Erik Hougsrud from Norway is desperately looking to find parts for the remains of his early Oryx ! And probably is going to list his advert in our wanted section but he was kind enough not to spill the soup and first gave room to this quiz. Many competitors and jurymembers were stumped by the last hint on this one that the make name was that of an African animal. Still we had in several correct answers. Not strange that most of those came from Scandinavia where the car is to be found on the website of the Norway Veteran Car Club... ( hey Erik you should have told us about this :-)) Anyway in the end we decided that Verner Johnsen from Denmark came up with the best answer: "1914 Oryx Model 10/30 - 2,6l Berliner Motorwagen-Fabrik produced Gottschalk cars and commercials from 1900 to 1901. From then the cars were named BMF. In 1907 the cars were renamed Oryx (Oryx is a kind of antelope). The trucks were named Eryx after a mountain on Sicily. In 1909 the factory was taken over by Dürkopp and renamed Oryx-Motorenwerke, and Oryx continued building their own models up to WWI. After the war the factory became a part of Dürkopp, and the passenger cars were discontinued in 1922." Congratulations Verner!, after two earlier wins you are in the jury now as well. Long time jury member Hans Compter was the only one to remind us of the earlier Oryx at PreWarCar: "The make of the car in # 184 was already spotted once before by me with the vet's car in Hellevoetsluis (quiz N° 73))...
UPDATE by Kjetil Langsaether: "Does Erik know that the headlights for the Oryx most probarly exists? If I am not mistaken they where lent by a prevoius owner of the Podeus (not Protos) car in Norway. The Protos can be found at Norsk Teknisk Museum."  

Isotta-Fraschini adept Malcolm Forest from Brazil sends a report from the 17th bi-annual meet of the Veteran Car Club of Brazil on the weekend of 17th of June. Location of the event was the stylish Ouro Minas Grand Hotel, in the resort town of Araxa. On display we see Malcolm Forest's Isotta project roadster with a bit more to the right yet another fine couple of Isotta's. This little Isotta tête-à-tête was far from being a coincidence as you may understand. Malcolm writes: "Perhaps the highlight of the show was the presence of three Isotta Fraschini of the four originally owned by Italian opera singer, Gabriella Besanzoni (click). Famous for her roles in Bizet's Carmen with Enrico Caruso, Gabriella Besanzoni married Brazilian entrepreneur Henrique Lage in 1925 and moved to Rio de Janeiro where they lived in a magnificent estate (click), today a city monument and park, right under the statue of Christ, the Redeemer and the Corcovado mountain. The couple owned at least four Isotta-Fraschini. Of these, a 1925 Castagna body Cabriolet d'Orsay (full convertible town car) 8 A, a 1926 Castagna tourer 8 A SS and a 1927 8 A SS roadster undergoing restoration. Three of the only four Isotta-Fraschini still in existence in Brazil were shown. The Gabriella Besanzoni cars were reunited for the first time in almost 80 years." (photos and text Malcolm Forest)  

Why is it that cars like these look so much better at a Paris street corner than with concours grass under their wheels? We think it is the breathtaking contrast with the environment which evokes this response. The contrasts between a common street corner and the high end design of a car that normally never will appear there. The photo was taken - we understand - in the late fifties (click for a detail). The 'Alain Delon' look-a-like may be Philippe Jaillon who's name is connected with the 57S in that time. Another time witness is the Peugeot 203 in the background. Yet another 203 is to be seen on the second shot at the same location, check. Note the short shadows which means the photo maybe is from June-July. In that time of year a drive with the 'black color/black leather' Atalante is probably similar to a stay in a pizza oven! No, much better to make good use of those giant headlights on a fast autumn trip along the French Route Napoleon.... This is the only Atalante ever to feature these giant headlamps. It is not perfectly sure they were with the car when new, but most period photos show them. Jack Braam Ruben, who currently is taking care of the car found an as new set and will add them to the car to give it that remarkable face again.  

Now what's so special about this simple photo that came with a 1931(?) Studebaker advert sent to us by a friendly visitor? Not the grey coloured sedan. We are terribly sorry having to admit that we forgot who was kind enough to send this little advertising gem. Click on the next blue dots ..... and you know. Anybody around who can enlighten us about the Great Advertising Idea behind this picture?
UPDATE II by Mark Dawber: "The giant car is a model of a 1930 or 31 roadster but the grey car in front is a '35 President."
UPDATE: Gregory Wells (Norcross, GA, USA) sent in the link to the full story of 'life and death of the Giant' at Studebakerdriversclub. Amazing story!  

