1926 Minerva AF Town Car

Paul Ostruk of New York was a Czech émigré who had arrived in America in 1908. He became a coachbuilder and worked at the coachbuilder A.T. Demarest. He subsequently met and teamed up with Emerson Brooks. Brooks was a designer for coachbuilder J.M. Quinby & Co. and treasurer for the Automobile Club of America. The Ostruk and Brooks partnership prospered as Brooks was well-connected and Ostruk had a talent for coachwork. The Brooks-Ostruk company often worked with Pierce-Arrow or Packard frames and built bodies with European flare.

Ostruk was able to acquire Minerva chassis, often for more favorable terms than similar American contemporaries. This led to an agency for Minerva, until the depression began to cripple both companies.

By 1923, the collaboration between Brooks and Ostruck had been dissolved and in its wake would form Paul Ostruk & Co, New York. Most of the Ostruk Minervas was built on the largest horsepower six-cylinder cars, such as the AF.

This particular Town Car is a Minerval AF with coachwork by Paul Ostruk Co Inc. It was purchased by Jacques Vander Stappen from Seymour Rappaport of Teaneck, New Jersey in May of 1988. At the time of purchase, the car had 17,000 original miles. Mr. Rappaport is believed to have purchased the car in the 1970s. Mr. Rappaport had retrieved it from a garage where it may have slumbered for more than four decades. The car was given a restoration, and its two-tone original color scheme was replicated.

While in the care of the past two owners, an additional 20,000 miles have been added to its speedometer reading.

By Daniel Vaughan | Apr 2019