This is the facility that houses the Lane
Motor Museum… As mentioned previously, the exhibit space covers 132,000 sq.
ft. There is a covered/indoor parking
area, (off to the left of this photo), which also contains other motor
vehicles, many of them related to military use.
One more motorcycle… This is a NSU 501
Konsul II- 1952 NSU began producing motorcycles
in 1901, four years before they began producing cars. By the mid-1950s, NSU was the world’s biggest
motorcycle maker. It’s suspected that
the name “Konsul” was selected for this motorcycle because it incorporated the
company’s letters “nsu.” An advertising
slogan they used was “Intelligent heads buy Konsul.” This motorcycle was often used with a
sidecar. For those who know about these
things, NSU also built the first production car powered by a Wankel engine–the
Wankel Spider Convertible. FYI…the Lane
Motor Museum has a variety of NSU cars in their German collection.
The 1952 NSU 501 Konsul II was
manufactured by NSU Motorenwerke AG. The
engine is a single cylinder unit that produces 21 HP, which will produce speeds
of up to 76 MPH. Roughly 6,000 units
were produced between 1951 and 1954.
This rather unusual auto is a 1950 Martin
Stationette. It has a rear mounted
4-cylinder engine, a 3-speed manual transmission and it could reach 60
MPH. This is a one-of-a-kind or a
one-off prototype, but the plan was to sell these cars for $995.00 each.
James V. Martin was an inventor who spent
a lot of his life trying to design cars that someone would like to
produce. This was his final
attempt. The Stationette is an
all-wooden monocoque construction. There
isn’t a propeller shaft and there aren’t any axles or shock absorbers…which
were intended to hold down the cost of building the car. (Apparently, he had
never driven on Chicago streets in the pothole season!) The Stationette was
shown at the 1954 World Motor Sports Show as “America’s Economy Car of the
Future”…optimistic to say the least!
OK…I didn’t know what monocoque meant
either so I had to look it up! It is a structural
approach that supports loads through an object's external skin, similar to a
pingpong ball or egg shell. The term is sometimes used to indicate a form of
vehicle construction in which the skin provides the main structural support.
Note: Martin invented
applications that advanced aircraft design as well. For more about James V. Martin, go to http://earlyaviators.com/emartjam.htm.
This sleek futuristic vehicle was also designed by
James V. Martin…back in 1928! The
Martin, despite heavy promotion, was never produced. Only 3 prototypes were built. This model is another one-of-a-kind
automobile. Martin’s idea was to produce
a streamlined car with four seats based on a Paul Jaray’s streamlining design principles.
Paul Jaray was a forward-thinking Hungarian designer who designed autos for
many auto companies both in the US and in Europe. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Jaray.
The Martin Aerodynamic car has a pontoon-shaped underbody,
fully covered rear wheels, and a deep-sloping front with the body tapering
toward the rear. It is powered by a 4
cylinder, water cooled rear engine that was capable of speeds of 107 MPH. It has airplane-type suspension–which means
no springs. The aluminum body has just one door that opens into the back seat. This particular Martin, which cost $17,000, was
built for Air Force General William “Billy” Mitchell of World War I fame. The Martin was presented at the 1932 National
Automobile Show in New York but with the Great Depression upon the USA, the
Martin was never built.
FYI… General Billy Mitchell is generally
recognized as the founder of the US Air Force.
To learn about his life, his career and his impact on US air power, just
go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Mitchell.
What the heck!!?? These boats are mounted at one end of the Lane
Motors Museum exhibit space. They were
provided by Chuck Webb, and since they seem a bit out of place, he must be or must
have been a good friend of the Lane family or of the museum. Chuck’s great grandfather had a boat building
company called the Hafer Boat Company in Spirit Lake Iowa. Chuck got into the business too and for some
time he apparently operated the Waterloo Wooden Boat Company based in Austin
Texas. For more about the old Hafer
Boats, go to http://www.acbs-bslol.com/BobsBoatHouse/hafer.htm.
These boats on the wall are built
from strips of Red Cedar with pieces of Cherry and Mahogany as either accents
or as structural elements. The stems are
either steam bent ash or an ash laminate.
