History We ALL Love a DARE! PIX of TRULY Extinct Makes?

I am wrong. It was built in Kokomo

 

Here's a pic of 2 Lexington racers at in 1920 at the Connersville
plant. Photo is from a great Lexington write-up on Wikipedia.
Given the early move to all-steel, plus the thousands of cars
built, doubtful Lexington, as a marque, could be considered
"extinct." Rare, yes, extinct, no.

 

How about a 1912 Norwalk made in Norwalk Ohio and Martinsburg WV?

The Norwalk Motor Car Co. of Norwalk, Ohio produced long low riding (underslung) luxury touring American Automobile. The first Ohio automobiles used a four cylinder 251 cubic inch engine but the big Norwalk was underpowered. The fix was a six cylinder 525 cubic inch engine with a four speed transmission.
The Norwalk Underslung Six was "A Car of Absolute Exclusiveness". It had a complete electric system - lighting, starter, generator, battery, regulator, volt meter, horn, cigar lighter etc. Other features include 40 inch wheels and tires, high grade glass, silk mohair top, speedometer, demountable rims, trunk rack, artillery wheels etc. The price of a 1912 two passenger roadster or a six passenger touring car was nearly $3,000.00.

I personally know of ONE in existence. It was purchased by the Norwalk Antique Car Club in Martinsburg WV.

Side note, I used to work at a NAPA store in Martinsburg that was built in an old lumber company that was located right next door to the old Norwalk plant.
The Plan had a (still working) wooden elevator. The plant was purchased after Norwalk went belly up by Interwoven Woolen Mill. The Norwalk plant was elevated and moved about 1/2 city block using wooden poles and a Mule Team. The old Norwalk plant was destroyed in 1989 by a fire set by an arsonist.

 

My grandfather had a Lexington, a 1917 I think. After that it was a Huppmobile I believe. I wonder if my Dad has photos?

Kurt O.

 

Nuts...Jimi I thought you would come up with something, you seem pretty knowledgeable about this stuff...I've decided I must have a Davis Divan..any of the original 13 for sale?...

 

RixRex, LOL. Yeah, man! I'm looking them up as fast as I can find resources. . . BUT, I was sure hoping for help!!!

 

I've done some more digging about Ned Jordan's very LAST car model -- his last-ditch effort to recapture glory in a fast-fading luxury-car market.

Writing on the site Cleveland.com, journalist John Kappes (in a 2008 series entitled "Elegant Cleveland" published by Cleveland's The Plain Dealer) referred to the Jordan Speedway Ace "Model Z" as "a veritable airplane on wheels."

Jordan only produced something over a dozen of the 1930/31 Speedway Ace roadsters, at about $5,000 a pop. But the Ace "Z" of 1930 consisted of only two all-aluminum prototypes, one of which is thought to have been sacrificed in the WWII scrap-metal drives. The other was restored over the course of years and tens of thousands of dollars by owner Edmond "Jim" Stecker of Pepper Pike in the Cleveland vicinity.

Stecker wryly analyzed the motoring appeal of the Ace-Z (probably just as intended by its maker, Ned), thusly: "To some people, a car is a phallic symbol." (No surprises there, eh, fellow HAMBers? LOL) Stecker noted for the article that the Ace-Z would go over 100 mph (though, Kappes quips that Ned jordan would probably have claimed MORE!).

The Ace "Z" prototype's aluminum bodywork was powered along by a 114-hp Continental engine displacing 323 to 329 CID (sources differ whether it was 5.3 or 5.4 litres), coupled to a four-speed transmission. The Ace was fancy stem to stern and top to bottom. Among features were airfoil running boards, Woodlite headlamps and a radio (not yet common in 1930). A separate account holds that when Stecker finally was able to secure the long-lost, garaged car, it was without front fenders, which had to be carefully fabricated, based on old photos.

Stecker's orphan Ace-Z is a Concours de'Elegance winner and he's occasionally loaned it for display in Cleveland's great Crawford Auto/Aviation Museum.

It is fair to say that the Jordan Speedway Ace "Z" roadster is the only thing standing between survival and extinction of this unique prototype. I found NO photos that were not copyrighted, so I cannot present one here. BUT, it is one GORGEOUS car, so it's well WORTH your time to go look it up on the 'net !!!

Should ANYBODY know of a photo NOT encumbered by copyrights, PLEASE post it! THANKS!

 

ccain: THANKS for that post! Shoot, if there's only one known (so far anyway), that comes uncomfortably CLOSE to extinction!

Maybe the Norwalk is like the 1930 Jordan Speedway Ace Model-Z roadster I mentioned in post #132 above! Thanks again, for the info AND the PIX!!!

 

From what I've been able to find, the DeValkyrie was pretty much a ground-up custom designed by Stevens beginning during '52, relying heavily on Caddy parts and German bodybuilders. Stevens was apparently interviewed in recent years and recalled that three specimens came to the U.S., and on of these is in the brooks Stevens Museum in Wisconsin.

