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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Feb 10, 2012 2:59:00 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Stanley's wonderful steam buggy[/glow] Back at the turn of the last century, several new companies seemed to pop up out of nowhere, hoping to make it big with the fun new toy for the rich, the motorcar. Among them were cars powered by several different fuels and elements' gasoline, kerosene, electricity and of course, the tried and true steam engine which powered the industrial revolution in the first place; thus, in 1902, the Stanley bros. , twins from Newton, Massachusetts, veterans in the steam car business (Previously, they had sold their patents for a steam car produced from 1897 to 1898; and got out of the biz...temporarily)decided to have another go at the steam car industry. Their new car was to be small and light compared to other steamers which were large and heavy; at the time, gasoline cars were still rather unreliable, whereas steam vehicles had been around at least 150 years! It's hard to believe but, the Stanleys refused to advertise their cars at first; believing that "word of mouth" recommendations were enough ; and as if to top that off; The car had no dealers; and no delivery system, if you wanted one, you had to come to the Massachusetts factory and get it yourself! Nonetheless, they must have been pretty good cars as the company managed to exist until 1924, despite all it's marketplace disadvantages. I took these pics of a gorgeous red Stanley at an antique car show; the car had just finished a complete restoration (That morning!) and the paint was barely dry; of course, steam cars were a dead end at the time, but, with sky-high gas prices, we may see them return at some future time. This car needs a plumber rather than a mechanic! The machine attached to the differential is the 2 cylinder engine, not the transmission (The boiler is under the "hood") The boiler/condenser under the front, note the valve handle Dashboard note acetylene tanks for lights and burner; also note steering wheel on the right (standard on most cars at the time...the 1909 Model-T was the first car with "left hand drive" )
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Feb 15, 2012 17:06:34 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]1941 FORD Convertible Coupe: Prewar Princess[/glow] When this car was new, Britain and it's Commonwealth allies were already fighting Hitler (And for their lives, as free nations); however, in the USA, things were still peaceful and the car industry was beginning to grow again, after the decade-long "Great Depression"; no doubt the Ford Motor company looked to a better future in passenger cars; however, in December of this same year, the Japanese attacked the US fleet at Pearl Harbour; and soon Ford would be retooling the line to make thousands and thousands of Jeeps and heavy trucks for the war effort; there was a 42 Ford, but, it would be short-lived...In a way. The car was an Art-Deco masterpiece from front to rear, even the dash had that A-D look, not to mention enough chrome to cover 50 toasters!Concentric circles were a favorite Art-Deco styling themeThe rear was nicely rounded, and rather understatedI took these pics on the Main st of a small north-western Ontario town near lake Huron known as Thornbury; where my brother happened to be living, at the timeFor 1942, Ford brought out a new model with more "Modern" (Read squared off) styling, sadly, it was rather homely looking compared to the '41. In 1945-46, when Ford returned to carmaking, after WW2, the '42 body would return; be face lifted and made even uglier, with each passing year. Fords wouldn't be good looking cars again until the all-new Postwar Ford appeared ,in 1949! 1942 & 1949 FordsEND
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Feb 18, 2012 0:32:35 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Hudsons, a decade apart[/glow] In 1941, the Hudson auto company (established in 1909) was in fairly good shape, being one of only a handful of "Independant" automakers to survive the depression ; however, 10 years later, it would be struggling to survive; despite building what was arguably their best car ever, the Art-Deco Hudson Hornet, one of the most beautiful cars ever made! The Hornet, despite it's small 6 cylinder engine was one of the earliest stock car champs, due to it's light weight and superior handling (At a time when most American cars handled like tugboats); postwar sales of this radical new UNITBODY car were brisk...at first. Sadly, the Hornet had 2 main "flaws"; it's unibody design was extremely difficult to alter, at a time when people expected an "all-new" look every 3 years or so, and the second problem was the 6 cylinder engine, as it seems that by 1954, unless you had a V8 engine, you were dead in the water. As it turned out, the Hornet was a wonderful last gasp for Hudson, which by 1955, along with Willys Jeep, would be absorbed by Nash-Rambler, into a new company called "American Motors". The Hudson name lingered on for a few more years on a "rebadged" Nash , but, by 1959, the Hudson name was gone forever, as all AM cars were now being marketed as Ramblers. Pics by me Attachments:
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Post by Nuclear Seagull on Feb 25, 2012 6:37:01 GMT -5
Nice to see a real Hudson Hornet, I only know it from that pixar movie Cars!
