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What is it? PreWar Christmas Quiz day 6

December 30, 2014, 3:00 pm
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Part six and the last day of our Christmas Quiz! The side lamp on this fender is probably again a period accessory as we haven't been able to find an original picture with this exact lamp. It will be no problem when we tell you we saw it on a very popular French car, made by a company that was in business before the turn of the previous century and still makes motorcars. This is a small family car produced between 1934 and 1938. Although French, it took some of its styling cues from American cars of the time.
Now all you have to do is guess the make of this car and the makes we have shown during the past five days. A model name is not necessary. You can now send in your answers, but do so BEFORE Saturday, January 3 2015. PLEASE click the "Add new comment' box and tell us the six makes.
From the participants with all answers correct, six names will be drawn at random. The solution to the quiz will be published on Wednesday January 7. All six winners will receive the famous PreWarCar T-shirt. Good luck and we hope you enjoyed this holiday season!

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Happy New Year !

December 31, 2014, 3:00 pm
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On this very first day of a brandnew year we like to share this incredible photo sent to us by a very good friend of PreWarCar.  It may look as a simple photo at first glance. Just another one in the series 'A New Generation is Taking Over', showing a young lad at the wheel er.... in the driving seat of his father's motorcar. 
But....but ! Mind you, as you can see this is no average car, not even an average tricycle. You may have seen already that this must be an 1887 De Dion Bouton et Trépardoux steamer. And what's more, you may also have seen this is no recent photo, yet arguably shot in 1889, just over 125 years ago! So the 'young lad' could have been your (great) grandfather. Unfortunately his identity not known but our good friend presumes that he is "... related to either Count/Marquis de Dion, Georges Bouton, Charles-Armand Trépardoux or, Monsieur F. Mérelle. The first three were - as you can imagine - involved with the machine coming inot being, whilst Mérelle wastheir agent and it was at this stand that DDB&T vehcicles were exhibited at the Exposition Universelle of 1889 which had the brand new Tour d'Eiffel as its focal point. The tricycle is similar to the one surviving that is exhibited at the Arts & Métiers in Paris." 

Now these are many insiders words, but you may be able to understand our enthusiasm, especially when it coems to mind that this may be the oldest photo showing a youngster in the driver's seat. Untill the moment you proove us to be wrong of course.

Happy New Year !


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The very first 2015 Mystery. (update: Model T + ?)

January 1, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Steve Diggins sends this very nice brass era special (?) "We have a photo on the Vintage Car Club Of Canada website of an early sports car, maybe pre WWl.  It is a posed shot by a professional photographer stationed at the Hollow Tree to pictures of people with their cars. This was done from about 1900 to the 1930's.  This might have been a race car modified for the road judging by the beaten up muffler put on to make it legal. So, what year and type is it?"

Editor, we wouldn't be surprised if it's a homebuilt special. The chassis seems fairly overdimensioned. Especially when you compare with the very small, way back positioned radiator.  We're interested to see which parts look familiar to you. Or maybe you have seen the same car elsewhere?

(Picture courtesy of VCCC) 

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'Spitting distance' from... Down Under!

January 2, 2015, 3:00 pm
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My C4... S
"(I am) ...spitting distance away from a fully rebuilt 60mm bore splash feed engine (of my Amilcar C4 Sport). I can feel the beat of the open exhaust now. May your project be just as close to up and running and thanks for looking.  

Craig Little 

editor: Well Craig our CGSs is nearly as far as your's. 
 
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An amazing rediscovery Essex story

January 3, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Allistair 'Bud' Smith: "Many years ago, around the late 1960’s or early 1970’s, one of my dad’s mates came across a 1919 Essex roadster in original unrestored condition in the town of Toogoolawah (Queensland, Australia). Unfortunately for my dad’s mate the owner had plans to restore the car and advised that the car wasn’t for sale. Early Essex cars are well known and regarded in Australia, largely due to the efforts of Norman ‘Wizard’ Smith and his inter-city records. For many years my dad tried to find this car in hope that he might buy it, but he never managed to locate it. Many people had stories about what happened to the car: it crashed into a gum tree because of its poor two wheel brakes; it was destroyed in a shed fire; it was exported to America. 

