This is my father standing next to his nearly new 1956 DeSoto Fireflite. He bought the car in 1958 (when this photo was taken) as a young man of 30 in Toronto, Canada. He’s now 80, still going strong, with hardly any rust–I wonder if as much can be said of the DeSoto?

Charmingly, the back of the image includes information about the car in my father’s handwriting:

Written in Dutch (my father’s native language), he’s noting some of the special features of the model, such as the taillight configuration and the workings of the Powerflite automatic transmission, controlled via a “Flite-Control” lever on the dashboard.

The Fireflite was still DeSoto’s top-of-the-line model in 1956. In 1957 it was restyled a bit to include bigger fins and the Adventurer appeared to take the “premium model” honors. Alas, these machinations were to no avail: DeSoto was out of business by 1960. Judging by the jotted specification, my father’s car was fully optioned, including the more powerful V8. It’s easy to see why he’d be proud of it, and it was just that little bit off the beaten track, even back then.

We don’t normally get this kind of snow down here next to the sea; it was beautiful while it lasted. This photo was taken on Christmas Eve, and the snow is all-but-gone as of today.

Pre-war automobiles are fascinating. Relatively common American machines, like the Ford Model A, are still affordable and suited to the quiet roads here on the island. While I’d be happy with a Model A, I’d be really be thrilled to own something usable and British from the period, like this 1929 Austin 12/4 spotted on eBay.

After the Great War, Herbert Austin decided that the fortunes of his motor company lay in building a single model and building it well. He based his new car on a Hudson of the period which he admired–this was the genesis of the Austin “20″. (20 refers to the “fiscal horsepower” road-tax system Great Britain had in place for many years. This was based on the cylinder bore of the engine, not on its actual power output. To skirt higher taxes, long-stroke engines were typical up through the 1960s in British marques.)

The 20 was nearly the downfall of Austin, though, as it was too expensive for the masses and larger and thirstier than most people wanted or needed. The company was only rescued by the great success of a tiny imitation of the 20, the 7. Austin also introduced a medium-sized machine between the 20 and the 7, the 12, which is what you see here.

The 12 was built from 1921 through 1940 (though production tapered off in the early 1930s). The 1929 model you see is in its least expensive form, a four-seat tourer. This machine is powered by a 1.8 liter engine producing 27 horsepower, and while not a road-burner it would achieve 60 mph and cruise at 50. It also has four-wheel brakes, albeit cable-operated.

I admire how original this particular car appears, though the description is a bit fanciful and the “give her a wash and she’s restored” is certainly optimistic. The price seems very ambitious, as you can easily buy a nice, sorted car for less than $20,000–though you’ll probably have to find it in England.

As for restoration, I don’t think you’d have any change left from a $30,000 budget, and, indeed, might need to rethink that number a bit. If you relied on a professional to do the work, the bill would many times dearer.

It’s a neat machine, and I hope someone rescues it. Check it out on eBay.

As it turns out, we did get some snow, albeit a day late. As you can see, the drifts are nearly insurmountable–we may not be able to get out of the house for weeks. (Well, OK, this is a typical Puget Sound lowlands snow, a couple of inches which, none-the-less, sends the locals into a panic.)

As you can see, I haven’t got around to putting the opening part of the hood back on, nor have I cleaned it since the final (and only!) mow of the previous year. Tractor abuse, to be sure.

After sitting for four months she started on the button, instantly. I was tempted to putter around the neighborhood, but people around here get so anxious in the snow I thought better of it.

Most classic car enthusiasts have fantasies of finding a rare car while poking around the countryside–perhaps a Deusenberg sitting on four flat tires in a barn, or a “fuelie” Corvette waiting to be rescued in a carport. Heck, if we’re going to dream, maybe even finding one of the factory Jaguar E-Type Lightweight race cars in a suburban garage under a pile of boxes–but who am I kidding, that’s preposterous.

What I tend to find are cars like this decaying Biscayne, discovered in the woods on a piece of property we were considering a few years ago. (Needless to say, it’s still there.) The Biscayne was the bottom-of-the-line full-size sedan in Chevrolet’s 1959 line-up, though they aren’t often seen these days for that very reason. What struck me about this car was how very complete it is, glass aside. There are a couple of minor bits of trim missing, but otherwise it looks like it was driven to its current resting place–mind you, probably about 1979!

We were promised a local blizzard and we got…nothing. This is a photo from last year when we got a few inches of snow. (The amount you see here is enough to send all of western Washington state into a panic, with such curiousities as people chaining up on bare roads, abandoned cars in the middle of slushy but otherwise OK roads, etc., etc. It really is quite amusing.)

This is a bit later than mine, but makes me want to go get the magneto sorted out!

xkedata.com (another of my empire of non-money-making web sites–a proud Roger tradition) is selling 2009 calendars featuring either XK120, XK140 and XK150 Jaguars or E-Type Jaguars. The monies raised (I get a slice off the top of the purchase price) help pay for hosting–I don’t typically sell many, but every one helps.

You can see all of the images selected (above is the January image on the XK calendar) on xkedata, or you can buy them from Cafe Press.

I launched another new version of the “data” web sites, this one having to do with the Jaguar factory racing cars from the fifties and sixties, namely the C-Type, D-Type, XKSS, and Lightweight E-Types: Coventry Racers. Shown is one of the 1954 LeMans team cars, currently owned by Terry Larsen of Arizona, an expert on these machines.

Time to put the stuff that corrodes easily away for the winter. A shot of the 1963 MGB last month, before I finally got around to mowing the field!