58 replies to this topic

[DigitalDave]

Does it look like he was riding mechanic ?

Both guys are well covered for protection.

[Ray Bell]

Looks like a Buick to me...

 

Here's a 1909 example in residence in Indianapolis:

 

 

A number of features are the same.

 

 

 

 

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Edited by Ray Bell, 22 June 2020 - 00:23.

[Ray Bell]

No point in having that picture over the page from the other...

 

[DigitalDave]

!!!!! 

How many were made ?

It looks identical ?

[Ray Bell]

So did the 1908 car carry over to 1909?

 

Or be very similar-looking with updates?

 

Or is the photo maybe from 1909?

[Michael Ferner]

Definitely a Buick, yes, and there were lots of'em. Stripped stock cars that looked essentially identical.

[Michael Ferner]

Had a chance to look at my data base, Burman's riding mechanic for Lowell in 1908 is listed as "H. Lecain", maybe John H. "Jack" le Cain, later a prominent driver for Stutz, Chevrolet and (Harkness) Delage, and later still a prominent car owner (Duesenberg), who promoted races in the area in the twenties and thirties. Le Cain was from Massachusetts, so a local and he may have substituted Larsonneur at short notice, and maybe the picture is from practice?

 

The car looks to be one of the big 5-inch crankshaft types, they came in various sizes, approx. 300 to 400 CID. Of course, if the year is wrong it could also be 1909, when Lewis Strang drove a couple of Buicks at Lowell!

Edited by Michael Ferner, 22 June 2020 - 11:31.

[robert dick]

The photo was taken during the stock chassis meeting held between 6 and 8 September 1909 on the Merrimack course, Lowell, Massachusetts.

On Monday, 4 September, in the road race for the Vesper Cup (distance 20 laps of 10.5 miles), Bob Burman and Lewis Strang drove two Buicks
Louis Larsonneur was riding mechanic for Strang in No. G Buick. Burman in No. J Buick won the 450-cubic inch class. Strang finished fifth.

On Wednesday, 6 September, Strang, riding mechanic Louis Larsonneur and their Buick (now carrying No. 1) started in the Lowell Trophy (distance 30 laps of 10.5 miles). On the way to the line they struck a telegraph pole. The Buick could be repaired, started 45 minutes after its time and went out on lap 11.

The photo shows No. 1 Buick driven by Strang with Louis Larsonneur as riding mechanic on Wednesday. (No. G and No. 1 were the same cars, a type 16B Buick stock chassis racer, bore-and-stroke 4 1⁄2 x 5.0 inches, 318 cubic inches.)

Two photos from the Detroit Public Library:
The Buick team at Lowell, September 1909;
and Strang with Larsonneur in No. G Buick on Monday.





 

[DigitalDave]

Robert, your detective work is outstanding.

 

I want to sit in that car in Indianapolis.

Driving feet forward, not down, would be bad on the lower back.

He must have had to brace feet and legs on the firewall.

Looking on the previous page at No 12 - the driver knees almost in the steering wheel.

 

He got to see alot of early America, from the race cars.

( .. and lived to tell about it )

Edited by DigitalDave, 23 June 2020 - 15:57.