Cars

Ford Motor Co., General Motors Corp. and four foreign automakers may get a sales boost from an unlikely source: the American Automobile Association.For the first time in its 90-year history, AAA yesterday released a list of what it considers to be the best cars on the market in their price ranges. The non-profit organization, which has 32.5 million members, is based in Heathrow, Fla.The list of nine cars will be published in the January/February issue of AAA's bimonthly magazine, AAA World.

Early Thursday mornings, hundreds of them from as far away as Canada and Puerto Rico descend on 41 acres in Bel Air in search of the deal.They'll inspect under hoods, scour interiors for flaws, check bodies and paint jobs for rust and previous patch jobs, and rev engines, listening for the telltale knocks and pings that the best of them can hear a block away.So like horse racing handicappers, the used car dealers stand prepared when the 800 to 1,000 automobiles approach starting gates A, B and C at the Bel Air Auto Auction.

THE STOUT MAN seated next to me at the demolition derby spoke with a Pennsylvania Dutch accent and a stunning array of profanities - more so when a certain car appeared on the muddy track for the fourth heat of the night. "That's a bleepin' '51 Buick!" he screamed. "I can't bleepin' believe it. Oh my bleepin' word! A '51 Buick! That's the two-door hardtop. Oh my God!" It was, indeed, a 1951 Buick of fond memory - black and curvaceous, with large, grinning chrome grill and stylish trim that included a row of faux vent holes along the front quarter panels.

A thief apparently hoping to steal cars wholesale took a tractor-trailer loaded with 10 new Toyotas and careered through South Baltimore late Saturday night, smashing as many as 15 cars and leaving three people with minor injuries.Then he bailed out and fled before police could catch him."I heard a terrible noise, jumped up, looked out the window and saw the truck hit a van across the street," said Linda Whitmore, 33, who lives in the 1200 block of narrow, residential William St., where the escapade ended.

A Columbia teen-ager who told police he could steal a car with just a screwdriver was sentenced to eight years in prison yesterday for leading a theft ring that took 20 vehicles last winter.Christopher James Peca, an 18-year-old member of a car club called the Low Riders, was given the sentence after pleading guilty to 12 theft counts in Howard Circuit Court.The prosecution contended that Peca and six other members of the Low Riders stole the vehicles, mostly four-wheel-drive Jeep Cherokees and Chevrolet Blazers, from East Columbia from Dec. 25, 1993, to Jan. 3, 1994.

DETROIT -- Sales of cars and light trucks built in North America rose 9.8 percent in late May, the nation's automakers reported yesterday, extending a string of increases and suggesting that automotive demand may be stronger than predicted by broader economic indicators.The rise in the last 10 days of the month followed an 18.4 percent gain in the middle of May and a 30.2 percent surge in the month's first 10 days. For all of May, sales of all vehicles, domestic and imported, rose 15 percent from May 1992.

John Neal Packard, a retired engineering executive and collector of vintage Packard automobiles, died of leukemia Jan. 11 at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. The Fallston resident was 70. Mr. Packard was born in Bangor, Maine, and raised in Ashland, Va., where his father was a faculty member at Randolph-Macon College. He earned a bachelor's degree in physics from Randolph-Macon in 1957 and a master's degree from West Virginia University in 1959. He began his career in the late 1950s at Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River and later worked for 33 years at Goddard Space Flight Center as a civilian employee of Man Tech International.

Relive the glory days of gas-guzzling engines, turbo-glide transmissions and rag tops as Vintage Tin of Maryland sponsors its 22nd annual Rod Run Picnic, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at Fort Smallwood Park.It will be a classic car-lovers delight, featuring hundreds of pre-1972 cars, from rods to roadsters, on display."From past experience, we expect several hundred cars to show up for the picnic," said Carol Cross, group spokeswoman. "Last year, we had 600 cars -- from '50s cars to Al Capone types -- show up for the one-day event."

I've collected a gargage full of observations about the cars driven in our city. At the outset, let me say that I've not been behind the wheel of a car since 1967. I got my license in Glen Burnie that spring and pretty much hung up the keys shortly thereafter. I am no automobile expert, but I do have eyes and get around our city a fair amount. I often play a game, spotting vehicles that I consider perfect Baltimore cars. In my judgment, these babies are old, have been run hard and show no signs of quitting.

Albert J. "Jay" Perry III, a financial adviser and collector of classic racing cars, died Wednesday of lung cancer at Good Samaritan Hospital. He was 62. Mr. Perry was born in Baltimore and raised in Ruxton. He was a 1966 graduate of the Gilman School and earned his pre-law degree in 1970 from Emory University in Atlanta. An Air Force veteran, he earned his law degree in the early 1970s from the University of Florida Frederic G. Levin School of Law. He was a trust officer at Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co. until 1983, when he left to establish A.J. Perry & Co. Inc., a financial advisory firm in the 1000 block of St. Paul St. At the time of his death, Mr. Perry had not retired from the family-owned and -operated company.