Vintage shots from days gone by!

First legend in Québec

 

American la France, probably around 1936-1937. They had a unique location for the pump...

 

Happy wedding? I think not....

 

Someone asked about this car in an earlier post. It is the 1960 Super Monza. A styling exercise built in 1959 for Bill Mitchell (head of GMs Styling Department) and to generate press for the yet to be released Corvair coupe. This makes this Corvair the first coupe and the first non Corvette, Chevrolet to have Bucket Seats predating the Impala SS by 2 years. After use by Chevrolet Advertising it was given to Bill Mitchell who then gave it to his daughter for her 16th Birthday. The car is currently in the Corvair Museum.

 

In the 1930's, the then chief of the LAFD introduced "two piece" Engine Companies in the high value areas of Los Angeles, like Hollywood and Downtown L.A. These rigs were both 1937 American la France built to LAFD specs. The lead engine (shown above) is not a pumper, it is a Hose Wagon or a Manifold Wagon. The only small hose was the hose reel on the top. Other than that, the only small hose it carried was 2 1/2" hose, which could be pulled out of the bins on the side (cross laid) and attached to one of the many hose outlets. It carried a small (200 gal) tank and a tiny water pump (for car fires or trash fires). The water from the hydrants was pumped to the Hose Wagon by the pumper in the background.


Here are the same LAFD specs with the Hose Wagon built by Segrave. Note the water monitor (or cannon) on the top, it was designed for a fire boat and could (and did) poke pretty large holes in the sides of buildings, to provide for an "interior attack" without going inside the building (breathing apparatus did not exist back then).


This is the pumper that is part of the "two piece" engine companies. American la France "Duplex Pumper" with dual V-12 engines and dual 1500 gal/minute pumps. It carried no supply hose, only the hose that could couple up to hydrants. They could park it an intersection at a big fire and pull water from two seperate hydrants, pushing an enormous amount of water to the Hose Wagon. I remember these rigs very well, they had open exhaust (no mufflers) and when they had both pumps running at full song, the street shook. You can see the open exhaust sticking up above the rear engine.


The supply hose (3 1/2-inch in those days) coming from one of the pumps on the Duplex Pumper is on the other side of the rig, the 2 1/2-inch hose is going to the fire ground.


The chief's theory behind all of this was that the streets were getting choked with fire apparatus at large fires, and one of these two piece engine companies could take the place of 4 or 5 single engine companies.

I had a lot of contacts with the LAFD while I was growing up made a lot of friends with the department. In 1973, I wrote a book about "Fire Apparatus - a Pictorial History of the Los Angeles Fire Department", a photo history about some of their unique equipment. It was published and sold over 5,000 copies (at $5.00 each).

It's been out of print for many years (the publisher went out of business in the 1990's) and I still see used copies for sale on Amazon, for about $100 each. https://www.amazon.com/Fire-apparatus-pictorial-history-Department/dp/B0006CLD3U

 

Actually this is the third Corvair to be built with bucket seats. There were two prototype "Monza" coupes built prior to the one in the picture. They were put on the Show Circuit as a pair back in 1960. The first one started off as a "body-in-white" and was built into a prototype Monza coupe by Chevrolet Engineering. The front seat started off as a bench seat and it was cut and made into two separate front seats. Bucket seats! The passenger's side seat was non-adjustable as was the production version of the Monza that entered the market in May of 1960. The first Monza coupe never had a serial number (VIN) so it was never sold after the 1960 New Car Show circuit. The second Monza was built up from coupe body #7 and still exists today. The "Super Monza" is on display at the Chevrolet Hall of Fame Museum - Corvair wing, in Decatur, Illinois

 

Found this to be a interesting looking Corvair
This was on the cover of Car Life August 1962...

Sent from my SM-T387V using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Plate #1 on an early DeDion-Bouton - with a DeDion rear end.

 

Love these old wagons!

 

AND these old Lincolns!

 

1898 De Dion Bouton owned by M. Ucal H Dandurand.
Chateau Ramezay museum.