historically significant cars in America. Do you agree?
05/26/22 – Hagerty automotive heritage dream conference. Gone for good?
05/12/22 – A Devin’s 47-year journey from scrap heap to Pebble Beach
04/28/22 – Hot Road Missionary and his monster machines
04/14/22 – The monster truck that nearly crushed Volvo
03/31/22 – Drank with Arlo. Dated Alice. Tuned Evel’s motorcycle. They call him Pinto.
03/17/22 – Mr. Thomas’s forest of old Porsches, VW buses and more
03/03/22 – Taking the Skyline Drive to explore the dusty attic of Virginia car culture
02/17/22 – Return of the Zipper King
02/03/22 – Karaoke, Elon Musk’s new weapon to fight driving doldrums
01/20/22 – When blue highways turn white
01/06/22 – Blue highways, back roads – If not now when?
12/09/21 – Hot rod love, family style
11/25/21 – Cars & Caffe’s Tony Boniello is always looking to brew up something new
11/11/21 – Randy the Rodfather and his Green “T” hot rod
10/28/21 – Provenance – Uncovering your car’s backstory
10/14/21 – Comparing classic car sales platforms
09/30/21 – Evolution of the new car brochure (Part II)
09/16/21 – A hot rod life defined by abundance not lack
09/02/21 – The man they trust to rebuild history
08/19/21 – Bring what you love
08/05/21 – Exploring our power within
07/15/21 – Evolution of the new car brochure (Part 1)
07/01/21 – The sputtering Mosquito and the Virgin Loretto
06/17/21 – Raymond Loewy’s 1970s Soviet world car adventure
06/03/21 – 90 GTOs, 30 Corvettes and counting
05/20/21 – An inspired venture to preserve American craftsmanship and vintage Airstream trailers
05/06/20 – When the find is the barn
04/22/21 – Man Cave Garage Sale unmasks Covid boredom
04/08/21 – The odd couple in Vinny Plotino’s garage
03/25/21 – Lemans 1978 – A young man’s memories
03/11/21 – A Sherman tank’s incredible journey from Nyack, NY to the final episode of M.A.S.H.
02/25/21 – Jaguar Archive – Preserving the soul of the brand
02/18/21 – Carried away by Bring a Trailer
02/11/21 – Hollywood dentist Dr. George Schweiger’s fantastic stable of future classic car rentals
01/28/21 – And then, Nuccio Bertone signaled for his personal Miura
01/21/21 – Behind the wheel of a time machine
01/14/21 – Wurst Kase Motorsports
01/07/21 – Singing the CarGurus no title blues
12/24/20 – Rebuild it and they will come – The life of Carburetor Steve
12/10/20 – A Volvo Christmas Classic – “It’s a Vunderful Life”
12/03/20 – Carnucopia II – Classic Car Food Drive
11/26/20 – Vintage Cord binds father and son
11/19/20 – NY Route 9D – A sure cure for Covid boredom
11/12/20 – Confessions of a demolition derby survivor
11/05/20 – Sons of Danger – Mad Men on wheels
10/29/20 – VW Bug restoration is no joke. Ask Jerry Seinfeld
10/22/20 – Guatemala and back in a Karmann Ghia
10/08/20 – A classic Corvette and a soldier’s old letters connect to a kid brother’s memories
10/01/20 – American Pickers meets Hunger Games on a country road
09/24/20 – Crash course for an underage driver
09/17/20 – Playboy Bunnies in the rearview mirror
09/10/20 – The journey is the reward
09/03/20 – More than the next chapter, it’s the next book – Life 2.0
08/27/20 – Old School Larry
08/20/20 – In celebration of a life off the leash
08/13/20 – Asleep at the wheel – Rest Stop Recovery
08/06/20 – Rt. 17A – A sweet ride to Sugarloaf
07/30/20 – What’s a”Vineyard truck?”
07/16/20 – The woman picks up where the girl left off
07/09/20 – When time and other things stand still
07/02/20 – Drive-In movies, Back to the future
06/25/20 – Mystery of the vanishing Indian Motorcycle sign
06/18/20 – Dagavar’s Jaguar, the truth at last
06/11/20 – TAKE-OUT, Lifeline to the future
06/04/20 – Henry Hudson Drive
05/28/20 – CARnucopia Food Drive Results
05/21/20 – CARnucopia
05/14/20 – Collectible Car Culture in a Pandemic
05/07/20 – Austin Healey? Nope, It’s Austin’s Crosley!
04/30/20 – Storm King Highway
04/23/20 – Children We Love
04/16/20 – Mustang Madness Revisited
