Hot Rods On this path i will be buying horse and buggy in 20 years.

Don't exactly know why but the tastes of what I build and acquire keep going earlier and earlier in the 1900s. 10 years ago I was all into the 60s drag era stuff, then we pushed into the 50s stuff, then the 40s and 30s is where I am now, so if this trend keeps up ill be at turn of the century cars soon, then steam, then horses and buggy. Holy hell I'm turning AMISH......

Don't know why but the lure of early speedsters, vintage land speed cars, and vintage road race cars have all been a huge influence on me. I for one have always loved early tin. Very utilitarian drive systems, very mechanical looking and working, simplistic but elegant. I guess you finally get to a point when a OHV modern motor just doesn't have the same zing as it used to.

Does anyone else find themselves drawn more to the very early stuff more than the later stuff these days?

 

Its called "growing old"...happens to the best of us....

 

I understand....I own one that is going to be 100 years old next year....if what is in the photo is yours....need more photos and information....
Watch out for those Amish women

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Yep! and I think wbrw32 is correct. The older you get the more you appreciate old.

 

Looks like a Bugatti?

 

The only thing I don't appreciate,is the young guys on here trying to impress us with just plain old bullshit.especially since we've been there years ago..

 

Wish it was mine but it was for reference of what is really hitting nerves with me these days.

Glad getting old doesn't make me way out of touch then. So there is hope I wont go all the way to Amish then..........

 

Yes and since I dreamt of driving/having stuff like this in my teens already, I guess by now I should be desiring for those mules or walking staffs described in the Old Testament.

 

Not unless you really like shoveling horse shit. Remember! Cars don't eat anything.

 

I too love the really early race cars.
Just wish I had the funds to play with those toys.
Nothing wrong with Amish women. Some are very beautiful if you clean off the horse shit.
And the best thing is you can bundle with them. Look it up.

 

Always preferred flathead engines. Won’t own an OHV Harley.

Listen to single side 78rpm records, which stopped production around 1918. On 1926 and older Columbia and Edison wind up floor model players.

Live in an 1840 built house. Still gas lighting capable. Has 5 fireplaces. Land grant issued in 1793.

Hunt with a 1910 built 12g. and a 1915 built .22, both single shots.

Old stuff is better made.

 

Sorry. cars eat gas and money...LOL

Yes. old stuff is/was made better. I have a lot of 78RPM from the 40s and 50s

 

Back in the 1950s I wanted grandpas 1937 Ford pickup. Got it in 1964, still have it. I like 1926 to 1960 Ford's now but not the obese 40s Fords

 

I've been tempted more than once to buy a horse but I decide not to only because it's too damn hot and humid here to keep one comfortable. I'd damn sure ride it to work if we had a grassy spot to tie one out on, but this place is nothing but chemical tanks and gravel, noise, and dust, 24-7-365. Maybe if I still lived in Virginia.

 

Personally I embrace being a curmudgeon ! HRP

 

AMEN,Danny…..I'm lovin it...

 

I have a vision of twenty-mule teams attached to semi-trailers in my head now.... every car a two-or-four up team...

 

At an estate in NE Connecticut last summer, I tried to save stuff that might get in a dumpster. The family moved in 100 years ago and the horse drawn vehicles were already stored in the barn cellar, un-needed even back then. I ended up saving a very fancy Studebaker horse drawn "dual purpose" wagon/people hauler. It converts to a multi seat wagon for Sunday outings with the kids, then the seats come out with thumbscrews to make a wagon to go fetch supplies in town.

I have no horses, so...WTH?? I know I paid too much as far as so called "monetary value", but it got out of that damp place.

I just was so surprised of the fancy woodwork details, that I felt I just had to save it. The wheels rotted from the bottoms up, the wagon then sinking lower each decade, in the barn cellar for over a Century,...... and the chassis/body was getting close to also sitting in damp dirt. Once wood comes in contact with dirt, the end is near.

.

 

I know I'll never go to a horse and buggy. I can't stand the smell of horse shit.

 

I have a current fascination with vardos....

 

I have been into the racecars from the teens for the last 40 years and bought the engine and remains of the car that led the Indy 500 in 1919. My grandfather worked on some racecars in the mid teens which got me started on it. Another obsession that wont let go. The more you research the early race cars the more you may find how sophisticated they were. Indy's first 500 race was 1911 and by 1913 if you were not running an overhead cam motor you were not going to be competitive. The more you research the teens you will find they were pretty innovative and pretty knowledgeable. During that time they also studied supercharging and turbo charging although it was for aircraft. Supercharging did not really come into vogue until the mid 20s.

