1912Staver

Tough to be sure, but this isnt what Packard normally called a truck . Heavy commercial car chassis ? Packard dropped truck production in 1924, and they were not anything like this vehicle. Here is what a Packard truck looked like in the 1920's.

That's another low tension mag. Similar to a wizard. Usually found on relatively early stationary engines.

Many did have the optional wires, but wood spoke were standard on most models.

Packard trucks are out there as well . But even the " small " 1 ton is a lot more truck like than these smaller Whites. Other than the actual size of the parts involved a Packard 1 ton is almost exactly the same design as a Packard 3 ton. { a real truck ! } They just scaled the drawings up or down depending on the size. White quality is very good, but Packard is in the same catagory. Ed , you should consider getting a Packard truck to keep your Whites company. You will be just as amazed by their quality as is the case with White vehicles.

A pretty tall order I am afraid. A car big enough for your HS V8 will in almost every case , even without an engine, be worth a lot more than the cost of finding the correct engine. Especially so if it falls in the 1910- 1918 time frame. Almost no cheaper than just buying a complete car. Large brass or early nickel era cars are still in significant demand. A 1916 - 18 Cadillac might be your best bet.

A 40 Sports are rare, but in general they don't seem to bring very high prices in North America. The Jensen coachworks is nice, but the Austin chassis is quite basic and rather underpowered. Most people would rather have something like a MGA or TR 3 . A 90 Atlantics can hit some substantial prices, but a very limited market in North America.

Early MC side car ?

Finding the right sort of chassis from the correct era may be a bit of a challenge. Engines in general seem to survive a bit more commonly as they often were adapted to other purposes , pumps, saws , generators, compressors , etc. once the cars useful life was over. Some large cars were converted to farm wagon use, I have such a chassis myself. But it is probably a bit too new for your engine. A 1926 Cadillac 314. The short wheelbase for 1926 as I believe it came from a Custom Series, Roadster. But still a reasonably big car, at a 132 inch wheel base. If you are possibly interested let me know. Greg

They look like Rudge wheels so I think that makes it about 1924- 25.

I suppose it could be a 40 H.P. just as easily as a 30 or 35 H.P.. But judging from the photo with the seated driver, it does not look like a particularly large car to me.

I think it is an older car , 1910 era. Possibly the modifications were done in circa 1914 . That would account for what would have been brand new hood hold downs. The front frame crossmember on my Packard truck is made in a similar manner to what I am suggesting for this cars frame. Except both the inner and outer layer are steel plate rather than one channel and one plain plate. Wood sandwiched by steel and quite a few through rivets. Steel gave it strength and the wood gave the crossmember some strength plus a bit of give if the truck was pushing against something. I think the wood filler on this car would be intended to make a lighter duty , perhaps 30 H.P. car , stiff enough for racing.

If you want one of these , just go out and buy one. If you can't afford to do that then you can't afford to keep one running even if someone gives you one. A car for the few. Just my opinion , but few have both the fat wallet and the fat ego needed for ownership.

I think it is a regular channel frame with a wood insert. And then the inner closing piece is either carriage bolted or riveted in place. Notice all the rounded bolt or rivet heads visible on the outside of the frame. I think some European race cars around this time used a similar technique. There is a lot about this car that resembles the first Mercers , but a number of things are not right. There were a few " Sharp Arrow ' cars built that evolved into the Mercer for series production . Could this be one of them, possibly owner modified to some degree ?

The world won't run out of gas Corvettes. But once new gasoline powered vehicles become a rarity I suspect there will be many changes in the automotive world, repair , parts , fuel etc . that we can't even imagine at this point in time.

I believe those are Solar brand headlights , circa 1908 - 1910. Decent quality lights but fitted to many different makes.

Judging by all the carriage bolts or rivets along the frame I think the frame channel probably has a wood filler and possibly a metal inner closing piece. I doubt this is something a production car would feature. A one off modification ?

Not Staver. Layden may have it with Speedwell, but it looks smaller than what I would expect. Very elegant ! The pitman arm is quite unusual, and the fully boxed frame is highly unusual. And very deep hubcaps. Once again quite unusual. Early Mercer with a bunch of owner modifications ? Otto automobile with some modifications ? Similar rad setback to an Otto, but not the correct shape. A modified radiator ?

