The New York to Los Angeles car maybe leaving NY or early during the journey in 1910. I believe this was the early Beaver engined L-Head based on the differences I see from the T-Heads.
Two more racing photos, Dawson in the Deltal at Elgin in 1913? Who can enlighten us about the number four car and who was driving it, at what race?
T-head- a bunch of great pics. Your last pic is DePalma and I also like the moving pic of the Deltal. The #4 appears to be the Type 45 Pullen car of course. As to the year and venue with the Mercer script under the seat I would guess 1916 and with the sign boards in the pits, Corona in April of 1916 would be my guess. Pullen placed 3rd at Corona in 1916. Pullen also was running #4 on his new OHC Mercer in 1916 although not at Corona where he ran the Type 45 you posted. As to the Beaver L-head you are probably correct on that as well, although my research on that era may be a bit thin. Peter Helck's work has always been my favorite, plus you could not find a nicer guy. Good stuff-Jim
Getting a ride in "OLD 16" may have been safer than a ride in the child seat in Peters MERCER. Photo was thaken here in Ridgefield in the 1960's when the HCCA Meet was in its Golden Years.
Thanks T-Head, some awesome pics, and a very cool story. 112mph in a Mercer! Now that would be EXCITING!
I'm looking for an image, maybe someone has it and can post it. I could have sworn I had it in my reference folder but it's just not there... In my mind's eye, it's a Cole National racer with a driver named Endicott or Dawson aboard and it's shot like a portrait with fancy Cole National script in one corner and the driver's name underneath...Can anyone PM me that or post it here, please? Thanks in advance-Mark
Mark, Go to www.chuckstoyland.com/ Lot's of National info and pics. Keep in touch if this helps as i have also seen the poster you are referring to.
"I have a few Peter Helck preliminary art pieces and thought I would share this Mercer piece. Peter always did this before he painted the real master piece. When I was five years old he gave me a ride in Old 16, it is the kind of thing you can never forget. That ride kind of sealed my fate for the rest of my life." I`m not ashamed to admit I am a Helck o holic. I am a fan of his art,of course. That and that magnificent #16 Locomobile! Never got to ride in it,but being at Hershey years ago when they fired it up to drive off the show field was one of my favorite memories.
Kind of spookey how all this stuff is somehow related, that or I have the same frends as everyone else. I had one original Peter Helck sketrch that I had to part with at Hershey years ago. It was a sketch of the guy getting out of a Simplex race car, sold it to a nice guy that owned a Cole, and T Head was there to confirm I was selling an original.
He still has it and loves it. It is a very small world. I have two more I will send in pixs of sometime but too busy here in the shop today.
Sad news today. David Uihlein of Milwaukee passed away on Friday at age 89. Mr. Uihlein was an early "savior" of man Miller racing cars and the founder of the "Miller Meet" at the Milwaukee Mile. Considering the Uihlein family operated Schlitz there was a certain irony in him collecting Millers. Harry Miller was originally a Mueller and a native to Menomonie Wisconsin. Chuck Schultz Winfield, Wisconsin
Very sad news, David Uihlien was a great car guy, who started collecting in the late 1940's. I think it took him 50 years to find and reunite the engine with the Alfa Romeo INDY car he bought in 1949. Lots of MILLER guys at that track in the sky now. Thoughts and prayers going out to his family and friends.
No, It says the Winner,Mr Fritz Erle with Benz with Contenental tires did a 2250 KM distance without one defect. Prince Henry tour 1903 This is a rough translation. Basically a Tire company advertising piece.
1916 American Grand Prize. Santa Monica, CA. Howdy Wilcox & Johnny Aitken - PEUGEOT. Glover Ruckstell - MERCER. Who was His Mechanic?
Great stuff David. I was just reading about the Wishart accident in hopes of finding out the name of his mechanic. Sad loss.
I have a couple of questions that need answering. First. What sort of cars was William Walter making before the Roeblings and the Kusers bought him out? I have searched online but the only reference to him is his connection with Washington Roebling. Second. What happened to Finley Porter after he left the company? Did he go on to design other makes?
Kurtis and T-Head thanks for the great pics. It may take some time to digest them. As I said earlier my computer is still sick from a trojan horse virus sent to me and it takes every bit of patience I can muster to not take a sledge hammer to it. All sorts of my data and pictures are still hiding and it jams like crazy (had IT guy over for the 5th time today and he is going to come back and make some big changes). My car stuff is the fun stuff on the computer but the work stuff is the important stuff so I can't toss it and start over again. As I alluded to in a an earlier post I believe Ruckstell's riding mechanic was Clarence Quicksell (at least in 1916-probably had others as well). As to Finley Porter when he left he formed his own company to make FRP cars. A pretty good car but the great war threw a big wrench in his plans. In 1915 he had three FRP racers at Indy-they were FRP Knight cars-Knight sleeve design. Kind of neat cars but fraught with problems and they pulled out. Of course there was a Mercedes Knight that did pretty well but the FRPs not so. I am not sure if they ran although my memory seems to remember they attempted again at Chicago but maybe my brain has gone soft. Will have to dig that up. I also have some pics from either Motor Age or The Automobile showing the particulars. If you are interested I will see if I can dig them up. The next I heard of Porter was he was hanging with the guys at the local car events in the fifties. Better get back to work-good stuff guys-Jim
T-head the SOHC sounds like a pretty decent piece-too bad it was a bit large to race in the AAA with all of the other OHC cars. Would like to hear more about it. As to the FRP Indy cars you are correct with Willys being behind the project and there was a blurb in the Detorit News to that effect. The thing I liked about the cars is that they could allegedly turn 5000 rpms and tested to 122 HP at 3950 rpms which is very impressive. He was very proud of the distance that his sleeves travelled (3/4" as opposed to Minerva Knights of 1+") and maybe that caused his undoing-just a guess. In checking my records he did test the cars for the 500 mile race run on 6/25/15 at Chicago but withdrew the cars since he had no chance of finishing due to too much smoke. I believed the cars were then parked-too bad-wonder what ever happened to them. As I said feel free to tell us about the SOHC cars. Good to see the article on the #22 Mercer that ran in 1914. This car carried a three main bearing Mercer 298 (designed by Delling). Too slow both in 1914 and 1915 and the last of any Mercers to ever be associated with Indy (as the other three Mercers-the 1915 OHC Mercers were parked as well).-Jim
Jim-about the virus,the same thing happened to me before Christmas. A computer savvy friend talked me through the rescue of my important files. We used a program called Knoppix to put a virtual desktop on the locked up machine. Mission accomplished. Was able to save everything I needed. I hate hackers,hope they all die a slow,painful death.
I am not familiar with this car or driver,but it certainly looks like it is a race car that could also be driven on the road,as quite a few were in those days. That torpedo shaped oil tank is a nice piece.
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