Vanderbilt Cup Races

Hi Tom:

Above are two 1978 interior photos courtesy of Mr. Reliable Walter McCarthy.

Howard

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#7-11)

Howard-Thanks for making the evening such a memorable one for the Museum and all of its guests. Best, Sarah

From "Black Beast" Roars on Fifth Avenue at the Museum of the City of New York

Does anyone actually have any interior shots of the L.I. Auto museum? I have never had the chance to visit when it was open and I have not ever seen any interior shots. Perhaps no inside photos were allowed. But would be interesting to see if some interior shots exist.

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#7-11)

Back when I was a kid, my Dad would commemorate the coming of every spring season by taking our family out to the Long Island Automotive Museum.  For a car-crazy kid like me, this was the equivalent of Howard Carter wandering around inside King Tut’s tomb.  The collection was enormous, probably the largest on the East coast.  Virtually every year from the dawn of automotion was represented at the museum.  The collection went so far back in time as to include turn-of-the-century, light-weight, bicycle-wheeled contraptions with tillers instead of steering wheels. 

  Some of the cars in the museum were restored to pristine condition.  Others were well preserved, unrestored specimens found in the proverbial barn somewhere.  The paint would be faded to a dull patina and some of the leather upholstery dried out and cracked.  To go ahead and do a sparkling mint restoration on these perfectly intact antiques would rob them of their history, so they were simply displayed ‘as is.’  Over the decades, these cars were always parked in exactly the same spot, so I assume they were never driven.

  I’m told, when some of the cars were discovered, they were such a rusted, wet-rotting shambles, there was no choice but to dig in, take everything apart and use the old parts as templates for the creation of new ones—and occasionally replace non-operational extinct equipment with modern replacements that could be hidden behind something.  The resulting ‘driver’ automobiles may not have been 100% original and their level of restoration would be something less than immaculate, but these were the cars that lived and breathed, exhaling blue smoke as they were driven in parades or just exercised for their health. 

  One such living vehicle was the museum’s fire engine.  This machine was a real blast because it was used to give rides to us kids on the winding dirt trail behind the museum buildings.  We young ‘uns would take turns clanging the bell while that beautiful, dusty, faded-red, retired hero would belch gobs of smoke like an uphill freight train and chug-chug-chug its stalwart, ancient heart out for us, siren wailing like a London air raid.  For the aforementioned car-crazy kid, few things were as much fun, and aside from holding the hand of a certain young lady by the name of Julianne during school recess, this remains my happiest childhood memory.  It was a terrible pity when the museum closed its doors back in the 1980’s and auctioned off its collection, but in its day there was nothing else quite like it—at least, not nearby.  When I last saw them a few years ago, the empty, derelict museum buildings were a pitiful sight.

Bob

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

From What was the Long Island Automotive Museum?

Hi Walter:

Thanks so much. I will take you up on your kind offer.

Howard

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#7-11)

Hi Howard:

  I have two (2) items of interest for you:

  #1./  In my license plate collection, I have a Connecticut Vanity Plate from the 50’s ALCO and

  #2./  At the Catskill Mountain Railroad, we just took delivery of a 1946 ALCO S-1 Locomotive (600 HP)  number 407 which was a Long Island RR purchase then went to Staten Island SIRTOA and now in service in Mount Tremper.  She is as beauty and the guys live her !!!  you can see it via the website or google engine 407l…

  Best For Now /// Cordially,  Ron Ridolph

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From Then & Now: The American Locomotive Company Plant in Providence, Rhode Island

Excellent, I added it to The Map
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?gl=us&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=102845893713928000486.00046967b8f90346ffdaa&ll=41.829953,-71.43141&spn=0.013031,0.019205&t=h&z=16&iwloc=00048a16964086b956af3

From Then & Now: The American Locomotive Company Plant in Providence, Rhode Island

Hi Howard,  I have hundreds of Austin’s postcards possibly a complete set of each series.  You are welcome to use any you may wish on your site. Regards,  Walter

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#7-11)

Hi David:

Looking forward to it!

Howard

From "Black Beast" at the Wounded Warrior Project Car Show in Riverhead

From Jean-Yves:

I have just received your books today…
What a pleasant surprise to find a reproduction of the 1905 Cup program! A quick overlook shows that already at the time the advertising took a lot of space! 😉

Many thanks.

Jean-Yves

From Update of Local Automotive Events and Mystery Photo #3

Hi Walt:

Thanks for the information!

Howard

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#1-6)

From Dave Mattoon:

Thank you for sharing the Black Beast with everyone at the Klingberg show. You and your team brought a lot of life to an already lively event. You are very fortunate to have acquired the car and it is refreshing to see it being used, not as another “trailer queen”. For me I never thought I’d hear what the early race cars were like. Years ago I built the Pocher model of the 1907 Fiat. The impact of 30 600 cubic inch racers at the starting line must have made quite an impression on people who never had seen a car!

Dave Mattoon
North Windham, CT

From Highlights of the "Black Beast " at the Klingberg Vintage Motor Car Festival

Does any information or history exist as to where the 1902 Curved Dash Oldsmobile that was on the roof of the museum came from?  I’m looking for the history of it prior to 1950.

From Austin Clark, Joe Tracy, Otis Chandler and the 1904 Sports Touring Mercedes

Howard:
Wonderful to have been able to see the BB both at Greenwich and at Klingberg!  So great that you were able to actually run the car at Klingberg for the immense pleasure of large numbers of spectators at Klingberg, too.

And weren’t we lucky to have such splendid weather at both events?

Thanks for the images of Greenwich.  First I’ve seen.

If I dig around long enough, I think I could find my Hertz Shelby card allowing me to rent one of the gold and black demons!

Best,
ROBERT

From Article "Black Beast Roars" & a Klingberg Vintage Motorcar Festival Highlight

...the date of this event is the 30th, not the 13th .....

Sunday, August 22, 2010

-13th Annual Vanderbilt Invitational Concours, Suffolk Conty Vanderbilt Museum, Centerport

From Update of Local Automotive Events and Mystery Photo #3

I met Austin (you never called him Henry, and those that called him “Austie” was their pet name for him , he never introduced himself as Austie) when I was 18 years old. In the early to mid 1970s I was his librarian for several years at his private library in his home in Glen Cove. He was a man with a Victorian sense of loyalty to his friends, and did not suffer fools lightly. He could easily been a character from a novel by Charles Dickens. He encouraged my interest in research and writing about pre WWII vehicles, and was one of the first collectors that took an interest in old trucks and saved many of them. Oh the stories I could tell about the situations I got involved with him…..........

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#1-6)

Hi Jean-Yves:

Congrats! France wins again!

Please send your mailing address to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) and I will send you signed copies of “Vanderbilt Cup Races of Long Island” and The Long Island Motor Parkway”.

http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/books/

Enjoy,

Howard

From Update of Local Automotive Events and Mystery Photo #3

1910 Vanderbilt Cup the Royal #30 of P.H. Jardine…

From Update of Local Automotive Events and Mystery Photo #3

Great stuff!

From Postcards from the Long Island Automotive Museum (#1-6)

Hi Pierre and Richard:

Here is a link to information on the Long Island Automotive Museum’s postcards:

http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/blog/article/tuesday_june_15_2010_postcards_from_the_long_island_automotive_museum

Howard

From What was the Long Island Automotive Museum?