Vanderbilt Cup Races

Many cool things in that photo but the best is the old fashion mailbox and the price of gas 18 cents? Holy crap

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

My, we sure stray far afield from the VCR and LIMP, don’t we?  Don’t know the cars but the SLOW DOWN sign, the quick-acting grease gun, familiar old post-mounted mail box (they were painted with surplus Army Olive Drab), and 18¢ gas caught my eye; that latter had only gone up to 19¢ in NJ and 25¢ in NY by 1950 when I started driving (legally)- it paid to drive through the Holland Tunnel to NJ and back just to get a full tank!  Sam, III

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

Now you’re in my old home territory!  What happened to the stretch down south through the Mineola DPW yard to the LIRR main line and across the tracks alongside the east side of the Fairhaven Apts. to Old Country Road (with many posts)?  The posts along the south side of the WHGC were definitely moved - last I looked, there were a slew of them neatly relocated directly across the RoW and only a few feet apart.  Love your adventures - thanks!  Sam, III

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" V: East Williston to Mineola

The cars look to be near new. Lt. Pope Hartford, ctr. American Underslung, Rt. 1906 N Ford [ no running boards ]. The motor bike looks like Indian. Interesting traffic sign may pre-date traffic lights. 18 cent gas works for me. Very well built building - first story cinder blocks. The American Underslung must be very early with no headlight cross bracing. Found one with UK coachwork with no bracing.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

Wonderful photo and cool indeed: a moment frozen-in almost 110 years ago and coming to life now! I will concentrate on the cars. On the left a 1906 Pope-Hartford 20-28 HP model (it can be dated exactly because of the shape of the crank handle, which changes in the next year’s model). On the right a Ford model N (the model R was almost identical, but had running boards; the model S had differently shaped fenders). It was produced from 1906-1908. The centrepiece is an American underslung roadster, which in this shape was produced almost unchanged from 1907, the first year they offered this model, to 1909. After that year the radiator shape was different. There is one detail that points to 1907 and that is the length of the shackles between front spring and spring horn. At some time in 1907 or 1908 they were reduced considerably in length and they disappear after 1909. My guess would therefore be that the photo was made in 1907.
Were there any Vanderbilt Cup connections for these makes? Yes, Pope-Hartford had two participants in the 1910 edition (Bert Dingley and Jack Fleming), while American participated in 1909 (Willy Haupt) as well as in 1910 (William Wallace). Ford of course never participated.

And of course congrats to the Mets and good luck in the championship!!

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

The cars are a guess.  On the right possibly a Deauville?  American Underslung roadster in the center?  No guess on just the grille on the left.

Cool items?

The first photo of Manny, Moe and Jack?

It appears the cars drive in the front door for repair.

Dirt street, doesn’t even look like gravel.

Cars are parked in opposite directions on both streets indicating staying right wasn’t yet in vogue.

Appears to be a phone booth built into the building at the left.

Gas at 18 cents but no dispensing machines in view, perhaps it was sold by the can.

I’ve always loved the painted on signage, not seen much anymore.

Bicycle shop sharing space with auto repairs, probably using the same set of tools for both at the time, and both go in the same front door.

Telegraph pole concreted into the ground, perhaps it was expected to last as long as the concrete.

What appears to possibly be an Indian motorbike, by the rounded tank, just setting outside next to the fire hydrant.  I don’t believe that is a mail box next to it, may be for the peace officers of the time.

Grease gun is such a major item it earns its’ own SALE banner.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

Circa 1908 photograph of George Bennett Smith’s garage located at the corner of 23 East Merrick Road and Henry Street, Freeport, NY.

A garage that repaired and sold supplies for automobiles. As well as being an official agent for the Ben Fish Tire Company and The Hartford Rubber Works Company, a good selection of oil and lubricants can be seen in the front window.  Not uncommon for the day, it also catered to the bicyclist, selling both new bikes and parts. As can be seen on the banner above, it seems Mr. Smith also sold the W.P. Miller ‘Quick Operating Grease Gun’ designed by William P. Miller.