Just recently I was on a rally in our 1929 Dodge DA and a member of the public approached the club members and asked if anyone was interested in buying another vintage car. Given that I had recently sold my 1931 Morris Garages via PreWarCar I expressed interest. The elderly man said he had a 1919 Essex Roadster which belonged to his late Father.  He explained that he lived only a few minutes away and I could come and see the car if I wanted, naturally I seized the opportunity and followed him back to his suburban Brisbane house. When we arrived he invited me into his garage where he proceed to unstack a large mound of boxes, blankets and what-not to reveal a blue Essex roadster, parked up on blocks. As we discussed the car he revealed that he had grown up in Toogoolawah; it soon became obvious that the car I was looking at was the very car that had been ‘lost’ for many years. With the car back down on its feet, we wheeled it out into the sun for the first time in a very long time, although far from concourse condition, it still looked rather enchanting. Naturally I negotiated a price and eventually bought the car home. It was last registered and run in 1981, so I am currently going through the recommissioning process, but that’s another story."



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The Sumatra Seven-Photo Mystery (update: three different cars)

January 4, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Auto famille van der Bijl jaren 20 sumatra
Earlier quiz winner Pieter Vos sends this set of photos. It is only on rare occasions that we see more than one photo of a mystery car. Here we have no less tahn seven photos of the same car (if we are correct). Not one photo giving away the full identity of the car. But all pieces od the puzzle together must be able to produce a fairly accurate ID. 
The photos were shot in the twenties near Lake Toba on Sumatra, Indonesia. The car was in the ownership of a family Van der Bijl. Wilbert van der Bijl would love to know which car it is. 

update by editor: well, er.. glad that you were not as sleepy as your editor when uploading this. We're looking forward what your final verdict on 'this fleet' will be. 
      
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Cadillac only in Maastricht?

January 5, 2015, 3:00 pm
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The first weekend of January will be a long one. Shows in Birmingham, London and Maastricht to mention a few who like to kick off the new season. Auctions in two places. See for Coys' NECC Birmingham sale our post-war review. Tough choices for Gentlemen. At the same time Coys is doing a one owner collection sale during Maastricht's Interclassics Topmobiel. The Brundza collection is a primarily US car collection from Eastern Europe. There's a wide choice of Caddys. Our personal choice would be the lovely untouched 1922 Type 61 Suburban. Yet you may be one of the veteran Caddy adorers who prefers the one cylinder Cars. The 1904 type B 4S Runabout or a 1905  Model C Touring. Slightly more modern is the 1912 Cadillac Torpedo, a pretty straightforward 1929 type 341-A Fleetwood, ...or if you like your saloon somewhat more extravagant, how about the 1934 V12 Fleetwood Imperial Sedan. Afraid a V12 will not do? In that case one can contemplate the V16 Fleetwood formal Sedan or an only seconds before WWII produced 1942 (!) Series 75 Fleetwood. It's really worthwhile to nose around in the catalogue. And not only for the post-war fintailed Caddys.

Still not exhausted and fully satisfied after this, then catch a plane on Sunday or Monday to arrive timely in Scottsdale, Arizona for the auction circus exploding next week when Barrett Jackson, Bonhams, Gooding, RM, Russo & Steele and Silver Auctions will fight to get the bidders in.

(Photos courtesy Coys)
 
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PreWar Christmas Quiz 2014: The Results!

