STEAM HEAT
Canada’s automotive history from 1867 Seth Taylor Steam Buggy to 1967 Camaro
The theme is appropriately Canadian at the Art and the Automobile exhibit,
With its jaunty red carriage wheels, stovepipe style chimney and gleaming brass fittings, the restored Canadian 1867 Seth Taylor Steam Buggy (top speed 24 km/h) is just one of the many automotive jewels on display in this year’s Art and the Automobile exhibit at the Canadian International AutoShow.
Appropriately themed “The Canadian Story” for Canada’s 150th anniversary, the steam buggy crafted by Henry Seth Taylor, a Quebec jeweller and watchmaker, demonstrates the era’s spirit of curiosity.
“People were fascinated with machinery,” says Sharon Babaian, land and marine transport curator with the Canada Science and Technology Museum, which is providing the steam buggy. “The wooden carriage part wouldn’t have survived . . . it was rotted but the metal parts survived rather well including the cylinders that Taylor built. And when you look at them they’re absolutely gorgeous — these beautiful brass cylinders and the drive shaft as well.
“He built it the way he would have built a piece of jewelry, beautifully and robustly.”
With decorative oil cups and additional flourishes, the Seth Taylor was driven and displayed, though never manufactured.
Rob McLeese, founder and chair of the Cobble Beach Concours d’Elegance north of Owen Sound, Ont. and the exhibit’s presenter, says the Seth Taylor is important to this year’s theme.
“It’s a very interesting vehicle. What I find interesting is it happened to coincide with Canada’s Confederation. People think we were way behind but we really weren’t.”
Automobile aficionados often bemoan the sameness of today’s cars and the exhibit is a testament to the wide variety of vehicles that were produced in the past.
Babaian explains: “In the early years of the automobile nothing was settled. There were steam cars, there were electric cars and there were gasoline cars and they all had their strengths and weaknesses. But what they all had to deal with in the very early years was there was not any infrastructure.” (A familiar complaint of today’s electric vehicle owners.)
Carriage makers, agricultural implement makers, bicycle makers — even metalworking businesses had some of the skills to make automobiles. And what they couldn’t make, they imported.
Visitors may be particularly interested in the 1910 McKay produced in Nova Scotia and the 1914 Russell made here in Toronto by the Russell Motor Car Co., a division of CCM which stood for the Canada Cycle and Motor Co. — the only Canadian company to produce its own engine.
As enterprises formed, Babaian notes there was an active business climate: the buying of licences, sharing of patents and partnerships with American companies. The exhibit also features a 1927 McLaughlanBuick owned by collector Tony Land. It was built for a five-week tour by the Prince of Wales and Prince George to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Confederation.
McLeese, who started putting out calls six months ago to line up 17 important classics, has mined his impressive connections within the Canadian vintage car community. And it’s paid off: there are rare specimens like a 1903 Columbus electric (produced in Columbus, Ohio but owned by a Canadian collector.)
Displayed in the 10,000 squarefoot-space (700 level, South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre) the cars are all magnificently restored and are at or near the “concours” level of condition. So it goes without saying they’re all behind a velvet rope.
With our country’s long and proud tradition of manufacturing automobiles there are enthusiastic Canadian collectors who are noted for the wealth of knowledge and dedication to preservation and education.
For example, no one knows the Cadillac marque like London, Ont.’s Steve Plunkett. With 50 important Caddys in his private collection of 86 GM cars, he’s displaying his 1949 Cadillac Concept — the world’s first Cadillac Coup de Ville — a custom hardtop once owned by Charles Wilson the president of GM. It’s also the oldest surviving Motorama Dream Car.
Though not made in Canada, it was emblematic of the technological advances introduced by GM — many through its Cadillac range. Some of those accomplishments include the first mass-produced V-8 engine, the electric starter, Delco electric, Positraction, StabiliTrak, the Northstar system, safety glass, OnStar and multi-cylinder displacement.
An admitted gearhead, Plunkett also enjoys automotive history.
“I love a car with a story. I have four now, custom-built Cadillacs: a 1938 Cadillac Bunn Bodied Roadster owned by New York’s Pulitzer family, the 49 Concept, a1941Custom Cadillac Limo built for King Edward and named the Duchess as well as a ’34 Cadillac Series 452D V16.”
There are many special cars featured in Art and the Automobile, but one is likely of special interest to many Ontarians.
“The newest car is a 1967 Camaro,” McLeese says proudly.
With 150 years of car-making behind us, McLeese, who attended the U.S. presidential inauguration and had meetings with industry players in Washington, remains optimistic despite the trade rhetoric about “the Canadian story” yet to be written.