Pala Casino hosted a car show, 4th floor of the parking garage, sounds strange, but it's a beautiful background for photos

 If you like this low Cadillac, check out Coddington customized Cadzilla that ZZ Top lead singer and guitarist Billy Gibbons commissioned http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/01/cadzilla.html

 if you like this metalwork, the scroll design, check out the chassis and suspension of the lowrider in the SEMA car show http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/11/majestics-cc-of-compton-have-done.html

Nice double flamejob on the radiator shield and the firewall

1931 Cadillac tow truck belonging to an autobody, welding, and tow company who worked custom body magic to make truck from a sedan

that is the nicest tow truck we are likely to see all year, found with the information about the custom body mods at David's terrific Old Motor http://theoldmotor.com/?p=19664

It immediately reminded me of the Packard car made into a tow truck http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/12/tow-trucks-were-sometimes-made-from-big.html

1885 to 1929 interesting cars

 1885 horseless carriages in Russia

 1893 Haynes with E. Haynes in both photos. It was the first successful automobile in America

 1901 Franklin

 1902 Cadillac

 1904 Caddilac

 1907 Isotta Fraschini (really shiny paint)

 1908 Ford, the first model T

 1916 Studebaker landaulet roadster (I've got thought that a roadster can't be a landaulet, and vice versa)

 1925 Lincoln club roadster with body by LeBaron

 1925 Locomobile

1929 Studebaker with Neysa McMein (great first name) she was a designer at Studebaker

Found digging through the photos at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/

The 1912 Official Handbook of Automobiles, (wow, stats and views of brasss era cars still licensed under the Selden patent)

the above delivery wagon is cool, but check out the Locomobile Cup Racer, and the price ... $18,000

the Peerless on the right hand side below... if you read the stat sheet, you might be as amused as I am that the body is known as the "King of Belgium"

the Selden Patent issue:

The above tag has a bit of historical perspective... the Selden company patented the automobile. He collected on every car made... 0.75%

Selden was a patent attorney. His dad was a judge, and a prominent Republican attorney most noted for defending Susan B Anthony.

Yeah, it obviously didn't stand up very long, but for a time, they had the patent on the automobile, and if you wanted to sell a car in America, you either paid a licensing fee or fought them in court.

Henry Ford fought them in court and won... he was obviously better prepared to make a success and a fortune that he'd share with the US Govt by way of taxes, so the right people were persuaded to take the patent of the automobile, and make it go away... the reason given was that the Ford and other cars were using an engine based on a different engine than Selden had patented.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2007/05/spooky-no-traction-sliding-on-ice-as.html  

see the whole book page by page at http://www.archive.org/stream/officialhandboo04assogoog#page/n12/mode/2up which is just one of 10s of thousands of online books at http://www.archive.org/

Cadillac motorhome, and a White COE tipping around a corner

 makes you wonder doesn't it.

found on http://allmetalshaping.com/showthread.php?t=2226&page=2 ona  recommendation from Steve... thanks! I've never thought about anyone making a Cad motorhome... makes me laugh

H A Testard's Bicycle and Cadillac dealership (odd combination) 1910 New Orleans

from http://www.shorpy.com/node/9691

the 1935 Diamond T Doodlebug, 26 feet long, 1500 gallons, designed by H W Kizer

the above and below images are from the same time and place, check out the VIP limo, a 1940Cadillac V16

It was stylistically important for several reasons. First, it departed from all common car and truck-body conventions. There were no fenders on the Doodlebug, certainly not in any normal sense. The conventional hood was gone, as were the running boards, cowl,and setback windshield. The "little house on wheels" that made up the passenger compartment of most vehicles of the day was visually absent. The Doodlebug's bread-Ioaf shape was all of one piece and, except for the applied headlights, could have been designed today. Second, the Doodlebug used curved side glass and a compound curved windshield. This last innovation didn't see mass production until the '57 Chrysler Imperial. The "through" body sides were at least 13 years ahead of their time--Kaiser and Frazer put the idea into production for 1946. The eyebrows over the full wheel cutouts reappeared as a focal point on the '66 Olds Toronado. Third, the Doodlebug tapered toward the rear and had considerable uninterrupted tumblehome curve, which were unusual features in that day of boxy bodies.

Most surprising was the overall height. At 72 inches, the Doodlebug stood a mere 4 inches higher than a '34 Ford sedan. No one was building trucks that low in those days, nor do many manufacturers do so even today. Bel Geddes' inspired Texaco fleet, helped prompt other oil companies to produce similarly streamlined commercial vehicles.

I saved these photos yesterday and now I can't find the webpage I got them from

wow.

http://www.dogfightmag.com/2011/03/cadillac-v-day-in-shanghai/ for the story

great photos on Hellformotors tumblr

You don't need me to tell you it's the Galpin Ford sponsored "Back Up Pick Up" unusual wheelstander, but you can't read that this is Lions in 1971
Briggs Cunningham at Le Mans 1950. Who is Briggs? race car driver and museum owner, and a sports car legend as he was one of the first in the 1950's to go all the way to try and win the European races as an American, like Reventon did after him, and Shelby after Reventon http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/03/le-monster-of-briggs-cunningham.html
From the movie "The Quest" http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2011/05/this-is-something-you-really-ought-to.html



http://hellformotors.tumblr.com for many more interesting and variety of wide range photos of race cars