Timeline for Automotive Eras?

[63RedBrier]

I've done some searching but haven't found a good example of the various automotive eras.  Pre-war and Post-war are easy.  I realize there may be some overlap, but does the brass era totally end when the nickel era starts?  Can anyone help?  Thanks!  Greg

Edited April 26, 2022 by 63RedBrier (see edit history)

[Graham Man]

YES I imagine you will never get anything close to consensus

 

 

 

 

 

[63RedBrier]

Thanks, Graham Man!  I found those too, but where does Nickel fit in?

[Terry Bond]

I find that really interesting.  Don't know what the original source is for the charts might be, but the term "Veteran" originated in Great Britain.  It refers to those cars made prior to the cut-off date for "emancipation" when the infamous "red flag act" was repealed.  That cut-off date also coincides with the cut-off date for entry for the London-to-Brighton run (pre 1905).  Automobiles made after that were commonly referred to as "Vintage." That time span covers the years prior to WWII.  After that, cars were known as "Post Vintage." 

 

Over the years, that period of time between 1905 and later has been further broken down into Edwardian and Brass age  While "Brass Age" covers the entire time span from 1905 forward until the cut-off, "Edwardian" covers only the time frame considered as the "Edwardian age."  That time period was during the rein of the British Monarch King Edward VII, which ended in 1910. 

 

I note one chart lists "1918" as the cut-off date for the "brass age."  I don't know where that comes from as the brass-era is widely recognized to have ended in 1916.  That's the end of the brass radiator used on Model T fords.  The antiquated T is recognized as the last of the brass age automobiles. 

 

Some over-lap occurs with the "Nickle era" though, as Nickle was becoming common-place by 1912. 

 

I've not heard the term "Classic" referred to as a specific "era" rather as a type of automobile.  Of course the CCCA and AACA recognize only specific vehicles as "Classic" as opposed to how the general public views a "classic" automobile (which is anything someone collects!). 

 

Of course the commonly accepted "Muscle Car" age begins with the Pontiac GTO in 1964, although depending on which cars you love or which club you belong to that dates seems a little nebulous.  It seems difficult to indicate an end date on that era a muscle cars are still being made today.

 

Modern - who cares! 

 

So, if you are confused, just join a club and they'll soon straighten you out.  Yes, I know - you found it on the internet so it's gotta be right!

 

Terry

[Graham Man]

Brass ends in 1916....

After Brass was Nickle plated trim, that changed in 1929 with the introduction of Chrome trim

So Nickle would be 1917 till 1928

 

1926 Buick: beautiful example of "Nickle era" correctly plated

[Buffalowed Bill]

I agree with Terry. I have no idea where the the two charts that Graham Man highlighted came from. I think any definition would have to include some kind of consensus vetting, I don't think this group would agree with much of this.

[Bloo]

Nickel picks up where Brass leaves off. That is for all practical purposes 1915/1916. There is no clean break in the cars. In 1912 most US cars were right hand drive, had gas and kerosene lights, and brass everywhere. You started them with a crank. A year or 2 later a lot of the brass had disappeared. By 1916 there were a lot of black hoods and radiator shells, almost everyone had left hand drive, electric starters and lights. HCCA, the "Brass" car club had to make a decision about what the cutoff was going to be. That brings us to the Model T Ford.

 

The Model T started in 1909 as a brass car. By sometime in 1916 it had electric lights, an optional electric starter, and was all black. By the mid 20s the price had dropped below $300, and they had made 10 million of them and would make 15 million before it was over. It is difficult to visualize now how ubiquitous they were in the 20s. Imagine if everyone on your block and 3 or 4 blocks around you drove a 1993 Ford Escort, and most of them were the same color, but one guy who works at the bank had a Buick Regal.

 

Another thing that is a bit difficult to fathom today is that the Model T had a planetary transmission, and learning to drive one was different than any other car you would likely run into. The planetary transmission was a holdover from 1909 when it wasn't even weird. In the mid 20s though, there was almost nothing else like it. Since the Model T was by far the most common car, a lot of people only knew how to drive a Model T. The Model T, being so different, not only had it's own driving methods but it's own set of common problems and solutions.

