Rolls-Royce Roadsters Run Rampant

August 29, 2023 by Steve Trafton Leave a Comment

As a car collector, you can never overlook the classic Rolls-Royce. Black Horse
Racing added four of them to its collection in 2023.

A 1976 green “Silver Shadow” (shown below)…

…and a 1984 silver and black convertible “Corniche.”

Steve and Katherine Trafton wanted to insure that the timeless luxury forever associated with the English brand of Rolls-Royce, is preserved for all to see.

The Traftons liked the new automobiles so much that they added two more to the car collection. These two pre-war vehicles, in mint condition, joined the collection to share spaces next to other classic vehicles at Black Horse Racing (some of which are shown in other pages of this website). The newest additions, both Rolls-Royce Phantom I models, were acquired in July of 2023, and they both have intriguing histories.

The Two Newest Rolls-Royce Additions

The 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Dual Cowl Phaeton was actually built at the (now closed) Springfield, Massachusetts Rolls-Royce plant. Both vehicles are nearly a hundred years old. The U.S. plant was originally built to accommodate Americans who asked for faster delivery, custom changes, and lower import taxes on their vehicles.

Originally delivered to Samuel Jaskow in 1932, five East Coast owners from New York to Palm Beach, gave title to this vehicle over the next nine decades. Typically, they spared no expense to regenerate its upkeep. Over the past 25 years, this 1929 Rolls Royce Phantom I has been the crown-jewel of the Howard “Dutch” Darrin collection before it was shipped to Trafton’s shop. Red Car Restoration of Rockwall Texas refreshed the undercarriage and restored the fuel system of the car before delivering it to Black Horse Racing on Whidbey Island, Washington.

This car’s front and rear fenders are the only body pieces composed of steel. The rest was hand-formed sheets of aluminum wrapped around a wood structure. Of course, the Rolls cabin and exterior are highly detailed with exquisitely fine hardware and inlaid woodwork throughout.

This rare Rolls Royce convertible sedan is a six cylinder 3 speed manual drive. The new model line was launched in 1925 and followed the previous 20 years of production for the famous Silver Ghost model. The new model-upgrades showed a third more power and better braking ability. Specialist coachbuilders of the day gave it a handsome, elegant body style with a red leather interior that matched the exterior hue.

This vehicle went through a full restoration in the mid 1970’s and like all Rolls-Royce in collections, it’s had regular maintenance to keep it in perfect condition.

The second delivery, a 1930 Rolls Royce Phantom I / Regent Roadster by Brewster, is a strikingly comfortable and practical touring car.

In fact, using it as his personal touring car, the previous owner drove it all the way from the Netherlands to Cairo, Egypt, a distance of about 3200 miles!

His son wrote this letter to Steve upon Black Horse Racing’s purchase:

My father was an absolute Bentley and Rolls Royce enthusiast. Many cars have come and gone. However, the P1 was his most personal car by far.

When I was 19 (in 1999) and had my driver’s license for a month or so, he sent me to London to trade in a Bentley Mulasanne and pick up this car at Frank Dale’s and drive it home, to the Netherlands, a nerve wrecking and great way to gain experience as a young driver.) A few years later, he took the car on an adventurous trip: to drive it from Amsterdam to Cairo, Egypt. This was in 2001, and he drove the car through Europe into Serbia, Bulgaria, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. Countries you would think twice to drive nowadays. As much as he was into cars and sailing, so small was his interest in photography, which is even an understatement. He took a picture at the start of this trip in boring old Holland, and a few pictures at the end of the drive in Egypt, nothing in between.

It makes me happy to know that the car will be in the hands of an even bigger adventurer after all these years, and I wish you many happy trips with the P1. I have attached a photo of this car next to a Pyramid, which I thought was quite unique.

Proof of this feat was established by a photograph of the car next to some vaguely familiar rock piles.

Like the 1929 vehicle before it, some restoration and sorting was performed by Red Car Restoration in Texas. Then it was shipped to new owners at Black Horse Racing.

Welcome Home!

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Antique Auto, Antique Cars, BlackhorseRacing.com, Classic Cars, Roadster, Steve Trafton

Fall in Colorado 2022

January 9, 2023 by Steve Trafton Leave a Comment

In late September, we drove to Colorado with the ALF #4 (or the American LaFrance speedster) following close behind us. Well, the ALF was on our trailer. But the scenery and fall colors that we anticipated while driving the central Colorado mountain range did not disappoint.

