Identification Joe Tracy car

[Guest Faustroll]

Gentlemen

The attached shot is of Henry Farman being driven by Joe Tracy at Brighton Beach in July/August 1908.

Having discarded Locomobile, would someone more knowledgeable than me about American machines be kind enough to tell me what the car is?

Thanks

[Lozierman]

My guess is it is a 1908 Peerless.

[Guest cben09]

Didn't Tracy go with Royal Tourist for 08,,,,But what month,,Ben

[Shop Rat]

Here is a link for an ad for a 1908 Peerless Touring car.

1908 Peerless Model 18 Touring Car | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

And some ads for Royal Tourist autos.

http://www.american-automobiles.com/Royal-Tourist.html

Edited December 27, 2011 by Shop Rat (see edit history)

[Guest Faustroll]

Thank you all very much. Although Tracy was connected with Royal Tourist (curious name for a US automobile!) in 1908, I'm sure Peerless is right. Even though it's a 1913 model, the rad on the splendid car attached looks pretty much identical.

Much appreciated.

Reg Winstone

[Richard Lichtfel]

Peerless 1907 or 1908. Joe Tracy drove for Peerless on several occasions

racing or setting endurance records.

[Guest Faustroll]

Interesting, thank you.

Does it look like a road-converted racer to you?

I only ask because lots of European aviators used big ex-competition cars on the road. Gabriel Voisin ran around in a Targa Florio Lorraine Dietrich, and Santos Dumont a GP Mercedes.

[jeff_a]

A Motor Age story, I believe from 2/25/1905, states that Joe Tracy owned one of the Peerless Green Dragon race cars. This looks like it could be a Peerless production car, similar to the 1909 Model 25 which appeared at the 2010 Meadow Brook Concours. Was there an exhibition race here between an airplane and a car?

[Guest Faustroll]

No, it was when Farman brought over the Voisin with which he'd flown the first closed circuit kilometre for what was intended to be a nationwide tour, but was limited by financial collapse of the backers to a few days in August at Brighton Beach racetrack. Tracy offered to buy the Voisin, but Farman was being chased by creditors and had it clandestinely shipped back to France.

His owning the Green Dragon at some stage rings a bell - and having now had time to mug up on matters Peerless, I agree that the car looks like a production model. Thanks for your help.

[Varun Coutinho]

1908 Buick 24Hp Model S (Tourabout)

[zepher]

Beautiful car, just needs to lose the white walls.

[wayne sheldon]

Actually, in 1908, the tires should be all a single color, or lack of color, as the case may be. Most tires at that time were somewhere between all white, all gray, or some sort of milkish light brown. The tire tread and sidewalls being different colors began as part of the evolutionary attempt to improve tire tread wear expectancy. In order to maintain soft sides and keep costs down, the sidewalls remained as before. However in order to extend tread wear, the tread was added to with different materials, often of different colors. Whitish sidewalls on darker treads begin showing up around 1914. They continued to show up on model T Fords and other cars well into the 1920s. Funny how it seems only a couple years from when they stopped being a "convenience" to the manufacturers, to an extra cost "fashion statement"? While not really common then, the fashion statement began in the late 1920s. 

While they are often not clearly seen, they can be found in a lot of era photographs. I speculate that the muddy and dirty roads of the day often obscure the shade differences due to lightening the blacks while darkening the whites so far as the era B&W films were concerned.

They were not all whitewalls! Not by a longshot!  However a high percentage of them were into the early 1920s.

 

Even to me, whitewalls do not look right on late 1910s automobiles. Even after finding them in literally hundreds of era photographs. 

 

Funny how silly we humans can be at times? However, the era photographs prove it. And they were double sided whitish walls in the earlier days.

 

[George K]

On 7/10/2023 at 8:33 PM, Varun Coutinho said:

1908 Buick 24Hp Model S (Tourabout)