Four Cylinder Club, Glendale, California, 1956

Thanks once again to Charles Phoenix, who sent in these slides of a 1956 car show held by the Four Cylinder Club at the Grand Central Air Terminal in Glendale, California. The Four Cylinder Club was based in Glendale but had chapters all across the U.S. It was a general foreign and sports car club that, despite its name, didn't limit membership to owners of 4-cylinder cars, as some of the following photos will show.


Here's a proud owner polishing his brand-new pelican red and black 1956 Karmann-Ghia. It's so clean it's hard to believe it just made the trip from New Mexico. Karmann-Ghia production began in late 1955, so they were a pretty rare sight in the U.S. in 1956.


Next to the Ghia is a Simca Coupé-de-Ville, a Facel-bodied special based on the Simca Aronde. The better known convertible version was called the Weekend, a car I'd like to think Jean-Luc Godard was familiar with. Apparently some sports car owners felt the need to dress sporty too.


Next, after an Austin-Healey 100, is a beautiful Mercedes-Benz 300S Roadster, one of just a handful built between 1952 and 1954.


And then, after a few Jaguar XK140s, there's a 1935 Packard Convertible Coupe (definitely more than four cylinders there), complete with a family dressed in 1930s style, and an impossibly clean MG TD.



Yet another departure from the subject of VW 1500s, but these photos are just too cool not to post.