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106-year-old Maxwell stands out at Cars for Kids show
If only for being 106 years old, Marvin Baldwin’s 1918 Maxwell Model 25 stood out Saturday at the Cars for Kids Car, Truck and Bike Show.
But there was more to the vintage machine that made it stand out than age alone.
There was its bright red paint job – common enough now, but a novelty for a car coming from the era when Henry Ford famously said of his Model T “Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
Then there were the white tires. Not whitewalls, mind you, but entirely white tires. One can only imagine how hard those were to keep clean on the roads of 1918. In fact, maintaining these tires was the main reason that Marvin and wife Marian had the car towed to and from the Putnam County Fairgrounds for the annual fundraiser for Riley Hospital for Children.
Marvin certainly emphasized that the car still runs quite well.
The Baldwins bought the car from an auction six months or so ago. It had previously been in a museum’s collection in Kokomo and was built here in the Hoosier State.
“We saw it and we bought it,” Marian recounted.
So the rare vehicle now makes its home right here in Greencastle with the Baldwins.
“It had been completely restored to original,” Marvin added. That happened about 10 years ago, by a previous owner.
Over the years, the Baldwins have owned a number of classic cars, but this is the earliest model.
“This is the oldest car we’ve ever had,” Marvin, a 1934 model himself, said. “It’s 106 years old and it’s still running.”
The white tires might not be the only reason not to take it on the open road considering that top speed is about 35-40 mph. The owners of the much newer muscle cars who did their best burnouts leaving the fairgrounds a bit later might not have had the patience to follow.
Marvin is quite protective of his latest treasure, acknowledging that while the car bears a sticker of a previous entry into the Newport Antique Auto Hill Climb, he will not be taking the Maxwell to that Vermillion County town for the October festival.
“There’s too many people there,” he said.
While the front seat of Baldwin’s Maxwell is a bit cramped — in line with other cars of the era — the backseat is quite roomy by the standards of that or any era, with plenty of room to stretch out.
While Maxwells ceased production in 1925, their legacy lived on in the early years of the Chrysler Corp., as Walter Chrysler bought the company in 1921. When he formed a company in his own name in 1925, the new cars bore a similar design to Maxwells. The same was true when Chrysler began production of the Plymouth in 1928.
Years later, Maxwell had a more comedic legacy when Jack Benny famously drove a decrepit model years after they had ceased production, the renowned comic allegedly too cheap to buy a newer car.
Of course, the Maxwell wasn’t the only car featured at the show, with 135 entries across various divisions that also included trucks, tractors, motorcycles and cars stretching from 1918 to just a few years ago.
The real winners were Riley Hospital for Children kids, as the entire event was a fundraiser for the hospital. Not only did all proceeds from the show go to Riley, but the volunteer work is provided 95 percent by Walmart Distribution. For each hour a Walmart employee volunteered, the company donated $10 to the cause.