I own a Durant 614 4dr. Sedan, which was once owned by Gary Kauffman in Penn. Who started the national durant club. So Ive tried acouple of times to Register this car, I have been a club member and no success of ever getting it done. If this car supposely with Gary started the club--Does this make the car any rarer or worth any more. and if so, this car should already be registered. Right-This probably going to be the last time I renew my dues because you ask questions and never get any responeses. Thank You

Where Are You From? West Liberty, Iowa

Do You own a car built by Durant? yes

I thought the "DURANT REGISTRY" was terminated when the editor died.
hey rick....whats going on with this car owner"s problem...

Where Are You From? SOUTHEAST PENNA.

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1929 DURANT 60 SEDAN ; 1924 STAR TOURING

I have also e-mailed details of my cars for putting on the Durant Registry when Terry had the site and also to the person who now looks after the site but the cars have not been put into the system.

Where Are You From? Aranda, ACT, Australia

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes

Jim, Ted & Gary;
Terry originally started the registry many years ago when he started the web site Durantcars.com. Like most projects at first Terry was very diligent and put a lot of the information on the Registry, but life and work took him elsewhere and the information was not updated regularly. I sent the information for my car when I brought it home in 2007, but it is not on there either. Those that have been members know that Terry passed away suddenly about 2 years ago, and the fate of the site was unknown. Your Durant Officers quickly moved to see if we could gain control of the valuable site from his Estate and family, which they thankfully agreed to let us assume it and carry on Terry's legacy. Steve Large of Canada has thankfully agreed to pick up where Terry left off and has a data base he is keeping. I believe anything you submit to the Registry is forwarded to Steve, but Rick Botti could tell you more about this. I'm not sure why the data base has not been updated, maybe because the mechanics of how it is done has to be worked out. Our fantastic Webmaster Rick has transferred many of Terry's web pages and files over to the new site that the DMAC owns, but he did mention some time ago at one of our meetings that there were some files that had to be re-entered and re-constructed due to incompatibility issues. Maybe he can chime in and fill us in. You all have to remember that all the work at DMAC behind the scenes is a volunteer effort and members who have taken on the tasks get to it when they can. Please be patient and I'm sure Steve and Rick will get the site updated soon. I for one hope that this is not the only reason you joined the club. The value of our DMAC membership is the fantastic magazine we have, the wealth of technical knowledge that is available to club members, the ability to keep a part of automotive history alive and most important the great and lasting friendships we develop over the years, especially if you attend the various meetings.

Where Are You From? Oviedo, Florida

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1928 Durant Model 65

Hello Jim, Ted
I feel a need to provide a little history here. It may be over due more so than I would have imagined. The lesson is only complicated by the need to be diplomatic, what follows is how I have the events framed.

The first Durant club was Gary Kauffman's "Durant, Star Owners Club". This club lasted a few years... 40 years ago pre-1976

Then Jeff Gillis picked up with the "Durant Family Registry" (DFR) This club flourished for 23 years... until Jeff's death. DFR- 1976-1998

The present club the "Durant Motors Automobile Club" (DMAC) This club was started with little more than a mailing list at Hershey, Yates Milton was the first president. The DMAC is in it's 15th year.

DurantMotors.com To the best of my memory "www.durantmotors.com" has always been a part of the DMAC and Rick Botti has been the web master from the beginning.

DurantCars.com durantcars may have existed before the DMAC, it was created by Terry Kulchycki and Terry had complete control, it was built at his expense. Terry had a young family which soon consumed his time and the site languished... nothing was updated the last few years that Terry lived. When Terry died, a few members, Rick, Steve Large reached out to save the site. Terry's site was never part of DMAC while Terry had it. There is interesting information there but it was Terry's creation.

Future additions; Steve is sorting serial numbers and I understand, he has the ability to add to Terry's page (that is what it has become). Rick is the person that can add to the DMAC photo section.. remember it is a digital world now. Both Steve and Rick have email addresses inside the cover of our "Partner"

As for a Durant being worth more because Gary has owned it???

