Another look at Don Stanford's "The Red Car," 1954

Hi folks -- I just finished re-reading Don Stanford's The Red Car (1954). Below is what I said about it in the 2nd edition of The Automobile and American Life. I have a few fresh comments to add afterwards.

Just as Felsen’s Hot Rod stimulated a generation of young people to build their own customized coupes and roadsters, Don Stanford’s The Red Car, first published in 1954, whetted the appetite of many a young person to own a two-seated imported sports car. These vehicles, typically small and by American standards often underpowered – unless one was talking about higher-end Austin-Healys, Jaguars, or Aston-Martins – were the antithesis of the dinosaur in the driveway. Driving a sports car was for the most part a top-down and noisy experience, but above all the driver was an uncommon individual in an era of conformity. Perhaps that is why during the Cold War The Red Car became the best-selling car book of all time, with more than two million copies sold, many purchased by teenagers who purchased 45 cent paperback versions from Scholastic Book Services. 

            At the heart of The Red Car was a Red MG TC, rescued from a junk pile by a Colorado rancher’s son with the assistance of a French–born mechanic with a troubled past. Young Hap Adams was taken by a wreck that had “looked almost alive. It had a personality all its own – an arrogant, insolent, challenging way of looking you right in the eye and saying, “Drop dead!”³¹And indeed, with the help of Frenchy Lascelle the car is rebuilt and later successfully raced. While the pair experiences a hair-raising crash after which Hap holds on to a fender as Frenchy steers the car to the finish line, it is the life-changing experience for Hap that is both striking and enduring:

As Hap moved off to meet his parents he cast one last fond glance at the little red car. Battered it was, and dirty, and weary and worn; but still with that arrogant cocky “drop dead!” way of carrying itself. It had been a long hard day, and the little car looked a happy tired athlete after a game well played, but she still looked ready to go anywhere, with anybody, to do anything.

And that, thought Hap with deep satisfaction, is what a real sports car is. Not just a specially bred racing machine, useless for any other purpose; but a car you could race all day and win with, and then wash a bit and proudly take your mother to dinner or your girl to the movies that night. A car you could live with, and could love; a luxury, yes, but the best of all possible luxuries to own.³²

^{A second look:}

^{Several themes struck me as I re-read The Red Car. It turned out to be a wonderful experience, as I was totally immersed with the author and main characters Hap and Frenchy as instructions were given on how to use the tachometer in shifting and take corners at speed. I can easily see how young people, after reading this work,  pressured parents in buying a sports car. Coincidentally, I did that when I purchased a tired 1959 MGA 1500 in 1966. I simply had no idea what I was getting into!}

^{First, a point was made at the beginning of the book by Frenchy that the Red MG-TC was a far better quality that American cars of the same era -- thicker metal, more robust, and indeed built to last a long time, perhaps forever. It is an argument that I am not so sure of! But maybe it was true to some degree, although the maintenance of these vehicles had to be more demanding than a 1949 Chevy or Ford. SU carbs and Lucas fuel pumps were exotic, and parts were not at every corner no matter where one lived. But if all it took was to use a hammer gently on the fuel pump to get it running again, I guess all was well that ended well!}

^{Secondly, the story has a tone in it of class antagonism,} particularly as Hap is the son of a middling rancher, while the  the two chief antagonists  are from Chicago and ultimately will not finish the climatic race. But there is upstart 16 year old Hap and Steve Norton, the owner of an yellow MG-TD, the first foreign car to prowl the streets of Bullet. Note that the fascination with MG cars in the U.S.  began in the 1930s with ARCA, the Colliers, and a small group of Yale and Harvard graduates in the northeast. By the early 1950s the number of middle class followers is increasing, but it is folks like Briggs Cunningham who are leading the sports car way. Perhaps it was class aspirations for the need breed of  sports car owners who wanted to rise in status was resulted in the allure of  sports cars? 

And of course  one main character was Frenchy, a once famous amateur racer from Europe who is now a repair shop owner and mechanic in small Bullet, Colorado. He possesses dormant racing skills, a wooden box of Bugatti tools,  and an abundant knowledge of automotive technology.  He proves to be as exotic as the foreign cars in the novel. And while the class tensions also translate into attracting the local female beauty, there were town elites like old maid Miss Pringle who came around to accepting the sports car.

Finally, this time around I did not like the way Stanford characterized the majority of sports car owners as "very nice people."  I really doubt that.  These are very competitive folks, for the most part hungry for recognition and driven by the excitement of speed. A bit too romantic a view, I believe, of the reality of the times and sports car enthusiasts whose interests were tied to status and class. Indeed, these are people who desire exclusivity, not inclusion.