January 6, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Many thanks for all your well wishes and nice comments. We were pleased to know that you have enjoyed the quiz. It wasn't really too difficult this time and almost all of the competitors had all answers correct. We even received complaints that it was too easy :-) Rest assured, the bi-weekly quiz will be much harder to solve. But back to this quiz. Not so easy was day 1. It was not a Jaguar as mentioned by several, as that name as a marque wasn't introduced until after WW II. Until then it was a model name of the S.S. made by SS Cars Ltd (formerly the Swallow Coachbuilding Company). What we showed was the 1935 S.S. Saloon. Nobody guessed wrong on day 2. It was the 1938 BMW 327/328. Day 3 was a bit more difficult, but most had this one correct, a 1933 Delage D8 S cabriolet Pourtout. The same goes for day 4, a 1937 Packard Twelve Convertible Sedan; day 5 was a 1930 Maserati Tipo 26 M Sport (although sometimes mistaken for an Alfa Romeo) and day 6 showed a 1935 Renault Celtaquatre ZR2.
Many of you gave us also the complete makes and models, but just the make was enough. Just like previous years we have put all answers in the proverbial hat and picked six correct answers. They are from: Ian Sly, Karin Jacob, Robert Giddy, Hendrik Stockman, Mireille Devriendt and Wander van Eck. Well done, you all! To receive your T-shirt, please provide your shirt size and mail address to info%prewarcar.com; exchange % for @. Thanks to all for sending in your answers!

(Quiz idea, photos and text by Rutger Booy)

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Rally car mysteries in Slovenia

January 7, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Peter Skofic writes: "The photo shows the rally of the members of the Automobil Club of the Kingdom of the SHS, section Maribor, which took place in Logarska valley (Slovenia).  I can recognize the two cars in the front of the row - these are two Austro Daimlers 15/35. The first one could be part of the today`s collection of the Technical Museum of Slovenia and the second one could be today in the possession of one of the members of the Austro Daimler Club in Wiener Neustadt (Austria).  But I cannot recognize the rest of the cars in the row. Can anybody of your readers help me with solving this challenge?"

Do you also have pictures that you like to have identified? Let us know by e-mail or upload here.

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A day of Respect

January 8, 2015, 1:41 am
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An attack to the media. An attack to democracy. An attack to freedom.

We like to pay our respect to the victims in Paris and will remain silent until Saturday morning.

 
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Chasing classics Uruguayan style

January 9, 2015, 3:00 pm
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We have fond recollections of chasing classic cars in our younger days - literally we mean - as these were the days of running hard and long only to get a glimpse of a rare four-wheeler before it disappeared, on its way to adventures we dreamt of. Jorge Virdo knows the feeling. He has a camera in his pocket, though, a device not a single boy could afford in our days. Jorge writes: "These photos were taken by night with my cellphone. Sorry for the quality, but I was after this car for some time. It is an Opel. I don't know if it is pre-war or post-war."

We think it's a 1938 Opel Kapitan. An unrestored one, or so it seems. What's more: this one appears to be still very much in active use, despite it being almost 80 years of age. Isn't that just fantastic? This definitely is the two-door version, with fastback styling and that lovely double rear window. We think the car used the same doors as its four-door sister, although they don't look silly on it - other then some post war cars using the same principal. Thanks for sharing your pictures Jorge!
     
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A Milestone on the Greasy Road to Pre-war Joys

January 10, 2015, 3:00 pm
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It all started with an 1928 Amilcar CGSs we found on the website of Dan Mooney, classic Jaguar specialist in Austin, Texas. It appeared this was the car of the late Irving Silverman. YW77 is known with the UK Amilcar Salmson register since the mid fifties and club founder Desmond Peacock was glad to hear she came back to Europe.  That was in 1999, and it was then when the idea came up to build a community with a special appetite for pre-1940 cars. A category of classics that had the interest of very few people back then. Just check back most classic car magazines of those years and you will see ( The Automobile always was and is the exception).

Anyway, it took us three months to think up the simple web address www.prewarcar.com (Dutch people are quite lazy as long their feet are dry...). It was on or around July 9 that we sort of went online and the earliest stories still known (we lost some material over the length of time) still can be found here in the Wayback Machine. Subtitle of the online magazine & marketplace was : The Greasy Road to Pre-War Joys. No idea why we left that one. The rest is history. 5000 stories down the road we can only make a very deep bow and thank you for all the support you gave. All the stories, the ideas, the photos, the mysteries and more!  