Bob

Where Are You From? tucson

Do You own a car built by Durant? 3- A-22, B-22, 633

My 32 was the last car registered with Terry Dec 2006 and we talked about it and Canadian cars info. He admitted he used Branham's to create his site and time permitting, he was going to add the Canadian side to his site. It never happened.

There was a problem with both Jeff's VIN's in DMAC and Terry's VINs for the 40 Durant later, thanks to the Cumberland museum contacting me they couldn't find their 40 car VIN in DMAC. If you look at DMAC all plants are missing the Jan 29 40 VIN's and start at Aug 29. Terry's site had them but had T101 for Canada. Terry fixed that. Cumberland now happy I was able to say their car was before Aug and VIN was ok not some odd ball VIN.

At this time Steve volunteered to help Terry with the registry providing Terry approved the updates. Rick, Steve, Terry, and myself were all involved. Terry wouldn't let anyone touch his site. At Terry's death his brother offered the site to DMAC to keep it alive. That's when Rick got involved moving it into DMAC. He asked Steve if he would look after the registry part and Steve agreed. You can't imagine the mess its in with wrong people owning cars or same car registered a few time to different people. We can't see this looking at the registry but Steve can. He's been trying to straighten a lot of it out and add new info.

Eg: my old 30 Durant of the 60's is somehow is in this registry owned by me and also owned by Claude Lavoie and if memory serves me Steve said its there 5 times. Another eg: Terry did not believe Frontenac's had other than a T serial for Toronto. Ask Gord Curl about that, his is listed as a T. The 670 Frontenac has G to start the serial so Terry made up a Detroit plant that made the Frontenac there and listed some of the G's under that. Ray Walker owned two of those that Whitey Smale bought 2007. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Steve has been wishing people would give him or Bob correct info when renewing membership to help some of this.

Now I must add Steve presently has personal problems. One, there was flooding in Mississauga in the spring and sewage filled basements. He was lucky to a point of only 4 inches, neighbours got 5 ft of sewage. He didn't lose his Durant papers / books / manuals luckily but what could be saved is in a pod. Basement gutted and being redone. Two, he has medical problems I won't discuss here unless he wishes to. DMAC is not a priority at this time.

Jim did you check both orig and present durantcar registry to see if your VIN is there ? Could well be but under Gary's name we can't see. Send Steve an email and when he's able he can update that one.

Unc Gary because you owned a car does that make them historically valuable ? If so that would be more cars than Frank has in his stable.

Where Are You From? Ottawa Ont

Do You own a car built by Durant? Dominion built 1932 614 Sedan

Hi All......

Jim has started an interesting discussion.

Mike, Bob and Norm have given an in depth look at the history and how the DMAC evolved. There have been 3 different Clubs over the years. None of them have any relationship with each other. The only thing that they have in common is that some of us have been members of each Club.

As far as the "Registry" it has never had an affiliation with any of these Clubs. When Terry passed away, we worked with his family to continue the site and it was turned over to the DMAC. The site was dormant for many years, and needs much to preserve and correct the information.

All of the officers and webmaster of the DMAC are unpaid volunteers. We do our best to maintain and strengthen the DMAC. We can always use help from the members with all facets of this Club. All are welcome to volunteer their time and expertise, in fact we will welcome any participation.

Frank ---

Where Are You From? Hookstown Pennsylvania

Do You own a car built by Durant? a lot

hello men...I do not think my Durant is any more valuable than any other 6-14 Durant.....its value to me was $1900 IN ABOUT 1980 WHEN IT WAS SOLD TO TJHE MAN IN DURANT, IOWA WHO NEVER TOUCHED IT AND DIED....IT WAS SOLD TO MR. THURSTON NEXT FOR $3500 PLUS OR MINUS .....IF IT EVER GETS DONE, I HAD THE ENGINE AND BODY REDONE PROFESSIONALLY....IT WILL BE AS VALUABLE AS ANY OTHER 6-14....I WAS THE CLUB FOUNDER BUT THAT WAS JUST A "SPECIAL NOTE TO THE CLUB HISTORY"....

