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1951 Chevrolet Utility. Chassis Number: 157321 . Reg no.…
Sale Title:
Auction House:
Auction Location:
Melbourne
Date:
2-Dec-2007
Lot No.
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Description:
1951 Chevrolet Utility. Chassis Number: 157321 . Reg no. unregistered . When Henry Ford closed down his factories in 1927 to re-tool for the introduction of the new Model A to the replace the venerable Model T, General Motors, which has owned Chevrolet since 1917, neatly trumped the Ford offering by introducing a six cylinder overhead valve engine in their new car in 1929, whilst Ford remained faithful to a four cylinder side valve engine for their new Model A. This engine powered over a million cars in its first year and by 1931 had helped Chevrolet to overtake Ford in the sales stakes, a position it retained with only two exceptions until World War II. Chevrolet continued to use this engine until 1953 when it powered the first of the Corvettes. In Australia General Motors Holdens had produced car type utilities in their range including Chevrolet and the smaller Vauxhall, sold under the Bedford name plate pre-war. The post-war Chevrolet Utilities were based on the popular and practical Chevrolet sedans, the 'Fleetmaster' and 'Stylemaster' and filled a need in the GMH range for a 'Ute' a size larger than the newly introduced Holden utility. This delightful example of the ever popular Chevrolet Utility has been the subject of a total 'ground-up' restoration in recent times to concours winning standards. While the quality of the restoration is to an extremely high standard, it is the story behind the scenes and the gentleman who carried out the restoration that make this example particularly collectable. Although built in Canada and sold new to Australia, by some strange twist of fate, the very same gentleman who restored this Ute also carried out his apprenticeship with Chevrolet working with exactly this type of vehicle. Surely there is no better person to restore a vehicle to original and concours standards than the person who built them in the first place.
Estimate:
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Price:
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Category:
Unclassified