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Feb 25, 2012 18:46:41 GMT -5
Nice to see a real Hudson Hornet, I only know it from that pixar movie Cars! I took that pic at a car show, a picture doesn't do the Hornet justice; they are absolutely beautiful cars "in the skin".
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Feb 27, 2012 22:18:35 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]And here's a brand new one...[/glow] First look, 2012 VW Golf Cabrio... Wow, STUNNING!!!Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Feb 27, 2012 23:24:40 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]LaSalle, Harley Earl's beautiful "Baby"[/glow] By the mid 1920s, GM decided that it could expand it's market by introducing "Companion cars" ; smaller, lower priced cars to fill the price gaps between it's established marks: Cadillac-LaSalle Buick-Marquette Oldsmobile-Viking Oakland-Pontiac In other words, Cadillac built the LaSalle, Buick, the Marquette, etc; but they were marketted as seperate brands (While none of the companions exist today, the Pontiac actually killed-off it's big brother, Oakland and was only recently retired from the GM lineup) Of all the Companion cars, the most noteworthy (not counting the Pontiac) was the LaSalle; billed as a smaller; sportier car than the Caddy, it was hoped to bring people into Cadillac dealers; who might not otherwise be in the market for a Caddy. The LaSalle is noteworthy mainly for one thing, it's designer, Harley Earl; a man who until that time worked on a free-lance basis; his timeless design on the 1927 LaS got him the job as head of GMs new "Art & Colour" section, AKA, the new design studio. In later years, Earl would pioneer things like "Show cars" , tailfins and adding globs of chrome to his cars! (For 30 years he would influence the design of all GM cars; a large part in growing the company into the World's largest by his retirement in 1958). 1929 LaSalle, pic by me....nearly identical to the 1927 car which made Earl a new star of design (Ironically, the car was really a scaled-down copy of the Spanish-made Hispano-Suiza)The next significant LaSalle came in 1934, during the depression, when luxury cars were a tough sell: GM was poised to cancel the LaS along with the other companions (Again, not counting Pontiac); but, Harley Earl considered the car "his baby" and came up with a brilliant ART-DECO design that was so futuristic that the car got a stay of execution (it's first of many). The amazing "Spaceship" designed 1934 LaSalle[glow=red,2,300]In 1937, the car was once again saved with a brilliant, but, more classical, Cadillac-like design[/glow] By the next restyle, in 1940, the LaSalle's place as a sporty and smaller car made by Cadillac was usurped by Bill Mitchell's brilliant 1938 Sixty Special "hardtop" (Mitchell would go on to replace Harley Earl as head of the art dept. He is best known for the original Corvette Sting Ray and the bizzare Buick Riviera Boatail coupe). Sixty Special ; and, to make things worse, the new Caddillac model 61 was being built on the LaSalle chassis; and, while this car was more costly than the LaS, people were willing to pay more to have the Caddy name on the same basic car! Thus, 1940 would be the swan song for the LaSalle; a good car which died of indifference. As Archie Bunker used to sing: "Gee, our old LaSalle ran great; those were the days" and they certainly were. 1940 LaS, last of the breed END
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 7, 2012 3:17:19 GMT -5
For people who like tires.......... Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 19, 2012 4:45:21 GMT -5
Another gorgeous Hudson (1947) Taken by me, at the Marshville festival Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 19, 2012 4:47:12 GMT -5
Another Cadillac 60 Special taken by me at the Marshville festival Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 19, 2012 5:01:54 GMT -5