They studied aero effects although they called it eddying airflow currents and knew that at times you had to tuck behind your competitor to gain an advantage. Louis Chevrolet placed fuel loads low in his chassis on both sides of his Frontenacs in the mid teens (not to be confused with Ford Fronties). The Frontenacs (and Monroes-same car different name) were some of the best designed race cars of the era. They were the first cars to win back to back at Indy (4 cyl. Frontenac in 20 and 8 cyl. Frontenac in 21)and the first real American racing engine to win at Indy as well (the 1911 and 1912 cars were pretty much modified stock cars-the Frontenacs were purposefully built race cars).

Be careful how much you take an interest in this early stuff. It is pretty infectious to say the least.

Not sure if you want to get into horses. My wife collects them and the cash register never stops and you can't put a tarp over them when times get tough like you can with a car.

Some of the cars are not cheap either. A 1914 Peugeot race car sold recently I believe for 7.2 million US.

Hard to find a cooler era though IMO-tons of innovation.

 

Your Grandfather Barney was the original "hero" when it came to saving unwanted very, very early cars before WW2. I am not really into going to see car collections, but I only wish I could have toured that massive complex in Detroit where he stored so many hundreds of them.

.

 

You have me REALLY WORRIED NOW,
I was just looking at this that's come up for sale,

I think I need help........

 

If you haven't yet, get ye hence to "Goodwood Road And Racing" on YouTube. Find his video playlists and we'll see you in a month. There's some unbelievably great shit on there. Make sure you find "The Beast Of Turin". And you thought Fiat just made little pisspots. Uh uh. 28-liter 4-cylinder fire-breathjng monster built in 1910 that eventually went 132 MPH and killed every mosquito in the western Hemisphere while doing it. Lots of vintage car racing beautifully filmed. Enjoy.

 

Frank,sadly I took the place for granted. I only wish I could go back for another look see back in the 60s.

Here are a couple of pics of a racecar he worked on during his time in the Packard experimental department. It carries a modified production 12 cylinder (Twin Six). My grandfatehr saw an old Vette drag car I was involved with that had stack injection and he mentioned he worked on race cars at Packard. I think the stack injection brought back fond memories. It surprised me and I spent a great deal of time searching for anything related to Packard racers. Packard experts told me the Twin Six car never existed. This car was found in the jungle in South America in 1998/99 and was purchased and restored by a great guy from Indy-Greg Dawson. It now resides in the Gilmore Museum. Wish my grandfather had lived long enough to be reunited with it. Nine months after his death in 1981, I located the remains of the Packard racer (engine, radiator part of the frame and one rear spring and a couple of other pieces) that ran at Indy in 1919-I wish he could have seen that as well.


Greg the owner is driving, I was too tall to get behind the wheel and work the peddles effectively-sadly. This is us at Amelia in 2006ish.

Here is my engine-299 cubic inch SOHC 12 Liberty.
Here is a picture of the car at rest.
Here is a pic at speed winning a match race in 1917 against Louis Chevrolet in one of his SOHC four cylinder Frontenacs. Barney Oldfield in the Golden Sub finished third out of the picture.

 

Yup, my Dort turns 100 next year........welcome to the club!

 

I swore I would never build a model t or a model a powered vehicle (especially a slow model t). Now I'm collecting parts to put one together. The races look so fun, and the simplicity and basic mechanical nature of them really appeals to me now that I'm old. (47 now).

 

When I was a young boy ,I hung out at the little two stall repair shop down the street from my folks house . It was run by Harry M Dort . He opened his first shop in San Diego in 1918. He told me he was directly related to the Dort automobile family. He settled in San Diego after traveling cross country in a center door model T, while working as a Firestone tire sales rep. In the early 20s he raced a T speedster at a track in old downtown San Diego He told me it had a Fronty head on it.I started hanging out there in the 70s and he was amazed that a young kid knew names like Barney Oldfield and early Indy 500 stuff...That old guy taught me more than I can ever relate..I owe a lot of who I am now to Mr Dort

 

How cool is that!
My Grandfather had a 1919 Gray-Dort.

 

Already a month ahead I guess. The beast is amazing, I laughed when I heard FIAT, then was struck by that holy shit moment. I love how they run those cars hard in the races. So much better than lawn chairs or beach front shows.