Wild-looking car for the '52/'52 period, but not much wilder than other PRODUCTION cars of that time! Not extinct, but very, very rare.

The Continental DeVeaux was based heavily on the previous Durant cars. They didn't sell well and the effort was abandoned. Sounds to me that any titled as '33 models would likely have been left-over cars made in '32. It was common practice into at least the 1950s to retitle left-over cars nad run them out there the next season! (In fact, Henry Kaiser had Joe Frazer make SO many '49 Kaisers, MANY of those just got gussied up and were sold as '50 Kaisers. LOL)

 

I checked the AACA & Hemmings resources, and there IS a Durant Motors Club which holds annual meets/runs. The Durant corporate family (as opposed to GM makes) would include Star, Flint, Locomobile, Frontenac, DeVaux, Dort, and Rugby. So, even though the Continental engine Co. (with Billy Durant's apparent support) made the DeVeaux for nearly three years, some would certainly seem to have survived. A pic of a SMART-looking DeVeaux cabriolet I ran onto on "How Stuff Works" was, of course, copyrighted.

SO, guys, the bottom line is still the same: Did though your own collections & try to ocme up with PIX on these rare makes that won't get us sued for copyright infringement! LOL

 

Does anyone here have or know the whereabouts of a Dayton Cyclecar? I know or knew of one where I went to high school in Illinois. The Dayton was made in Joliet, IL, in 1914 and I've got some old photo prints I would have to scan before I could post them. I think the one I saw was the only one existing according to the owner. Nahhh, they probably got rid of it by now - that was 20 years ago I took the pics!

 

Yo, StillOutThere, any chance you can LAY HANDS on those PIX of the Dayton CycleCar? When was that MADE, anywho?

Likewise, BeachBum in So.Cal. on the 1917 Lexington? Even though we're pretty sure Lexington's aren't off the face of the earth, it would still be FUN to see one made smack during WWI ! We're talking brass-lamp era!!!

 

Jimi, as I said in the post, the Dayton Cyclecar was made in Joliet, IL, in 1914. I'm headed out the door to dinner and Zydeco in the park dude. Later.

 

Sorry, man, I got over-excited. (Sheepish look, hangs heads, mopes. "Shoot, I wanted a PIC." LOL)

 

RixRex: Beechcraft Plainsman. What I found said that Beechcraft developed the Plainsman prototype in 1946, fearing that a derth of government aircraft contracts might put the company out of business. So, the Plainsman wasn't so much about Beechcraft wanting to make a buck BUT was a hedge bet, in case they needed an enterprise to keep them ALIVE. When government contracts DID materialize for 1947, Beechcraft simply did not PURSUE the Plainsman venture. SO, though the Plainsman wasn't a bad-looking car, it became irrelevant before it ever went into production.

Did the prototype survive? I found nothing to indicate Beechcraft was ashamed of the Plainsman project, so I personally doubt they would destroy the prototype, though they may have covered it up and set it in some corner for a few decades. I'm betting this one-off still exists someplace in a beechcraft facility, either on display or in storage.

 

RixRex asked about the 1914 Dayton Cyclecar: Cyclecars really sprang upon the American scene about 1910 and seemed to have their heyday during WWI and the late '20s.

Produced and popular in at least a dozen countries, cheap, lightweight cyclecars usually had one cylinder engines, many air-cooled, and often utilized various motorcycle components. Drive was usually by chain or belt, and cyclecars featured either four or three wheels. Seating one or two people, cyclecars sported few amenities and weighed from a tad over 300 pounds to just under 800 pounds. Folks, we're talking LIGHT cars!!!

By the early 1920s, mass production made it possible for cars such as Ford's T-Model to be priced so low as to put scores of cyclecar companies out of business. After all, why buy an underpowered cyclecar when one could have a "real" car for less money?

I could find no specific reference to the 1914 Dayton Cyclecar, though I did see reference to a 1914 Dayton "Tri-Car," used to transport two men plus firefighting equipment. Reportedly this design was outclassed by other makers' products, including those of the British company, Morgan.

 

There was an understandable resurrection of the cyclecar, in many transportation-hungry countries, after World War II. But, they went by the names "microcar" or "bubblecar," instead of the old-fashioned name. This second wave of popularity lasted until about the early 1960s. For a FUN virtual tour of literally HUNDREDS of these tiny cars, just look up the Bruce Weiner Microcar Museum, Madison, GA, on the 'net.

 

RixRex may have hit on a truly extinct cycle car in the Dayton Cyclecar. BUT, cylecars were around quite a while, and examples of the best sellers seem to be pretty plentiful in museums and collections, including an Auto Red Bug (1916-1920, LaFayette, IN) in Jay Leno's Big Dog collection, plus the similar Briggs & Stratton FLYER. They were about as simple as a cyclecar could get, with a wooden bed & driven by a fifth wheel. They were popular for off-road use on estates and at clubs and, often, were sold as toys for kids, too.