To the left of the photo is a 1906 Pope-Hartford Model L 25/30h.p.
A 1908 American Underslung Model 50 takes precedence in front of the dwelling.
To the right is a Ford Model N Runabout and what looks to be the same behind.
A nicely equipped 1908 Reading Standard 1908 “Model A” sits proudly on the sidewalk. Gasoline was 18¢ but I would use it for anything today other than washing parts.
One particular detail that caught my eye was the gentleman standing second from left holding something in his left hand. Curious to know what it could be.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

RE: Race Car Medallion….probably from a turn of the century race at Indy….check out
http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/. In those days Indy hosted car, airplane and dirigible airship races.

From Seven Upcoming Automotive Events (August 12-13, 2012) & A Mystery Medallion

Guess what,I might know something about this one,I have to check it out to be sure.

From Mystery Foto #42 Solved: The Vehicles and Many Cool Things in this 1908 Freeport Garage Photo

Hey Frank—-this area just north of Westbury Ave is easily accessible. Just take your car to end of Raff/Fairfield or Dow Ave and park and just walk in. Better viewing in winter / early spring for sure though but worth a trip one day.

That was Howard’s comment regarding the posts but I definitely agree with him. Those posts run east/west and at that point the road is north/south. I would guess this was a Country Club worker’s creativity. Now if I could only get Howard to answer some of those previous questions from the last post! But in fairness to him I think he’s busy watching these Mets do something they haven’t done in a long time, win! Good game last night!

Sam was funny. Told me “thanks…I look like an idiot in that McDonalds picture”. I told him not to worry. No chicks are gonna see it! Those nuggets were well deserved!

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" V: East Williston to Mineola

This is very cool footage that I’ve never seen before. Thank you guys for sharing this. Looks like some rough terrain going on through there. I love this challenge. It’s unlikely any posts were ever re-positioned. At best, they would have been removed entirely, especially for new home building. What I’ve gathered over time from Howard, Sam III, Robert, and others, is that the posts served not only right-of -way, but also for exits, and other means to keep the parkway as safe as possible throughout its length. Keep exploring guys

From Sam & Dave's "Excellent Motor Parkway Adventure" V: East Williston to Mineola

Congrats Howard, that 63 prototype will always stand out on top of all descendants. And that grilleless Cobra, that’s what I’ve would have done. And the 280z’s. Ugh, I missed another show. Beautiful automobiles gentlemen. Congrats to all

From Highlights from the 11th Annual Americana Manhasset Concours d'Elegance Updated: 11/2/15

I thought Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt’s 250hp double engine Fiat driven by Paul Sartori held the monster machine title but not sure anymore. What monstrosity this one is. 900+ c.i. displacement to produce 100hp compared to today’s 1000 c.i. @ 2100hp. We’ve come a long way.

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial

It had to be the best ford,it was the only one like it,sure winner every time. I hope you have a trophy room

From Highlights from the 11th Annual Americana Manhasset Concours d'Elegance Updated: 11/2/15

Interesting stuff!

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial

I knew I had something on this one and I stuck to it and finally was right. I should do this good with every mystery. Ya Art,wouldn’t it be great if Howard had it? Ha Howard are you thinking about it?

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial

From Ariejan Bos:

The racer is the 1905 Premier developed for the 1905 Vanderbilt Cup trials. Premier’s racing involvement started in 1904, when Carl Fisher drove his Premier Comet with varying success at different tracks. In 1905 Fisher commissioned a new racing car to participate in the Vanderbilt eliminating trials. Geo E. Weidely of the Premier company designed a car with a 4 cylinder air-cooled engine with overhead inlet- and outlet-valves actuated by a single overhead camshaft. In fact except for the valve operation it was identical to the engine used in their pleasure cars, but increased in size to reach the desired 100hp output. The car is described in full detail in The Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal of October 1905. All efforts however were in vain, because despite some promising test runs the car appeared to be too heavy, even after extensive drilling of the chassis and after a change of the final drive from bevel gear drive to chain drive. This was done not earlier than 10 days before the actual race, evidenced by a Premier advertisement in The Motor Way of October 1905.

