Prewar folks how do you mentally catagorize this period? For

Apr 22

Prewar folks how do you mentally catagorize this period? For me it's just a way to think about certain cars:

Brass & Nickel, highwheels maybe as well.

Classic

Early Ford
- T and earlier
- model A
- early V8

Non-Ford
-Non-Classic "Big3" variants

Independents

Foreign with early MG it's own class (I guess because I like them)

Junior Packards (same logic as with MG but also a popular car some sr. Folks embrace, others don't. But well supported and interesting in their own right)

Traditional hot rods

Speedsters

I like most anything from the era but I am curious how others might bucket these cars, why or why not.

Apr 22, 2026

Reply to SteveMackCT…

Replies (18)

· Apr 22

1. Brass
2. 20s (I don't really say "nickel")
3. 30s Big Classic
4. 30s Foreign
5. 30s Everything else
6. Traditional Hot Rods
7. Speedsters

· Apr 22

@alsancle Mostly the way I think about it but don't distinguish between big Classic and everything else. Also I think of late 30s and early 40s as a group. 38/39/40/41/42 as many were very similar with cosmetic differences.

· Apr 22

I do the following categories:

1. Early
2. prewar non-Ford
3. Model T
4. Model A
5. 32

· Apr 23

@dj1970 Nice approach!

· Apr 22

I do Buick Century or Buick Roadmaster and then everything else! 😂

· Apr 22

I’ve always found it difficult to categorize the early stuff up to around 1920. Brass and nickel really aren’t fair labels for a lot of cars. I kind of look at it as:
1) Horseless carriages/high wheelers
2) Later brass and others through late teens
3) 1920s up through about ‘27
4) 1928-1931/1932ish
5)Mid 1930s
6)Late 1930s-Early postwar

Did they build cars after that?

Just kidding. It goes by decade after that.

· Apr 23

@SteveMackCT giving this more thought. I break everything down in to things I'm interested in and things I'm not. And a base model 35 Buick sedan could end up in my "interested" bucket if its a nice enough car and not painted some stupid color. The problem is, most cars are messed with and some level of junk. So the uninterested bucket is a lot larger than the interested bucket.

· Apr 23

Hey Steve, interesting question.  For me:

-very early, single cylinder/veteran stufff

-brass era

-nickel  era

-big American Classics

-Foreign Classics

-”almost classics”….. (my own definition, not  an accepted term, things that have the wheelbase and displacement and maybe even price point of the lower echelon of classics but for some reason haven’t made the list. And may I say there are a ton of cool cars in this category)

-All things Ford

-In period “basic transportation”

· Apr 23

@JohnBloom I like your “Almost Classics” category. I tend to gravitate to that upper mid-range tier that brings in so may great independents. Plenty of really cool cars haven’t made the “Classic” list.

· Apr 23

@Hupp31 Travis, the Model H & U are right in this bucket. In 1930/31 a number of the smaller manfuacturers launched lower end Luxury cars, Hupp, REO, Nash, Studebaker, etc. They are much rarer than the Packards and Cadillacs and sometimes more interesting.

· Apr 23

@alsancle Well, the H and U did finally make the list, but I would definitely consider the cycle fenders to be in that not quite but cool category. Certainly all the other big cars from the independents too. But even things like the smaller Willy-Knight models are still very interesting.

· Apr 23

@Hupp31 I want a 66B WK

· Apr 24

@alsancle I’d be quite happy with any 66, but yeah if you could have any one, 66B for sure.

· Apr 23

English cars are grouped by whatever monarch was in power at the time.
Edwardian
Victorian
Etc.

If you want some fun, watch the Edwardian race cars running at Goodwood. I bet it would be an absolute blast to drive those things.

· Apr 23

@ShawnG @DuesyGuy hanging on for dear life.

· May 1

@alsancle
Is that Mark Hyman too?

· May 2

@ShawnG I beleive so, Good eyes picking out the bald guy.

· Apr 23

Very early
Brass
Nickel
30s Era
Late 30s/ Early 50s.
32 Ford
Steam