While the cars on the show field at the Glenmoor Gathering last year (including the Avanti sedan prototypes and Powel Crosley’s Duesenberg) presented quite a spectacular sight, so did many of the miniatures gathered under one of the tents just off the show field. I managed to slide a photo of Fiore DiBernardo’s 39-percent-scale 1939 Maserati Mono Posto into the coverage of the Gathering that appears in the May 2011 issue of Hemmings Motor News, on newsstands now, but I thought some of the other miniatures and models on display deserved a mention as well.
George D. Britnell of Strongsville, Ohio, brought at least three scratchbuilt engines, including a 1918 Holt four-cylinder and a Ford 302 V-8, both of which he started up and ran on their test stands. According to Britnell, the latter took 2,500 hours to build back in 1986, and the Holt took about 1,500 hours to build in 2008-2009.
Next, a couple shots of the engine displayed next to the previously mentioned Maserati. According to Fiore, the project started when he went to build a wire wheel for a pedal car: “The wire wheel project took on a life of its own and developed into the Maserati project that took five years to complete.” That included specially casting about 30 different parts out of aluminum.
The Model T board track racer, built by Ken Foran of Wooster, Ohio, might not have a running engine, but both its crankshaft and camshaft turn with the crank handle, and they in turn spin the driveshaft and turn the wheels. Foran noted that both the suspension and brakes work as well.
Inhuman patience and skill? Perhaps, but we can’t argue with the results.
By the way, the 2011 Glenmoor Gathering will take place September 16-18.
