Random Thoughts - Part Deux [NO POLITICS]

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

Is only car manufacturers today knew how to market to millennials the way late-30s Nash did:

Are you saying Pontiac just missed the target audience by a couple of years?

[krayzie]

Originally Posted by ScoobsMcGee

Is only car manufacturers today knew how to market to millennials the way late-30s Nash did

In the modern age Americana only exists in Japan.

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdMtClN2usw"]1996 Honda CR-V CM Japan 2 (ホンダCR - V) - YouTube[/ame]


Meanwhile in the west...

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHlvKQwZFSI"]The Classic Reebok Belly - YouTube[/ame]

[Ultramaroon]

It may turn out to be threadworthy after all. Definitely not the Nash. I first noticed the curved line across the bottom of the windshield. Will spend some time looking after work. Thanks, guys.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

It may turn out to be threadworthy after all. Definitely not the Nash. I first noticed the curved line across the bottom of the windshield. Will spend some time looking after work. Thanks, guys.

I have been searching for 2 hours and remain stumped. It is just such a generic "every man" car from the early twenties to the mid thirties that it could be just about anything.
Let's look at what we do know:
If we presume the driver owns it then we can make some guesses at status. He is dressed in the typical central European army uniform of the period. He has brass buttons and a low neck tunic that would make him an officer (note the differences in the uniform of the guy in the back). Can't tell what is on the shoulder boards but there seems to be something raised there but he has no collar patch that we can see. He also has one decoration which at that time would mean he likely did not serve in WW1. My guess is that he is below the rank of Captain and he would not have a huge income for high end cars. Would guess the year to be mid to late 1920s since the uniforms were a bit more "modern" by the 30s.

Although the US did export a very small number of cars between 1918 and 1939 they were far from a world leader and those cars were shipped by individuals not the manufacturers. The cost of shipping would not have been worth it for most people. The newly born auto industry could not even keep up with domestic demand and exporting wasn't even a thought yet. Europe at the time sent more cars to the US than came back across (mostly Rolls). I don't see a subaltern army officer having an imported car. I think this safely rules out any US made cars.

The European car business was booming in the post WW1 period. Unlike WW2 where all the factories got flattened most were intact and bought up by many to start car companies. This created more European manufacturers than can possibly be remembered. The problem is there are not a pile of period pictures that say what the car was to get a good idea of what they all looked like. Many of those cottage industry manufacturers went out of business when the depression hit and the cars were destroyed or used for scrap in WW2 so there are whole makes that have disappeared from the face of the earth. Germany, Belgium, Italy and France focused more on upscale cars so we can probably rule them out. Keep in mind this is a day when they made on or two models and not 400 different trim levels of each of them. The Soviet Union and the East European countries focused on utility vehicles more like the picture. Think it is a safe bet that it came from one of those.

Now the car itself sure as hell does have many of the features of a Nash but there are some that don't match any pictures I could find. First off it does not have suicide doors like all the Nashs of the time seem to. I could also not find any pictures of a Nash with wire wheels like those. We fall back to that damn lack of creativity for body styles they had. What we can see is that it does have exterior door handles (many touring cars did not), it has a pretty distinctive flat fronted rad (ease of manufacture?), both the front and rear fenders are formed (not just flat curved steel), and the rad cap seems to be shaped as a crown. Hard to tell how old it is from the condition of it since the roads then would beat the crap out of a car fast but it certainly does not appear to be new by any stretch.That drivers headlight aim would be a bitch if it wasn't only about 200 lumens or so though. The paint appears to be two tone, not that that helps identify it other than rule it out as a Model T which it obviously is not.

So the search continues!

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Seems silly to start a new thread for this. One of my colleagues is trying to identify the car driven by his great uncle in this photo. Any ideas? Photo was taken in Romania sometime in the 30s, I think.

Well, I'm late to this party, but at a glance that car looks a lot like a 1929 Ford Model A Phaeton ......


humfrz

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Well, I'm late to this party, but at a glance that car looks a lot like a 1929 Ford Model A Phaeton ......

Holy shit! I think you nailed it! I will go searching for more pics of them. Were they possibly copied by other European manufacturers?
@Tcoat, you're correct about the uniform. His family heritage was deeply military. He showed me other candids of gatherings where his great uncle was flanked by uniformed officers, all immediate and extended family a couple generations deep.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Well, I'm late to this party, but at a glance that car looks a lot like a 1929 Ford Model A Phaeton ......


humfrz

And there it is! So much for my not an import theory.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Holy shit! I think you nailed it! I will go searching for more pics of them. Were they possibly copied by other European manufacturers?
@Tcoat, you're correct about the uniform. His family heritage was deeply military. He showed me other candids of gatherings where his great uncle was flanked by uniformed officers, all immediate and extended family a couple generations deep.

Didn't think to check what US cars cars were actually made there!

"In addition to the United States, Ford made the Model A in plants in Argentina, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom."

My theory wasn't way off base though!

"In Europe, where in some countries cars were taxed according to engine size, Ford in the UK manufactured the Model A with a smaller displacement engine of 2043 cc providing a claimed output of 28 hp (21 kW; 28 PS).[9] However, the engine equated to a British fiscal horsepower of 14.9 hp (11.1 kW; 15.1 PS)[10] (compared to the 24 hp (18 kW; 24 PS) of the larger engine) and attracted a punitive annual car tax levy of £1 per fiscal hp in the UK . It therefore was expensive to own and too heavy and thirsty to achieve volume sales, and so unable to compete in the newly developing mass market, while also too crude to compete as a luxury product. European manufactured Model A's failed to achieve the sales success in Europe that would greet their smaller successor in England and Germany."

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

Holy shit! I think you nailed it! I will go searching for more pics of them. Were they possibly copied by other European manufacturers?
@Tcoat, you're correct about the uniform. His family heritage was deeply military. He showed me other candids of gatherings where his great uncle was flanked by uniformed officers, all immediate and extended family a couple generations deep.

There are more pictures here:


http://motorlandamerica.com/gtcd/ford-model-a/

And another.

That was fun ...... got another picture .....??




humfrz

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by humfrz

That was fun ...... got another picture .....??

That was great! Thank you!

No more pictures.

[Sapphireho]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Well, I'm late to this party, but at a glance that car looks a lot like a 1929 Ford Model A Phaeton ......


humfrz

Well, you probably had sex in one at your prom, I think you are right.

[humfrz]

Originally Posted by Sapphireho

Well, you probably had sex in one at your prom, I think you are right.

Not quite, ......a car just like this is what I drove to the Jr prom.

I kid you not .....

OK,OK, it wasn't mine, I borrowed it from my Uncle's dealership for the night.

Nope, I didn't get any more sex in that car, than I would have gotten in my 1948 Chevrolet...........


humfrz

[Brink]

@Sapphireho I just played a match with a Sapphyro in Destiny 2 on PS4. Any relation?

[MrFisty]

Originally Posted by humfrz

Not quite, ......a car just like this is what I drove to the Jr prom.

I kid you not .....

OK,OK, it wasn't mine, I borrowed it from my Uncle's dealership for the night.

Nope, I didn't get any more sex in that car, than I would have gotten in my 1948 Chevrolet...........


humfrz

So cool.