Nico Kuijper is selling a Peugeot 201 Roadster project (it will be listed soon). Nico however has no clue as to who made the attractive 2 seater convertible. The double winged 'RLT' sign is attached to the grill. Nico is thinking this may be the coachbuilder's badge (but it could be from a radiator refurbishing company as well of course). Peugeot connoisseurs so far have not been able to do a positive identification. The length of the hood (towards the windshield) is longer than with any standard 201. Maybe it is of some help to know the few bits on history which come with the car. The first known registration on paper was in France 1974. Silent witness of that time is an 'objet trouvé ' from the car, a wardrobe coin(?) of a Paris restaurant. Also the name of the owner back then in "Carrieres sur Seine" is known. In 1980 the car pops up in Belgium. In the early nineties it moves to Holland where it still resides. The coachwork is steel over ash. Click photo for a full shot of the car and then for the rear end in current status. Who can tell more about this friendly little roadster? info@PreWarCar.com .  

This day it is exactly 100 years since the first Grand Prix was held. Of course there had been races before, notably the Gordon Bennet Races. After the French team had won the last Gordon Bennet cup in 1905, they had to organize the next one, but they refused because they thought the rules didn’t work in their favour. Therefore the French designed a new set of rules that favoured the commercial and individual interests before the national interest. This first Grand Prix was held on the Circuit de la Sarthe, a more than 100 kilometre long track west of the city of Le Mans. Held over two days, 6 laps each day, it was won by the Hungarian driver Ferenc Szisz (8w.forix.com) after driving a gruelling 1236 kilometres. A full report of this race has been written by Leif Snellman on the Forix website.
The French artist Jean-Marie Guivarc’h has made several beautiful watercolours of this race of which you see here one of the Itala’s that didn’t finish. He also made one of Ferenc Szisz’ winning Renault AK (click!) (RB) 

Jean-Marie Guivarch. Living near Le Mans he is inspired by the roaring events of the last hundred years into every vein of his mind and body (he was also the Quiz winner of one month back). Jean Marie was present at the most recent Le Mans festivities and sat down at the tarmac. Was it out of lack for a chair? Was it to get the right perspective? Or was it - what we hope it was - to get in contact with the spirits of long forgotten racing hero's and the thundering voice of 100 years of love for speed. Tomorrow more... (see also the gallery of Jean-Marie ) 

It's a weekend snap shot, somewhere in Norway 80-90 years back. A couple in an open tourer with a very characteristic radiator which means this must be a walk-over for the knowledgable. Click to admire the artistic craftmanship on the radiator hull (sorry but we took out the logo). This European make was known for having produced commercial cars as well; the cars usually had small engines and they were one of the thousands of carmakers who didn't survive World War I, Earlier already they were taken over by another make which survived a bit longer, until 1929. Fill in the blanks about the above pictured car (using less than 100 words) and you may be the winner of Quiz #184. One last hint, the name of the make is the name of an African animal. UPDATE: this animal is also known in New Mexico at least. Typing this name in Google/Images gives aprox. 19,000 hits... Enjoy weekend!Info@PreWarCar.com   Read more

Let's stay with the facts. We understand this is a 1917 Renault V8 MOTOR N° 68238 -Renault 80HP - V8 Aero, water cooled, double magneto ignition, twin overhead cam. This V8 is already a development of the much earlier in 1907 presented aero V8 by Renault. The 1917 example on display here was mounted in a Dorand AR1 Farman; click here for another perspective of the same engine or go here to compare with an almost 90 years younger and 200 times stronger great-grand-grand son V8. The old 8-thumber is now available through Punto Classico in Argentina.  

The blue sweater journalist TinTin is a European cartoon hero from the fifties who in his later career escaped from the albums and became a movie star. In all his adventures he displays a fine appetite for the more interesting cars (check the pages of François de Dardel). And thus he is a perfect bridge builder between youth and the car hobby. TinTin came to a Luxembourg RTL broadcast party last week and chose Paul Linster's Lagonda to tell the kids a horrifying story of an escape from Al Capone in this car that saved his life... Well let's say car history is not TinTin's strongest point. However you can show how good you are in next weekend's quiz with an old fashioned hard-to-get European car. Click this link to brush up your memory on a few easy everyday examples. (photos Paul Linster) UPDATE by Paul Linster, see next page....   Read more