The Magazine

Whatisit? Quiz # 280

This is an ultralight microcar with tubular frame and alloy coachwork. The brilliant propulsion technique was new in the late 1890's in Paris and was in recent years successfully copied by the Japanese. In fact a Prius ‘avant la lettre’! Although it was built under license in several other countries it didn’t have the success the Prius has today. Can you tell us the make and year of this hybrid? Of course we also want to hear more about its method of propulsion; where it came from; the number made and perhaps in which countries it was licensed and under what names? As always, the winner will receive the famous PreWarCar T-Shirt, and in order to win you must send us your answer via the Contact Form before Monday August 2. Please first see ´Read More´ for the rules. Have a great weekend!

Engines & Love

We like to browse antique bookstores and bookmarkets always hoping to find something nice. Sometimes we’re lucky as recently we found a small book from the 1920s called “Engines and Love”. No, not about caring for your beloved motorcar, but a love story about a girl whose boyfriend teaches her to drive. Not much of a tale, but the book contains several nice drawings by Dutch artist I.S. van Mens. For instance this sportscar and especially when things go wrong!

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Friday, 30 July 2010

The Ribbed Radiator Mystery (UPDATE VII: Triumph Super 8!)

Harit Trivedi from India collects prewar photographs, especially those that show motoring scenes from India. Here’s one from a lot of about forty pictures that he recently acquired. It covers the life span of a gentleman who lived on Bombay in the late 1920's. He owned many cars and motorcycles, most of them easily identified but here’s one that has already baffled the minds of many local experts. Therefore Harit turns to us. Indeed the radiator cowl with the odd indentations does not strike us as one from a well-known car. But we’re sure you can come up with a positive identification!

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Thursday, 29 July 2010

Ice-cream?

We all know what it is to restore an antique or classic car, but sometimes someone comes up with a different idea. Nico Langendoen from Holland is such a guy. Before the war his father used to sell ice-cream and his old vending cart had been languishing in the shed for many years. Nico decided to restore it and certainly did a great job. Now his only problem is… whenever he wants to show it, everybody asks him for an ice-cream. And at a prewar price!

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Wednesday, 28 July 2010

Let's face the music!

The 2010 Goodwood Festival of Speed is already some weeks behind us. It’s arguably the largest historic motor sports event in the world that attracted around 150,000 visitors and as every year, the Earl of March made sure it was a Mecca for historic racing fans. One of the many prominent drivers was of course Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason who took part for the fourth time with the 1939 Auto Union Type D Dual Compressor (click main pic!).

(photos courtesy Audi)

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Tuesday, 27 July 2010