All New Gallery

Starting at the famous World War II Camp Hale, Katherine and I chugged up the 10,000 foot Tennessee Pass on the continental divide and continued to Leadville. Then we drove along many backroads to Cottonwood Pass at 12,000 feet, and over Keebler Pass. What a journey it was. Here are some of our photos.

On the way back to our home-base in Washington State, we stopped at the Rangely, Colorado Automotive Museum to see our good friends Bud and Vicky Seigel, and also to check in on the ALF #1 which is a duplicate of the ALF #4. It resides at the antique car museum after its notable excursion in the Peking to Paris Race of 2016. Stop in to see it sometime.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Adventure Travel, American LaFrance, Antique Cars, Back Roads Travel, BlackhorseRacing.com, Classic Cars, Colorado Back Roads, Roadster, Speedsters, Steve Trafton

Back Roads Speedster Trip

December 13, 2019 by SeaBix 2 Comments

Taking The Back Roads to Rangley

Back in July (2019), Katherine and I, along with our friends Alan and Nancy Bixby loaded our 1915 American La France Speedster on its trailer and left home for a two-part tour of the western states, during which we would drive our old race car over 850 miles. We started by driving to New Halem, Washington where we unloaded “The Revenant” and started up over the North Cascade Highway toward Washington Pass. Our old chain drive ALF performed admirably, chugging its way up through the mountains past Diablo Lake, up to Rainy Pass (4875’) then on for another four miles, past Cutthroat Peak to Washington Pass (5476’).

The view from the pass was spectacular with Liberty Bell Mountain (7720’) rising above us. From here we began our descent toward the town of Winthrop, pausing briefly to photograph Silver Star Mountain and the Wine Spires just east of the Pass. Soon we reached the Methow River Valley and stopped in Winthrop for lunch and to load the ALF back on its trailer. After our rest stop, we headed down along the river to the town of Pateros, Washington at the confluence of the Methow and Columbia Rivers before continuing on to Grand Coulee where we spent the night camped out on Lake Roosevelt.

The next day we drove to Fort Spokane where we off-loaded the ALF and drove north along the Columbia River to Kettle Falls, Washington. We reloaded the ALF on the trailer and then drove east on Highway 20 to Tiger, Washington and south along the Pend Oreille River to Newport, Washington. From here we drove on east to Sand Point, Idaho where we spent the night.

After having a restful night at Sand Point, we drove north to Bonners Ferry, Idaho then south to Libby, Montana. Just outside Libby we off-loaded the ALF and started on a beautiful fifty-eight-mile drive north along the eastern side of Koocanusa Lake to Eureka, Montana. After searching in vain for a suitable campground, we settled for camping out under the stars in the town park. We should have taken note of the nice green grass we were camped on in an otherwise parched landscape, because at two a.m. the sprinklers came on and Katherine and I had to beat a water-soaked retreat to our truck till the next morning.

The next day, we trailered the ALF seventy miles to Whitefish, Montana where we off-loaded and started our drive to Glacier National Park. We followed Highway 2, along the middle fork of the Flathead River up through the mountains and then on to Marias Pass (5222’). The climb up to the pass was a long one and the ALF’s 14.5-liter engine overheated several times which meant that we had to stop occasionally to add water to the radiator and let the engine cool down. But the old warhorse chugged on and by mid-afternoon we had made it to East Glacier Park Village where we stopped for the night.

We got an early start the next day and, with the ALF back on its trailer we drove on to Browning, Montana then south to Choteau and on to Helena, Butte and finally Anaconda. We off-loaded the ALF here and drove the last forty miles up into the Big Hole where we made camp at Fish Trap Campground along side the Big Hole River.

After a restful night at a beautiful campsite next to the river, we decided to drive the ALF on a “Grand Tour “of the Big Hole Valley and the Pioneer Mountains. First, we drove south along the Big Hole River to the Town of Wisdom, and then on to the town of Jackson. From Jackson we followed the road up and over Big Hole Pass (7360’) then to a back road running north through the Pioneer Scenic Byway to Wise River. This section of the tour was challenging with its steep up and down hill sections and many hairpin turns. I should mention here that the ALF weighs in at 8000 pounds and has no power steering so it is not a trivial undertaking to drive it. But all the effort was well worth it, given the scenery which surrounded us.

After our drive through the Pioneer Mountains we came to the town of Wise River. From here it was but a short drive back to our campsite and a welcome cocktail hour.

