Features

If I asked the readers of Old Autos to draw a picture of an automobile enthusiast, I am sure the variation of pictures would be almost endless. Their only common trait would be an interest in all things automotive related. They would range from female to male, young to elderly, short to tall, still employed to retired, professionals to trades people and all people in many different levels of society and jobs.

In the last year I had the pleasure of starting to communicate with a long time subscriber by the name of Tom Harmes, from Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia. Tom contacted me through Old Autos to discuss his collection of mainly 1958 vehicles and in a short time we became “Pen Pals” through email communications. I have no idea what the electronics generation would call a pen pal in today’s world.

In the early days of the automobile, hundreds of people laboured in their shops and sheds, trying to come up with the perfect design to replace the horse. Most of them are long-forgotten, but Ron Foss of Burlington, Ont. is working to ensure that one is them is remembered.

ZURICH, ON – When an individual’s dream is to build and restore an antique vehicle, they are, in fact, bringing back a part of history. This story is narrated in two chapters. The first is the legacy of a woman, whose name is Alive Thiel. The second is Bev and Hub Thiel’s two year project to build a 1930 Chev truck. This is in honour of Hub Thiel’s Aunt Alive (also his godmother) and a business formerly known as Thiel Transport in Zurich, Ontario.

Chevrolet sales broke the one-million mark for the first time during the 1941 model year, on the strength of beautiful looking automobiles, that were packing some of the latest technology, although still equipped with a six-cylinder engine.

I worked for a used car lot in St. Catharines during the summers of 1977 and 1978, and drove a lot of different vehicles, all of them in various states of disrepair and past glory.

The Stutz Bearcat name had an aura of magic, conjuring up as it did images of raccoon coats, brisk fall afternoons and handsome young blades whisking their beautiful dates to the football game. In a later era one could imagine another car bearing an animal name, the Jaguar XK120, filling the same role.

Woodies came from the beginning of the auto era when train station depot hacks were used to cart luggage around from the station to people’s hotels. Later on the hack was enlarged and made into a useful carrier for commerce. Groceries, farms, produce vendors used them to carry their wares. At one point, the hack became fully enclosed and a proper station wagon complete with windows, doors, glass. At that point, the station wagon went from basic transporter to a status symbol.

When Henry Ford died in April 1947, his industrial empire was in a precarious position. Any muscle the Ford Motor Company has previously flexed had sagged and grown sallow after years of stubborn complacency from its founder.

Turning 40 is a major milestone, one that your author celebrated a couple of weeks ago. It seems like only yesterday that I turned 30, and my twentieth birthday doesn’t even seem like it was that long ago, but my tenth birthday feels like a distant memory at this point. Yes, it’s only a number, and I personally can’t see why there is such a big fuss about it.