A. Ballard 35R

Thanks for the correction re Frank Lockwood's name. I have several pictures of Frank standing next to Tom McKean and Tom's Scripps-Booth at an early meet. Tom and Hemp Oliver were doth founding members of the VMCCA. Tom's great, great (?) grandfather was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Tom was the 6th AACA president. I remember him from the Devon, Pa. meets that preceded Hershey. Tom's extensive literarure collection is the one being given to the Simeone Foundation and the AACA library.

His name was Lockhart (as I recall) he and was well known to all the Philadelphia area car collectors. Cars were mostly left outside to rot and have trees grow up through them. Many sad stories of very high end cars. Hemp Oliver was a frequent visitor to many of the early AACA meets in the Philadelphia area and well known by all the early collectors. Most of the cars, or remains thereof, ended up as scrap I believe.

Have never been hit on the head but the real pain is closing a rear door with you hand on the top of the door and the cowl is down and fastened - ouch!

Never knew that an extendable rear windshield is now referred to as '"Folding divider windows".

There's a lot more I'd be concerned about other than cosmetic detailing. As pointed out on another thread there is a lot about the marque and painfully little on the particular car and its provenance.

Looks as though the negative is reversed.

Interesting picture Terry, but I don't remember any show fields that were not mowed nor that were that close to a building, other than the stadium.

As written on the back of pictures, this was the 4th AACA outing ever held and the third time it was held at the Folwell residence in Merion. I have numerous pictures and newspaper clippings plus an 8MM movie of the meets. Can't say that I remember it since I was only age three but my older sister remembers the meets because we lived there and the Folwells were our grandparents. Walter Matter was an institution at the early meets and drove his model T down from Hawley, Pa. in the Poconos

Used to see a lot of these "storage " type jacks in the flea market and sold mine years ago..

Howard is well known to those of us who know Old 16, the Vanderbilt cup races, Locomobile, and early pre-WWI races.. You might try googling his name along with Old 16.

Yes, whenever my parents saw a manure spreader, they would always say, "There goes a Harry Truman".

Wonderful pictures, reminds me of Hershey in the '50's and 60's.

According to the www.packardsonline website the car is in the Automobile Driving Museum in Los Angeles. The original owner is listed as J.D. Harding of Chicago. Your information is very interesting and certainly would be of interest to the current and the Packard roster keeper, twinsix on this forum. Send me a PM if you need the direct contact for the roster keeper.

Great picture with lettering on bottom right identifying it as a 1911 Mercer. Some modifications have been done including removal of cowl lamps, addition of what appears to be electric lights and perhaps a battery box on running board. Can't see any pumps on passenger seat which is strange. The stern looks of the occupants are perhaps indicative of a windy ride that will surely change their neat attire and hair. Based on existing 1911 Mercers, this one , unfortunately, is not a survivor.

The Stanleys and Packards can be found by checking the on line rosters. Mercers and Simplexes can be found by looking at those rosters, which are not on line. Same is probably true of Rolls Royces and perhaps some others.

Bob, once again you come up with the good questions. Your mention of Coles racing jarred my memory about the Fairmount Park races in Philadelphia. There were two Coles entered in the 1910 race driven by the Endicott brothers referred to in a previous post. Both cars had 201 cubic inch engines, were in the 161 to 230 cubic inch class, and neither finished. In the 1911 race there was one 286 cubic inch Cole driven by Basle and it was also a DNF in the 231 to 300 cubic inch class. Several years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the late Dick Ringfelt and his charming wife and had a great ride in his wonderful 1913 Cole 6-60 roadster. These are fine cars and I am very impressed with Kevin Fleck for all the work he has done to preserve the cars along with his outstanding research.

Go to the REVS/Colllier Collection in Naples and see the Cunningham race cars One of my favorite museums and worth a special trip to Florida. Briggs Cunningham had one of the finest car collections ever assembled.

This one supposedly was acquired by Cunningham from Cameron Peck.

Matt, how about an update? Hopefully your hand is healed but have you gotten any satisfacation from GM?

Walt, I think I know the picture you are referencing but I don't recall seeing it on a book cover. Great story about being stopped going 100 MPH but I think the cop might have been engaged in a little bit of gamesmanship with Austin.

I believe that the original Ken Purdy Mercer article was in TRUE magazine in 1948 where he talked about Mercers being ..."the most sought after vintage sports car in the world". As a result of this article he received a letter from the Canadian from whom he bought his 1912 35C raceabout. The saga of his car and the restoration done by Connie Lofink is written about extensively in Kings of the Road and other books written by Purdy. As Bob points out the car is now in the Heritage Museum in Sandwich and I understand that it is not on display since work is being done to get it running again. Perhaps someone has an update. The Ralph Stein book Sports Cars of the World (copyright 1952) has a two page color spread after page 106 showing the Austin Clark 1911 35R raceabout. This car is presently in the John Rich collection in Pottsville, Pa.

Love the caption !

Please note that early engines with non detachable heads had PORTS above both intake and exhaust valves which were necessary in order to install/remove valves. What you keep referring to as ports are straight exhaust pipes.

As a matter of interest, Old 16 is presently on exhibit at the Audrain Auto Museum in New Port, RI.

The two cars in the 1908 Fairmount Park race were both model 40's. George Robertson was the winner driving #10 and Joe Florida finished in 5th place driving #9. All cars in the race were supposed to be strictly stock but there were no technical inspections by officials. Two weeks after his impressive Fairmount Park win Robertson won the Vanderbilt race in Old 16, a race car designed by the factory. As a matter of interest, Robertson won the 1909 Fairmount Park race driving a Simplex.