Category Archives: Automobile photos with children
The 2012 Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles
From all reports we have received about the 2012, 18th Annual Glenmoor Gathering, the event was well received by all. This year the “Gathering” included early supercharged automobiles, steam-powered automobiles, the Allard sports car, automobiles designed by Zagato and the Tucker automobile. The motorcycle class featured classic 1928-48 American motorcycles.
More than a few unique Tucker rear ended cars showed up, a couple of which are shown (above) in photographs courtesy of Matthew Little. Just below is shown the famous 1935 Duesenberg SG “Mormon Meteor,” owned by Cincinnati, Ohio, collector Harry Yeaggy. This car has been covered on The Old Motor before and you can see a very interesting film here about Ab Jenkins and his exploits on the Bonneville Salt Flats with the car.
One other very interesting car that attended, was Ralph Marano Sr.’s 1952 Packard Special Speedster that was built for Edward Macauley, who at the time was the Director of Styling for Packard. It is believed to be the first Packard with a wrap-around windshield, it also features a unique shortened roof and extended rear deck and trunk, which was the rage in most show cars at the time.
The photo in the middle below shows the steering wheel, shifter and dash in one of the Tuckers that attended. Full details of this fine event, which you need to put on next years calendar, can be found at the glenmoor-gathering .
Little Rascals in Their Big Brother’s Speedster
This very special photo shows two young boys, in their dresses (common at the time) posing in a cute and tiny little speedster. A guess at the time frame would be the 1910-1915 period, as the radiator appears to be patterned after a Blitzen Benz. The Benz was the hottest thing on wheels at the time and had been pushed to 141 mph in 1911 at Daytona to set the LSR at the time and was every boy’s hero.
This little car appears to have been manufactured as it has a channel frame of riveted construction. As to the power plant a guess would be that it has a small one lunger. For the controls, it had one lever and one pedal and a hand throttle on the steering column. The rest of it is patterned after after the typical speed cars of the day. Who ever owned this car (the photo was found in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area) must have been the envy of the town at the time.
We are hopeful that you, our knowledgeable readers will be able to help us identify the maker of this cute little speed car. The Old Motor photo
Seeing this little car makes me think back to when I was an eight year old kid and with my father’s help, built what I call the U.S. Plywood Special (seen below), during the winter of 1962-1963. It was built on the dirt floor in the garage just behind myself and my little brother. Times were much different then and it was all done in front of a little pot bellied stove over the winter, under one hanging light bulb, with an extension cord, a 1/4″ drill and hand tools.
Since I had no funds, but was an excellent scrounger, it was assembled out of left over junk found in the neighborhood and all over the town.
The main pieces of this horrible looking concoction were the following; The frame was made from an old bed with angle iron rails. The power-plant and rear section was from an old lawn mower which had both forward and a reverse. My dad who was a tool and die maker, machined the rigid front axle with conventional type spindles and tie-rod from plans found in Popular Mechanics. The front wheels were old soap box derby neighbor hand-me-downs that were somehow bartered for.
The body was made of plywood and masonite and an old delivery van provided the seat cushion. The steering wheel came off of a wrecked 1957 Chevy, after many bicycle trips back and forth for bigger implements of destruction, before it was finally forced off of the junked car’s steering column.
It was a great learning experience…..so help a kid if you can, as many did way back then when they helped me with this, who knows where it might lead?
Posted in Automobile photos with children, Out Of The Box
Tagged Early Self-Propeled Childs Car, Mc Pherson
Kids and Cars and Airplanes
Charlie Beesley recently posted a great series of photos on his motor life. blog, of kids having fun with their pedal cars, along with a couple of creative ones who built an air-plane. They bring back great memories of the fun we had in our neighborhood, first with cars and bikes given to us and then the long line of “custom builts” we used to run down our hilly streets and race. Photos courtesy of Charlie Beesley.
Posted in Automobile photos with children
Tagged Childen, Pedal cars