This powerful and very attractive
automobile is a 1933 Panhard Levassor X74.
Panhard and Levassor was a French company founded as an automobile
manufacturer back in 1891. Over the
years it has changed ownership as well as the products it manufactures. The company produced its last automobiles in and
now it builds military vehicles.
The Panhard Levassor X74 was built
between 1933 and 1937. Only 27 copies of
this 6-cylinder automobile were ever produced.
It could reach speeds of up to 80 MPH.
For more on Panhard and Levassor, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panhard.
This is another overview of the auto
exhibit area at the Lane Motor Museum.
We took photos of just a fraction of the autos that comprise the total
collection. Auto makes or brands in the museum include: A.B.C.; Aero; Alfa Romeo; Alvis; AMC; Austin
Healey/Austin; B.S.A.; Berkeley; BMW; Bond; Buick; Burton; Caterham; Citroen;
Cumuta-Car; Croco; Crofton; Crosley…and these are just most of the makes that
start with A, B or C!!
This is a 1951 Hotchkiss-Gregoire. A
total of 247 of these autos were produced in France during 1951 – 1952 by S.A.
des Anciens Établissements Hotchkiss et Cie.
With its 4-cylinder engine, it could cruise along at 80 MPH.
Benjamin B. Hotchkiss, an American, was
asked by Napoleon II to establish an arms factory in France in 1867. Hotchkiss already had plants in New England
and New York and he was a major supplier of weapons and ammunition during the
Civil War. He patented the Hotchkiss
revolving cannon in 1872. Supposedly, an
embarrassment of profits from the weapons business by the turn of the twentieth
century prompted the company to move into the car business so they could avoid
attracting too much attention from the French government.
By the turn of the century and with the
advent of automobiles, the auto industry began relying on the company’s
knowledge of special steels, high precision methods and machinery, as well as skilled
machinists to build crankshafts, pistons, rods, gears, and valves. Hotchkiss introduced its first car in 1904 and
produced successful road and rally cars. In 1948, the board of directors voted to buy a
front-wheel drive car designed by J.A. Grégoire. However, this car was priced higher than other
Hotchkiss models and sales were slow.
Consequently few of them were built before all car production
discontinued.
This little beauty is a 1949 MG TC Midget Roadster that
was built by the MG Car Co. Ltd. in Great Britain. My grandmother had a slightly later model of one
of these for a short time in the early 1950’s.
I still remember my brother and I being terrified as she hit 60 MPH + in
a 40 MPH zone near our home in Jackson Michigan! We told our mom that we would never ride with grandma
again… The model pictured above was built between 1945 and 1949. It had a 4-cylinder engine and it could
achieve speeds of up to 78 MPH. About
10,000 MG TC Midget Roadsters were built.
In 1936, the MG, (which stands for Morris
Garages), Car Company began production of the T-series. The MGTA Midget and the
MGTB were produced pre-WWII. After the war, MG was back in production much
faster than most British companies. The first MGTC came off the line in 1945. About 2,000 of these cars came to the U.S. In terms of both mechanical specification and
appearance, the Midget found a ready market here and it generated new enthusiasm
for sports cars and motor sport in general.
For more on these MG sports cars, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MG_TB#TF_and_TF_1500_Midget. There are several US MG car clubs. For more information regarding these organizations,
go to http://www.mgcars.org.uk/clubs/clubus.html.
That’s about it for Part 3 of our tour of
the Lane Motor Museum in Nashville Tennessee.
There will be one more blog about this interesting museum.
Just click on any of the photos to
enlarge them…
Thanks for joining us on our tour!
Take Care, Big Daddy Dave
Amazing how many folks tried to start and sustain car companies in the early years. My college roommates had a 59 MGA and an mid-60's MGB that I enjoyed riding around in. Prior to the MGB, Doug had a very nice 57 Chevy, 2 door Sport Coupe.
ReplyDeleteDear Dave, Some of these cars look like what is trying to be introduced today; with the very small cars.
ReplyDeleteI like the big sleek cars.
Your grandma sounds like a spunky gal!
Blessings, Catherine