Alberta Museum Owns World's Oldest Chevy

Alberta Museum Owns World's Oldest Chevy AG WORLD Ag World 21-4-22 A Canadian museum says it may have the oldest production model Chevy car in existence. The car is a 1913 Chevrolet Classic Six. Alberta businessman Stan Reynolds and his father came across the car at an auto wrecker's yard in 1946. He donated the car to the museum in 1985. The four-door convertible is in relatively good condition for an unrestored car of its age, says retired museum curator Vern Elliott, who discovered the early origins of the car. The data plate containing the car's serial number was missing so he wrote to Ken Kaufman, a Chevrolet historian with the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America in California. Kaufman told him where to find the serial number stamped on the car's frame. When the serial number was located, it was found to be number 93. Kaufman told Elliott that the car that was previously called the oldest production Chevy is in the Sloan Museum in Flint, Mich. That car has serial number 323. The Sloan Museum's car identification plate says "Chevrolet Motor Co., Flint, Mich." Chevrolet moved to Flint from Detroit in July 1913. A hubcap on the car in the Reynolds Museum is stamped "Chevrolet Motor Co., Detroit", proving that it's the older car. In addition, Elliott points out that the car has a starting system operated by compressed air, an early alternative to using a hand crank. Air starters were used up until the move from Detroit to Flint, when electric starters were introduced. Louis Chevrolet, a famous racing driver of the day whose name has appeared on mil-lions of Chevrolet cars, helped design the Classic Six. The vehicle was a large luxury car that, in its day, cost more than a Cadillac. It sold for about $2,500 while the Cadillac sold for about $1,300. "The car was quite modern for its day and came equipped with a top, trunk, windshield, speedometer with electric light, self-starter, demountable wheel rims, extra tire holders, electric lights, and fuel gauge," says Elliott. "A 2-gal. auxiliary oil tank was located under the front seat. The top was stored in a compartment under the rear seat floor, and the tools were stored in a toolbox that was part of the running board on the right side of the car. "A glove compartment between the front seats - a feature that's very popular today and known as a æconsole' - was standard equipment. "The 120-in. wheelbase made it the longest passenger car in Chevrolet history. Its 299 cu. in. engine was the largest used by Chevrolet until the 348 V-8 engine in 1958 models." The car was originally found in 1943 in a farmer's field by three young men on the outskirts of Edmonton, according to present museum curator Dan Bodie,. "The back seat section of the body was missing. In those days people would often convert old cars into light-duty trucks by removing the rear portions of the vehicle, which is what someone might have had in mind in this case. In order to drive the car they had to retrieve the oil pan which the farmer was using as a trough. "The men apparently lost interest in the car and it found its way to the auto wrecker's yard. Reynolds found the car while looking for Model T parts." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Reynolds-Alberta Museum, Box 6360, Wetaskiwin, Alberta, Canada T9A 2G1 (ph 403 361-1351 or 800 661-4726).

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