What happened to the car next is unclear, though several photos of Barney Oldfield in this Premier exist: two of these would have been taken in Chicago, 1906, the other clearly was taken in Indianapolis and must be of a much later date (see below). From 1904 till and with 1907 he always raced his famous Peerless Green Dragon and I can’t find any proof that he did actually race this Premier. 

Some Google research turned up Mr. Saliers as a racing driver. In 1903 he drove an Oldsmobile in the first car race of Houston, Texas. (http://www.motortexas.com/doc.aspx?id=the-first-automobile-race-in-houston.1271) He didn’t own that Oldsmobile, so if he owned the Premier seems doubtful. Certainly he must have had the intention of racing the Premier, but I couldn’t find his name anywhere in the official racing annals. It seems however to make sense, that his photo was taken after the 1906 Oldfield photos.

The Indianapolis photo with Oldfield was apparently taken during the 1916 Indianapolis 500 Mile race, the last one during World War 1. In this race a team of 3 Premiers competed, of which the tail of one can be seen on the right side of the photo (compare with the 1916 Premier photo from the blog of The Old Motor). Also the letters PR(EMIER) can be seen painted on the wooden fence behind the cars. Did Oldfield, the Premier factory or Carl Fisher own the car at that moment? Oldfield didn’t have a relation with Premier at the time, he himself drove a Delage during the race, so it seems to be more a moment of nostalgia. Or had it something to do with the fact that he had planned to retire from racing after the Indy race? Also another photo turned up, apparently at the same event. Is this Carl Fisher at the wheel?

The car is now on display in the Indianapolis Hall of Fame Museum, where it is kept in the condition as seen on the photo with Oldfield at Indianapolis.

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial

Identify the race car and its manufacturer
1903 Premier racing car- Premier Automobile Co, of Indianapolis
http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/blog/article/saturday_may_30_2009_the_premier_vanderbilt_cup_race_that_never_raced

How was this race car connected to the Vanderbilt Cup Races?
The Premier had been built specifically with the intention of challenging Europe’s finest racers in the first (1904) Vanderbilt Cup

What was the earliest month and year that this photo was taken? Provide a rationale.
According to this website; “the plaque describing the car at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum is in error. The car was not constructed in 1903 - there was no Vanderbilt Cup in 1903. It was constructed probably in early 1905 in anticipation of that year’s [1905] race.”
http://www.firstsuperspeedway.com/photo-gallery/carl-fishers-vanderbilt-cup-premier

Where is this race car today?
Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame Museum

Bonus: The back of the photo reads “AJ Saliers, Houston, Texas”. Provide any information of AJ Saliers and why he was sitting in the race car.
Good question! Still looking…

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial

I’m out on this one!
Didn’t have the time to look into it for too long, but it looks like all I could quickly find was A. J. Saliers was a driver for G. W. Hawkins driving an Oldmobile during the first auto races in Houston on Tuesday, November 24, 1903.  He hit a dog and ran off the road into a curb. The Olds suffered a bent axle and was out of the race.
I don’t think this mystery photo is that Olds, nor could I say if it is related those races either.

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial

Not too much from on this one besides A. J. Saliers. 

A. J. Saliers was the driver of an Oldsmobile at what was listed as one of the first auto races in Texas, held in Houston on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 1903.  The race was five miles for “Light Machines, Stripped”.  Organizers included G. W. Hawkins, M. J. Lossing and S. H. Hart. 

Unfortunately (for a dog and for Saliers) the car ran over a dog in the the first lap, bent an axle and left the race. 

Might this be a photo of Saliers in the Oldsmobile which as mentioned above and noted in Kleiner’s Korner documenation needed to be stripped of engine covers and fenders and thus the date would be Nov., 1903? 

And knowing Howard, might it be in his Roslyn garage or somewhere in route there?

From Mystery Foto #41 Solved: The 1905 Premier Racer That Was Not Allowed to Run in the American Trial