I think I have some good news for Ms TL Thousand regarding identifying the car in the photo posted earlier this week driven by her grand father with Fred Duesenberg as a passenger. Today I located a photo of a Mercedes owned by Vanderbilt himself. This photo was taken on 10/24/1908 and you can see the driver and mechanic fueling the car on the old board track. I am contacting Mercedes with both photos to see if they can shed some light on the topic because I believe them to be the same car with one in race trim. Even the location of the rivets in the frame are exactky the same. It looks as if Paul’s keen eye may have been right at first glance.

Off topic, you have just got to love the way the spectators are dressed. Just look at the gents all dressed up in suits and top hats and the ladies are very formal including their best hats. And if that doesn’t add some interest try to imagine carrying around one of those cameras those photographers are lugging around.