888-310-8020, OPTION 3
ASK HAGERTY
You ask the questions; we provide the answers I heard something about the
Marx Brothers racing a Duesenberg in the 1920s or ’30s, but the details escape me. Anything you can offer?
The race to which you’re refer-
ring was a high-stakes showdown between Zeppo and Chico Marx’s 1928 Mercedes-Benz S 26/180 boattail speedster and Hollywood talent agent Phil Berg’s 1931 Duesen- berg Model J dual-windshield “barrelside” phaeton in October 1932. According to automotive historian Griffith Borgeson’s account in a 1980 issue of Automobile Quarterly (Volume 18, Number 3), the Marx Brothers spotted the Duesen- berg outside entertainer Al Jolson’s house on Sunset Boulevard, where Berg and his wife were playing bridge, and stopped to challenge Berg to a race. That challenge grew into a $25,000 wager, approximately $2 million today. The parties agreed to compete on a desert course at
Muroc Dry Lake, California, and one morning — before a crowd of more than 1,000 people that included Jolson, Gary Cooper, Clark Gable, Mae West and Carole Lombard — Berg’s stripped-down Duesenberg trounced Zeppo and Chico’s Benz. As a side note, the Marx Benz is part of a private East Coast collection, and in 2011, it won the Mercedes S Class at Pebble Beach.
did, and one of lead’s functions was to protect the engine’s valves and valve seats, so it’s a good idea to add a lead substitute whenever you gas up. Lead substitutes don’t function quite as well as lead did, but they help, especially with cars that are known to overheat.
I’m having a tough time track-
ing down a cold start injector for my 1987 Corvette 350. Any idea where I can find one?
You’re not alone. Cold start What is your opinion about
adding lead to gasoline for cars built in the 1950s and earlier?
These automobiles were built to
run on leaded gasoline, which is no longer available, except for use in small aircraft. You used to be able to find lead additives, but those have gone by the wayside, too. Now we have lead substitutes. Unleaded gasoline heats an engine at slow speeds far more than leaded gasoline
56
HAGERTY.COM
injectors for Corvettes from that era are pretty tough to come by, since no one is manufacturing replacements, and the few used ones that surface on eBay and Craigslist are snatched up almost immediately. You’ll have to be diligent and patient and keep searching. Meanwhile, you will find great informa- tion and support on sites such as
corvetteactioncenter.com. No doubt you will stumble across a video or two describing how to bypass the cold start injector when it wears out, but we don’t recommend taking that route.
Have a question for us? Send it to Ask Hagerty at askhagerty@
hagerty.com, and you might just see it featured in the magazine.
PHOTO: RM AUCTIONS
PHOTO: RM AUCTIONS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76