The Stanley Twins had never built any such device as a car before. Their experience had been with violin making and the famous Stanley Dry Plates for photography. But they studied every book and previous design they could find (there wasn’t much) before drawing up plans for the steam car.
By November 1898, after having built three cars, they entered one in the Horseless Carriage Meet at Boston, and went chuffing round and round the one-third mile track watched by five thousand cheering spectators. They averaged 27.4 mph - fast for 1898. One hundred customers put down deposits for cars. Suddenly the twins were in business. They bought a defunct bicycle factory and began turning out cars by the thousand.
1/16th Scale kit.
Built by Rod.
Aurora have made some very interesting kits over the years and this car seems a very curious choice at first glance. But Stanley were an eminent builder of automobiles in the U.S.A. and as such deserve their place in history and our museum. In fact Aurora produced several of Americas early cars in this 1/16th scale series. Although rather basic kits they can be built into very nice replicas and today would enjoy the benefits of all the detail parts and materials available.
Our car was built in the early ‘80s so is brush painted with Humbrol enamel paints. It was made straight from the box but Rod has given the model some weathering appropriate to the dirt roads of early twentieth century America. this weathering was done by dabbing a toothbrush in paint then running a finger down the bristles to 'flick' the paint off onto the model!
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