 

Lets say you are a car club, and you are trying to organize appropriate events for these old crank start, gas and oil lit cars with brass all over them. What do you do when 90 percent of everything left are black Model T Fords with electric lights, and a lot of them have electric start? It should be obvious that everything will be geared toward the Model T. Is that what you want? If you are the Model T club, then yes. If you are the HCCA and trying to cater to everything else then no. What they did was make the cutoff exactly when Ford dropped all the brass and started making the all black Model T's. In the 1950s that change was widely believed to have been at the end of 1915. That might not be quite true. there may not have been a clean break. HCCA had to pick a date, and that is what they picked. The die was cast. It let in a bunch of really brassy Model T's, and left out the much more common black ones that would have overwhelmed everything else in the club by sheer numbers.

 

And that is how the brass era came to end at midnight on December 31, 1915.

 

The Nickel era picks up where brass leaves off. Some of the cars don't have a lot of Nickel yet in 1916, as black hoods and radiators were in fashion, but they probably have some. There was a time not terribly long ago when there weren't a lot of events for cars from the nickel era, but that has changed.

 

Edited April 26, 2022 by Bloo (see edit history)

[Larry Schramm]

I agree with Terry on the Brass era ending at the end of the calendar year 1915.  By that time as others have said, most cars were left hand drive in the US. 

 

I have always considered the Nickel Age from +- 1916 to the start of the Ford Model A, again +- as chrome was being phased in on vehicles.

 

Just my humble IMO.

Edited April 26, 2022 by Larry Schramm (see edit history)

[wayne sheldon]

All of those terms and eras are full of exceptions and debates over when they begin and when they end. I am quite sure there will never be a real consensus  over the "eras". 

There are certain generally accepted eras, and a lot of club defined rules of acceptability. A lot of those rules are different between American, British, and European eras. A lot of us that follow (even though we cannot afford?) the international hobby get used to various differences in terms and definitions.

In the American clubs, the big three (AACA, VMCCA, HCCA) all formed in the 1930s, and began with simple and general old car ideas. As the clubs grew, they worked out their definitions. AACA and VMCCA began with loose rules, then moved to be more defined. Then they added a sliding scale to advance the accepted eras of cars as time moved on. The HCCA started with a loosely enforced pre1915 (a lot of members toured with cars later than 1915!), later becoming more strict for National Meets (Regional Groups were and still are allowed to be loose about that). The HCCA also went through numerous battles over that "pre1915", trying to find a simple rule that would make everybody happy (no chance!). There are still old timers in the HCCA that insist the "Brass Era" cutoff should have been 1912 (electric starter), or 1910, or a sliding scale with cars accepted or not based upon the specific car's design and capabilities. (Yeah, just try to reach agreements on THAT!)

There are also a lot of HCCA members that want to extend acceptability out further in order to allow more people in. I personally am against that idea. The HCCA for better or worse settled on the pre1915 rule a long time ago, and the earliest cars are special and need a major club to specialize on THEM. The AACA and the VMCCA are wonderful clubs, and give all the later collector cars all the attention they need, as well as special attention for the earliest cars!

"Brass Era" is a colorful term, but not exactly appropriate. Many of the earliest production cars, Stanley and Locomobile Steamers, Curved Dash Oldsmobiles, among a hundred others before 1905, used nickel plating on a lot of their trim and exposed mechanical parts! On MOST cars except Ford, nickel plating overtook brass by the end of 1912. And Ford did not end brass with 1915. The 1916 model year had a brass radiator all the way until the official 1917 model cars were introduced. In Europe, especially France, quite a few cars used brass on their radiator shells well into the 1920s, Bugatti I think to 1920 or '21, and Citroen until about 1924 on some models.

Generally speaking, "Brass Era" is the HCCA acceptable cars built before January of 1916 (pre1915 inclusive).

"Nickel Age" (Nickel Era) is similarly confusing. In spite of many early automobiles having nickel plating, the Nickel Era is generally accepted as beginning in 1913. That was when the majority of manufacturers were using nickel plating for trim, and it happens to coincide with the advent of the electric starter, which was a giant leap in becoming the modern automobile! 

However, when did the nickel era end? First use of chrome plating on automobiles was around 1921 and 1922. It had been used on household appliances with success. But automobiles being outdoors, the chrome plating didn't hold up so well. Then it was found that adding a step (copper coating) to the chrome plating process made it hold up very well! The first major automobile manufacturer to use chrome plating was General Motors Oldsmobile division, in 1927!

