Old car in the wild

[Aaron D.]

I like to find old and unusual vehicles in a "natural" setting-not in a museum or at a car show.

I saw this under a tree while riding my motorcycle-can you identify it? Hint-it was the source for a slang term meaning "amazing".



Camera was my Leica IIIf, 50/3.5 Elmar, TriX, HC110

[Madrigal]

A "duesy" of a Duesenberg? Perhaps?

[Madrigal]

Great shot and find, Aaron. And I agree- I love finding old cars like that, too. Even if they're falling-apart rusty.

[connealy]

Great looking old car, and very nice results from the tri-x/hc110 combo.  How come I can never get mine to look like that?

[Glenn Thoreson]

I agree. It has the classic Deussenberg lines. No exhaust tubing, though. I love shooting old cars. Especially when they're in their natural state - ie rusty. I have a secret location where there are dozens of really cool unrestored jalopies. Mostly Model A and T fords. A photographer's dream that's literally unknown.

[Aaron D.]

Yep, it's a Duesy. Sitting unattended under that tree with the keys in it! No one came out the whole time I was shooting.

Connealy, this was my first roll using dilution H at 9 1/2 minutes, 2 agitiations. The whole roll came out much better than all my "B" rolls at 5 minutes.

[ImageMaker]

One is tempted to guess, with the hood open like that, the owner might have been confident no one would drive it away (i.e. it may have been temporarily in a non-running condition).

What's not obvious in most photos of Duesenbergs is how *big* they are.  They have very large wheels (this era, they were usually 17" or 18" rims, IIRC; even the last models of the 1950s have 16" when most American cars had changed to 14"), which tend to make the rest of the car look smaller, but those wheels and tires will come to about belt level for a man of average height.  Probably a straight-8 under that long hood, too.

That one is certainly in nice shape -- hope he didn't have too much trouble getting it running again...