Passing the torch while honoring Dad

To appreciate this point more fully, Bob Natale’s 1931 Nash Victorian convertible sedan is only one of three that the members of the Nash Car Club of America are aware exists.

Natale knows nothing about Civics. What this retired engineer from Towson recalls is a 30-year journey rife with patience, waning interest and ultimate success that culminated in the acquisition of his 1931 Nash.

“My first correspondence was in 1976, responding to Hemmings news advertisements,” Natale said. “There was one available out of Canada sometime in the ’80s that they wanted $25,000 for, that I wasn’t ready to spend the money for then.”

Natale kept a membership with the Nash Car Club but eventually let it expire. He wasn’t looking as hard anymore and figured that there would have to be more at work than mere luck. In June 2008, he stumbled on what looked like a potential lead in Seattle.

 

“The challenges were just keeping my eyes open. We saw it in Hemmings on a Friday and made [the owner] an offer on Monday,” said Natale, who had to complete the sale on the integrity of the photographs and on the word of the seller.

Just like his own sentimental reasons for purchasing the car, the 1931 Nash had a history of its own, including a curious monogram stenciled on the driver’s side door.

“The original owner I’m told was a lady who was an interior decorator on Staten Island, New York. I think it might be her monogram,” Natale said. “She had a gardener. And the car was put in the hands of the son of the gardener. He sold it to a man in New Jersey in the late ’60s. He bought the car for $800. He had it for about 10 years, and in the late ’70s he traded it. The dealer put a new top on it and put it to auction. According to the latest owner, they considered it a piece of art, and they kept it in their atrium.”

Natale said if his parents were around today, they’d probably have very different impressions of the car.

“My father said when he owned it he could beat anybody in second gear. He would probably have reminiscences of it. He had this car when he was a young single man,” he said. “When they got married, my mother decided it wasn’t a proper car for a man to have with children. He really didn’t own it that long. She wouldn’t ride in it with the top down. She didn’t think that was proper for a lady.”

And while Natale has yet to put the top down, he said it has more to do with a certain celebrity car collector than with his mother’s sense of propriety.

“I’m kind of like Jay Leno,” Natale said. “Jay Leno had a car like this, and he said he never put the top down. He will wrinkle clothes but won’t wrinkle tops.”

What do you drive?

A 1931 Nash Victoria convertible sedan.

And why do you drive it?

I drive it because it’s the car that my father owned. He was single and courting my mother at the time. It was the car he had when they got married.

What makes this car so special?

I talked to a Nash enthusiast up in Pennsylvania this summer. He said whatever you find in the club, there is usually twice as many out there. The club has this one and two others of this model registered. It has 25,711 original miles.

 

What’s the most memorable driving experience?

I took it up to my 50th high school reunion. But other than that I’ve had it at one little show.

 

What was the first car you owned?

The first vehicle I owned … my twin brother and I owned as [Johns] Hopkins students … was a ’57 Chevrolet two-door.

What’s currently in your CD player?

I’m not into audio like most people who restore these and put big audio systems in. That car will be lucky if it has an AM radio in it when I’m done with it.

And your first ticket? What was it for?

I have no idea. I really haven’t gotten too many tickets. And I really couldn’t say.

 

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