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Car Of The Day: February 5, 2010; Majorette '75 Excalibur Series III
Topic Started: Feb 5 2010, 05:39 AM (337 Views)
Swifty
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The Mustang II is a Mustang too!
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Today's car of the day is Majorette's 1975 Excalibur Series III.

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Wikipedia
 
The Excalibur automobile from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the first of the retro 'contemporary classic' or neoclassic cars, based on the 1928 Mercedes-Benz SS. A prototype premiered at car shows in 1963. The body was fitted on a Studebaker chassis and used a 5362 cc Chevrolet engine.


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For more information and pictures of the real car please visit: Cadillac Eldorado &

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An interesting choice from Majorette, and one has to wonder why they chose the neo-classic as opposed to just replicating the original Mercedes-Benz that would likely be better known in the home market of France. However, Majorette was trying to make inroads into the US market at the time so that could possibly explain some of the odd choices they made during the time period.

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Excalibur Classics
 
The story begins in 1963 at Studebaker where Brooks Stevens had been employed as design consultant by the president, Sherwood Egbert. Raymond Loewy also worked for Studebaker at the time and he had just completed his styling work on the Avanti.

One day Egbert telephoned Stevens to ask him to prepare some special automobile projects; these were for exhibiting at the various motor shows to be held over the forthcoming year. Brooks remembered the conversation well, Egbert was saying: "I can't manage to get Loewy in on this one, you'll have to help me..." The outcome of this was a trio of Studebaker Larks, a black and pink convertible known as "Mademoiselle", a vehicle called "Yachtman", and a "Town Car" featuring central roll-over hoop and a vinyl half-roof. Stevens also dressed up a Hawk Gran Turismo for the display but not one of these cars made any worthwhile impression at the Chicago Motor Show at the start of the season.

The next show was to be the New York in April and for this one it was imperative that he find something a little more explosive. "...to attract people to the stand. Without a real eye-catcher they would walk straight past and not even glance in the right direction".

Stevens decided that the time had come to create a special automobile. Sadly, it was at this time that Egbert was struck down with cancer and replaced by his sidekick, Byers Burlingame."Burlingame and I got on very well so I asked him to send me a Daytona chassis- the best chassis around at the time, and one which boasted special suspension. Its front axle was overloaded in the original design but I figured that if I could find a way of moving the engine backwards to a certain extent then the assembly would become better balanced.
So Burlingame sent me a Daytona chassis at Milwaukee and I got to work on my designs, taking a great deal of inspiration from the Mercedes SSK. I loved Mercedes cars and personally owned a 1928 SS Phaeton. My idea was to create a vehicle along similar lines, using contemporary running gear and selling for a very competitive price. I said to Burlingame: 'I'm going to build you a contemporary classic', to which he replied: 'Great...but what exactly is a contemporary classic?' I replied: 'Well, it's a new old car'...and the conversation stopped right there, Burlingame hanging up the receiver in obvious dismay! It had been a brief discussion, but as a result the Excalibur was born!"

The chassis that Stevens received at Milwaukee was from a heavy-duty Studebaker Lark Daytona convertible, with 109 inch wheelbase, assisted disc brakes and the supercharged 289 cu in. (4,750 cc) 290 hp power unit used by Studebaker up until the advent of the Avanti. Although the chassis had nothing particularly modern or innovative about it, it was well suited to the narrow bodywork of the vintage roadster-style car that Stevens had in mind.

William "Steve" Stevens recalled: "I built the first (Excalibur) prototype for Studebaker when I was still at school. David, my elder brother, was still involved in competition with my father at the time, so I built that car up in six weeks with the help of Ray Besasie and another friend. I took care of things mechanical, Ray shaped the aluminum bodywork and the other guy generally assisted us."
Brooks Stevens added: "They moved the engine back by about 29 inches, which put the driver almost in the back seat of the Lark Coupe, so we also had to move the steering and pedals back and modify the suspension geometry and spring and damper rates at the same time."

The result was a sensation: the "Mercebaker" which was smaller and lighter than the 1928 Mercedes SS which it mimicked, but every bit as fabulous! The flexible exhaust sections had been bought in Germany from Mercedes's own supplier, the seats were modified Studebaker items, the dashboard instruments were from the Hawk GT and the radiator grille emblem was the famous cross in a circle which Brooks had used on his first competition Excalibur Js. It was christened "Mercebaker" because Studebaker had been a Mercedes distributor for some time, although the chromed badges at either side if the hood/bonnet read Studebaker SS.


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ivantt
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New casting? Quick! Take it apart!
A very interesting car in life, and a very nice casting by Majorette. But I just can't see it being successful as a diecast. You have to give "Special Mention" to Majorette for the surprising effort.
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harlans toys
matchbox
nice model but wheels are far to big.
some wheels like on a tomica or a thin wheel sf model would look good on it
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james_autos
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Minivan
Even if it was made at the time when Majorette was trying to enter the U.S market, it's still a strange choice considering the bulk of what they produced was every day cars.
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