On the day after our “Grand Tour” we packed and departed the Big Hole for Salmon, Idaho. First, we drove down the valley back to Wisdom and then due west for twenty-six miles, over the Continental Divide at Chief Joseph Pass (7252’) and then over Lost Rail Pass (7014’) before heading south toward Salmon. Once again, the road was steep and there were numerous hairpin turns, but soon we were in the Salmon River Valley. Here, the going became easier. We stopped at the outskirts of Salmon and loaded the ALF back on the trailer before driving south to Idaho Falls and then east to Alpine, Wyoming. We pulled over into a rest stop, unloaded the ALF and drove south along the Idaho/Wyoming border for eighty-one miles to Cokeville, Wyoming. After a short rest stop and reloading ALF on its trailer we drove on to a campground at Manila, Utah where were spent the night.

The next morning, we off-loaded the ALF once again and left Manila and then entered the Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area. We turned off the main road, Highway 44, at Sheep Creek and drove the “road less traveled”. This drive was well worth it. While we had to contend with poorly maintained sections of primitive road and a steep winding drive to 8300” before returning to the main road, this loop drive was spectacular. Bright colored sandstone, beautiful aspen grooves and vistas of the surrounding mountains combined to make this portion of the trip literally the high-point.

After returning to the main road we drove on along a high mountain plateau before coming to the long steep descent into the town of Vernal, Utah. Once again, the challenge of a steep descent, punctuated by many hairpin turns made this section a struggle. But to rest is not to conquer! At last we reached Vernal. During this arduous day, ALF had started misfiring occasionally and by the time we reached Vernal this misfire had become progressively worse. An electrical issue had arisen and we would have to deal with it before we drove much further. In addition, the weather had turned hot. Afternoon temperatures were nearing 100 degrees.

As we left Vernal, I was trying to come up with a Plan B. How to fix the ALF, and how to deal with the heat, which would only get worse as we headed south to Moab, Utah. While I mulled this problem, we drove on heading southeast, crossing the Utah/Colorado border at Dinosaur. We maneuvered through the Coal Oil Basin and arrived at Rangely, Colorado where we stopped for gas. As I was pumping fuel and doing a safety check of the trailer, a tall, lanky fellow, about my age (73) came over to me and asked the usual questions about the ALF. As we talked, he mentioned that he had a car collection and that we should stop by and he would show it to us before we left town.

I really did want to get moving down the road right then, but there was something about this guy that piqued my interest. So I agreed to follow him. We drove about a quarter mile and he turned into the parking lot of a beautiful building with a sign out front that said Rangely Automotive Museum. This guy was for real!

He introduced himself as Bud Striegel and he had been collecting cars and motorcycles for decades. As a businessman Bud had run an oil pipeline construction company. Now that he was semiretired, he was devoting more time to his car collection. He recently had finished building his museum which he opened to the public and was just enjoying life. After we toured his collection I said, “How would you like to have the ALF on loan for a few months in your collection?” So, we struck a bargain. He could have the ALF at the museum till October, when we would return, after the weather cooled down to pick it up and continue on our way to Utah. In the meantime, I wouldn’t have to trailer the ALF home and trailer it back to Colorado to finish our tour after the weather cooled.

And so, thus ended the first leg of our tour. We had driven the ALF five hundred miles, were in position finish the tour in the fall, and had meet a new friend along the way.

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Adventure Travel, American LaFrance, Antique Cars, Back Roads Travel, BlackhorseRacing.com, Classic Cars, Roadster, Speedsters, Steve Trafton, Tour Montana

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines

August 26, 2018 by SeaBix 1 Comment

After picking up Guillaume Marceau and his father at the Anchorage Airport, and after an extra day of engine tinkering and severe indigestion from ALF #1, a decision was made to trailer that classic-car for a ride back to Seattle. Well, it’s punishment you know. Here is the GPS link for the remaining ALF #4 so you can follow its progress. Steve is driving ALF #4 with Guillaume acting as navigator. The two other fellows will enjoy their views of Alaska in the Dodge Ram with trailer. There may still be downtime repair during the journey, so be forewarned. It’s not as if they are in the middle of nowhere with early 1900 cars you know…..oh…right. Well, it’s not as though they are in the middle of Mongolia you know.

Here is Guillaume trying to solve the overheating problem by feeding ALF #1 a bottle of Pepto Bismol.

But nope.

ALF #1 is much too valuable to become a doorstop (although they threatened it by reminding it of this steam shovel they had seen the day before). So a decision was made to load the sick puppy on the trailer, and drive it back to Seattle.

Brother Byron and Wife Katherine said their goodbyes and winged their way back to civilization as Steve, Dwight, Guillaume and Rick were left to drive south to Seattle along the Alcan highway where traffic signals are just rough guidelines and arrival at your destination is not a foregone conclusion.

Anyway, here are a few photos: