nzcarnerd

As this is Europe he may also have looked at a circa 1939 Opel Super Six. It has some of those styling cues.

Yes a bigger picture would help. I think the car has been modified so much that we can't indentify it from 'standard' features of regular cars. It looks to have the small hub caps that Chev used.

With the rounded radiator and sloped hood louvres it is much earlier than 1925. Circa 1918 is about right.

I think 1937 would be more like it.

I have not seen the other Gatsby movies but the 2013 version is certainly a tragedy. The ending is very dark.

The movie is quite lavish and as long as you ignore the historical inaccuracies, quite enjoyable.

The 2013 Great Gatsby movie may have 'nothing to do with Fitzgerald's novel' (I have not read it myself) but the basic elements are there; - Nick, Daisy, Jay Gatsby, the lavish parties, the Valley of Ashes, the yellow car, the blue car (I presume neither specified by make), the accident, the fall from grace. It even states at the beginning that it is 1922 though to those of us who know cars they are obviously all from a later era. The 'yellow car' is a 1980s Duesenberg II and the 'blue car' is an Auburn Speedster, I think built up for the movie. A silver Rolls-Royce Phantom 1 also appeared - http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_606806-Rolls-Royce-Phantom-I-18LF-1927.html - which Baz Luhrmann had previously used in the movie Australia in 2008 - http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_237175-Rolls-Royce-Phantom-I-1927.html. Most of the other cars were imported from the US for the movie. http://www.imcdb.org/movie_1343092-The-Great-Gatsby.html Some of the cars have not been identified yet but there are also some with known histories.

I guess the reference in Great Gatsby to standard shift means regular H pattern rather then the back to front pattern found in Dodges and Buicks.

Rusty, I know this is not directly relevant to this thread but regarding The Great Gatsby - which I have not read - it was interesting to note that the latest version of the movie (which was shot in Australia with a lot of help from computers) uses cars from a much later era than the 1922 in which it was set. I guess because they were more photogenic - i.e. more chrome and brighter colours. There is no doubt that the cars of 1919-1922 were quite plain in comparison.

This is a really old thread but I tripped over a link to it. It looks to have not had a correct answer. The grey car at rear is a 1935 Reo.

The most significant thing about driving a car of the 1920s is that there is no power assistance for anything and no automatic transmission. The manual gearbox has no synchromesh so required some skill to change gear, hence one of the reasons why they have low overall gearing which allowed them to be driven mostly in top gear. This was one of the reasons why the Ford T was so successful for so long as it did not require the skill of correctly meshing gears. Other less important but still noticeable things are no direction indicators and no sun visor and in many cases no windshield wiper. Tyres would puncture frequently as they weren't as well built as today and there were still plenty of horses on the road dropping horse shoe nails. Another point - no adjustable seats. If you were too small to reach the pedals you put a cushion behind you. The first adjustable front seat was in the 1929 Buick - I think. The average person in 1925 was quite a bit smaller than today and bigger people today find that some 1920s car are a tight fit.

A couple more details. Chrysler's first car appeared as a 1924 model so your hero could possibly have one. Regarding top speeds the average driving speed was much lower than today because most roads were not paved. Even though many cars could exceed 60 mph they were more often driven at 25-35. Cars were generally geared such that they could climb most slopes in top gear which limited their top speed, unlike today when cars have such tall gearing that they can loaf along at quite low revs at highway speed but it is usually impossible for them to achieve their theoretical top speed. This is only one of the many reasons why today's cars should go for hundreds of thousands of miles with only regular oil changes and basic maintenance whereas 1925 cars, which often did not even have an air cleaner or oil filter, would often be worn out well before 100,000 miles. A very much over-generalisation but it is true that they "don't build 'em like they use'ter" which is just as well as today's cars do not need to spend as much time in the shop as they did back then.

To Historylover, you are right that this photo was taken much later than 1909. It is definitely no earlier than 1918 and more likely at least 1921 because of the style of front fenders. Most cars of the 1918-20 period had plain tops on the fenders and that style with the shaped tops was popular in the 1921-24 era. In 1909 most cars had brass radiators, gas lights, vertical windshields and no front doors.

There is a lot of Bosch info here - http://www.go-faster.com/BoschMagnetoVeteran.html - but no mention of a model HS8. It might be from an eight cylinder aero engine - obviously one of two. We have a ZH6 which is original to our 1925 Chrysler project. Research into that model shows it was used in pairs on several WW1 era German aero engines.

The date is about right but it is definitely not a Buick. Google it and you will see the different radiator. The badge is different as well. The contemporary Nash has a similar radiator but the fenders are wrong for Nash.

I was in Paris, France on 12 February and saw this. Thought it might be of interest to at least one member who regularly contributes to this site.

Just google Coey Flyer and this is one of several links - http://www.conceptcarz.com/z18814/Coey-Flyer-Model-A.aspx Can't open your attachments but from your description that eagle may be the real thing - maybe.

1940 Ford Deluxe.

I guess the 'lmaster' badge is what remains of a Buick Roadmaster.

Yes I agree it is earlier than I first thought. When I first looked at it I was in an area with poor internet and could not open the picture. I am home now and can see it is an earlier 10hp model. It might even be 1915. It looks very similar, apart from the wheels, to the one owned by an acquaintance of mine, which is in very original condition and has a full CAV lighting set.

It is a mid-1920s Humber, possibly a 12/25 from around 1925.

A photo of the engine will confirm what it is, along with the engine number which might be found just above the water inlet on the right side of the engine block.

From the look of the car in the picture I would say it is a Standard Six.

Just google "dodge t307".

Don't know the factory recommendation but with a compression ration of 4.3 the figure should be (14.6 x 4.3) - 62psi. Probably what is more important is how much different each cylinder is to the others.