Home from work and school early, temps in the mid fifties, so................


Back them out of the building, and go for a drive.

Neat Rob, thanks for sharing. I never saw really good photos of an N/R/S before. Hope you enjoyed your day - it was freezing today with drizzly rain/sleet!

Craig

Nice Cars for sure.1 thing though,I cant help but notice the view from the back seat of the N never changes!looks like it is made for a short legged motherinlaw.

Hey Mack...it WAS! hehe

Every time I see one of those I'm reminded of a little cartoon drawing in a Floyd Clymer book I have called "Henry's Wondeful Model T".
It's a picture of a young couple in a T with a sulled old woman sitting on the back. The young fella driving is grinning ear to ear. They are driving past a dealership with a "New 55 Model" sign in the window and two salesmen standing out front. One salesman says to the other, "I understand he can afford a new car, only he doesn't want to give up that mother-in-law seat in his 1909 model."

I've had that book for probably twenty years (my favorite reading material anytime I'm sitting in my chair with a good cup of coffee) and I still laugh when I see that little cartoon.

That's a beatiful pair of cars, and a fine lookin pair of little T lovers too. They're grinning too big to not love what they are doing!
Ray

Mack,

Your right, not a mother-in-law on the planet would fit in our rumble seat (I could be in trouble now), but it is perfect for our 9 and 7 year olds.

Rob

As you can see, perfect size for a 7 year old (and both of them fight for who rides in back).

I have asked this before, but never got an answer. Mom's sister had a similar car to the Roadster in the picture, we lived out on a Ranch and she drove it to School about 20 or so miles. One of us would have to crank it for her in the mornings, and some boy at School would crank it for her in the evening. I still remember the car very well, the first one I ever drove by myself. It was called a "Jitney" by the family, and I do not remember the Mother in Law seat, and I want to think it had a windshield of sorts and that the steering was left hand. Have I gotten that old and befuddled, or was her car a later version ? Was the windshield an add on perhaps, and do I just not remember the steering being right hand ? What year would it have been ? The car went into a scrap drive during WW2, lots of others did too.

Grady,

Many car makers, including Maxwell, REO, Buick, Brush, Flanders, Metz and Cadillac to name a few, made small roadster/runabouts up innto the early teens. Many of these cars came with either tool boxes, rumble seats, or surrey seats. Usually they were one and two cylinder (Fords' Model N was the first inexpensive four cylinder runabout that I am aware of). Most of these cars were right hand drive through about 1911 to 1914.

Ford's Model T runabout from 1909 through 1911 looks very similar, but has left hand drive, and a longer wheelbase. Model T's were also the first Fords with left hand drive steering.

Hope my "facts" are somewhat accurate. Attached is a photo of an early T runabout w/ mother-in-law seat from the "early photos" section on this site.

Rob

Rob, do you have a time machine you are not telling us about? That you went back in time and brought those back?

That has to be an authentic photo. No one nowadays would stack an expensive top like that just to take a photo. Nice, clear photograph!

Mr.Heyen, it was a Model T, of that I am positive, but the picture of the windshield is close, the picure of your Roadster is the spitting image of the car that I remember except for having the steering wheel on the wrong side, but I may be wrong about that, that was long ago. Perhaps the Mother in Law seat was an option that Grandpa didn't buy ? or maybe just taken off ?

Thanks guys. This is a photo of 1910 2 cylinder Buick. It has a flat rear deck "trunk". Sold of HCCA a few weeks ago.

Great cars, Rob. Sorry we couldn't meet up in MO.

I have wood a trunk that mounted a single seat. I've been told it may be from a Buick 10. Can't find pix right now, but will dig it out if anybody needs one.

rdr

Thomas, I've seen that photograph in the "old photo" section of the website. I may be wrong, but I've always had the suspicion that that picture is a modern day effort......(I have no concrete proof, just a hunch).

Either way, it is a nice picture of a beautiful car.

Bob

Bob,

If it is current, they sure "staged" the photo well. The tires are under pressure, the top is unusually retracted, and the license plate holder is different than others I've noticed. Anyway, quite a nice car either way.

Rob

It must be a current pic, as the windshield panels are unequal, and all the catalogs show equal panels for 1909 cars. :-)

rdr

Ricks,

Tha catalog images are a poor indicator of what is or was proper. Most are heavily retouched and are usually photos of pre-production cars in order to get sales info to the public before the cars were available.

Sorry, I meant the current catalogs like Lang's.

Here's a period ad I copied from a Forum:

rdr