1908 Ford Model S Runabout

1908 Ford Model S Runabout

Photo by Cliff West

The immediate predecessor to the Ford Model T was the Ford Model N, which was built from 1906 to 1908 and was powered by a 15-horsepower 4-cylinder engine. With the success of the new model, Ford began to offer customers upgraded options, such as the Model S Runabout shown here. The Model S was introduced in late 1907 and used the same chassis as the Model N, but featured extras like full fenders with running boards. This 1908 Ford Model S Runabout was on display at the Towe Ford Museum (now the California Automobile Museum) in Sacramento, California, in March 1992.

1904 Ford Model B Touring Car

1904 Ford Model B Touring Car

Photo by Cliff West

Henry Ford built cars before the famous Model T. His first was called the Model A. It had an 8-horsepower engine under the seat, and was introduced in 1903. In 1904, Ford expanded the lineup with the upscale Model B. (Initially, the model letters made sense.)

The Ford Model B was Ford's first front-engine car, with a 24-horsepower 4-cylinder engine mounted behind a conventional radiator. It cost considerably more than the concurrent Model A ($2000 vs $750). Ford sold about 500 examples of the Model B and about 1,750 examples of the Model A. As a result, The Model B is very rare today. This example was at the Towe Ford Museum (now the California Automobile Museum) in Sacramento, California in March 1992.

1985 Mercury Marquis

While not particularly exciting, this picture of a 1985 Mercury Marquis is the first car picture (and quite possibly the first picture of any subject) I ever took, making it an ideal subject for a relaunch.

I was five years old in July 1987 when I took this picture of the family car with my mom's Kodak Tele-Instamatic 608 as we waited in Seattle for some friends we were visiting to get home.

The Marquis was the Mercury counterpart of the Ford LTD. In 1983, the Marquis name moved from Ford's full-sized Panther-platform to the midsize Fox-platform (also used by the Mustang), replacing the 4-door version of the Cougar and making Mercury's full-size model take the name Grand Marquis, which was formerly a trim level. (Likewise, the LTD replaced the Ford Granada, and the full-size Ford became the LTD Crown Victoria.)

These mid-sized models were relatively short-lived; 1986 would be their last year, as the instant success of the new Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable made them irrelevant.

The Benson Automobile

The Benson Automobile was the first automobile built in the state of Oregon. Garage Inventor Nils Benson and his teenage assistant James Chance started working on the car in 1904. Benson ordered some parts and made others at his machine shop on SE Grand Avenue in Portland. The rubber tires were shipped from Indochina.

The Benson Automobile was displayed at the 1905 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition in Portland and operated there for 3 months. Later, Benson added a crankshaft and 2 more cylinders for a total of 4 before the automobile was considered finished in 1906. Though he originally planned to build more, this was the only automobile Benson ever built.

The Benson automobile ended up being stored in a shed behind Benson's home on NE 92nd Place. It was sold to neighbor William McAllister in 1951 and then to Walter Rusk in 1973. Rusk restored to automobile in 1973-74 and donated it to the Oregon Historical Society in 1999. Today, the Benson automobile is on display at the Oregon Historical Society's Museum in Portland.

(Photography is not permitted at the OHS museum, but I took these before I was told about the rule. I am posting them so that no one else will be tempted to break the rules.)

The Cambellini

This is something special. I saw this car back in 2008 at the Northwest Car Collectors Association Car Show and Swap Meet in Portland, Oregon. It was labelled simply as a 2006 Cambellini owned by Tom and Jan Campbell. I didn't know anything else about it until I received an email a few months ago from a friend of Tom Campbell named Rick Sanders who gave me the rest of the story, which I have consolidated here in my own words.

Tom Campbell was an engineer who became the head engineer and manufacturing mamager at a compeny with over 200 employees and with his wife Jan raised two boys. Tom spent about 20 years designing and building the Cambellini from scratch in his 4,000 square foot shop. By 1991, he had built his second clay design model of the car at approximately 18" in length. From that model he used a projector to blow up slices of the model to full size using tools and jigs he designed, and from those slices built a full-size clay model. He built the entire body and chassis from scratch, only purchasing items like the engine, wheels & tires & windshield. Tom Campbell passed away in December 2009 at the age of 56.


The Cambellini absolutely looks like it could be a production car, and is a testament to one man's talent and determination to fulfill a dream.

1963 Imperial Custom Sedan

Imperial was Chrysler's most luxurious brand from 1955 to 1975, and with Plymouth, Dodge, DeSoto and Chrysler, originally gave Chrysler a 5-brand structure like General Motors. DeSoto's last year was 1961, but Imperial hung on. Imperial's volume was always lower than competitors Cadillac and Lincoln, making them somewhat rare today. This 1963 Imperial Custom Sedan was spotted by chance parked in a residential neighborhood.

1963 was the last year for this body style, which debuted in 1961. The most interesting styling element of the 1961-1963 Imperials is the individual freestanding bullet headlights set in recessed alcoves in the fenders. This was a unique idea meant to recall the freestanding headlights of the classic cars of the 1930s, but the way the top of the fenders extends over them kind-of defeats the point and makes washing and detailing more difficult. But it gives these rare cars a special character.

The 1963 Imperials were actually a bit more restrained than the previous two years. The 1961 model featured large tailfins, which were already going out of style at that point. For 1962, the fins were cut down significantly, but cigar-shaped variations of Imperial's trademark gunsight taillights were perched on top of them. The 1963 models abandoned the gunsight theme and had more conventional taillights incorporated in the trailing edge of what remained of the tailfins.

Imperials from this era were available with an optional tire-shaped piece of trim fastened to the trunk lid, meant to recall the days when cars carried the spare tires on the back. This trim had originated as an option in 1957 and persisted until 1963, though this model is not equipped with it. In 1964 the "fake spare" motif became standard, incorporated into the shape of the trunk in a more restrained fashion, ala Lincoln's 56-57 Continental Mark II and the later Mark III that would debut in 1968.

1967 Cadillac Eldorado

Though Cadillac had been using the Eldorado name for years, the 1967 Eldorado was very different from the previous models. The 1967 Eldorado is based on the Oldsmobile Toronado that debuted the previous year. Like the Toronado, the Eldorado featured front wheel drive, a chain drive and Turbo Hydra-Matic transmission. The Eldorado also featured a 340-horsepower Cadillac 429 V8 and improvements over the Toronado including standard variable-ratio power steering, radially vented front disc brakes and automatic self-leveling control.

On a 120 inch wheelbase, 9 inches shorter than Cadillac's standard line, the Eldorado featured sharp, angular styling with little chrome and hidden headlights behind a full-width eggcrate grille, and still looks good today.