To celebrate this milestone we invite you to send in one or more photos plus some wording. A nice memory. A (driving) report about your own car. An anecdote. The best sender is rewarded with 5000 Euro cents or 5000 US$ cents. All stories that come with a photo will be published. In order to have a chance winning the US$/Euro 50 please upload your story preferably within 50 hours from now! 

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Dial M for Mystery (update: 1923-25 Maxwell)

January 11, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Sure, a good design makes a car, but badges and logos give it that little more distinction, too. Oh, how lovely can it be to find that one little piece of brass you have been looking for so long! The sheer weight of it, those lovely enamel colours, even the stone chips in it! But the sign of a certain breeding can also prove to be an utter mystery.

Our Swedish friend Stig Fransson in fact has bumped into one such mystery. Stig will be able to tell you anything about french Talbots. Or about Edwardian Renaults. But a set of axles have now completely stumped him. These axles have centres showing an 'M', and like Stig you will know that this leaves us with several hundreds of options. Still, we have a feeling that this material could be US made. Moon perhaps? Stig presumes they are of 1910-1920-vintage. What do you think? If you like to discuss this matter with Stig, go here. But of course you can drop us a line in a comment, too.

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Vintage Adventure Tours, no Weddings!

January 12, 2015, 3:00 pm
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One of the first visitors who reacted to our invitation to send in a little story is Steven White:
"2014 saw the start of my Best Job Ever! After considerable negotiation with the Local Authority I obtained a Private Hire licence for my 1929 Model A Ford to run tours of the Peak District National Park in the UK. It is the perfect car for the job - seats 5 people, open top, good brakes, availability of spares, low cost and plenty of horses for the hills. There have been plenty of hurdles along the way but it now gives a lot of pleasure to holiday makers and for celebrations plus I get paid for my "Old Car Fix". And if you're wondering - I don't do weddings!"
 
   
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5000

January 13, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Jos Cox writes us: "Joris, it is like yesterday that I advised you to buy that Amilcar as soon as possible! (and an hour later you were on the plane) It is like yesterday that you became a prominent member of  'Les Amis d'Amilcar des Pays Bas'. And it is also like yesterday that we saw your new black T-shirts on our first rally. Time goes as fast as an Amilcar. Use it well!!"

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The New Delhi Mystery.

January 14, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Dave White sends this photo from India: "Recent  appearance of a long lost car in the back streets of New Delhi. The owner intends to restore it.  I know what it is, now you tell me."

editor: Dave, to be honest, we haven't the slightest of what it may be but we love it! What a wonderful car and especially in this appearance, extra attractive. You don't tell us too much about the (hi)story that comes with the car and its re-appearance. Maybe you want to tell us a bit more about that? Then there is this other issue that we need to explain. It's about Mystery Cars and about Quiz Cars. 
Mystery Cars are photos that show unidentified cars and we ask you to jump in to help.
Quiz Cars are photos that show cars of which we in general perfectly know what they are. And you are invited to say what it is.
Dave White who sent us the above photo didn't tell us what car it is. In the case he would have done so, we could have made a quiz out of this photo. But now it is a little mystery. Be it a beautiful mystery (one of the senders in our 5000m edition competition).  

Do you also have a story or photo that you want to share? Here you can upload.
 
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Is there life after the museum?

January 15, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Edition 5000

We can't tell you how happily surpised we are with the avalanche of stories that's been coming our wayover the last few days. We even consider making this an ongoing affair getting you in the driver's seat.. er writer's seat. Well give us your thoughts.

Anyway the above moody midwinter picture comes from Mike Costigan. As we are a bit short in winter lady shots we decided to let this old saxy spinster prevail...
Mike  added: " My Saxon celebrated its 100th birthday in 2014. Having spent exactly half its life in American museums and collections without ever turning a wheel, it is now re-learning how to travel under its own power, and enjoyed the period roads of the Beamish Living Museum." 
Congratulations with your healthy museum motor Mike. A few years ago we were attracted to an early identical Saxon while visiting Hershey and we can only say that they are very attractive light cars. The great thing with this highly experienced sexy Saxon is that she will probably bring you to museums without you touching the steering wheel.

