Motor Muster

I was in Detroit over the weekend and went to the Henry Ford Museum. Wow..what a great collection of interesting stuff. Anybody who has any interest in anything mechanical would love it. (You can't imagine how huge an Allegheny steam engine is unless you see it in person; the thing would haul 27 million pounds on coal fired steam power-amazing.) Of course there were all kinds of fantastic cars, even an MGTC, but the biggest accidental surprise was it happened to be the day of the annual Motor Muster car show that was held at the neighboring Greenfield Village, another sight well worth visiting. I'd never heard of it before, but here were hundreds of old, beautifully maintained and/or restored cars on display from 1900 to @1975. They had a reviewing stand set up where cars would roll by and two guys who must have been doing nothing but studying automotive history for their entire lives did a commentary on each model, and there were some truly obscure oddities. One was a 1954 something or another (If it's not British, they all start to look alike to me) that was still on it's original fan belt and hoses, and one guy had found a 1950 Chevy @ 10 years ago that hadn't been out of the original owner's basement garage since 1951 and of course still had the original, perfectly shiny paint and chrome. I can't say I really need a Detroit land yacht, but those '32 model A roadsters are pretty sweet little cars!

Looks like an ineresting day Eric. Really big engines are very interesting, and did you know that a steam engine has as much torque at 1 rpm as it does maxed out at 200 or less?

That was one interesting thing about the really old steam engines. THey were really slow. And huge. A very early engine that would take up a two story double garage put out about 20 HP!

But that was 20 steam horspower, that's 20 any time it's turning no matter how slow. Internal combustion engines have to get up some speed in order have enough power to keep themselves running. Our MGs couldn't run a threshing machine at 1,000 RPM much less 200 or less.

Yea, but threshing machines are lousy chick magnets..........
Actually, the steam engine technology was one of the most fascinating things at the museum. Around 1850, they started putting as much effort into esthetics as they did function, and some of the machining and brass and steel craftsmanship was breathtaking.
(Hmmm, I suppose they would count as a guy magnet though..... :)

Those old guys took immense pride in their work and built gigantic jewelry.

Henry Ford was a steam nut. That's why there are so many steam engines there. They have literally hundreds of them, from small stationary engines all the way to the C&O Allegheny (2-6-6-6 wheel arrangement). And all of them are in working condition. They have compressed air piped to the stationary engines and they can all be "fired up" on air.

If any of you are in the Detroit area, it is definitely worth spending a day there. It has a lot more than just cars and steam engines. In Greenfield Village, they have the Wright brothers bicycle shop that was dismantled and moved from Dayton to Dearborn. They have Thomas Edison's New Jersey laboratory, although I'm not sure whether that is the original or a replica. It could be original, as HF and TE were good friends.

Their website is <http://www.hfmgv.org/museum/default.asp>

Another interesting and semi relevant thing was that the British were way ahead of anybody else in steam technology. Of course back then they were pre-eminent in just about any field there was. Pretty impressive to consider the world dominence of a pretty small country, and also how relatively quickly the mighty can fall.............

You mean they have fallen? Damn, I was still under the impression that they build the best cars in the world - check where almost all F1, CART and IRL cars and engines are built!

Back on subject, Ford were also holding their 100th anniversary celebrations this weekend. My father-in-law had his 1934 Ford Pickup there - that is a sweet little vehicle.

There just wasn't enough hours to see it all, but yes, as I drove past their headquarters, there were classic Fords lined up acre after acre. Kind of like Detroit's Silverstone, but of course we Yanks have to do everything bigger and better! Well,at least bigger.........