Brass Era Car - Retrospective

Retrospective

Such very old vehicles present challenges to today's collectors. Replacement parts must nearly always be handmade, and documentation such as wiring diagrams and specification sheets are often nonexistent. The huge variety of companies and technologies represented during this period is also a complicating factor—it has been estimated that there were over 1,000 manufacturers in the US alone.

An active collector community exists for these vehicles, which when well-restored can be extremely valuable. The very rare original-condition survivor can be even more so.

The early Ford Model T is an example of a Brass Era car for the mass market, and the early European Hispano-Suiza models are fairly typical of expensive models of the time.