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from how stuff works dot Com, available

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now exclusively on iTunes. Hello,

0:27

and thanks for tuning into the podcast. This

0:29

is high Speed Stuff. Uh, you guys

0:32

know me. I'm Ben, and you guys know Scott.

0:34

He's the auto editor here at how stuff works

0:36

dot com. Scott. We

0:38

it's almost like we just got back from vacation.

0:41

It has been a while, it has it has. Yeah,

0:43

you're ready to do this? I am, I'm ready. Okay,

0:45

here we go about a turmoil in the

0:47

auto industry. You know, had some

0:50

had some companies threatening to

0:52

to go extinct. And then we've had a couple

0:54

of I'm sure you can name a couple of brands.

0:56

Ye have, Pontiac and Welcome. Years

0:58

past, we've had um Plymouth

1:01

has gone away. I mean just some of the recent history,

1:03

you know. But in this last week or so, it's

1:06

been pretty rough. And the weird thing is

1:08

that when these when these kind

1:10

of companies go down, and this stuff

1:13

has happened before, as as you said, when

1:15

these companies go down, their products

1:17

remain. Yeah, that's right. So, um,

1:20

of course there's still a lot of Pontiac's out there.

1:22

Um, it's still a lot of Plymoths out there. It's

1:24

a lot of oldsmobiles out there. But what

1:27

we're talking about really are brands

1:29

that the parent company has

1:32

gone away. So you know, like when you're

1:34

talking about Pontiac right now, um, we

1:36

actually, you know what we should just say this right up front, we're talking

1:39

about orphan cars. Yeah, orphan

1:41

cars are cars where

1:43

the parent company has gone away. It sounds

1:45

just like what it well, it's just what.

1:47

It sounds like, cars with no cars,

1:50

no parents. That's right. It's very sad. So

1:52

when we're talking about Pontiac, you know, having gone

1:54

away, that's a brand, a division of General

1:57

Motors. General Motors is still very much in existence,

1:59

at least right now it is, and um,

2:02

you know it's it's it's a little bit different

2:04

when you go back further in history and you talk about

2:06

companies that are totally gone. So

2:08

there's there's different variations of this, and some people

2:10

have different opinions. So some people

2:13

might consider Pontiac an orphan car, and

2:15

pretty soon, um, you know Sab,

2:17

Sab will be an orphan car, and

2:20

um, you know Saturn will be an orphan car to But

2:23

others, you know, disagree to that. They

2:25

say that, you know, it has to be the company's totally

2:28

gone. Okay, so the definition differs

2:30

a bit, that's right. But this is not an

2:32

uncommon occurrence. No, it's not

2:35

not by any means. Um, can you take me back,

2:37

Yeah, I'll take your way back. Let's go back. Um.

2:39

If you recall we we had a conversation

2:42

earlier about car companies that were

2:44

no longer in existence. Oh yes, and

2:46

I had a list. I had a huge list to

2:48

look like a small phone book. That

2:50

was a list of US

2:52

auto manufacturers that were no longer in existence.

2:54

So the defunct uh U S

2:57

Auto manufacturers, every one of those

2:59

companies, if they've produced even one car, those

3:02

vehicles are considered orphan cars. So

3:04

there's a ton of these things out there. And

3:07

really, I mean, like I said, I think it was eighteen

3:09

in that podcast. I think I mentioned that between eight

3:12

and nineteen thirty, there were eighteen

3:14

hundred US car companies.

3:16

Yes, and well you know how many

3:18

there are now right, Very very few, and

3:21

there are some upstarts, but really there are very

3:23

few US car companies right now. And that's worldwide.

3:25

I mean, there's there's many others that you

3:28

know are in the same same boat. You know they were they were

3:30

produced nearly a hundred years ago

3:32

or over a hundred years ago at this point, and

3:34

they just the parent companies just gone. Well,

3:37

you see, you see my next question coming up

3:39

here then, because we all

3:41

know that car collectors

3:44

have have a well deserved reputation for

3:47

for going to any length necessary

3:49

to get the the ideal piece for the

3:51

next collection. So how

3:54

did they feel? How do how do car enthusiast

3:56

in general feel about orphan cars? Well, actually,

3:58

you know, if you if you think about this, when you go to

4:00

a car show, you don't want to see an everyday vehicle

4:03

that you know there are a million of on the road right

4:05

now. You want to see something unusual, right,

4:07

Yeah, that that's an orphan car. I

4:09

mean, that is something that you know you can't

4:11

have another one of those, I mean a lot of

4:13

them. Okay, sure, you can still get, you know, a

4:16

Chevrolet that was built in nineteen fifty five. You can still

4:18

buy a Chevrolet that was built now. Doesn't

4:21

It doesn't mean that, you know, that's any less valuable

4:23

the person that wants that nineteen fifty Chevrolet.