Some proponents of "Nickel Era" cars like to end the era at 1927. Once chrome plating had been proven, most automobile producers were switching to chrome fairly quickly. Although a lot of cars were still using nickel in early 1928 models, most (except Ford again?) were using mostly chrome by the end of the year. Ford used mostly nickel on the model A (with a few pieces being chrome I have been told?) for the 1928 and 1929 cars. Some "Nickel Age" clubs also cutoff at 1927 because they want to encourage nickel era non-Fords to tour, and not hassle with the nickel and non-nickel model A issues. (A convenient year?)

Other Nickel Era proponents prefer a 1929/1930 cutoff, based on Fords use of nickel on the first two years of the model A, and several other cars that used nickel a bit later. The late 1928 built 1929 Reo I had years ago had nickel plating originally.

Still other people, want the Nickel Era extended to 1932. Based on the general similarity in style and mechanics of the cars.

"Classics" (big "C") and "classics" (little "c") are a tough one. The CCCA trademarked the name a long time ago, and they defined what it meant. Other major clubs (including the AACA) basically went along with the CCCA's definitions. Those definitions have evolved over the years. Some people like the changes, some do not. But the big problem is, where does one draw the line? How does one say "this Cadillac is a Classic!" But this one, a very similar model, same year, same engine, is not?

What makes a "Classic" a "Classic", has been a part of automobiles (and horse drawn carriages for a hundreds of years before!) since the beginning, and continues to this day! However, the CCCA put it that there was a "Classic Era", from about 1925 until 1942, when the production of special cars reached an art form, and hundreds of companies made their livelihoods building those special automobiles! Drawing the line between what IS or IS NOT a Classic? Is not a difficult task. IT IS AN IMPOSSIBLE task! But for the most part, we go along with the CCCA on this.

The small "c" classic is anything and everything any fool wants to call it. Like "patina", and "rare", the word has been so overused that it has become meaningless.

"Muscle car" is similar to "Classic". There is a generalized era where they became an artform in the marketplace )1960s and 1970s). However the beginnings go all the way back to the beginning! And the reality does continue to this day. So how does one draw the line between what is or is not a muscle car?

 

Sportscars, prewar, postwar, English and European cars, trucks. So many aspects of automotive history to enjoy! And it is important history. Modern man has had the automobile along his side throughout the modern eras. The automobiles helped and hindered, lead and followed, and reflect all our history from the past 130 years!

[nzcarnerd]

When the New Zealand Vintage Car Club was set up by a group of Canterbury University students in 1946 it was decided to make the cut-off date 1927 - conveniently the bend of the Model T. Remember of course that a 1927 car was less than 20 years old in 1946. The various classes gradually evolved and for some time now have been; Veteran, up to 1918, Vintage, 1919 to 1931, Post Vintage, and 1932 up to WW2. 

 

By the way one of those original founding members, Andrew Anderson is still with the club 75 years later and is in remarkable health. He drove himself the 400 odd miles to the last major event in January (in his modern car). A 1913 Panhard that he owned in the early 1950s has recently returned to New Zealand after more than 60 years in the UK and he was able to advise the new owned on some of its details. 

 

As noted by others there have always been those who argue for something else.  I know one person, now deceased, who was strong in his opinion that there was nothing built after 1930 that was worth preserving but we all know that there were plenty of bad cars built before 1930 as well.

 

The NZVCC has gradually altered the classes for post WW2 vehicles and now has a 30 year cut off so that cars up to 1992 are accepted. There are those that argue against the acceptance of later model vehicles. Some won't take their earlier vehicle on events if the later ones are there as well - conveniently forgetting they are sharing the road with modern traffic.

 

More here - Club Eligible Vehicles - Vintage Car Club of New Zealand Vintage Car Club of New Zealand (vcc.org.nz)

 

I took my Studebaker on an event on Monday 25 April - Anzac Day,  which is our equivalent of Memorial Day. A relatively small turnout of about 30 cars. It was based at a small town about 30 miles west of here so I did about 120 miles in the day. The Model A parked next to my car is a relatively recent import from the US and has a V8-60 under the hood. The oldest car was a 1900 Wolseley - the second oldest Wolseley in the world - it has been with the owner's family since the 1940s. The current 'senior' driver in the third generation to run it and as far as i know the next two generations are also involved.

 

I have a short video of him starting it  - it cranks backwards - but I don't seem to be able to post it.