Tuesday, February 07, 2017

some crazy wonderful gearheads took a pair of American LaFrance speedsters to the Paris to Peking Rally

Inspired by the above 2007 entrant to the rally, the Traftons began a mission to rally from China to France with their own ginormous cars, and what they started with after looking around the USA for some American LaFrance cars:


http://www.blackhorseracing.com/building-road-rally-racing-roadster/  all of the drop down menus do NOT link to other pages, they result in downloads of some file. I'm not opening them.

They brought a 1915 and a 1925 American LaFrance speedster on the Peking to Paris Rally http://www.endurorally.com/pages/peking-to-paris-motor-challenge-2016-participants

Tim – owner of Red Car Restorations in Rockwall – and his team of auto craftsmen hand-built a 1915 and 1925 American LaFrance, which he and the owner of the vehicles, Steve Trafton of Whidbey Island, WA, will pilot for the month-long rally.

The project took two years to complete, turning what were once two fire trucks into finely-tuned Speedsters measuring nine and a half feet tall and 20 feet long, with the tires measuring at 40 inches tall and the engine displacement at 900 cubic inches.



Steve Trafton(USA) / Katherine Trafton(USA)       1915 - American La France
Tim Taylor(USA) / Ike Trafton(USA)                      1925 - American La France






http://blueribbonnews.com/2016/05/rockwall-resident-to-pilot-custom-built-vintage-car-in-worlds-longest-rally/

Below is a 1917 LaFrance Tourer Speedster
http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Day-13-Aya-Novosibirsk/G0000LBduz1kvr2k/I0000Jeq2wrDT0Nk/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds


http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Day-02-Datong-Erenhot/G0000VuESEKlPYDo/I0000nUuhIOL_SBg/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds


a car that can be driven across a continent, and a car you can stand on... I dig that.
http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Place-Vendome/G0000AbvLgyIVNSE/I0000Sj7V9olaep0/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds

http://gerardbrown.photoshelter.com/gallery-collection/Peking-to-Paris-2016/C0000ihFK0ADq8ds  is a great link to see the cars on the route, or get a gallery of any one particular car based on the number it was registered with at this list of oldest to newest in each class http://www.endurorally.com/pages/peking-to-paris-motor-challenge-2016-participants

3 comments:

  1. Now THAT'S why it's good to have money! Look how much fun they're having in those huge roadsters.

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  2. The car being stood on is not one of the WA firetrucks, it's a LaFrance speedster driver by two, I think, Germans.

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    Replies
    1. Yes, every photo after I wrote "Below is a 1917 LaFrance Tourer Speedster" is the "1917 LaFrance Tourer Speedster"

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