"something of an extraordinary nature will turn up..."

Mr. Micawber in Dickens' David Copperfield

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Archive for the ‘Unrestored cars’ category

March 30th, 2011

Frank McMullen has been fascinated with Model A Fords since he was five years old. He built most of the Hubley diecast kits, and religiously watched The Waltons on television, drawn by the distinctive exhaust note of the Model As on the show. Somehow, though, real Model As always eluded him, the available ones being….
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February 5th, 2011

In the middle ages, the word “squire” denoted a knight in training. More latterly it has meant a village leader or the dominant landowner. In the case of this car, it was simply the surname of the maker. Adrian Squire (1910-1940) was just 21 when he decided to build his own motor car. He founded….
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January 19th, 2011

New Britain, Connecticut is known as “The Hardware City,” home to the Stanley Works and the Corbin Lock Company (later part of American Hardware), Fafnir Bearing, North & Judd and Landers, Frary & Clark. Stanley, North & Judd and Landers concentrated on building, household and marine products, but Fafnir bearings often found their way into….
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January 12th, 2011

October 3, 1963, is a red letter day for many car enthusiasts, but few of them know about it. It can be considered the birth date of the Pontiac GTO, as far as the public is concerned, but because the GTO was a stealth project its actual “birth” came unheralded on new-car-introduction day, a check-box….
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January 5th, 2011

Byron Carter was a clever guy. He patented a three-cylinder steam engine, and with two friends he organized the Jackson Automobile Company in Michigan in 1903. By September of that year he had built a two-cylinder runabout for himself using a friction-drive transmission of his own invention. The concept was extremely simple: two large discs….
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Serendipity: n. An aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident.
“They were always making discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of.”
Horace Walpole, The Three Princes of Serendip
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