1952 Nash Rambler Country Club Coupe "Lois Lane"

Hey Jeff, can you tell us a little about your car? Absolutely. This is a wonderful car. It's a 1952 Rambler Country Club Coupe. It's the first successful compact car in the United States. Marketed as a luxury model. It's got a 172 fly-induction motor, three on the tree, and it drives like a dream. It's much easier to maneuver than the bigger early 1950s cars. It's a pillarless hardtop. They only made a hardtop and a convertible in this model. This came with the lock and glove locks, which is normally an option, the clock, the weather eye, deluxe trim on the seats. Big thing about the weather eye, it's called conditioned air. It's not air conditioning, but it's conditioned air because the air flows through the cowl rather than through the engine compartment. That is an air scoop? Yes. For the interior air? Strictly for the interior air. They were way ahead of everybody on that. Air conditioning was just getting started. Actually, the first air conditioning was done by Packard in 1939, but it was kind of a crude unit. It cost, I believe it's $379 option. In today's dollars, that's about $6,000. It was in Esquire magazine. It was in Vogue. It's easy to drive. You don't need a steering wheel that's three feet across because it doesn't have power steering. In the cars in the 1950s, most did not have power steering. They were kind of a bear to drive at low speeds. Parking, well, that's another thing altogether. It's not a big displacement. I believe it's 70 horsepower. And how many cylinders? Six-cylinder flathead. It's the Flying Dutchman motor, but it's more than enough at highway speeds. They claim it'll do 80 miles per hour. Never went there. Never went there, but it'll do 65 all day long on the highway. Very good. Runs very nice. This car is Lois Lane. We picked that name because Lois Lane drove this car in the original Superman series. You have a clock. Here's your AM radio. Of course, an ashtray, a cigarette lighter. Here's your glove box. Oh, look at that thing. Pulls out. It's a locking glove box, which was an option. And that's a three on the tree, but it comes right out of the dash. Yes. That is very interesting. Look how easy this drives with no power steering. I mean, I can do it one-handed. Like the Studebaker or any other car of this era, the wheel would be this wide. Let me tell you, you don't push buttons or turn the radio when you're driving the darn thing. You keep both hands on the wheel because they can be a bear. They're nice at highway speeds because you're moving, but when you're parked and you got to pull out, it's difficult because that wheel just won't turn when you're at slow speeds like it does at higher speeds. Well, that was how they put power steering. They put a three-foot diameter steering wheel in them. That's right. That's for leverage. You needed Popeye arms to manage the thing. But this car drives like a modern car, as close as you can get to having a modern car in 1952, that's for sure. This one will hold a full load of luggage. It's got a big enough trunk in it. Yeah. It actually, it's very roomy compared to modern cars, it's very roomy. The hood ornament out there, that was designed by Petty and he's known for designing the original 1930s, 40s pin-up calendars. He designed that hood ornament. Interesting. How on earth do you find these cars that are in this condition? It always amazes me. You keep looking. You keep looking. My brother Frank and I are on, God knows how many different notifications. A lot of it comes from club people and if you're in the club and you build relationships with people in the club, if we're in the Studebaker club, the Nash club, the Packard club, the Kaiser club, and when cars come up, like we would do ourselves, we wanted to go to somebody that's not going to restaurant it, not just looking to flip it, but somebody that's going to buy that car and enjoy it and be a good curator of it.