oldcarfudd

Chris Petersheim, Sr., 1962 Mine Rd., Paradise, PA 17562. (610) 593-1375. Chris is an Amishman, so don't expect instant communication. Call that number and leave a message; he'll call you back. A number of us brass car nuts use him. Good man, good work, reasonable prices. Gil Fitzhugh, Morristown, NJ

Are you anywhere near Ephrata, PA? The Seiberling Collection there has a whole museum full, and might be able to help you.

It's a pre-'16 tour called the Hershey Hangover. I wrote the routes for the last 2 years, and have written the routes for this year. We gather at a nearby motel with trailer parking, have a light meal Saturday night (with cash bar), tour all day Sunday, have a more formal meal Sunday night, and a short tour with lunch Monday to let people get an early start for home. You can be a member of either AACA or HCCA to join. The host is Jeff Lesher, (610) 639-1977. I wrote up the prior hangovers on the HCCA website. Here are links to the last two, if you want to learn more about the tour. https://hcca.org/BOARDS/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1058&sid=619890b9805939f33aa5e6a276b3db43 https://hcca.org/BOARDS/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=978&sid=619890b9805939f33aa5e6a276b3db43 Gil Fitzhugh the Elder

I just posted an article about this tour on the HCCA website. You may be interested. I double-posted a picture and have asked the webmaster to remove it since that's above my skill level or pay grade; he may have done so, or not, when you open the link. https://hcca.org/BOARDS/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1122&sid=44fc08aefcafc187f2c1a34e644 4d623#preview%23preview%23preview%23preview

I couldn't go this year, but I've done the run three times; twice with a single-cylinder Cadillac and once (last year) with a Stanley. I do a lot of brass-car touring, and this tour is one of the very best.

My Stanley, like many, is set up to run on kerosene. But kerosene in northern NJ is impossible to find. So I go to a friendly local airport with a bunch of five-gallon cans and buy Jet A, which is highly refined kerosene. Even running on jet fuel, I doubt my Stanley would beat that Indy car!

Damn autocorrect! What I typed was: Has the world gone utterly mad?

It's a cute car and would probably be lots of fun to putt-putt around in. But for only 75% more, you could have that '40 Buick Century convertible that's on another thread. What's wrong with this picture? Has he old gone utterly mad?

If he's a bit eccentric, how will you distinguish him from the rest of us?

I can understand spending a lot of money to make a used car look like a new car. I can't understand spending a lot of money to make a used car look like a used car.

I won't drive a gas-lit car at night, so I don't do cruise nights. But there's a very active cars and coffee group here, although ours is called Cars and Croissants because it used to meet at a French bakery. The founders are into exotic muscle - Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati. Porsches, 'Vettes, Jags are sort of ho-hum. The founders asked me to bring a car, and I demurred because I didn't have their kind of car. "Oh, no," they said. "You can come in anything interesting, and your cars are definitely interesting." So I show up in a single-cylinder Cadillac, or a 1912 Buick, or a brass Model T, or a Stanley. And they draw a crowd. I ask kids if they wan to hear my duck, and then I blow the bulb horn, and I let them blow it. Then I take the bulb off and blow into the horn, to show them where the term "blow the horn" comes from. Then I let them sit behind the wheel. A year ago on New Years Day, temperature 28, I drove the Stanley. With cross-country ski clothes, motorcycle gloves, a lined cap with ear flaps, and a snowmobile suit, it wasn't bad except for my cheeks. The other guys are now convinced that I'm totally insane.

Talk to Jeff Keysor of Keysor Automobile Works in Bouckville, NY (successor to Steve Bono's M&S Auto Restorations). Jeff's father has a '15 Cole 8 that had a minor issue on the BBC tour in May. Jeff is fixing it.

Left hand drive, and what looks like shaft drive. If it's real, that's pretty early.

More than 60 years ago I was driving my dad's '51 Cadillac with a new date next to me. I was going way too damn fast, as was my wont when I was under 20 (and for some time thereafter). Suddenly, the car quit cold. The gas gauge went to zero. I pulled over and stopped, tried the starter more from frustration than from any idea of what was wrong, and everything fired back up again as if there had never been a problem. As I looked out the driver's window before pulling out, there was a cop standing there asking for license and registration. I was dumbfounded, and said I hadn't stopped because he had pulled me over; I had stopped because the car quit, and I hadn't even known he was there. It didn't seem to faze the cop. He gave me back my papers, told me to take it easy, and let me go. To this day, I've wondered whether he was testing some sort of gadget that could remotely shut off my car. Today, maybe, but this was the late '50s! Ghosts, indeed!

Brass cars stay at home? Codswallop! The HCCA runs weekend and week-long tours all over the country. The Snappers, an AACA brass group, does several tours a year, some in conjunction with HCCA. There are independent brass clubs doing week-long progressive tours. As you read this, a former HCCA president, his two sons, and two of his grandkids are taking a month to drive two 1911 Model Ts across the country on back roads. And they're blogging it, so you can read about it as they go along. https://ca2vabyt.com All cars on HCCA national tours are now at least 103 years old. And no, we don't remember them from our youth. Maybe you don't see them at AACA judging meets because we're too busy getting grease on our clothes and under our fingernails!

When I was about 6, my grandmother and I boarded at a farm in NY State for a month. The farmer's son had a '34 Chevy running chassis, with only the driver's seat. He taught me to drive it on farm roads, unpaved ruts with grass in between, sitting on his lap so I could reach stuff. At last year's Hershey Hangover, one participant let an 11-year-old drive his 6-cylinder 1907 Ford Model K around a deserted parking lot, low gear only, alone. That kid is hooked!

Didn't Model T Ford couplets have them in 1916?

I'd like a ride in that, but only if I can sit up front!

That modern Citroen convertible is an interesting car. And I love the sign on the back of the little red touring car: "I was born in 1930. I do what I can. Thanks!"

I just submitted my answers.

The one in the OP's picture is a year or two older, since it has gas headlamps and oil sidelamps.

The newest car I can identify is a 1916 Ford. Most of the cars are a bit older.

You might, in that case, want to contact the local Model A Ford and Flathead Ford V-8 clubs. Those cars are very popular, and their owners love to drive them. You might even end up with a caravan!

In my working life I was an actuary. I know about odds. I don't buy lottery tickets.

There are ways to lend your car to a museum for display, without giving up ownership. If the museum doesn't comply with the terms of the loan, the car can come back to the owner, or to some sort of trustee, for further disposition by the owner or the terms of the trust. I don't have a dog in this fight, but one thing interests me: What happened to all those regional club artifacts? If the museum thought it owned them, it could continue to display them (apparently not what was done), put them into storage (easy enough to say so if that's what happened), sold them (to whom? They have no cash value except to the donating regions or to a sign hoarder), given them away (again, to whom?), or chucked them in a dumpster (easy to do, but not very nice). If the museum thought the donating regions still owned them, it could have returned them when they were of no further value as display items. In any event, the question of their disposition would be easy to answer. So, why hasn't it been?