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The world is full of a vast array and a seemingly never ending
variety of cars and manufacturers. I find most intriguing
the oddball cars that are scarce and not all that common.
Often times I hear about a car or auto manufacturer that I have
never in my life heard of, which prompts me to begin researching
and hunting for information about the car company so that I can
learn more about it. Often the search leads me to ask
various family and friends if they had ever heard of that
particular make or model, to which I usually find someone who
sure enough knows something about that car. When I was
contacted about this particular car, I was not at all familiar
with it and after the usual quick questions to friends and
family, I found that no one else around me knew about it either.
I knew this would be one interesting vehicle to find out more
about. As I corresponded with the owner of the car and
found out more about his story as well, I discovered that he was
just as interesting as his car.
Though
only a Texas resident for a portion of the year, Bill Henry and
his wife Sue have set their roots here in the Rio Grande Valley.
Well, set at least part of their
roots. They enjoy the winter months here at
their home in Port Isabel, which is a big difference to their
summer home located near St. Paul, MN. At the ripe "young"
age of 55 years, Bill is already retired and enjoying the
country. After having served 25 years as a Minnesota State
Trooper, Bill and his wife ventured out to find "paradise".
Pulling a 30ft travel trailer behind them, they crossed the
United States along with their trusty sidekick, Spooky.
Spooky is their cat.
Spooky has joined them on treks all across Canada and to most of
the northern states, from down the East coast and across to the
West coast. Bill figures that Spooky has probably seen
more of the US than most people have. They
spent time during the winter looking for "paradise" in parts of
Florida, Arizona, and Texas and everywhere in between and
finally came to the conclusion that there is no such thing as
"paradise". Bill comments, "There are alot of nice
places but no perfect place." After living through six
winters in the trailer, they decided they needed a more
permanent home to live in during the winter and decided on the
Valley.
Bill grew up
out in the country away from a large hussle and bussle of
roaring cars but recalls back always admiring and liking cars.
"As a kid, didn't we all love fast and flashy cars?" Yes,
we did. Though perhaps not always having or seeing the
newest, fastest, or flashiest cars, he always found himself
working on some sort of car at one time or another. In his
early years, he shares of a summer that he and his brother
turned their old family pole barn into a makeshift auto body
shop. They would get a wrecked car from salvage, track
down parts and rebuild the cars to resell. He recalls
rebuilding about thirteen cars that summer and making some nice
extra income.
Today, Bill owns a couple of nice old
cars, a 1940 Vauxhall that is all original, and a nicely
"modernized" 1948 Chevrolet Stylemaster Coupe. The
Vauxhall auto manufacturer has been in existence since 1903 and
is still producing cars to this day. You probably are not
familiar with the name or car as it is born and made in England.
The Vauxhall company is now in association with Bedford and Opel,
which you may be familiar with as they are associated with
Chevrolet and the GM family today. As Bill explains, the
Vauxhall is referred to as the English Chevy. "The
way the story goes is, in the
1930's Chevy was mass producing parts so fast that they bought
stock in Vauxhall and dumped many of their parts into Vauxhall."
The motor in the Vauxhall is a Chevrolet inline six cylinder and
is original to the car. Most of the running gear appears to be
Chevrolet components as well however that is not certain.
The wheels look like they came off a 1936 Chevrolet. The
Vauxhall is right hand driven, as most English cars are.
Remember they drive on the "wrong"
side of the road in England. It is a four
door car with suicide doors on the front. It has turn
signals built into the door posts, that are a little flag with
an amber light in them. This car also is equipped with a
telescoping steering column. Some very interested options
for a car from the 1940's. "I just drive this car around
town because it has very low gears." The car's top speed is
about 45 to 50 mph, but as Bill puts it, "In 1940 that's
about as fast as you would dare to go with the roads that they
had then."
Bill stays active in the old car hobby and is a member of
various national car clubs. He spends what free time he
has from Spring to Fall touring the country attending all the
old car shows and festivities that he can. We look forward
to seeing and greeting Bill and his wife,
and hopefully soon their car(s),
out and about with us at some of our local get togethers and car
shows. -- L. Olsen
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Some trust in chariots
and some in horses,
but we trust in the
name of the Lord our God. - Psalm 20:7
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