c1925 Oldsmobile Model 30 Tourer

Oldsmobile's Model 30 carried the marque through the 1920s: a side-valve six of 169 cubic inches — 2.8 litres — making around 42 horsepower, on a 110-inch wheelbase shared with the Buick Standard Six and the Oakland Six. The 1925 cars were the 30-C. Braking was on the rear wheels only; four-wheel brakes did not arrive until the 30-E of 1927. The timber-spoke artillery wheels on this car are correct for the period.

In Australia the chassis arrived and the body was built here. Four-door tourers were most often bodied by Holden's Motor Body Builders in Adelaide, and around a thousand Oldsmobile tourers a year found Australian buyers through the decade. Almost none of them lasted. Open cars wore out, were cut down into utilities, or were simply scrapped — by the 1970s the survivors were a rounding error against what was built.

This one survived, and was restored some years ago. The coachwork, the trim and the folding hood all present well, and the car sits in the Victorian club permit scheme's vintage category — vehicles built between 1919 and 1930 — which is as literal a use of the word as the scheme allows.