Microsoft in 1985 ! Yes indeed ! Actually in 1982 I was taking a Computer class at my local Institute of Technology and I noticed a lot of the software we were using was from a company named Microsoft. It seemed to be a pretty good product, reasonably easy to use for the time frame. And quite good at doing the task it was suppose to do. I had the thought on several occasions that it would probably be a good company to invest in. Of course as a student I had no money at all to invest with, barely keeping my meager bills paid and living on student loans at the time. Took several more years to dig myself out of the hole I was in , and never did have any extra money for such frills as investments.

Never smoked , semi serious cyclist in my younger years. About 1 or perhaps 2 beer a month. So no , not going to fund a Pebble trip .

Car week is special, but for me just the Motorsports Reunion once a decade or so. Even that gets closer to the fringes of my budget with the passing years. Pebble , even for a spectator is out of sight. The auctions , while an interesting data point are out of my world by 300 - 400 %. At least at the races there are cars I could actually own. { vintage small bore class }.

And to further muddy the waters, years ago many British factories would build a "Works Special " for entry in high profile events. Of a higher specification than the normal production version. If the " Works " car was successful then the factory would often then turn out a limited run of cars that were labeled something along the lines of a " TT replica ", " Brooklands replica", " Le Mans Replica " etc. . That is a limited production replica of the factory race or rally or other special event prepared car. And sold to the public as a "replica". A very slippery slope indeed, and very hard to pin down an exact definition. Our friend Mr. Leno and his 1934 Frazer Nash , TT replica. 100% genuine, 1934 Frazer Nash.

Well Walt, I do agree with you. And trust me , if I could find an unrestored late 1950's Lotus, at a price I could swing, I would be first in line to buy it. Unless you attend several big name English auctions , and are prepared to spend more on a genuine Lotus basket case { probably stored in a leaky shed for decades , and scavenged of any usable parts } , than a ready to use Westfield sells for there is really no option. By the time the car is restored, very little of the original will still be in the finished car. So your " genuine " car is probably little more than the original chassis plate { if you are lucky } , and bragging rights that your car is " real " . In fact probably at least 80% of the parts on your "real " car will be sourced from the same shelf the Westfield replica car is built from. This is for a car that is " only " $80,000.00 or so more than the replica by the time the dust settles. If you want one of the handful of very untouched cars that have survived over the decades then it is more like a $150,000.00 upcharge. Once the 1980's turned into the 1990's and early Lotus, Elva, Lola, etc . prices went forever beyond my reach I latched on to a late 1950's Buckler. That is my current " boy racer " project. Actually both the Buckler and my 1977 Lola { not to mention my 1973 Formula 3 car } are real racers rather than " boy racers " but I guess that's splitting hairs for the purpose of this conversation.

Respectively Walt, I don't think replicas like this fall into the " Cling on Coach works" category. Or even " Patch Panels Personified ". This is an early 1980's replica of a late 1950's Lotus. The ones built today are just as good or even better in some cases. Only someone who is very well acquainted with the original cars can see any differences. These are very high quality replicas.

Not just sporty cars, even such work horses like Packard truck used gauges like this. Initially the hand pump on the dash built up pressure to start the engine, then that connection was closed off and a small air pump drove off the camshaft to pressurize the gas tank for running.

As far as I know there is no book. Many of the British replica's grew out of the parts supply business from outfits that supplied repair parts for the original cars. Eventually there was a broad enough parts line that companies like Westfield and Caterham went the next step and instead of selling individual spare parts for vintage Lotus cars they started selling a kit of parts to make a complete new car. Eventually that evolved into selling assembled, complete cars. With many of these cars even the original car uses a lot of parts bought in from other makers . Both Cobra's and early Lotus cars bought in things like engines, gearboxes, rear axles and front suspension parts. Lots of Ford parts on several of these cars. A few others used Chevrolet parts, and several builders used Chrysler engines. But the thing to bear in mind is the way the original car came about. A small concern would design a car for a very specialized purpose . They would design a frame and usually contracted the production of additional frames from one of the frame building companies, Arch motors for example. They would order in the mechanical parts from whoever had an off the shelf product most suited to their needs. Bodywork was then contracted to a body building outfit {a few of the more up market builders did the bodywork in house , but this was relatively rare } . Finally the car was assembled by the maker and sold to the customer. So right from the start almost a kit of parts from various specialist contractors. Decades later the process is resumed, in some cases things like frames are once again built by the some outfits that built them in the first place. But in the case of Lotus at least , they are not interested in building the modern replica's or supplying parts for them , and instead license other companies like Westfield and Caterham to continue production.