1912Staver

I am retired now so every drive has the potential to be the same as "weekend fun ". But my daily driver back a couple years ago when I was still a wage slave just had to meet one requirement, be as cheap as possible and get me reliably back and forth. The only way to have some $ left over to indulge the hobby car itch. A $10,000, less than 1 year old trade in , Hyundai Accent , 5 speed , hatchback was exactly the right car. 11 years later it is just as cheap to run as ever, and still 100% reliable despite a lot of miles on the clock. And it has hauled more stuff home than many have hauled in their light truck. Lumber , engines, roll away tool boxes , a 1925 Hudson rear end , drum to drum. Passenger seat comes out in about 2 minutes and 4 cyl. engines fit right in. A Korean hatch back, pick up truck. Plus it actually is quite quick for a little commuter. Not very much weight at all, 1600, 4 valve dohc , vvt engine. A bit mushy compared to a 944 , but if pushed a lot more capable than one would expect. Those that have a budget that includes well- equipped cars might chuckle to themselves. But if I want a hobby car or two I will never be in that group.

Those auction results seem remarkably high. Very nice cars without a doubt, but near 250 K for the restored one ? Greg

I suppose " fun to drive " is a pretty subjective quality. For me a V8 Miata or MGB would tick that box. And I expect at a rather cheaper cost than a Tesla. A closed car that is hefty to say the least, albeit with of lots of power vs cars that are basic roadsters with relatively low weight and great road manners. Different strokes. Greg

Still available, Dirty , barn find ? Complete , rotor junk and no cap. shaft turns but stiffly . core unit.

That's a fine looking MGA. Mine is a very scruffy driver, but I have owned it since about 1979 and driven it all over Western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Coast. It really needs a cosmetic tidy up to even be a reasonable driver . The other car is in better condition but all apart . Both are 1960, 1600's. I guess I actually have 3 if you count a rather rough MK2 , border line parts car , but by U.K. standards quite restorable . Really great cars , the only weak point I have found over the years is the gearbox and front king pin threads. And rust, but that goes without saying on all British cars of this era.

That looks like a very attractive car at a very reasonable price. I hope this sort of deal turns up when I am in a position to make a purchase. If this is the new price situation on mid pack , 1920's ,open cars I am all for it.

I was also thinking GMC on that cowl, one of the K series trucks. The cabs would have been built locally in many cases so don't help with an I.D. much. We need to see more photo's of the chassis and suspension to help narrow things down.

It's always been a toss up between Morgan's and MGA's with me. When new they were quite close in price, but for most of my life as a British car fan Morgan's were at least twice as expensive { similar year cars , late 1950's - early 1960's } so I have always owned MGA's . I worked as a mechanic at a British Car shop in the late 1970's and worked on several Morgan's so I know them reasonably well. But I fit better in a MGA so that plus the substantial price difference has always prevented me from becoming a Morgan owner. Over the last decade the price difference has largely evened out but now both are expensive enough that I would not buy either. I still own two MGA's { both for a few decades } so it's not like I have to do without. 1 driver , the second one is decent enough but has been in pieces for many years.

Elon does not like Canadian's much. Or he thinks we are all really flush these days. Model 3 $51,900 - $76,600 Model S $113,600- $165,000 Model X $127,700 - $181,700 Canadian $ , before Govt. incentives. A $25.00 / Hour job in the US tends to also be a $25.00 an hour job in Canada. But almost everything costs more here. Pre covid many Canadian households depended on cross border shopping trips for gas and groceries to help ends meet. The US border towns did a booming trade serving Canadians. These days many of those same border towns are in trouble due to the elimanation of Canadian customers. But of course as posted previously you may save up to $13,000 on fuel over 15 years. My Hyundai was less than $15,000 brand new. My wife almost bought another one about 3 years ago. On sale also about $14,000, but no dealer has a manual shift car in stock. She stuck with her Ranger and switched job locations to a site much closer. Same employer.

I don't think my top 10 wish list has changed too much from about 20 years ago. Something larger and sporty from the 1908 -1912 era. A circa 1914 T speedster. Something sporty from the later teens, Marmon, Stutz, etc. Later 1920's Marmon 8 Traditional 32 Ford highboy , circa 1948 1946 GMC 1 Ton or 2 ton , preferably with a 4 BT swap MGA twin cam, or deluxe Elva MK6 Lola T 212 TVR 2500 Vixen , preferably one of the transition 1972 Vixens with the old body and improved " M " chassis. { like my old one }

Interesting material ! Thanks Peter. Still, it appears to me that even the www.energy.gov reference does a lot of hedging and fails to definitively state EV's have fewer life cycle emissions than IC vehicles. I get the feeling that they want you to come away with the impression the EV is superior from a life cycle emission point of view. But still very light on fact. I expect the real truth is there is very little true emissions advantage to either. So much is dependent on the type of EV , where you drive it, how you drive it, how you recharge it. In some locations ; particularly those that have hydroelectric power generation , the EV probably makes sense. In other locations ; areas served by coal burning thermal plants for example , the advantage may be very little indeed. And any high performance EV that also has any sort of useful range is going to be a relatively heavy vehicle. All that power needs battery capacity, all that battery capacity adds weight . The energy requirement to accelerate that vehicle increases significantly as the mass { weight } goes up. And that energy has to come from somewhere. Light vehicles are usually quite efficient vehicles , heavy vehicles generally less efficient. So EV's are going to save the planet how ?