4:25

However, if you go back and you want to Stuts

4:27

Bearcat, or you want something that's really

4:30

unique at Dusenberg, you want something

4:32

like that level, that's something

4:35

where you know, you pay attention because

4:37

you've you rarely see those vehicles, but those

4:39

are good examples of orphan cars,

4:41

and you know they're from early, early

4:43

on in the nineteen hundreds. Um, but you

4:46

know, I think that's what keeps it interesting. Okay,

4:49

Okay, so I agree with you on

4:51

that one. I would I

4:53

would love to Uh, I would love to drive

4:55

one of those. I'm assuming you would too, of course.

4:57

Yeah, and uh it would make me

4:59

very nervous though I have a million dollar

5:02

car. Oh yeah, yeah. Okay,

5:06

what are we talking about when we talk about value of

5:08

these, Well, it varies because

5:10

um, some morphan car. Well okay,

5:13

here's a good example, probably the best example.

5:15

You know a lot of people are familiar with the

5:17

Dusenburg. We just we just mentioned

5:19

it. But Dusenbergs were only built between

5:21

nineteen thirteen and nineteen thirty seven,

5:23

I think it was. And so

5:26

they're you know, they're very old. Um,

5:28

they're they're very valuable, extremely valuable.

5:30

Even the parts are ridiculously expensive.

5:32

I had a friend remind me in a moment to

5:34

get back to this. We'll we'll talk about this

5:37

friend who located parts and what they're worth. Um.

5:42

So Dusenberg's one example, right, very

5:44

valuable orphan car, very

5:46

popular. To guess what else is a norphan car?

5:49

You go, remember the Yugoslavian

5:52

car. Yeah, that's swings

5:56

who once you go, yeah, well it was built in Yugoslavia,

6:01

brought to the US by a man name

6:03

I think Malcolm Brooklyn, and

6:06

just terrible failure of that vehicle was really

6:08

I mean, I'm sure that people, you know, there's some

6:10

enthusiasts somewhere that will be excited about it.

6:12

And I think, you know, as long as you have, you

6:15

know, a garage full of replacement

6:17

parts, you might be all right. But they were

6:19

terrible vehicles. And um,

6:21

that's another example of an orphan car. So there's

6:23

one that's not worth hardly anything. I

6:25

mean, try to find one now even um.

6:28

And then at the opposite of the scales, the Duisenberg

6:30

or the Stuts or um you can talk about

6:32

the Tucker, which you know, there's only very few in existence

6:34

anymore. Tucker is also an orphan car.

6:37

UM. So some some cars, it

6:40

sounds like there's there's several categories

6:42

of classification here. Some cars

6:45

in the orphanage of car company history

6:48

are I guess better orphan

6:50

cars, right, like the Duisenberg or

6:52

the Tucker. And then some

6:54

cars are not as popular,

6:56

like the Ugo. But then it also sounds

6:59

like some cars are

7:01

more orphan like than other ones,

7:03

because aren't there some cars where there's

7:05

a run of you know, five hundred or

7:08

more vehicles before it goes

7:10

out. And then there are cars companies

7:12

like as you said, that made a very limited run.

7:15

Sure, I would say that even five would

7:17

be a pretty limited run. But I mean when

7:19

you when you go back to the early

7:21

part of the twentieth century and you

7:23

see that you know, a lot of cars were you

7:25

know, parts were handmade by blacksmith's

7:28

for you know, the three that ever were produced.

7:31

Those are the type of cars that are worth that are extremely

7:33

valuable. That UM you know, three

7:35

cars made, or you know a lot of the companies made you

7:38

know, less than five vehicles, Um,

7:41

several of them made that. Um. But you

7:43

know then there are others that made a thousand or so and maybe

7:45

maybe only one hundred exists, or maybe fifty

7:47

exists out of that one thousand that they made.

7:50

So it really depends on

7:52

what it's kind of in the ivy beholder too.

7:54

UM. If if you think that vehicles

7:57

valuable, then of course you're gonna want it no matter what.

7:59

UM. Yeah, it just depends. How

8:02

about this, Let's let's go hypothetical. All

8:04

right. Uh, let's say that

8:08

you, the one and only Scott Benjamin, are

8:10

a proud owner of an orphan

8:12

car, your choice. I assume

8:14

you're not going to pick a you go, but if that's what you want to

8:16

do, I will not. All right, So

8:19

you you you own one of these, it's

8:22

your baby, it's in your garage. What

8:24

what are some benefits? Well, the benefits

8:27

are that, I guess the biggest

8:29

one is that you're preserving a piece of history. Really, you

8:31

know, once that vehicle has gone, there's one less

8:33

in the world and there never will be another one. Um.

