Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement and Antique Car

 

The photo above I made last August during trip to Mt Shasta, California. First, when I saw this truck on the street I assumed it is a modification of famous Willys Jeep from WWII.  But when I came closer I have found "International" on its hood (not "Willys"). Lucky for me proud owner of the car was seating nearby. 

You can see him on the right  (in shorts). He explained that the car was made in 1944 by "International Harvester" company for US Marine. When I showed my admiration for owning such an old car, he told that actually there is older car on the other side of the street: Chevrolet from 1939. Owner of the Chevrolet (you can see him on the left, in jeans) told us that he bought the car in the fall of 1965 and restored it during 1965-1966 winter.  

It is clear that he was very young in 1965, so we can tell the man drives (and maintains!) this car his whole adult life! Look at this beauty!

When we arrived back home form the trip I decided to investigate these cars a little bit more. My initial plan was to supply picture to https://images.google.com/  so google artificial intellect will do all the job without my interventions. Alas, that not worked out of the box. For picture of first vehicle google provided me with link to "Medium Tactical Vehicle Replacement". These cars were  designed for US marine  by Oshkosh Defense  but much later (in 1996). That was not what I was looking for. Chevrolet search returned "Antique Car". That was right but too generic. 

So I had to utilize google power but less rely on AI but more on  my judgement.  And here is my finding.

Truck model exact name is "1944 IHC M-2-4". And less than ten thousand of them was produced. Indeed it is a rarity. The rest of numbers regarding that car you may find through this link Estrella Warbirds Museum. The company "International Harvester"  mostly produced agriculture machines but obviously it switched part of  the production to the military during WWII. Here is  YouTube video  illustrating that fact. It is sad the company does not exist anymore.

Chevrolet model is "Master Deluxe", probably model "JA". Here is  r: Wikipedia entry  regarding this car. 

Among interesting facts Wikipedia mentions that Chevrolet Master Deluxe GA (car two years older then this one) was a personal auto of Janka Kupała. How Belorussian poet of the Soviet era obtained such a car is a mystery for me.