One of the highlights of my career here at Hemmings was chasing steam cars through the hills of Southern Vermont during a get-together for Stanley enthusiasts. It was an overcast day, so the steam clouds billowing from the cars as they sped along back roads mingled easily with the low-hanging clouds and mist rolling through the valleys. Every now and then, a whistle swirled among the clouds as another massive, ornate, and otherwise silent car seemingly materialized out of nowhere. At times it did seem as though we'd been transported to an earlier era, but as the traffic we encountered attested, we hadn't left the 21st century. Time had not stood still.

It's that juxtaposition that today's selection of videos brings to mind. We all know that steam, gas and electric cars competed for supremacy more than a century ago, well before internal-combustion cars started to dominate the field, but — without getting too partisan here — what are those ancient modes of transportation really like to live with, how do they compare to one another from a modern point of view, and is there something to be said for any or all of them in terms of extreme longevity?

So let's start with a nicely done video from Take to the Road profiling a 1908 Stanley Model K steam car. It does discuss the lengthy startup procedure (others go far more in depth into that process, for those that really want to go down that rabbit hole), but we also get the owner's view on the unique experience of owning, restoring, maintaining and driving a steam car

Next up, a short documentary on the restoration of a 1919/1931 Detroit. This one's more about the ownership and the restoration of this particular car, with relatively little on the drivetrain. Whether intentionally or not, that just illustrates the simple and straightforward mechanical nature of battery-electric vehicles.

See more videos here.