I attended a local car club meeting in a hotel car park to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the first Scottish car manufacturer John Stirling of Hamilton. Just my kind of event, no queues or throngs of folk, just a few very varied and interesting cars in a car park. Food and drink available in the Hotel, and in good weather.. what`s more to want..?
Apparently Stirling was a coach-builder who became an early automobile enthusiast. In 1896 he had a contract with the Daimer company for importing chassis in lots of 50, to which he added his own bodies, sold as Stirling-Daimler. Stirling also imported Various French chassis, sold as Stirling-Panhards and Stirling-Clements. in 1901 Stirling was offering a Stirling-Parisien Phateon at 185 guineas powered by a 4 1/2 HP De Deion motor.
Autocar magazine of August 10th 1901 recorded Stirling`s journey from John o` Groats to Lands End in his Stirling Parisien Phaeton which ran on Dunlop tyres, apparently he suffered no punctures, neither did the tyres require any air added during the entire length of the journey.... I guess sponsorship must have been around even in the earliest days of motoring..

The blue front nearside suspension set-up is on a Vintage Aston Martin, I do like the set up to resist axle rotation on the cart springing, my kind of engineering.. simple

The Austin 7 is a little beauty, I think the owner may have built himself and was looking to sell it... it looked every inch as if it was built that day not a blemish to be found, and likewise the Ford imported from Canada, it was a wonder indeed, another looking to be right out of the box but this one with every possible degree of bling, it even had cup holders and a wonderful gear knob, seems our cousins across the pond like to do it in style..
![[Linked Image]](https://www.tm-img.com/images/2022/09/21/_DSC5067.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](https://www.tm-img.com/images/2022/09/21/_DSC5030.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](https://www.tm-img.com/images/2022/09/21/_DSC5046.jpg)
![[Linked Image]](https://www.tm-img.com/images/2022/09/21/_DSC5072.jpg)