Where Are You From? SOUTHEAST PENNA.

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1929 DURANT 60 SEDAN ; 1924 STAR TOURING

Hi all,

At least we now know what has been happening with the Registry since Terry Passed away and for you information I sent information to Terry regarding my cars in 2006 and the same information in January 2013 as set out in the current web site.

I have publication from the earlier Durant Family Registry as my brother was a member for a short time.

Can we be advised when the registry is updated and problems solved so that we can then resend the information on our cars so that other member can see what is going on.

As I am a life member there is no chance of my resignation and I will require the assistance of members when I recommence the restoration of my cars

Where Are You From? Aranda, ACT, Australia

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes 3, D60 - 1929/30,D65 - 1928 and D63 - 1928?

I would like to say that I think that the guys and gals who take care of this site and all that it involves are doing a great job. I have only been a member for about a year and only did so because of the wealth of information that I have got from this club. It was my step dads car that was bought by his father and yes it was already in the registry other than wrong engine number which did get changed. I thought the club was about what a person could offer to others not just receive. I have gotten help from the club members and have tried to help others in return in the name of the cars we have and enjoy and want others to enjoy also.

Where Are You From? Spokane Wa

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1926 star model m touring

This is an excellent web site and club. There isn't a greater group of people volunteering their time for the benefit of all of us. If you need additional proof just go to any of the meets regardless of where it is and you will have many new friends for life. The wealth of information you can get is unbelievable regardless what model car you own. You don't even need to own a car and everyone will make you feel welcome. If you have never attended an event, I would encourage you to so.

Where Are You From? Grand Rapids, Michigan

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1923 Star, 1928 Durant

Please keep in mind that all of the officers and directors volunteer their time to ensure that the DMAC is the best car club that it can be. The DMAC asked to take over the Durant Registry, and it is a volunteer that is trying to keep it up to date after years of it not being current.

I know that two of the cars that we own are not on the list in our names, although one of them could be on the list in the previous owners name.

There is no reason for anyone to stop being a member of the DMAC because the registry is slow to respond.

Let's find a way to move forward, Mike, Frank, Bob and others have explained why we are where we are.

Anyone that is interested in helping with anything that the DMAC does, all you need to do is send an email to one of the officers, and we will pass along your request to the President. Or you can volunteer on the Forum.

Peg and I have been members of the DMAC for over ten years, and we have found that this is a very close, hard working group.

Charlie

Where Are You From? NJ CA

Do You own a car built by Durant? Yes four of them

Hi Jim,

Sorry to hear about the the trouble you've had at durantcars. Please send me photographs of your car and any history, data etc, you'd like to share and I will post them to the Photographs section of the Durant Motors website.

Since we gained control of the durantcars.com files I have added Domain names durantcars.net and durantcars.org to access them. However durantcars.com is still controlled by Terry's family and will be taken offline later. So if you send an email from there we will not receive it.

We don't know how Terry was updating the registries, at first it was done manually and later he told me he was working on an automated way to doing that. If he had completed automating that function then it was not part of the files transferred to the club. I inquired about that and his family had no other information or files. So the update registries feature is an option at this time.

Steve Large has volunteered to maintain, update and make sense of the surviving serial number data. The durantcars site is the container of that info going forward.

The address to use is for serial number data contained at durantcars is to contact Steve Large at:

durantmotors@durantcars.org

You can send me pictures and email or questions to:

webmaster@durantmotrs.org


Rick

Where Are You From? Fremont, CA

Do You own a car built by Durant? 1929 Model 60 Roadster

hello rick im not really computer literate about these things,wouldnt it be easier to take all the original info and start all over again with a new registry,i reakize it would be extra work for you or who ever did it but may be easier to keep track in the long run, dave

Where Are You From? so calif

Do You own a car built by Durant? devauxs