In the world of the Brass Era hobby, some names are synonymous with the spirit of the road. Skip Carpenter is one of those names. Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down for lunch with Skip and his long-time friend and fellow Autoneer mainstay, Michael Landry, to talk about the early days of the hobby, the founding of our club, and the forty-three cars that have passed through Skip’s garage over the decades.
Adam: Skip, tell me how you got started in all this. Did you grow up with these cars, or was it a later obsession?
Skip: It actually started when I moved here. I was a school teacher at the time. One day, I was driving the back roads and saw a sign in a yard about antique cars. I thought, “That’s interesting,” so I drove up the driveway and met a guy named Herb Cook. We chatted, and I asked him what was available. He told me to come back in a week. I did, and that’s when I bought my first one: a 1912 Buick Model 35.
Adam: Was it a local car?
Skip: It was. It was totally unrestored but absolutely original. I eventually painted it a light blue with black fenders. Martha Smith saw it and decided she had to have it—her son still has it up in New Hampshire today.
Skip’s garage has seen a revolving door of history. From the simplicity of the one-cylinder Cadillac to the complexity of steam, Skip has restored and toured a staggering forty-three cars.
Skip: I’ve had most every Buick model made. I settled on the Model 19 because it’s got a smaller engine than the big Buicks, but it weighs 800 pounds less, so it’s a great touring car. But I also went through a “Steam Phase.” My neighbor, Brent Campbell, told me I had to have a steam car.
Adam: Did you enjoy the steam experience?
Skip: I did, but they are a lot of work. The first time I fired up my Stanley in the barn, a line broke and caught fire. I had to hook my tractor to the bumper and drag the car out of the barn while it was flaming! Barbara didn’t care for the steam cars much after that. I remember driving one back from North Carolina with Steve Cook; we had to carry 150 feet of hose just so we could pump water out of people’s swimming pools along the Blue Ridge Parkway!
Before the Autoneers existed, local enthusiasts belonged to the Worcester Car Club. But as Skip explains, the “modern” cars of the 1930s didn’t quite mesh with the slower, more deliberate pace of the Brass Era machines.
Skip: We used to meet in a church basement in Shrewsbury. The club had cars up to the late 30s. They had brass cars too, but they didn’t really know anything about touring; they just met and “shot the breeze.”
Steve Cook and I hit it off, but touring with the newer cars was unsatisfactory. We decided to get all the Brass car guys together on my back porch to decide what to do. About a dozen owners showed up, and we formed our own group so we could tour together.
Adam: I heard the original name wasn’t “The Autoneers.”
Skip: (Laughs) No. We originally called it the MBTA—the Mass Brass Touring Association. It turned out to be a big mistake because everyone thought we were the Boston bus system! We were sitting at a museum one day with Steve Cook and Don Rising, and my wife, Barbara who said, “You know, a better name for you guys would be Autoneers. They were the early drivers.” It was a great idea, and it stuck.
As lunch wound down, the conversation turned to the future of the hobby. While some worry that antique cars are a “gray-haired” hobby, Skip and Michael see a different trend within the Autoneers.
Skip: I don’t see it going away. Every issue of the Horseless Carriage Gazette, you see new, younger people coming in. When you drive a brass car on a back road, you’re smelling the flowers and seeing the scenery. You don’t do that in a “Walmart car.” It’s a whole different world.
Michael: In this club, there’s no jealousy. People don’t care what you do for a living; they just care about the common interest. You see younger couples in their 30s with kids and grandkids out on these tours.
Adam: It’s true. The Horseless Carriage Club is just more fun. There’s no judging of the people or the cars.
At 90+ years young, Skip isn’t quite done yet. He’s currently in the final stages of a five-month battle fitting rear fenders on a Model 19 Buick.
Skip: Once I finish this Model 19, I think I’m done restoring. I’ll keep my Model T because my granddaughter, Rebecca, is enthusiastic as hell about it and goes on all the tours. That’s who the car is for.
As for the Autoneers? Skip’s advice is simple: Keep contacting the new people, keep inviting them to the tours, and keep showing them that these cars are meant to be driven.
Skip Carpenter is a founding member of the Autoneers. He lives in Massachusetts and can still be found in his barn, likely elbow-deep in a Buick engine.