All Articles Tagged '1920s' (326)

Swiss vehicles are far less famous than Swiss watches, Swiss cheese and Swiss pocket knives. Let's give some Dieselpunk love to Helvetic omnibuses!

In Switzerland, dozens of Saurer, FBW and Berna buses, as good as new, are the stars of numerous automotive events. Thanks to…

This Friday, in the midst of Gatsby Craze, it's time to remember a true supercar - the most ambitious creation of W O Bentley:

The 8-Liter Bentley was introduced at the 1930 London Motor Show*. It featured an 8-liter engine which was a development of Bentley's race-winning 6.5-liter unit. The main purpose of this model was to add competition…

A front-wheel drive posh car in the early 1930s? A few thousand bucks will buy you a Cord... or a Ruxton.

The Ruxton is a forgotten manufacturer, often overlooked when considering early pioneers in automotive design and mechanics. One of their biggest automotive achievements was the use of front-drive…

If we're in forgotten car makes already, what about another one?

Richard Lea and Graham Francis entered into partnership in August 1895 to make advanced and relatively expensive cycles of quality in Lower Ford Street, Coventry, which soon gained a high reputation*. Less successful was their first experiment with cars in…

What about giving some dieselpunk love to a remarkable car make, sadly overshadowed by its German and Italian neighbors?

The Austro-Daimler Motor Company produced automobiles from 1899 through 1934. Their factory was located in Wiener-Neustadt, which is located south of Vienna, in…

The annals of small arms designs are filled with near perfect, odd and/or unsuccessful weapons. The Czech tradition of innovative small arms designs began in the early 20th century and continues to this day. In the 1920s, however, there was a semi-automatic rifle that should have received more attention,…

The oddest and most unconventional contender - probably for any aerial competition - was the Piaggio-Pegna PC.7.

The floatplane (or should we call it a 'foilplane'?) was built for the 1929 Schneider Trophy contest. A cantilever high-wing monoplane with long slender fuselage, it had twin hydrofoils instead of floats and was intended to float with…

By the end of 1920s, front-wheel drive configuration found its way into one of the most ambitious automotive designs ever.

The Cord L-29 was revolutionary, using a front-wheel drive system rather than the popular rear-wheel drive configuration. Many believed that having the front wheels be responsible for turning, carrying the…

Another British car make - maybe not so famous, it's not forgotten. Actually, it's alive.

The Invicta Car Company was a British based automotive manufacturer that produced cars from 1925 through 1950. In the early 2000s, the name was revised and placed on a high-performance sports car. From 1925 to 1933, the company was based in…

A comment on an earlier thread that I posted inspired me to do some internet digging for advertising cars. What I found was quite interesting. Some forms, such as bottles are easily adapted to automotive form, others need a little persuading.

Here's an English fruit vendors truck with apple shaped cab. Ford model AA (truck) chassis.…

Enormous. That's the word for the greatest creation of Ettore Bugatti. Enormous dimensions. Enormous power. Enormous elegance.

The Bugatti Royale, also known as the Bugatti Type 41 is a luxury model car that has a wheelbase of 169.3 inches or 4.3 meters, and an…

This Sarurday, your air mail is brought to you by the most gorgeous trimotor ever built.

It is often said that aviation is the passion of a lifetime that slowly conquers the depth of one's soul*. This statement could never be truer when it comes to the life of René Couzinet, the Father…

Your Saturday Air Mail is here, with a score of forgotten aeroplanes from Bristol.

I decided to re-publish here an article by Alan Webb titled Parnall - Bristol's Other Plane-maker. There's no better source of info on Parnall designs.

The Parnall story is…

Sorry, I'm late today. But with a car which is all Dieselpunk!

The success of the Morgan Motor Company was founded on an icon, the Morgan Three-Wheeler. This brilliant but simple design by skilled engineer and company founder Harry Morgan (HFS) became one of the most successful lightweight…

This is a Canadian Vickers-designed and built Velos:

The year 1912 marked the official beginning of Vickers in Canada and plans for shops, drawing offices, and the company's distinctive enclosed building berths were developed. 1913 was spent in site construction and by 1914 Vickers…

On the occasion of  the 150th birthday of the London Underground some “Tube” work by the artist Cyril Power (1872-1951).

Cyril Power, Whence and Whither, 1930. Source: …

Wake up! Your Saturday Air Mail is here, brought by a sleek, stunningly beautiful monoplane.

Allan Lockheed and Jack Northrop teamed up together in 1927 and formed the Lockheed Aircraft Company.  It was a great combination and their Vega became the aircraft of the Golden Age for setting records.  Names like…

Happy New Year, my fellow petrolheads! Come taste some crème de la crème from France!

Louis Delage was born in 1874 and was handicapped by blindness in one eye. This handicap would not hinder him at all in creating some of the most elegant and beautiful creations of the pre-WWII era, and into the early 1950s. He acquired his engineering abilities while…

Don't be confused by the number - I somehow managed (or rather, mismanaged) to miss it three months ago. Here it is, so no one would search for a missing article #156.

Next one (and the last in 2012) will be numbered 164. And today, we'll give some Dieselpunk love to another forgotten car make. Have you ever heard about Marendaz, the man and/or the automobile?…