Uri Gill of Southfield
and his 1962 Israeli-
made Sabra roadster.

-. 7

Right Car, Wrong Time

Israel's short-lived Sabra automobile had Detroit roots.

GABRIELLA BURMAN

Special to the Jewish News

W

hen people think of classic
cars, they generally recall '57
Chevys and Model T Fords.
But an Israeli-manufactured car little
known outside of collectors' circles?
Hardly.
Yet, the red 1962 Sabra
roadster will turn heads
Saturday when it arrives at
the Woodward Dream
Cruise, the annual parade of classic cars
that runs down a 16-mile stretch of
Woodward in Michigan's Oakland
County.
"I'm not even driving it in the parade
because it overheats," owner Uri Gill
said, referring to the car's outdated cool-
ing system. "But people pay attention to
it even when it's just parked."
Gill, owner of Auto Doctor, a car
repair shop on Telegraph Road in
Southfield, purchased the two-door con-
vertible from a Wisconsin seller a few
years ago and lovingly restored it. He

tracked down a new windshield taken
from a British tricycle car and found
other parts through an Internet club of
about 80 Sabra owners in the United
States. While Gill declined to divulge
how much he paid for the car, he says he
would sell the Sabra for $10,000.
Nevertheless, he isn't actively looking
for a buyer. Gill, 70, says
that as a child in Tel Aviv he
always "dreamed" of own-
ing a Sabra.
"It's a beautiful car that
performs well," he said, recalling the
pride he felt when a police officer on
Interstate 75 recently clocked his
speed at 108 miles per hour.
Gill also owns a 1963 yellow Sabra
coupe, a rare find because only eight
such cars are known to exist. The car
is not drivable at present; but Gill is
restoring it in his free time, a process,
he says, will take about three years.
Joel Epstein, media relations coordina-
tor for the Woodward Dream Cruise,
says there is no history of other Israeli
cars participating in the parade. "Uri's is
it," Epstein said.

ON THE COVER

The steering wheel of the Sabra depicts
the Israeli cactus — tough on the
outside, but sweet on the inside.

Detroit Roots

Ironically, the history of the Sabra actu-
ally begins in Detroit, having been the
brainchild of Yitzhak Shubinsky, a Polish
emigre who worked in Farmington Hills
before making aliyah in 1958 to start a
company called Autocars and realize his
dream of manufacturing an Israeli car.
Not surprisingly, the National
Automotive History Collection at the
Detroit Public Library has on file several
photos of Sabra cars as well as a file of
assorted sales literature and encyclopedic
entries.
Autocars' first model, known as the
Sussita, was designed and developed in
the early 1960s in partnership with the
British-based Reliant car company. The
Sabra had a Ford engine, Alfa Romeo
t2illights and components from a variety
of sources that could be put together
from kits. Production was later under-
taken entirely in Haifa; and the car gar-
nered a reputation as a dependable
workhorse, despite its crude fiberglass
body that would be eaten by camels if

RIGHT CAR on page 14

8/18

2005

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