Harry Kraemer’s Collection

Over the last 20 years or so, Harry and his wife Pat have assembled an awesome collection of just over 100 vehicles and rare engines. The collection is mostly 3 wheel vehicles, however, it includes, 2 wheel motorcycles, numerous bicycles from the 1800s, an airplane, a classic boat, a working hovercraft, a WWII radial engine, 2 tracked motorcycles by Chrysler, and much more. The current collection also includes 2 very iconic vehicles, both of which helped to kick off 2 very famous race cars.

The first iconic vehicle is a 1912 AC Delivery Trike. This is the same AC as in the AC Cobra. Before AC started making cars, they made a 3 wheeled delivery vehicle. Harry’s is one of about 4 left in the world, and it is the only known one in North America.

The second one is a very early prototype of Jim Hall’s Chaparral 2. Harry acquired this Chaparral at the end of 2024 after his good friend Larry Barker passed away suddenly. The story on how Harry became the caretaker of this historic vehicle goes back to the year 2009. And the story has a connection to Harry and his collection of 3 wheel vehicles. Click here for the full story.

How did all of this start? We need to go back to the very early 1960s for that. As a child growing up in the 1960s, Harry was around classic cars, hotrods, motorcycles, vintage boats, and airplanes/airports from a very early age. It seems that transportation history is in his blood.

By high school, Harry was looking forward to getting his first car. The Camaro was his choice back then. His father made him save his money and put a down payment on a 1972 Camaro. Harry’s father wanted him to establish credit at a very early age and this taught Harry the importance of good credit. By the time Harry was graduating high school, his 1972 Camaro had received some performance mods and Harry would often drive the car to Capital Speedway to drag race it. Life was good. And if owning a souped up Camaro was cool, then owning 2 Camaros would be cooler. So Harry added a 1968 Camaro convertible to his stable. Harry used some money he received for his high school graduation plus some money he saved, to have his 1972 Camaro painted with Motion Performance stripes (pictured below).

And then one day (sometime in the early 1980s), all of a sudden, Harry decided that it was time to sell both Camaros. Harry went back to riding his 1970s Power King 10 speed bicycle (which he still owns). But soon the need for speed grabbed Harry and he purchased a brand new 1983 Yamaha Virago 750 (pictured below). The speed of the Virago was nice, however, Harry still wanted to go faster, so he decided to start taking flying lessons. And shortly thereafter, he sold the Virago.

As Harry’s aviation career accelerated, he flew everything from piston powered, turbo props, and jets. Harry has logged flight time in airplanes, seaplanes, jets, gliders, ultralights, 4 engine WWII bombers, several WWII training aircraft, and even the Goodyear blimp.

Fast forward to the early 2000s, Harry and Pat settled in the countryside of Germantown Maryland. By now, Harry was getting his aviation services company (Kraemer Aviation) up and running and the income was good and he was flying some cool aircraft. So it was time to rekindle his passion for cars. His wife already owned a classic Buick Riviera, and soon they added a 1969 Ural sidecar rig, a 1975 Lomax 3 wheeler, a replica 1903 motorbike by Ridley, and a 1952 MG TD replica. Life was good with a few classic vehicles to drive. However, the collection did not have a theme and Harry likes themes and organization. So just like the decision to sell the Camaros, Harry decided to sell the Ridley, Buick, and MG TD. The theme of the collection was going to be European 3 wheel vehicles. So Harry started purchasing European 3 wheelers which included a 1912 AC Delivery Trike. But that soon changed as Harry was finding a lot of cool 3 wheelers from other parts of the world. It was then decided that the collection would be all 3 wheeled vehicles. And that is what Harry focused on for a while. The 3 wheeled theme did not last too long. Harry has a passion for antiques (of all types) as well as antique vehicles. By the 2020s, the collection still focused on 3 wheelers, but by now, the collection had evolved to include numerous 2 wheel motorcycles and bicycles. The collection does include a few vehicles that are the last known example or 1 of 2 left in the world.

Here are a few examples of some of the vehicles in the collection.

A 2005 Honda Solo. It only has 2.5 miles on it. The engine has never been run. These are very rare in the United States. This bike has never had oil or gas in it. It has never been registered with any motor vehicle administration. This bike came from the Honda Museum in Japan.

A 2005 Honda Postie. This also came from the Honda Museum. These bikes were made for the postal service in Australia and New Zealand. It has kickstands on both sides of the bike. This bike only has 1 mile on it.

An 1898 Rex Tandem bicycle. There are only two of these bikes known to exists. We have one in our collection and the other one is in the Henry Ford Museum. Ours is rideable, the one is the Henry Ford Museum is not functional.

A Skim Aire Hovercraft.

To view the collection and read about each item in the collection, visit Harry’s Wheels & Wings site Flymall.org and click on the Car Show icon.