HEMMINGS AT 60 AND GOING STRONG

When it came time to put the Hemmings Motor News 60th anniversary issue together, the cover image was a no-brainer: Roll out the trucks. To longtime Hemmings readers, the lineup will look very familiar. Beginning with the February 1979 issue (Hemmings’s 25th anniversary year), an illustration, penned by Russell von Sauers, of Hemmings’s 1936 Dodge, Ford and Chevrolet delivery trucks became a mainstay on the brown kraft paper cover of HMN.

When HMN went to full-color in the 1990s, the old trucks were sort of shoved aside and didn’t appear again in all of their green-and-yellow glory on the cover. For the February 2014 issue, we righted that wrong, and to further show our respect for this iconic trio, we put together a seven-page feature on the trucks, detailing each of their histories and showing off some additional views of the interiors and engine compartments… for better or worse. At one time, these trucks all ran, but time sitting idle in the Sibley Shop, Hemmings’s vehicle display, has not been kind. When it came time to shoot the photos for the story, the Chevrolet would move under its own power, but a battery gone kaput kept it from starting without a jump. The Ford had a blown head gasket, and the transmission had a habit of staying locked in gear. The Dodge, meanwhile, was missing its oil pump, and its distributor had been looted to get Hemmings’s rally-racing 1934 Dodge delivery on the road.

There are rumblings among the staff about getting these trucks on the road again for the company’s 60th year – maybe even out to an event or two. We’ll keep you updated if that happens.
In the meantime, check out the 60th anniversary edition of HMN – it hits newsstands nationwide January 14 and is arriving in mailboxes around the country already. Inside, you’ll find some great Hemmings-related recollections from readers (including the story about the De Lorean in the bedroom previously featured here); biographies of the men who built and kept Hemmings Motor News alive – Ernest R. Hemmings, Terry Ehrich and Ray Shaw – stories about working at HMN from some of our longest-serving and most valued employees, as well as a two-page tour of our facility in Bennington.

There’s also a smattering of the usual stuff: coverage from the Bonhams Quail Lodge Auction in Carmel; a sports car profile about a 351 Cleveland-powered Iso Grifo Series 2; and a cool Tools and Supplies page showcasing old automotive diagnostic tools found in our own museum. If nothing in Hemmings‘s 112-page magazine section excites you, you can always find something that does in its 400-plus pages of classified ads!

 

photo credit: © 2014 Daniel Strohl / Hemmings

text credit: © 2014 Mike McNessor / Hemmings