VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1917-1923 - Models D, F, FA, and FB Only. 1918 Model D-4 Title

I should have worded it ****ALSO**** claimed to have the earliest known Chevrolet.

BRUCE..................he has not said who the owner is , only that he has pictures he took and will be sending them to me.

JUNKYARD......."owner said he has the oldest known Chevrolet" what year that is , was not stated in the email. Will have to wait for pics and his email to find out.

No idea if the JONES CARS have any relation to the owners last name . Have to wait for friend to supply info.

mike

Mr. Jones also purchased a '14 or '15 Baby Grand from Mike McNeil about 20 years ago. Bet he still has it as well. He had the Jones cars when Mike sold him the BG.

Mike, when you have a list of all the V8's (20) that are known and there is only one V8 in Tennessee, not hard to figure out who your talking about.

NOW YOU CAN SLEEP BETTER KNOWING THAT THE TENNESSEE / ALABAMA D4 D5 V8 IS KNOWN AND THIS IS NOT SOME FRESH NEW BARNFIND NOBODY KNEW ABOUT TO GET EVERYBODY ALL EXCITED.


MIKE

Mr. Jones owns three 1914 Model H cars. Two are Royal Mails, and the third is the Baby Grand previously owned by Mike McNeil, yes. (This information is all from the Model H Registry database meticulously maintained for decades by Ray Moot for the Model H non-geographic chapter for the Model H cars.)

His earliest Royal Mail is car # 64, which in fact is the oldest known PRODUCTION Model H, having been built in July 1913.

The only cars that could possibly challenge this being the oldest known Chevrolet would be the "Classic Six" (Model C) in Westaskiwin, Alberta (the Reynolds-Alberta Museum) which is a non-running and incomplete car. Ken Kaufmann determined a build date for this car as July 1913, therefore essentially tied with the Jones Model H car # 64.

The other challenger would be the so called "Old Number One" owned by General Motors, which is the prototype for the Model H cars. It was initially built as a 1913 "Little Six" Touring in late Spring / early Summer of 1913, then re-engined by the factory with the (allegedly) very first Four cylinder engine, and re-badged as a Chevrolet. It is distinctly different than a production Model H (see article in the March 2014 G&D for details). But it is clearly a little bit older than #64 by a couple of months for its initial build date, or by at least a few weeks for its conversion into the prototype # 1. (Pinky Randall reports that the "#1" is clearly a re-stamped number on it, so the engine may well have been long ago changed out by GM who has owned the car since approx. 1920, but clearly the body was originally a Little Six. And the engine now in place is still a very early style Model H Mason engine).

So you can argue if a prototype (not production) car, which started out as a Little "counts" or not. And we can never resolve if the Alberta partial car is older or newer - the records simply do not exist, and we can only make an informed estimate from the partial production records. But we know they (Alberta car and Jones #64) were built within days of each other, in July 1913.

Don, what about the classic 6 in Flint?

That car's not even close, Bruce. It was one of the last Model C's built, very late 1913 or early 1914 - a good 6 months newer than the other cars mentioned. We have more than a dozen Model H's that are older than it.