Peter, I don't mean to be difficult but I would like to know where these stated attributes come from ? 1} Quieter I agree , no question 2} Pollute less I have yet to see a study that concretely proves this. The whole question is completely dependent on local power generation. 3} Are more powerful Isn't that completely dependent on how much power the Manufacturer includes into the design ? A golf cart derived EV vs a top model Tesla or similar high end EV. Vs a Hemi Charger. 4} Cheaper to fill up I will also give you this one although even that is very dependent on where you get your charge. Is it cheaper to drive 100 miles in a top model Tesla at 80 MPH using road side charging or is it cheaper to do the same with my diesel Smart Car ? I don't have the facts at hand but I suspect the cost saving may not amount to very much in a case like this.

The car matches the Maryland in every respect except those front springs. I think it must be either a very early version that used full elliptic springs or a modified from stock car. Maryland is a pretty obscure car so possibly some used springs like the photo car. possibly a hold over from the Ariel car that the Maryland was developed from.

I expect that if this collection was closer to a larger population area the more or less intact cars would over a reasonable time sell for 5 or 6 times their scrap value. Their location is probably what led to them surviving up to this point in time, but will probably also be their doom.

I agree about the detail differences. But the general similarity is there. An early prototype or perhaps a owner modified car ? The front spring design is completely different . But many people developed aftermarket " improved " suspension accessories, some of which saw success and many which sunk without a trace. Perhaps this is a car based on an Otto that has been modified to showcase an enterprising owners big idea. Of course it may also simply be a different car altogether. Greg

To me the electric car debate hides the fact that if we are actually going to reduce mankind's carbon footprint it's not going to be achieved by dumping vast sums into EV's. Even if we all drove EV's it would not be the needed solution. At best EV's { current state of the art } only slightly shrink the overall carbon footprint. The actual actions needed to accomplish the solution to the world wide problem are almost beyond comprehension .

These were an attempt to expand sales numbers with a significantly lower priced car than what Peerless was generally making. But still a very nice car. It will be a good buy for someone. Hopefully it stays in Canada. Greg

Possibly an Otto ? They have a long hood and greater than normal for the era set back of the radiator. I have not seen one in person , but a couple of them have survived. This might be a smaller car however going by the size of the people seated in it.

Nice start ! Reasonably useful, and great styling. It will be interesting to see where the price on this one ends. Some project cars are still bringing in strong prices. I have a feeling this will be one of them.

Look into down grading the engine. You can probably recover a fair chunk of what you paid for it from someone else who just has to have the " best " street engine. Then install something a bit better suited to the sort of driving you actually enjoy. What better way to make use of all that time , trouble and cost that building it in the first place involved. I am doing the same with one of my track cars. Same basic engine family as what it had when it was new , but the best of the regular street versions. Less than 1/2 the HP of the track version , but it now runs in a slower and much more affordable class. A much better match to what I actually need. A future owner with deeper pockets can always put it back to its factory spec.

I have not bought anything off BAT but I regularly look at the offerings. Hammer price is either too high or distance too far. But what keeps me coming back are the detailed photo's of cars that either I already own or would someday like to own. Some of my cars are slightly odd ball projects , plus a pair of race cars. BAT listing photos are great reference material for how other examples look. { or how to put mine back together } For a couple of my cars Google searches don't turn up much , but once a sister example is listed on BAT I have a great reference . And the photo's seem to stay on the site forever, although I do download the best of them just in case BAT starts to delete them in the future.

All steel except the chimney so either a lower end car, or a commercial vehicle or motorcycle are all possibility's .

Here is a factory Speedwell. Pretty close.

It looks like a reasonably decent starting point to me . Yes, too expensive but you have to start somewhere. Even if it sits another 10 years before the seller gets realistic about the price it's not going to turn to dust. Sooner or later someone is going to a proud new owner. I have a hard time believing cars like this are ever going to end up as parts cars or scrap as long as someone doesn't push it outside for a couple of decades.

Hi Carl, I thoroughly enjoyed the chance to chat. I had a look at the engine , it is a rear distributor . The serial number is 106044 , stamped into the generator mount just at the base of the oil fill tower. Both the starter and generator were off and in pieces when I got it. In a couple of rotting cardboard boxed so probably not even usable as cores. But I still have the parts in case someone needed any component parts. I don't think either of the armatures are usable. As well the water pump has what looks like a braze repair on the main body. So just a core engine and trans. Plus the rolling frame. I will try to get some photo's up this week.