(edition 5000 comp) 
   
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What is it? Quiz #386

January 16, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Wow, that's a nice arrogant V-radiator Torpedo. Solid teutonic design. We've had several of similar cars posted as mystery cars before, yet most of those had what we call the 'bathtub' torpedo design well known in Germany. This specific motorcar is from a famous brand, known since one of the most challenging international races. That first fame was never repeated but in edwardian circles it's still highly desirable. The end of car production came in the mid twenties, yet the mother company is still active and going strong. Up to you to explain which car is showing. Which Make, which Year, Which Type. And any relevant, or even better, trivial details. Preferably details which are not readily available with a simple google-click.

But before writing down your response, be sure to read the Rules under Read More. This may be your chance to win the coveted PreWarCar T-shirt. Results and source of photo will be published next Saturday, January 24.

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1907 Cyklonette, Frame nr 235, Engine nr 282

January 30, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Long time visitor Harry Pyle from Australia sends this very nice pics of his four cylinder front wheel drive:
Here our 1907 Cyklonette restoration project..before, during and after. It is now almost complete, except for a little work on the 2 x cooling towers on top of the engine, and a LOT of work on the 2 speed transmission. (it was completely missing..I have reproduced all the change levers and shaft already, and have a 2nd gear epicyclic hub from a 1940s car which I intend to adapt to give me the 1/2 speed low gear and clutch to give me the 1:1 high gear.)
 
The car was on “display only” at the recent Australian National Veteran CarRally held in Kalgoorlie Western Australia. My wife Deidre and I did all the work ourselves except the nickel plating of large parts, the new rims and spoking thereof, and the sandblasting of frame. I have 100's of photos which she took during the restoration period and would love to share them with other Cyklonette owners around the world. I also have a large collection of early Cyklonette photos and advertising literature.

I have started a Cyklon Register and so far I have photos and some details of;
motorcycle 1900 believed to be in Germany
car 42      1904 in the Munich Transport Museum
car 69      1904 recently sold from England to Germany , no contact details
car 133    1906 sold from Denmark to Germany 2 in 1912, no contact details
car 235    1907 in my posession in Perth West Australia. 
car ??       1912 in Louwman Museum Holland.
car 2492   1912 in South Australia, confidential contact.
car 2657   1913 in Essen Museum ? Germany, no contact details
car ??       1913 in Tecnik Museum Bad OyenHausen ? Germany, no contact details
car ??       1908-1915 auctioned car in USA 2013 with early body + later engine and front forks/suspension. No contact details.

I am always pleased to share any information I have collected and also receive from other people/owners any information that they may have. I am particularly interested in any documentation that can be used for accurate dating purposes, eg. factory records, original receipts, photos etc. Also I am looking for an original Cyklonette 2 speed transmission so that I can complete my project much sooner.

Harry Pyle 

editor: fabulous result Harry! When you are really on the road we would love to get a driving report. We find it nearly impossible to get people to tell us about the driving experience of their vehicle is. Regarding the parts you are looking for, I am sure you tried a Wanted Advert, did you?  

(edition 5000 competition) 
  
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Riley abuse?

January 18, 2015, 3:00 pm
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Mike Long: "About 17 years ago, as my neighborhood (in Franklin, Tennessee) expanded, I noticed that builders were creating "burn pits" of perfectly good wood. Lacking a truck, I removed the front passenger seat from my 1937 Riley Lynx, tossed-in a ladder with some rope, and started excavating treasures that were then transported home in the Lynx. Sadly, my wife took an in-process picture! Even though it was a small distance and relatively light loading, I'd guess my day's work would have apalled many of my Riley Register fellow members and my local car club ... which has named the car  'Queen Mum'."

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