Syracuse – CARS-YDSE.com

1965 (or so) Vanden Plas Princess

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This is really a rare care and I’m sure you will not see one everyday (unless you or your neighbor own one). The car is really a variant of the MG 1100/1300 built from 1962 thru 1973 in Surrey England. About 3 million of these cars and its related cars were produced during this period. This particular car featured here I think was built by the Vanden Plas Coach Builders of Kingsbury London, England. Other variations were also built by Austin, also of England as well as a popular model called the Authi Morris in Spain.

Vanden Plas Princess 1300

In 1962 the Morris 1100 was announced, Fred Connolly the founder of the company that supplied leather to the motor industry commissioned Vanden Plas to make a special version. A prototype was exhibited at the 1963 London Show and aroused a lot of interest so it was put into full scale production by BMC management with deliveries starting in the winter. In 1968 the model received the 1300 cc engine and continued been made until May 1974.

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This car looks in fine shape. I have not seen one like this in many years. In fact, I’m posting these pictures less than 24 hours after they were taken. I have a card I leave on the windshield of the cars I photograph and I left one for the owner. On the card I have a link to this website and my email address. I hope to hear from the owner who can fill us in on the real facts about this specific car.

Click Here for more information from Wikipeadia

1960 Morgan – In Fine Shape

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It was a beautiful day in San Francisco. My wife, our dog and I were on a little urban hike about an hour before sundown. We were hiking a trail in the Persideo just south of the Golden Gate Bridge. The trail and nearby roads were packed with tourists on that bright Sunday afternoon. All of a sudden I saw this very red Morgan go down the road. Although I had my camera, I could not get a picture off and so I watched it go around the bend and, seemingly, out of sight.

But, to my surprise, the Morgan had pulled in and parked at the head of a long line of cars parked on the side of the road. I was thrilled and got out my camera. The only issue was the very busy road AND the fact that the Morgan was parked directly in front of a rather old and beat up Dodge camper that was nearly as old as the Morgan. For that reason, the only front-on shots I got all looked very poor as the camper loomed over the back of the Morgan. Please note, I have retouched most of it out of the picture and replaced it with blue sky.

Now back to the real subject, the 1960 Left-Hand drive Morgan. In the 60s, this car was exported from the United Kingdom to the U.S. In fact, about 80% of Morgans production went to the U.S. This car had a wooden frame, doors and fenders. It was light weight and had a Triumph 4 cylinder motor.

I also got comments from this cars owner. Here is what he added as background on the car.

Beautiful car! I own it! Thanks for posting. This is the Drophead Coupe, last year of that style production. The doors are without the Morgan ” elbow scoop” but rather straight in line. Suicide doors that open from the front, please note. The windshield is also flat – other Morgans have a curved frame – so it’s quite distinct. Called the “snob Mog” as this is the car you take to the opera… I feel like a celebrity when I drive it, as I’m always getting waves, high-fives, and folks asking about the car. It’s an honor to be posted.

Here is a video from another Morgan collector that I found interesting.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbZHWwg6dQg?feature=player_detailpage&w=640&h=360]

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The following text from Wikipedia explains the license plate on this particular car.

General characteristics

In spite of their traditional design, Morgans have always had sporting or “sports car” performance, due to their extremely low weight.

Among their enthusiasts, Morgans are affectionately known as “Moggies”.

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A 1930 (plus or minus 5 years) Something Or Other. What Is It?

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Recently, my wife and I did a little vacationing in Buenos Aires. From there we took a day trip via a high speed ferry to a town called Colonia Uruguay. This sleepy little town had numerous old cars scattered around the town, mostly as advertisements for local restaurants or other tourist places. It was, sort of, like a very little Havana.

So, what make and model is this car? I looked at several on-line but really have no firm idea. This is an area of the Web just made for getting the answer to this kind of question. Just leave a comment with any ideas or suggestions on finding out what it is.

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1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible

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There it was, the mammoth 1963 Lincoln Continental Convertible parked right across the street from our restaurant. This car is enormous with a wheelbase of over 123 inches and an overall length of 213.3 inches. The present record for the longest production convertible is the 1934-1935 Cadillac V-16 at a length of 222.0 inches.

There were over 31,000 of these 1963 cars sold but I don’t have the figures by model (2 door, convertible etc.). This is a rare car in really great shape. It was a pleasure to see this car you don’t see everyday.

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Click here to see a great example of this car on Pinterest

1929 Franklin 135

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According to the rules of my site, I don’t photograph cars at car shows or even casual car club meetings. It’s all about “seeing the cars in the wild”, meaning on the street. I saw this car in the parking lot of a garage in Layton New Jersey as we drove by. The garage is even pictured on Google Maps. Look up 118 County Road 560, Layton, NJ. Wow, a 1929 car out in the country.

The Franklin Automobile Company was founded around 1902 in Syracuse New York. It was headed by Herbert H. Franklin who had founded the Franklin Manufacturing Company in 1883, also in Syracuse. The company was very innovative and manufactured cars until 1934, when the company declared bankruptcy. Here’s a story I picked up from the Web.

A big fan of Franklins was famous airplane pilot Charles Lindbergh. With the banks now in control of the company and calling it quits in 1934, legend has it that Herbert Franklin got up from his desk, grabbed his hat off of the coat hook, and walked out.

This came from a car sales site called Valenti Classics, here is a link to a Franklin they sold. Click Here for for a link to the site

This car, a 1929 was one of about 14,000 cars manufactured that year. That was about 5,000 more cars than Franklin had ever sold in one year.

The Franklin cars were different. They were quite fast for the day and stressed fuel efficiency. In fact, the 1929 model shown here could get up 28 miles per gallon, a great deal better than its competitors. This was due, in large part to the engineering that went into the air cooled engine and the chassis design.

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The left hand picture shows what looks like a radiator grill, but the car was air cooled. This is explained in an article on Wkipedia.

Franklin’s were often rather odd-looking cars, although some were distinctly handsome with Renault-style hoods. Starting in 1925, at the demand of dealers, Franklin’s were redesigned to look like conventional cars sporting a massive nickel-plated “dummy radiator” which served as an air intake and was called a “hoodfront”. This design by J. Frank DeCausse enabled the Franklin to employ classic styling.

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