Andy Griffith driving a Model A roadster pickup

Hmmmm...Your memory is correct about that scene. Jan had supposedly just left the Draft Board, where his final request for exemption from military service was refused. He left in a bad mood and was driving too fast and recklessly when he plowed into the back of that truck. 'Dunno if that's exactly how it happened in real life, but it happened that way in the movie. And we all know how true to the facts movies stick. I haven't seen the movie in 30 years or so, so my memory about it is a bit hazy. Very depressing as I recall. For some reason the film doesn't seem to make it to the air waves much. Maybe a copyright issue or a beef with the studio that made the movie???
Jan Berry's mind was all messed up after that accident. I don't see how he could have later served in the military in any capacity with the mental damage he incurred - at least by what the movie shows. I'll have to look up Jan's bio and see what actually happened in that regard.
'Sorry to have deviated from Model A's. Try though I might, I just couldn't cough up a believable connection between Jan Berry's Corvette accident and Model A Fords. Opposite polar ends in the automotive world.
Marshall
 
A "Tudor" car, in the context of classic Ford vehicles, refers to a two-door sedan model


Note that the official name for the Victoria is Victoria Coupe.


My 1929 Town Car is designated by the state of California as a Four Door Sedan.


Bob
 
Note that the official name for the Victoria is Victoria Coupe.
Bob

So if you call it a "Vicky" in print, you'll be frostily corrected?

Kind of like Miss Peachbottom in the 4th grade?

Not to draw any allusions.

Nomenclature is pretty standard and widely understood, even if not "official." Can we keep it this way for convenience in communication?

I'll call it an "82A pickup" even if the 82A refers to the cab, the bed has its own number, and the frame sub-assembly it's own too.



Joe K
 
This may just be more dusty cobwebs in memory, but I seem to recall reading in either "The Restorer" or in one of Victoria Club newsletter years ago that when the Victoria Coupe was introduced in late 1930, Ford called it exactly that = the Victoria Coupe. But as 1931 wore on, the name was simplified to Victoria. I wonder if there had been confusion between the Victoria Coupe designation and the normal Coupe that caused this move by FoMoCo? I'm pretty sure Ford never referred to this body style as a "Vicky", not officially anyway. It is a natural nickname for the Victoria (Coupe), though, isn't it?
Marshall
 
Every so often I see an ad on Craig's List for a convertible coupe. The price is always less than the same car when it is properly called a roadster.
 
"Every so often I see an ad on Craig's List for a convertible coupe. The price is always less than the same car when it is properly called a roadster."

In the mid-1960's when all Model A guys were nuts over roadsters, roadsters, roadsters, you would see parts for sale in "Hemmings Motor News" advertised as: "Roadster rear fenders", "Roadster decklid", Roadster hood", "Roadster side splash aprons","Roadster front bumpers", etc., even though the same parts would fit any number of Model A body styles, especially a coupe. By advertising the parts as being for a roadster, the sellers thought they could get more money for them than if they had advertised them for a coupe. Each "HMN" issue was full of such blatant nonsense designed to snare the uninformed with the magic word "Roadster". Hilarious...
Marshall
P.S. I wonder how many of those roadster-obsessed guys from the 1960's could even fit into one now???? :) :) :)
 
Last edited:
Yes, Roadsters are a TIGHT fit!! Not easy to pop in and out of with the top up:)

In regards to the Vickies, I always heard the older guys in the early 70's (the WWII age vets) referring to them as 'Bustle Back Coupes':)

I guess because they looked like those dresses you'd see ladies wearing from pictures of the 1890's.....The ones that made their rear ends high and mighty!
 
Back
Top