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Vintage Cars

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
Out and about today, I came across just about the most amazing piece of motoring history, just incredible. I was in the market town of Ringwood where, outside a small auction house, a very elderly gent and a lady, turned out to be his daughter, were loading some small pieces of furniture into a car. The car was an Austin 16, a car that was made well over 70 years ago. The elderly fellow was a tad slow, but he was still compos mentis. He had white flowing hair and reminded me of William Hartnell, the first Doctor Who. The old fellow told me that he had owned the car all his life, and it was still his daily drive, although I think that his daughter did all the driving these days. Shame I didn't get him in the photo, but I did get his tired, worn out, but completely unrestored car. I love it.
Austin 16 & friends 012.JPG
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
From time to time MG send me updates on various MG inspired events, films and shows. The love for this marque around the world is both surprising and pleasing. Here's a model similar to mine at an event in the US. How this guy loves his car. Can't say as I blame him.
 
^^^^^ Nice ride @HOP UP ! I have a soft spot for that era of Plymouth you're in search of. My brother and I had one back when we were young teens. A 1941 Sedan Delivery. Got a new motor in it and made it drivable, but drifted away from the project and it sold at my late Grandpa's auction. We dreamed it would look like this, but retain it's original yellow with black fenders paint scheme.

4707229966_5a88b4326c.jpg
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
1929 Duesenberg Model J Barker Town Car. A total of twelve right hand drive Duesenberg Model J chassis were produced, this being the first of the run. The body was built by Barker and Company of England, one of Great Britian's premier coach builders of the era.

This is the only Duesenberg that carried a British built body. It was exhibited at the 1929 Olympia Motor Show in London. The top over the chauffeur's compartment can be completely concealed with the soft fabric rolled back.

The Duesenberg Model J engine is a modified Lycoming straight eight, featuring dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder. With a displacement of 420 cubic inches, the engine was advertised to produce 265 horsepower. The Model J chassis alone cost $8,500. Adjusted for inflation the 1929 price of $8500 would be $125,000.
duesenberg-00012-2.jpg
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
Saw this on another site. Just like the one that appears in our old gas station thread from time to time. I'd love to have it.
https://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/cto/d/san-diego-1958-chevrolet-brookwood/7039175937.html
View attachment 201730
Look, that Chevy might be a head turner, but it's not for you, it's a vulgar 1950's chrome and fins for the Nouveau Riche, whilst you Sir, are far more dignified. Not for you the gas guzzler of the 1950's, you deserve something that exudes style and grace, something that is the embodiment of the person of good taste that you are. What you deserve is a Rolls Royce, but as that brand is not of Uncle Sam's shores, then it has to be a Packard. A brand that was so good they made the Rolls Royce Merlin engine under licence in WW2. This should be your carriage of preference. It has the space of the Chevy and the wow factor of the Chevy, but what this has that the Chevy never could have, is class. All you need now is a small house to garage it in.
packard.jpg
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
Tesla announce their latest model, an SUV they call the 'Y.' In Europe the Y has something of a heritage. Ford produced a Model Y in the 1930's. My Father's brother, my uncle had one. As a child the one enduring feature that I remember about that car was that it only had a wiper on the driver's side, and that was vacuum operated. We would be driving along and the wiper would get slower and slower, change gear and the wiper would go off like it was on amphetamines. This model is from 1937.
_Model_Y_2_door_saloon_(1937).jpg

Another Y model was on the drawing board in 1937. MG intended to produce their model 'Y' within a year. Prototypes had been built and tested and the model was all set for the 1939 Motor Show, but WW2 meant that MG's car production was mothballed whilst the factory went over to war produce. This model dated back to the late 1930's but wasn't registered until 1947.
mg-ya.jpg

As for Tesla's Y model. It doesn't stir the blood, but I do wonder if in years to come, generations will look at it and say: "It's a 2020 model Y. Wasn't that the year of the great plague?"
model y.jpg
 