8:36

If you've let it. If you've let it, you know, rust away

8:38

or just go away. The other thing is that, um,

8:41

I think it's kind of what we we talked about that you know, it's

8:43

it's um, it's unique.

8:45

I mean you drive down the road and something that you

8:47

know no one else has. Of course, it's gonna draw a lot of

8:50

attention. You may even if it's in you

8:52

know, the condition is good

8:54

enough. You can take it to car shows, enter

8:56

it into you know, you can win awards, you

8:58

can use it, you make kind of a weekend hobby. Um.

9:01

Of course a lot of these are hobby cars, but

9:03

projects. Yeah, but I'm really I'm really into

9:06

what you The first point you made seems

9:08

so so. Actually I'm going

9:10

to use this word. I rarely use it.

9:13

It seems profound. I

9:15

think that's fair to say, because these people are,

9:17

as you said, preserving a piece of history. Yeah,

9:19

that's right. I mean, imagine if you

9:21

have one of twelve vehicles that exist from

9:24

nineteen fourteen from a specific company.

9:27

Um, so let's say that you have a Who's Your Scout

9:29

which is only made in fourteen, and

9:32

um, I don't know how many of them have existence, So I'll

9:34

just make up a number, but what if they're forty.

9:36

Let's say, if if

9:38

you let yours go to waste, if you know, some

9:41

earth sits in your garage and doesn't do it, you know, you're

9:43

you're you're kind of robbing somebody else

9:45

from ever seeing that vehicle. You're letting down the

9:47

who's your team? Yeah that's right, fans

9:50

and drivers and owners of light. But

9:52

it's not all it's not all angels

9:54

and trumpets, you know, that's right. There's also

9:56

some downsides, and we can we can mention

9:59

just there's really just a pole and as

10:01

you can imagine, parts and maintenance is probably the

10:04

biggest one here, going back to

10:06

your going back to your friends. Yeah,

10:08

that's right. Well we'll mention him in just a moment

10:10

because that's like, that's a good example. But parts

10:12

of maintenance are really difficult. I mean, if

10:15

you if you're able to find a group or

10:17

an enthusiast community

10:20

for your particular type of vehicle, it may be a little

10:22

bit easier, but um, you know, good luck

10:24

trying to find reconditioned the cylinder

10:26

head for you know whatever, you have a

10:28

turn of the century tiger or something

10:31

like that. Good luck, So,

10:33

um, that that's got to be very difficult.

10:35

Now the parts are also very expensive,

10:38

so we really these downsides come down to parts

10:40

and affordability. Really because

10:43

now this one particular example that I know of, and this

10:45

is back to my friend that worked in

10:47

a shop in in Detroit. He worked

10:49

in a restoration shop that specialized in pre

10:52

war card pre war cars, and

10:55

they had Duisenberg's in the shop regularly

10:58

and his U just

11:00

for a brief time. He also ran a race up so

11:02

he had this briefly maybe a summer um.

11:05

He was trying to find locate specific parts

11:08

were specific vehicles, and

11:10

one of his tasks, rather word, was to find

11:13

um oil pans for Dusenbergs.

11:16

And you wouldn't believe the value

11:18

of these things. They once they were reconditioned, once

11:21

they were brought back to new, they were reconditioned as

11:23

if you were reconditioning a car. You know. The panels

11:25

were banged out, painted, refinished,

11:28

you know, so they're smoothed, they look brand

11:30

new. Okay, he found several

11:32

of them, They had five or six on the shelf. They

11:35

were ready to go when any whenever anybody

11:37

needed them. They were valued somewhere

11:39

north of five thousand dollars each for

11:42

an oil pan. Seriously, Yeah, you're talking

11:44

about something that on a typical vehicle is less

11:46

than fifty dollars. Yeah, Scott, my

11:48

first car was less than that. Well, I mean,

11:50

try to find parts for the cars

11:53

that are already unique. Good luck,

11:55

that's that's true. And you know,

11:57

technically being from the turn and set

12:00

tree, doesn't that make each of those parts an

12:02

antique? It does at best.

12:04

Reconditioned really is just the version

12:06

of like a refurbished and we're

12:08

not talking about like remanufactured parts

12:10

or parts of maybe that's

12:12

not the right way to say that, and that not new parts.