TWO GORGEOUS ENGLISH SPORTSCARS OF THE 1950s (They were quirky and had terrible electrics but, English sportscars of that era were the top of the list, for "cool") Left, Jaguar XK120 (ca. 1952) & Right, 1955 MG TF
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 22, 2012 2:36:06 GMT -5
1969 Pontiac convertible; I happened to find this car one day while hiking along the Welland Canal (Note canal lift bridge in the background) Welland Canal lift bridge in operation (Time lapse) www.youtube.com/watch?v=2I6P-aEO94s Attachments:
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 25, 2012 1:06:18 GMT -5
[glow=red,2,300]Mystery solved!!![/glow] If you go back to the first entry in this thread, you'll see that I had taken a pic of a beautiful art deco roadster at a car show, but, I couldn't recall what brand of car it was , tonight, I was looking around Google for art deco styled cars and found pics of an identical car (A 1935 Studebaker Dictator Roaster) ; in fact, I believe the SAME exact car (The paint, roof colour and even the fog lamps are identical); the fact that the car was being sold by a Canadian auction house pretty much clinches it, IMO. Btw, the car was estimated to sell at $60,000-$70,000 US, but brought in a high bid of $82,500 (Not bad for a car that originally sold for $775, in 1935 money)
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Mar 31, 2012 0:34:06 GMT -5
QUICK LOOK: 1959 Oldsmobile super 88In 1959, GM got a new money saving idea: Build ALL the "full-sized" GM cars (except the prestige Cadillac models) on the same chassis, and using the same body shell (with different styling cues for each). Looking at this Super 88, it's not hard to imagine the lines of the "Batwing" Chevrolets of that same year. In my opinion Pontiac got the best styling on this body shell and Chevy the worst, whereas, the Olds (shown here), was fairly handsome in it's own right. The Cadillac, of course, had it's own gigantic body shell and the largest, most rediculous fins ever seen on a domestic street car.
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Post by mikado-AKA-Shoknifeman on Apr 2, 2012 13:23:16 GMT -5
KOOKY KARS (New segment) In this case, I mean a show/custom car that is either very weird, or a production car that just didn't do all that well in the marketplace.[glow=red,2,300]Kooky Kar #1- Chevrolet Corvair[/glow] (1959-1969) In the late 50s, American car makers began to notice that their market for lower priced cars was being hurt by sales of the new compact "import" cars out of Europe, especially by the German Volkswagen; it seemed as if they would have to reverse the trend and come up with compact cars of their own. In 1959, GM was ready with compacts of it's own, for all divisions, other than Cadillac. While they were all innovative, the Chevrolet version was the most radical departure from the norm: Chevy had decided to "fight fire with fire" and OUTVolkswagen Volkswagen! The VW had an air-cooled 4 cylinder rear engine, so, the Corvair was an air-cooled rear engined car, but, with 6 cylinders; the VW had styling that was modern in 1938, but, hopelessly outdated by the late 50s, so Chevy cloaked it's new car in a sleek (for it's day) new body; it should have worked, but it didn't, thx to corporate greed: The product planners at GM decided they could save money by eliminating sway bars on the rear swing axle, despite the urgings of the engineers who insisted that they were vital to the car's handling; and, as it turned out, they should have listened, the cars handling was fine on dry pavement, but, deadly in rain or snow, either of which caused the cars rear end to want to trade places with the front; several lawsuits and the bad publicity caused sales (brisk at first) to plummet. In 1965, the Corvair was redesigned (see below) and most of the "bugs" from the original version were eliminated, however, it was too late, and, when the new Camaro came out 1n 1967, the Corvair was doomed. oops... that should have said RIGHT...not left
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