Posted on 08/19/2025 3:28:12 AM PDT by RandFan
The wider trim and more curved shape of the windshield should be an identifier compared to the better known ‘Monty’s Rolls’ from the same period.
https://www.milweb.net/features/monty.php
Well, there were the Duesenbergs, and the Cords.
Yes, thank you very much for clarifying this🙂
I had been aware of the Phantom III, but not of the newly restored green one - for obvious reasons, as ist jas only now been restored 😀
Great work of eleven years. My compliments to the owner👍🏻
Absolutely true🙂
Sorry I forgot to mention them. However, I presumed that this Royce has been built after 1937, when Duesenberg and Cord had, tragically, gone out of business.
Sorry for my omission🙁
I don’t know too much about Cord, but Duesenberg is known even to me. There is even a museum to the Duesenberg brothers in Possibly they were even better than the Royces of the era. Cords maybe, too? I really am clueless 🙁
P.S.: the birthhouse of the Duesenberg brothers Fritz and August in the village of Kirchheide near the town of Lemgo is still extant, and has been beautifully restored by the owner.
Interesting. There were also the 3 P’s. High end luxury autos, Packard, Peerless, and Pierce Arrow. Just beautiful examples of master workmanship. An era lost.
Oh, indeed - and what a sad loss that is🙁
What’s that? I’m asking for a new college graduate!
I got interested in old cars when around 1960 a man pulled up to my father’s welding shop with a 1931 Cadillac Phaeton. I had never seen a car like that except in pictures. The car had a bent front bumper and the man wanted to know if my dad could fix it. My dad hesitated for a minute, but the challenge won him over. He had to cut the bumper and then bend both pieces back to shape and then weld it back together, grind the welds smooth, and sent it out to a friend’s shop to be re-chromed. The man was elated, paid my father and took us for a little ride. I was about as happy and proud of my father as a boy could be.
Wow. That was a magnificent story! How proud you must have felt of your father, and your father too, of course, of his handiwork 🙂
Not to mention the owner of the historic vehicle. Yes, Cadillacs…what a fine brand 🙂 Wonder whether it’s still existing today, maybe somewhere in a motoring museum…
From the story, which has a photo of the letter:
The letter from Zimdin was dated ‘5th September 1939 - 7am early … ‘ and written at Le Grand Hotel at Hotel d’Angleterre in Annecy It begged a Hungarian friend and colleague called Dezso Karczag to allow the Rolls over to Geneva after being banned from crossing. It added: “Also, from yesterday at 5 o’clock all foreigners who want to get into Switzerland must have a special visa … But might it be possible that the Head of the border guards might make an exception for us. I can’t believe this is happening. Now I’m really quite broken hearted.” After being banned from entering Switzerland the car ended up in the grounds of a hotel in Dubrovnik.
No idea. A bit more to the story.. Although my father didn’t know the man personally, he knew about him. The man was a very rich lawyer who had a collection of vintage autos. He took us for a ride down Main St. in Metuchen N.J. when it was a quaint typical old town U.S.A. The man had an Ooogah horn and as people on the sidewalks would wave, he would honk the horn. Later I said to my dad, “I thought you didn’t like lawyers to much”. He said. “Well this one is a republican so we give him a pass”.
What wonderful stories…🙂
Glad to read that I am not the only person in the world who considers veteran cars to be magical. Oh, how I wish I could ride in one, one fine day.
I love the old ones. My first car was a ‘57 Chevy Belair with a straight 6 and a “three on the tree”. It was 10 years old when I got it in’67. I soon enough blew the 6 banger and put in a 327 v8 with a 4 barrel carb. What a difference! Loved that car. Also had a ‘65 Caddy convertible and a ‘68 and also a ‘71 Olds 442. Never should have sold any of them. The good ole days. You have a good day and no, you’re not the only one who loves the classics.
Just wonderful indeed. Did your Bel Air have the Thriftmaster or the more powerful Blue Flame six-cylinder? Yes, by American standards they might not have been that powerful - but still worlds apart from a French 2cv Citroen or an Italian Fiat Topolino or the West German Bug 😂
By the way: I had no clue that the famous Small Block V8 saw the light of day in the Bel Air in the mid-fifties, iirc 🙂 What a fabulous engine, which managed to outlast not only its bigger brother, the Big Block, but also the Northstar, its designated successor (which, I think, never got the credit it truly deserved, but there might have been some reliability issues with it).
These cars looked like something from a science fiction movie to European eyes.
And I‘m going to look at all the others you had, but which I don’t know by heart, sorry 🙂
And it is very regrettable that you couldn’t hold on to these beautiful cars, but sometimes they might become too expensive or something…but as the old saying goes, hindsight is always 20/20…🙁
Yes, and I‘d like to wish you a very pleasant day, too. It was great chatting with you about beautiful motor cars from the past. May we meet again on this forum😀
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