59Lark

Practically Family
Messages
567
Location
Ontario, Canada
I will get the children to post a picture, but yesterday I got Gertrude out of storage, she is a lady of 60yrs, four door sedan built in dec of 59 , at southbend ind. She has a 259 v8 , two speed auto, 52, original miles, I had planned to let her slumber till june due to this crisis. A young man got his shorts in a knot, wanting to get his corvette conv. out, and he was in the middle of the barn. I got my hired man john to come with me, the girls suggestion of putting the battery in a backpack and walking the two miles was ignored, I put the battery in the Studebaker, pumped and pumped , and pumped and she fired right up. Unlike modern cars , go light up your pipe, cause it takes 5 minutes to warm up that stromburg. I cant remember if I put the manual choke on or not. The humor of the day was there was a miata convertible in the way that wouldn't boost, dead . I looked at the tow truck driver and said jokingly , you gotta get that jap crap out of the way for a American car. I have owned my lark for over 30 yrs , she is southbend car that lived in Arizona for half of its life, original brake lines , The upholstery is crumbling, and the door panels are shot, and don't take through a car wash the rubbers are all gone. She has a personality of her own, like a grand old lady not to be fooled with, we are not amused. I long for better days, that I can take the love of my life out to cruise in her again or take it over to the Delmar (old diner 1953) sure hope old gus (85) survives this to re open. 59 lark.
 

1930artdeco

Practically Family
Messages
671
Location
oakland
Yeah you got her running and out and about! My A is about to undergo some surgery with a new steering shaft and clean up of her box. So she will be down for a few days/weeks-depending on the money situation.

Mike
 

59Lark

Practically Family
Messages
567
Location
Ontario, Canada
mike; I run a sewing machine shop and I have been run off my feet, fixing and selling everyone is making masks, so I wouldn't have time to fix my car, my uncle carl, was a mechanic and his cars were usually rough, shoemakers children go barefoot. 59lark.
 

59Lark

Practically Family
Messages
567
Location
Ontario, Canada
how remarkable is the parts supply, I needed taillights, I bought a pair from Studebaker int, for $150. something us, they had found the moulds in a abandoned Studebaker building and had someone remold them, try buying new taillights for a rice burner for that. the mastercylinder is the same one that fits uni combine, remember I was a farmer, and the ignition system is ac/delco and the points and dist are the same as 55 chev. if I was in a warm dry place no salt I would drive Studebaker year round . 59lark
 

59Lark

Practically Family
Messages
567
Location
Ontario, Canada
The pictures of the Duesenberg, earlier in this post reminds me of my Duesenberg story, there was a retired pilot in our city. When I was a older boy scout , a venture, we went to see a old airplane in pieces being restored, this man had a house built on a hill with a big garage on top and huge basement garage underneath . Upstairs was lincolm from the early fifties, I looked over and saw a car under a cover and I was 15 at the time and said that is a coffin nosed cord. The man looked amazed at me and said your not old enough to know what that is, but I was. Long story short , he had a cord coffin nose, that Lincoln and Duesenberg J in the basement, a bi plane and a 64 Studebaker wagon with the sliding roof , wagonaire that needed a engine, and he had a brand new one in a crate next to it. Forty years later someone told me he moved to BC, and he got rid of all cars except the Duesenberg and his kids remortaged their houses to restore it, so he could enjoy it for a year or so , and when he died they sold it. So you never know what the heck , people have in their garages. He had bought the J in 44 for couple of thousand. 59Lark.
 

59Lark

Practically Family
Messages
567
Location
Ontario, Canada
It was a lovely day here, next week is gonna be on the scale of rotten to miserable, everyone with a vintage car or motorcycle had them out today, I was too busy with taking girls re bicycles to trails, and then walking all three dogs , our government has opened trails , most people were keeping their distance. The cars, vintage mustang, camaro, impala were driving fast to no where. This is why I didn't want to take Gertrude out yet, fast road to nowhere , caged animals rattling their cages, we are all gonna be roaring our engines , honking my dual horns and driving to crazy town soon 59lark.
 

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,279
Location
New Forest
That's a great story about the Deusenberg, 59Lark, remortgaging a home to restore the car, that's getting priorities right. I would get lynched if I did that.
 

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