website The empire that was russia

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

1912 Delaunay-Belleville Type SMT automobile

Hi Coop,
I found the car in a big carbook in our local city library so even Czar Nicholas favored that car.
"...Among royal customers was Tsar Nicholas II of Russia who had a number of Delaunays, including the 70hp chain-driven six known as the model SMT [Sa Majesté le Tsar]"
The source of the picture and description is "The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars 1885-1968" edited by G. N. Georgano, printed 1968
The car shown by Coop and this one are different - this has a set of small windows above the roofline while Coops car has a flat roof with luggage rack on top.
Chuck

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Old autos.

Hi, Chuck,

Thanks for the reply and for the interest you have taken. Are you an old autos fan or a car fan or just a fan of everything that is worth remembering from our history?

Thank you very much for the name of the model.
Frankly, I am not a car expert and the make does not mean much to me but I am sure Dad will be happy to know it and he will ask more questions than I can answer.

By the way, judging by the picture our car was a bit more modest, do you agree?

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

The car

Hi Coop,
I have a book at home about classic cars and first saw a 1906 Delahaye with virtually the same body so that suggests both companies used the same coachbuilder.
Then I found a website that spoke of the Czar having a car as in the picture I put up here. Finally I remembered a huge book in the local library and found the picture.
Both cars are quite similar and yours is a bit smaller. Your car does not have the small set of windows above the roof.
Hmm, with the Czar having owned such cars, wouldn't this put you in line for the St Petersburg throne?
Chuck

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Old autos and family trees.

Hi, Chuck!

We are not royal family descendants, unfortunately. But mine were aristicratic predecessors.
So, I am not very fond of the October events of 1917 and the consequences of them.

The genealogy was never welcome in our family, at least till the end of the communist era here. My father had even to join the communist party for the sake of our security.

The Englishmen say: every family has a sceleton in the closet.
We also do, eh?

Regards,

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

Hi Cooper,
Just a little joke about the throne but I suspected your family had to be in the aristocracy or successful in business. You were definitely a target of the communist crowd. I've read much about those times and the 1917-18 revolution in Finland and those were terrible times.

The book is not very clear on the various models available. The SMT was special for the Czar so not the model of your vehicle. Perhaps it was the 10CV that was first produced in 1909? From what I have read, the mark was well regarded as one of the finest in the world. I think a bit of searching on the net might provide an exact model now that we now the maker which of course was French. I once had a Peugeot and was delighted with that mark. Hmm, also drove a Citroen 2CV which was a gas
Chuck

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

I think this is your car!

http://www.romford.org/transport/car...all/LD8278.htm
http://www.romford.org/transport/car.../F1615-F90.htm

Hi Cooper,
It didn't take too long to find
but strong family resemblance is noticed and identified by one of the premier motor museums of Europe.

Chuck

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Old autos and museums.

Hi, Chuck,

Thanks for the link.
It is wonderful!
as for the car- I am not sure about the model but there really is some resemblance!

The museum is interesting.
I visited an auto museum somewhere not far from Vaasa but the cars there were all much newer!

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

Maybe Hasse will move this car stuff to Kevin's new cars thread

It was interesting to find those cars and a make I'd never heard about.
I think these car threads ought to be shifted to that car thread Kevin put together.
We probably won't be able to get the precise model designation because we aren't that certain of the year of production of your car. The picture was done in 1912 at St. Pete and I couldn't translate the Russian above that line.
Maybe Kevin can handle that for us
Chuck

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

Auto thread.

Good idea, Chuck!

But June has already started a car thread (not an old autos one, of course) and there were not too many interested!

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

June's car thread?

Hmm, I didn't know she had one so that explains maybe why most people have missed that one.

We shall demand of Hasse that he combine all car threads and of course do it at 3:00 am in Finland

Chuck

[Cooper Registered Find all posts View Profile Close Cooper]

New threads.

Probably the thread you offer has to be "old-timers only"?

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

Yeah, just old timers or something special like that

I would think to limit it to old time cars or special cars like yours. Kevin's model A or was it a T was fun to see.
As for myself, I don't have pictures of the actual cars so only memories of what I was told. But that could also be interesting.
I remember when I was little we had a model A Ford and my dad put me on his lap to "drive" but I freaked out and didn't realize he was actually taking care of things
He used to have a garage in Champion, MI in the 1930s and told me that a guy from Detroit somehow developed a crack in the engine block so he welded a patch onto it in the hopes that the guy could get home to Detroit over 500 miles away. He often wondered if that guy ever made it home.
He told me in those days before I was born that he had a big old Packard that he got for maybe $50 or less. Depression times and those big cars loved gas.
In our family, one uncle always bought Oldsmobile cars and another only Pontiac cars
Chuck

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Old cars

My father came to the US in 1909 and around 1923 he bought his first car. It was a Dort that had been the personal car of J. Dallas Dort of the Dort Motor Co. At that time there were no seat belts in cars, but Dad installed his own seat belts. The car had isinglass windows that could be snapped in when the weather was bad. He was the first person in our neighborhood to own a car; also our house was the first house to have inside plumbing, electric lights, washing machine, vacuum sweeper and later on we were the first to have a big radio and later on a television set. Our house was popular with the neighbors who didn't have those things. Here's a picture of the car. Dad worked for Buick Motor Co. so naturally later on our cars were Buicks.

June

[granskare Registered Find all posts View Profile Close granskare]

Cool June, recognize you anywhere

The big carbook says Dort cars were made in Flint, MI from 1915-1924 so your dad got one of the last models.
Of course you still have that car, right?

In Canada there was a Gray-Dort car made from 1915-25 that actually outsold the Chevrolet in Ontario!
Hmm, facts you always wanted to know

I wish my parents had used a camera with me at the wheel of that model A but alas, just a memory

Chuck

[June Pelo Senior Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close June Pelo]

Dort

Chuck,

Somewhere I have another picture of me strapped into the car with one of Dad's seatbelts. He was proud of that car. And he dressed up when he drove it: 3-piece suit, white shirt, tie and a hat. My father never went anywhere without a hat.

He kept the car a few years and then traded it in for a 1927 Pontiac that had a luggage rack on the side. He loaded up the luggage and the family and drove the car to Wrenshall, MN to visit his aunt who lived on a farm. He spoke of the almost non-existent roads, getting stuck in mud, flat tires, etc.

June