12:15

We're not talking about like somebody who took a mold

12:17

of that part and recast,

12:20

made a brand new and recast it. This is an original

12:22

Duisenberg oil pan that's

12:24

worth you know, five to six thousand dollars

12:27

I think was what they were charging. And like I said,

12:29

they had five or six of these things on the shelf, um

12:32

just ready to go whenever somebody wanted one. Because

12:34

once they found someone who had

12:36

that many, why not buy them all and just have

12:38

them available. And it sounds like,

12:40

you know, having talked to a couple of car

12:43

collectors before. What

12:46

these guys have told me is that you

12:48

know, I've I've asked them, Scott have said, why

12:50

would you not just get somebody to make the part

12:53

new for you? And they shake their heads

12:55

as though I am speaking in another

12:57

language which just happens to sound like English.

13:00

Yeah, that's right. It's all about originality really

13:02

for some of these guys. Um, not everyone,

13:04

but um for a lot of them, especially when

13:06

you talk about the concourse shows. And we

13:08

can talk about that at some other time, I guess, but uh,

13:11

conquer shows, that's where original

13:13

condition really comes into play. And that's that's that's

13:16

everything today. We we should we that

13:18

that became an unofficial plug for an upcoming

13:20

episode. That's right, Yeah, that's a good one. But we

13:22

can talk a little bit about car shows today,

13:25

right, that's right. You're you would well

13:27

maybe you wouldn't be surprised to hear this, but there

13:29

is an Orphan car show just that's

13:32

right, just for orphans. It is held in its

13:35

Lani, Michigan UM and I believe

13:37

this year is the thirteenth annual UM

13:39

Orphan Car Show that's held in nips Lanty And

13:42

of course anybody with Northern Cars welcome

13:44

to you know, check it out. You can find a website that promotes

13:47

this and I'm sure that there's an entry form that you can,

13:49

um, you know, fill out where you're there. Interesting

13:52

show, really, I mean you see some incredibly

13:54

unique vehicles while you're there. I've been

13:56

to it once. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,

13:58

it's very very interest It was. It was a

14:00

good show. What what's one you remember

14:03

seeing that particularly just

14:05

took your breath away. Took my breath

14:07

away. Maybe some of the uh, there's

14:09

been a steamer car there and I don't remember which

14:11

one, if there's a Stanley Steamer or if you

14:13

know what the make was, but a steamer vehicle,

14:16

Um, those are always impressive to me. And I've seen those

14:18

at at concourse shows as well. Um,

14:20

but you know, the steamer cars are really cool to

14:22

watch, the totally steam operated. Um

14:25

again, the one that I'm thinking of as a Stanley

14:27

Steamer, but I just couldn't verify

14:29

that that was the one. There were so many

14:31

cars there in that day and they were just really really

14:33

cool. Yeah. So if

14:36

any of our listeners want to check out

14:38

some Morphing cars, they can go

14:40

to the website. But if they

14:42

really want to see them, they can

14:44

go to Michigan and check

14:46

this out Michigan

14:49

and it's it's a good time. I can tell you that,

14:51

whether weather permitting, it's a

14:53

lot of fun. Yeah. Man, you know,

14:56

I I don't

14:58

know, Scott, I really I would love to

15:00

have an orphan car. I think it might have

15:02

to be somebody who is more responsible than

15:04

me too, that would actually

15:06

take care of the day to day stuff. You know. I'm

15:08

still trying to get it together enough to get that go kart

15:11

we're talking about earlier. That's right, it's not it's

15:13

not as much of a responsibility as you

15:15

think it is. That we're we're dramaticizing

15:17

it a bit here, but but really it's

15:19

uh, it's a lot of work. And uh you

15:22

know, if you get into the group of people that you

15:24

know, our purist and they want everything to be exactly

15:26

right or you want it to be exactly right. Um,

15:28

yeah, then it's a little bit more pressure. Yeah.

15:31

Yeah, but it's a lot of fun. It's a great hobby. Awesome.

15:33

Well, I guess that about wraps up for

15:35

us today. Huh yeah, I think so. All right.

15:37

Well, to our listeners out there, thanks

15:40

for tuning in you guys, and if you have

15:42

any suggestions for a topic in

15:44

an upcoming episode, please send

15:46

us an email at high Speed Stuff at

15:48

how stuff works dot com.

15:50

And if you want to learn even

15:52

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15:55

that you want to see more detail, feel

15:57

free to hit us up at our brand new blog.

16:00

That's right, We've got a blog that's on the home page

16:02

and I try to post to it every day, so

16:05

um, and I'm you know, there for comments. Please

16:08

send me something I don't I'd like it. We'd

16:10

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16:15

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16:17

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