In 1940, Chevrolet offered three trim levels of automobiles: the Master, Master Deluxe, and Special Deluxe, with the latter being top-of-the-line. The GM division built nearly three-quarters of a million cars that year while much of the world was in military turmoil. The seller’s Special Deluxe Coupe is about as original a vehicle as you might find, including the paint, interior, and drivetrain. With just 50,000 miles, it’s in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is available here on Craigslist for $32,000. We appreciate T.J. for bringing this nice survivor to us as another grand tip!
With the results of the Great Depression mainly in the rearview mirror, people had money to spend. That may be why more than half of the Chevrolets sold in 1940 were the more admirable Special Deluxe models, and some 275,000 were coupes and 2-door sedans. The Town Sedan was the most popular at 205,000 copies, which we believe includes the seller’s pride and joy. The car is for sale only because the owner is moving out of the country.
As the story goes, this Chevy was built and sold in California late in the 1940 model year. It was meticulously cared for and (apparently) only driven sporadically to rack up so few miles in over 80 years. As was typical of the day, this Special Deluxe has a 216 cubic inch inline-6 engine rated at 85 horsepower paired with the traditional “3-on-the-tree” manual transmission. Besides the paint and upholstery from the production date, the spare tire is even original!
The photos show the car with both black-wall and white-wall tires. That’s because two sets of wheels and tires will come with the vehicle with the black-wall donuts being on it now. Should you want to go back to the original wheels and covers, you’ll have to buy at least two tires as they’re dry-rotted. The Special Deluxe even comes with its original license plates as a bonus. The seller believes this could be one of the nicest, original pre-war Chevrolets out there – and we’re not likely to argue.
Wow, many of us grew up with Grandpas driving these stock Chevys, Fords and Chryslers, with so many of them just like this one. Then after the 60’s and forward, everyone started chopping them up and building hot rods. It’s just what you did back then. It is a miracle this has survived in this much of an original state. I hope someone buys it and continues the fine aging process. This is a true slice of automotive history!
Vacuum shift!
That thing is clean! I still can’t drive a tree shift, so double anti-theft for me!
No different than driving a 3 or 4 speed floor mounted shifter, it’s still an “H” pattern.
Right… at 16, my first car (actually a Chevy 3100 pickup) had 3 on a tree. If you know how to work the clutch, shifting is not an issue.
Just gotta take your time with a column shift, and be deliberate; you’re not likely to win any races in this thing anyway.
It’s nice but at that price it should be. I would be a buyer if it was 10 gs less. Still very nice.
Sweet car. I am wondering if the sale of this car is doggie-approved. Maybe if you negotiate properly doggie can move with the car…
Definitely a nice looking 40 Chevrolet. However, looking at the ad again, I notice that the seller states: “ It still has the original plates on it.” If he thinks those black plates with yellow/gold letters, etc. are original, he is wrong. California did not issue those plates until more than 20 years later.
A lot of folks had problems with the vacuum shift, back in the day.
I have a 41 Chevy Special DeLuxe business coupe with the original vacuum shift on the tree. You sure aren’t gonna win any races with that set up but it’s a lot of fun to drive!
That body stovebolt? style was popular with 1950’s drag racers. I knew a guy that ran a 426 Max Wedge Dodge engine in his and ran modified or gas classes. Hopefully this piece of history will NEVER be modified in any way.
I agree: LET IT ALONE!!! I despise coupes and much prefer four-door sedans; that said, THIS one deserves both entire preservation and loving occasional driving enjoyment. The 1940 Chevrolet was a rather profound face-lift on the venerable ’39 body — making a psychological preparation to ready folks for that totally new 1941 (which ran, in a few quises through 1948). These 1940 G.M.s always rather shaded their ’39 roots, and tried to reach toward ’41. And to think, I saw these in the showroom when they were new, and marvelled at each “tomorrow”-ish styling-concept: I remember seeing these as a reach forward in automobilia, at a time in which the boxy and tall 1920s and early 1930s vehicles still dominated the roads. Younger folks, viewing these as a peek back into “history”, cannot perhaps appreciate them as the “radical” advances into the future they represented at the time! Perhaps more 1940s survived without becoming late-1950s hot-rods, because the sleek streamlining of the 1939 and that art-deco swooping grille, made it more appealing to rodders, than the rather squatty upright-squared-off grille of the 1940. These were strange cars when they came out — particularly after we got to see the 1941. The ’40 was rather like standing with one foot in Ohio and the other in Indiana. I had an experience like that not very long ago. I had to go to the very north end of Vermont, to pick something up — when abruptly, after well beyond a hundred miles farther than I had been led to expect, the highway teed-off, leaving only the option of east or west. I seemed to have been driving for EVER to the north, and when I finally did reach my destination, I had noticed the great number of Quebec licence-plates. I asked the homeowner just how close I was to Canada, and he replied, “You’re IN it. As soon as you set 10 feet onto my property and drove onto my grass, this is Canada — I’m Canadian. The highway out front is in the U.S., and if you drive further west, you will see an intersection that turns to the right, and Customs and Border-Patrol RIGHT THERE. The farms across the highway from me are in the U.S.. Out back of my barn, you see access to another road, which is Canadian. You notice, I do not have a driveway accessing that road you came in on. Technically, you’ve crossed the border illegally. Welcome to Canada!” I was on an errand for someone else, and I let him HAVE it about sending me into Canada, when he had assured me that I was going only to northern Vermont and implied that I was not yet anywhere near the border. He thought the situation was hysterical. I laughed later, too. He’s only 69, but anything more than about 50 miles is beyond his endurance, even as a passenger. Whatever will he do when he is my age?? “Here”, he says, “Could you carry this upstairs? — it’s too heavy for me.” Keep in mind; he’s 6’4″ and I used to be 5’6″, before I shrank to 5’5″. He tells me that I’m “timeless”, and that I haven’t changed since he first knew me 30 years ago. TRUST me: I’m NOT that guy I was in the 1990s. I was around in the 1930s: how far does he expect me to LAST? But I confess that I do rather enjoy being able, still, to function as I do, and to do so many of the things I’ve always done — I’m BLESSED. And I am most grateful that they still manufacture stylii to play 78 rpm records — I have a whole library of them! Nobody else seems to remember the music — which is too bad — because that’s when music was GOOD!
Thanks again Harrison.
Thank YOU, Matthew! People such as you who enjoy my words keep me going!
Russ didn’t this car sell out of the Benecia/Easy Bay area about a year ago? I am sure I’ve seen it here before. For some reason it took forever for the longtime owner to sell, and that was at roughly 1/2 this Arizona seller’s asking price. I don’t buy the “moving to Costa Rica” story…if its the same car its just another flip
My dad’s first car was a 37 2 door coupe Chevy from a junkyard he bought in 53, he was born in February 37.