Vanderbilt Cup Races

From Jose G:
1922   First American car with four-wheel hydraulic brakes

The Duesenberg, made in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the first American car with four-wheel hydraulic brakes, replacing ones that relied on the pressure of the driver’s foot alone. Hydraulic brakes use a master cylinder in a hydraulic system to keep pressure evenly applied to each wheel of the car as the driver presses on the brake pedal.

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

From Cynthia M:
This is just INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

From Jim J (Cadillac Lasalee Club):

Great post!  I can’t tell.  Is the Brougham Kenya Beige or Nairobi Pearl

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

From Bruce (Cadillac Lasalle Club):

Thanks for posting that so we all can view and admire the achievements of the makers of our beloved industry.

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

From Lou (Cadillac Lasalle Cub)

Here’s a gem brought to you by the Vanderbilt Cup Blog. It’s a promo film from GM shot in 1957 highlighting the advancement of the automobile. I’m proud to say it was filmed right here on Long Island with the help of the Old Long Island Car Museum. Cadillac’s are discussed throughtout the film with the best part at the end. They showcase a brand new 1957 Eldorado Brougham! Maybe we can figure out if the car is a surviver and let the current owner know about this footage.

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

From Roy W:

“Thanks for the movie. I was 9 years old in 1957. What beautiful cars; I remember them well. Of course they were death traps. But you can’t have everything.”

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

Just great, Thanks for sharing.  Also thanks for putting this terrific site together.              Dennis

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

What a treat!

Too bad Henry didn’t do the narration, too.

I used to meet Henry and Bruce Wennerstrom monthly at Sardi’s for the monthly Madison Avenue Race Car and Chowder Society (do I have that right) meet.

Ole Böök
7519 Boulevard East
North Bergen, NJ07047

From Film "50 Years of Automotive Progress" Featuring Henry Austin Clark, Jr.

From Susan Johnson (Museum of the City of New York):

Thanks again for being so generous with the Beast. It was so much fun to see it in action!

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

From Regina Asboro (Museum of the City of New York):

The photos are great! Thanks so much for participating in our event.

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

From Paul Zadigan (Museum of the City of New York):

Thank you again! We had a wonderful time as well and thank you for sharing your pictures with us. I know our audience and our community really loved getting to experience the “black beast”! What an amazing car.

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

Howard,
Thanks for the memories.  I remember driving out to Austin Clark’s museum many times during the ‘60s.  I used to get a kick out of seeing Mr. Clark in his coveralls working on the cars.  Most people thought he was just a worker at the museum.  He always treated me nicely. 
I always bought something from his gift shop and still have a small collection of postcards with photos of his collection. 
The auctions were fascinating and high spirited.
Looking at those photos of what the building looks like now make those who knew the museum very sad.
Bevery Rae Kimes, who was a good friend of Austin wrote a great article about him in Automobile Quarterly.  If memory serves, I think it was in Vol. 38, number one.  If that’s not correct, it’s close.
Again, thanks for the memories.
Roger Price

From What was the Long Island Automotive Museum?

I’m curious as to why the Pope-Hartford cars were right hand drive?

Keep up your good work!

From The Two Pope-Hartfords in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race

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

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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