Anyone ever heard of the S.F.M.T.A. Have a plaque for a club named The Royal Rodders of Plymouth with that on it and was curious what timing association this was? Thanks, Dennis
Seeing no responses, I spent some time perusing the internet for SFMTA and related searches. I got nothing useful. Most popular result is San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Surely the wise and omnipotent HAMB will know…… John
I got the same results by searching the internet (and the HAMB) too. But I doubt that the Royal Rodders were part of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Although.....Plymouth California is in the Bay Area (sort of - actually closer to the Capital Area).......maybe some SFMTA workers were hot rodders and shared their hobby with their fellow employees
I don't have a clue, but Royal Rodders has a bit of British feel to it. Lots of Plymouths out there ounce you get outside of MA!
Pretty sure the last two characters stand for Timing Association. How 'bout "Sexually Frustrated Men Timing Association"? Hey, you gotta have something to do on the weekend
I’m a So Cal guy and I know nothing of Massachusetts…… But I wonder if there is a county or city in the vicinity of Plymouth that starts with the letter F. Like Fairfield or Fairfax or something like that, (just guessing names) and the plaque could read….. South Fairfield Mass Timing Assn SFMTA Just speculation….
The SFMTA in San Francisco wasn't created until in 1999, so no way that a vintage plaque was reference a future organization. I'm also inclined to think East Coast due to the Royal naming. I'll do some hunting and update here if I find anything. Here's a pic of the plaque in case anyone is wondering: ~Peter
Take a good look at the F. Does it not appear that it has TWO periods after it, while the other letters in the initialism have only one? Is is not plausible that the left period after the F is actually part of the serif on an E?
If we're assuming that's an E, then the obvious search result you will see is South Eastern Michigan Transportation Authority, which wasn't founded until 1967. A little late for car club plaques. That being said, Plymouth Michigan is a suburb of Detroit, in "South Eastern" Michigan. So could it be the South Eastern Michigan Timing Association? Would need some locals to confirm because I'm striking out online with that search. ~Peter
Plymouth Maine is Central, Plymouth Minnesota is Central/South-Central, and Plymouth, Mississippi is an old settlement from the early 1800's.... I think Michigan or Massachusetts is most likely. ~Peter
gimpyshotrods and theHIGHLANDER are correct - it is S.E.M.T.A. (I changed the title of the thread to reflect that. Also, did a search for Plymouths in the USA and found seven states that have one according to Google maps: CT, IL, IN, MA, NC, NH, OH and of course there's on in the mother ship - UK. Google also got me this: SEMTA Acronym Definition SEMTA Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (UK) SEMTA Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies Alliance (UK) SEMTA Servicios Multiples de Tecnologias Apropiadas (Bolivia) SEMTA Southeastern Michigan Transportation Authority SEMTA Seminario Bíblico Tierra Alta (Spanish: Tierra Alta Biblical Seminary; México) SEMTA Société d'Économie Mixte des Transports Amiénois SEMTA Southeast States Manpower Tripartite Alliance FWIW, the SEMTA in Michigan started in 1974 which is after Chicago Metal Craft had ceased operations. Bill Junge suggested SE Model T Assn. So now that we know it's SEMTA what does that open up for ideas?
Is that 3 spoke icon common among plaques? Looks almost like a aircraft propeller to me, which would throw another wrench into the works... ~Peter
Lets look at this from another angle, What if an individual wanted his own club plaque and wanted it to to appear that his club was part of The South East Mass Timing Associaton which most likely never existed. Pay for the origional casting or even do the casting in foundry class in school. One timing association that no one in Mass has ever heard of, and one club down in the corner of Mass that no one has ever heard of. I know that about 45 years or so ago that there was a club listed with NSRA about 35 miles from where I sit. Some snooping and a bit of asking friends in that area let me figure out that it was a one member club. Possibly he was trying to start a club but as far as I know that is as far as it went.
Nice thinking outside the box, but...... the two holes in the border mean that the "club" reordered (a?) plaque(?) at least twice. And this pattern is one of the 8000 I bought from the original pattern maker for Chicago Metal Craft - so wherever this "club" was from, they sent their money to Calif., to one of the "Big Three" of the car club plaque makers, to get their (his?) plaques made. Anyone know any old timers or historians from the Detroit area? Plymouth MI (25 west of Detroit) certainly qualifies as being in SE Michigan. And they certainly had lots of drag racing going on back in the day. Just a thought....
@carcruse just solved it! As his second screenshot shows: "The Royal Rodders were recently admitted to the South-eastern Michigan Timing association, which has provided the local club with a drag strip in Tecumseh." I then referenced the dragstriplist.com and found that the Tecumseh Municipal Airport allowed drag racing as early as 1952. I found a few pics of races held there in 1955-56: And here's a more recent (2018) overhead view of the airport with the two hangers still intact: ~Peter
Well it looks like the HAMB has come through as usual with the answer to another hot rodding historical question! The last mystery (one year ago) I was looking for was solved in the same timely manor when we discovered that there were two SCTA's - the well known Southern California Timing Assn. and the long forgotten Snohomish County Timing Assn. in Washington. The HAMB is a great place to get help when you have a history question for sure. And now Bill Junge can add another association to his Associations page of his car club plaque website! (https://carclubplaques.pairsite.com/Associations.htm). Well done and thank you!
I was hoping BB King, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Prince, Queen, Earl Hines and Little Anthony and the Imperials were all car guys.
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