My Dad's Antiques

When I was a kid, my dad had some classics. I've put them here with the description I can recollect. (For what its worth, these pictures were taken during the mid-sixties. That means the cars were 30+ years old at that point... about as old as my VW's are now..... kinda makes you think of the drastic change in automotive technology over the years...

(Click on the pics for a larger version of the pic.)

This is a 1938 Phantom III Rolls Royce. It is RHD, iron straight 8 with nickel brightwork. Mechanical brakes, thermostatically controlled radiator louvers, semaphores, a window separating the driver from the passenger compartments complete with a phone for the passenger to speak with the driver. Leather interior, quite the luxury model of its day. The motor was the same one that was used in the British Spitfire aircraft of the day. A recent email from Pop brought this note: "In looking again at the old cars of mine, I thought I'd give you a correction. The Rolls engine was an aluminum, V-12, with twin ignition. RR called it their Spitfire engine. When WWII came along, RR coupled two of them together, in a tandem configuration, supercharged it and that became the original engine in the British Spitfire aircraft which won the Battle of Britain. I believe it also became the prototype for the Allison aircraft engine made by GM for the American P-40's and P-38's. Water cooled engines had a much smaller cross-section permitting better forward visibility as well as lowering air resistance."

1931 Lincoln. This was a sporty car, convertible top with a rumble seat. I think this one had a hot motor, as I recall Dad saying this one was quite the hot rod. I like the paint job, and I remember it being pretty fancy.

This 1922 Marmon 7 passenger touring car was a favorite of owners who needed to go fast. Marmon had a racing presence in their day, these were built to go. The story is that Dad got this one almost complete but missing the seat of the back seat. Apparently in its former life it ran moonshine. In a brief encounter with the County's finest giving chase on a motorcycle, the seat was used to disturb the path of the wheeled officer...

As a kid this was my favorite - here I'm behind the wheel at about 6 years of age. This is an American LaFrance Fire Engine. This particular one was the first motorized fire engine for the city of Danville, VA. It was chain driven, semi-pneumatic tires, no brakes on the front, with a band brake on the rear axle - like go carts use today. It had a cranking siren and was every kid's dream! (Young or old!)