We wish you all a Rolling 2004 ! Lots of motoring fun. And all the luck and love you deserve! Friday will stay our ladies Day. This late 1800s very-very vintage studio mock-up is bringing the first four Femmes wishing you "365 Jours de Bonheur". Your French for sure is good enough to understand that. (postcard Horwitz Collection)  

Well, well well, that was a year on wheels... We have seen a load of shine, rust and rarity come by. Wow! A year in which more antique cars than ever changed hands helped by this site; a rough estimate is: 1,800. See a bit of Seller Feedback. A year in which we opened The Barn . Also a year in which we started Pre-War Parts. And maybe most important the year in which PreWarCar won the prestigious E.P.Ingersol Award from the Society of Automotive Historians. A year in which our visitor numbers almost tripled from 270,000 to 820,000 (Europe 47% - North-America 40% - Australia/New Zealand 4,5% , Asia 2,5% - South-America 2% ). We want to thank all visitors, dealers, auction houses, advertisers other sponsors and everybody who gave support and everybody who sended great stories and beautiful photos. Please feed your mysteries, your barnfinds and other oddities to: hungry@prewarcar.com. Every visitor is a reporter! (postcard Horwitz Collection) 

The Red Rolley depicted above is not an overrun hero from the brilliant BBC TV series Robot Wars (www.RobotWarsExtreme.com). It's a helping hand to keep your vintage friends in shape. Maybe you are one of the very few who will bring out his beloved car in rain and ice conditions and run it for an hour or so to keep 'the grease moving' and avoid the damage of rest. Yet chances are big that you rather keep it inside. Or you just have more than one car to take care for and lack the time to take each one out for a spin. In that case this Italian invention is what you are looking for. Here's a few close-ups. The Rolley is heavy and well made. Want a brochure with full info or ordering info then send an e-mail to Rolley. 

Guido van Oppen sent this very rare image of a Belgian Pipe, automobile (1898-1914). Lacking more resolution in the photo, Guido explains that the hubcaps used to show a curved pipe (this car has). We understand that Belgium participated in the 1904 Gordon Bennett with no less than three Pipe racing cars. We are not sure if one Pipe car survived to this day and would be delighted to hear from a Pipe owner somewhere in Belgium or elsewhere on the globe. (photo collection Guido van Oppen) 

The young Finnish reporter Raul Valkila is student at Espoo Institute of Technology and is doing his final paper about the history of the shock absorber. When doing so he came across some intersting figures: "In the year 1930 there were 35,603,176 automobiles moving in the streets and roads around the earth. Of course, the United States was the number one with almost 30 million cars. Here is a list of countries having over 15 000 automobiles at that time. " >>>> see Read More:

(photo from the 'Book of Inventions ; 1932'. The 800 page book was found in a waste basket and handed to Raul's uncle...)   Read more

Maybe , secrtetly you were hoping for a last, very last Saturday competition. We have to disappoint you. We could have done this one, knowing that almost nobody would have responded to save us work. But no, next year, to be more precise next week you'll have a new opportunity. And we will not start making things impossible, so you never know. The photo shown here was sent by Carrick Watson form Glasgow, Scotland. "The car belonged to a local family named 'Eadie', they had several interesting cars and bikes." Well we are sure, it would take a full regiment of car & bike historians to determine what the Eadies have gathered and welded together here. For your education we added an enlarged version. Click the photo to proceed.  

Showing is Forest Home Road Saranac Lake , NY Adirondack mts. (Postcard Horwitz Collection) Want to wander around in this atmosphere a little longer? See Penny Postcards of NY.. 

1908 (postcard Horwitz Collection)  

UPDATE by Kit Foster:"The lady in the fur coat has a Ford at her right elbow, not behind her. The middle car across the street is a 1928-29 Model A Ford "Tudor" sedan. The car with the precarious spare tyre is not a Ford."
EARLIER TEXT: Look at that joyous yet naughty look. At last she has the fur she so desperately wanted, so what else to fear? Now when you take a magnifying glass (click), you not only will see that nice face a little better. You also can see what's accross the street. And also which problem can occur. Now imagine this young lady is taking her Ford (?) and will blow a tyre, is this spare tyre going to bring her home?




(collection editor) 

This photo must ring a bell with the 'Morris Garages' inner crowd. To them it may remind of a photo made in December 1936, but is made just days ago. The car in the foreground is a just restored works VA demo car: AMO 602. The second car is ABL 999. Insiders will remember the car in a lighter shade from the original works photo (click). The same photo is showing also ABL 72, the first VA Tourer. Since then a few things have changed and not alone the color of ABL 999. Peter Ratcliff (with S-V-W- fame) just has finished an 'Automatic' conversion, making use of a 'purist' trans of the type that was used on the MGB (click). The conversion was commissioned by Bas de Voogd who - lacking strength in his left leg - reports that the VA Automatic drives like a dream. Applause for Peter! And proof that there's always more in a photo than just a car. (photo Rutger Booy)