The oldest car collection in the US... the Larz Anderson museum in Brookline Mass

The collection has the following
1899 Winton
1900 Rochet-Schneider
1901 Winton Bullet
1903 Gardner-Serpollet
1905 Electromobile
1906 CGV
1907 FIAT
Powerful and bold, the Andersons’ 1907 Fiat was the supercar of its time.  Even the motto of the automobile, No Hill Can Stop Me, reflected its strength, for many automobiles at this time had difficulty going up hills.  This 11-liter, 6-cylinder Fiat boasted a strength of 65 horsepower; only 86 were manufactured.  Bought by the Andersons while they were on vacation in Europe, the car was then shipped to New York to be re-bodied by the Hol-Tan Company.
1908 Bailey Electric
1910 Panhard et Levasor
1912 Renault
1915 Packard Twin Six
1924 Renault Torpedo
1925 Luxor Taxi
1926 Lincoln
and small sidenote, the museum collection (in a 1888 carriage house) was voted as one of the Top 10 Boston Museums for a wedding

This year, the Pebble Beach Concours has invited the Larz Anderson museum to bring the 1907 Fiat, and it needs a couple of tires. http://larzanderson.org/1907fiat/

You'll understand that car museums in Massachusetts are off the beaten path of tourists, and door donations might be a bit down lately... but the car is IMPRESSIVE! It has been a feature of the collection that has been open to the public for viewing.... get this, since 1927. The Museum was founded in 1949, and might be the oldest car museum in America that is still open.

 It just needs a couple of dollars to get tires.

The 1907 Fiat was last was operated in 1919, and the workshop of  "The Old Motor" David is getting it ready to be shipped to Pebble Beach, read about that at http://theoldmotor.com/?p=50392 .

David is one of the few who are expert at brass era and classics, and is buying one tire, handling all the work of fixing the rims, handling the lubrication (etc etc etc) but is not set to sponsor more than the one tire as they are about $500 apiece.

Follow this link directly to the Larz Anderson website were you can donateby credit card or mail. If you donate by mail enclose a note that it is for the 1907 Fiat. The cost for the transportation out and back has already been taken care of by a donation and The Old Motor has also donated all of its time and facilities to help them out.  Please remember that any amount you can help with will count and add up.

The rear tires were close to impossible to get off the without harming the rims. We could have cut them off, but chose instead to save them as they are part of the history of the car. Both rear tires being 8-ply truck tires, have a side walls that are over 1/2″ thick and being 80-90 years old are dried out and very inflexible. It was a long and very hard job to get them off intact, without bending or harming the rims, but with some patience it was eventually accomplished. Very soon it will be on all four new tires and tubes and we will show you more of this fine cars features in photos.

In the mean time, please contribute to the Larz Anderson Auto Museum if you can, as they count totally on donations to carry on their educational mission. In the future The Old Motor is going to continue to support them and we are working with them to help start a Preservation Fund, which can be used for the other needs of the core Anderson Collection of Automobiles in the future.

I'd love to be there when they fire up the motor for the first time in 93 years.

Have you ever seen a 1956 Hudson Station Wagon? It's also a Rambler Custom. Yeah, I need to look this up and find out how it's a Hudson and a Nash

The station wagon (post or hardtop) is an expensive body to make, mainly because of the large rear quarter panels and roof. The wagon had been very popular in the Rambler line ever since its intoduction in 1950 as a two door. A four door version was introduced in 1954 and accounted for almost one third of Rambler sales that year, and closer to half for 1955.

That there were never any wagons in the other Nash or Hudson lines explains some of the high Rambler wagon sales, but there had to be a wagon in the Rambler line regardless of cost. As it turned out, nearly half the 1956-57 Ramblers sold were wagons. http://www.amcyclopedia.org/node/54

Keep in mind, the 1956 was the 2nd year of AMC existing and so they still used more than one (AMC) car maker identification on this wagon.

AMC was created as a merger of Nash and Hudson on May 1, 1954, but Hudson had no 1955 models ready. Hudson factory production ceased in July of 1954, but AMC had a contractual obligation to supply vehicles to Hudson dealers until the Nash and Hudson car lines could be consolidated. So Hudson dealers received the same Rambler as Nash dealers for 1955, the only difference being the Hudson emblem. U.S. production was 5,981 two door models, 19,223 four door models. Canadian production was only 226 two door sedans and 548  four door sedans.

Even at a price that was expensive compared to Ford, Chevrolet and Plymouth, the Rambler sold well enough to provide the foundation for AMC. It offered comfortable accomodation for four people, economy, sturdy contruction and a high level of equipment. It was a foundation that George Romney, who took over AMC when Mr Mason died in late 1954, would build upon brilliantly.

 wow, incredible leather seats! And check out the ashtray in the door, cool!

So I looked it up, and was reminded... of just what AMC was. American Motors was a merger of failing car companies that couldn't compete alone against GM, Ford and Chrysler.. The companies that merged were Nash, Hudson

the ultimate goal was to be the merger of the new American Motors Corporation with the newly formed Studebaker-Packard Corporation (cash-flush but dealer-poor Packard bought cash-poor but dealer-flush Studebaker), which would have made American Motors a viable four-marque competitor in the industry as one of the "Big Three" - they would have been bigger than Chrysler.

However, when George Mason of AMC died in 1954, James Nance of Studebaker-Packard (took over in 1952) decided to go his own way.  He shouldn't have, since the Studebaker-Packard merger was fraught with problems, and the strength of AMC would have bailed them out.  As it was, Nance resigned following a disastrous 1956 and Studebaker-Packard agreed to a three-year management contract with the Curtiss-Wright Corporation.


  Curtiss-Wright promtly took over all of the defense contracts and factories that Studebaker-Packard held, and killed off Packard within two years, although the Packard name wasn't dropped until 1962. 

Cool vehicles at the Automobile Driving museum, in El Segundo, on the west coast, just south of LAX

 Above, an Auburn Speedster

 I love before and afters

 above is a Studebaker with unusual oval headlights

 good way to liven up a gate

for another perspective, see Just a Car Gal's gallery: http://justacargal-s.blogspot.com/2011/05/automotive-driving-museum.html