I can't find ANY pix that aren't copyrighted. ANYBODY OUT THERE OWN ONE OF THESE, SO YOU CAN POST A PIC?

 

This is the best I've done so far ....

Beaver - Beaver State Motor Co. Gresham, OR 1916-1923


Ben Hur - Ben Hur Motor Co. Willoughby, OH 1916-1918


Bobbi-Kar - Bobbi Motor Car Corp. San Diego, CA 1945-1946
Bobbi-Kar - Bobbi Motor Car Corp. Birmingham, AL 1947


Cutting - Cutting Motor Car Co. Jackson, MI 1911-1912


Darling - Darling Motor Co. Dayton, OH 1917






Electrobat - 1895. The first American automobile race was won by an Electrobat II.





Everybody's - Everybody's Motor Car Mfg. Co. St. Louis, IL & Alton, IL 1907-1909. Everybody's Motor Car Mfg. Co. organized in 1907 built an American Automobile called Everybody's. This light weight runabout was powered by an air cooled flat twin engine that developed 10 horsepower. The reported price of the Everybody was $400.00. Very few of these Runabouts were produced in St. Louis, Illinois and Alton, Illinois.



Gearless - Gearless Motor Car Co. Rochester, NY 1908-1909 & Gearless Transmission Co. Rochester, NY 1907-1908







Geronimo - Geronimo Motor Co. Enid, OK 1917-1920



Zip - Zip Cyclecar Co. Davenport, IA 1913-1914. The Zip Cyclecar Co. was formed in Davenport, Iowa about 1913. By November 1914 this American Cyclecar company was out of business. The Zip was a two passenger side by side Cyclecar. It was equipped with a V-twin cylinder air cooled engine with 10-14 horsepower. The maker of this engine was the Universal Machinery Co. of Milwaukee, WI. A six bladed fan provided cooling, a friction transmission and belt drive were used.

 

As for the others, I haven't been able to find anything about the A C Propulsion, the Dodo (although I've seen a lot of DooDoo at car shows ), or the Royal Princess (However, I found a Royal Touring) ....

 

Toby, YOU have been WORKING at this thread as hard as I have! GREAT stuff, man.

STILL, it's hard to determine if there are surviving specimens of a lot of these makes, or if they just faded into, well . . . EXTINCTION during the Depression and the WWII scrap drives. (Matter of fact, the NYTimes reported that by 1930 ONE MILLION U.S. cars were being junked PER YEAR!!!! CAN ANYBODY NOW IMAGINE HOW MANY PROJECTS WERE GOING DOWN THE TUBES BACK IN 1930?!??!?)

 

Some of those makes were very short lived. I think you'd be hard pressed to find very many surviving examples.

 

Yeah, Toby, one thing I am finding out from posting the original QUESTION is that EVERYONE has a heck of a time finding any PIX (or much info) on many of the literally THOUSANDS of car "makes" made (seemingly) everywhere in the U.S. from the 1890s through most of the 1920S!!!

IT'S HARD!!!

But, this does confirm my belief (echoed by other HAMBers) that the buggy-type cars, and the ones with wooden undercarriages, etc., made pre-1920 just didn't survive in great numbers. Add the fact that many of the car "makes" produced in the early decades were actually only one or two cars made locally by local guys who WANTED to mass produce but just didn't have the facilities or CAPITAL to make it happen. Then you add the fact that most people were not car "collectors" before 1930 and just recycled or junked "worn-out" cars, PLUS the WWII scrap drives, and you have devastation of literally MILLIONS of early automobiles. (!)

One car someone mentioned on this thread, in fact, ONLY had a cast (name-imprinted) manifold to show. So, YEAH, many of the thousands of cars made from the 1890s even into the '20s just don't seem to EXIST anymore.

 

I don't know why I didn't think of Peerless before -- specifically their 1933 model, which was never sold, much less mass produced. There was ONLY one made, and it is in the Crawford Auto and Aviation Museum in Cleveland, the city where Peerless had its factory.

Though Peerless was a well-made luxury car, ranking right up there with Locomobile, Packard and Pierce Arrow, styling lagged behind other luxury cars, UNTIL the '33 model was commissioned to Murphy in Pasadena. Styling was by the same man who would one day design the '49 Caddy.

The V-16 for this beautiful machine was an all-new design, employing much aluminum. Had the model reached the market, this would have been only the third U.S. make to offer a V-16, the others, of course, being Caddy & Marmon.

Before the car even arrived back in Cleveland, the Peerless board of directors voted to leave the auto industry and follow a more lucrative path: brewing Carling beer! The sole '33 Peerless was actually WALLED UP (!) at the Peerless factory, and it stayed there until after WWII.

No, the '33 V-16 Peerless is not "extinct," but with only ONE ever made, that's as close as you can get without being a MYTH!!!

 

I would imagine you can find some iron oxide that used to be a Gearless if you know where to look with a metal detector. I have an old article showing where a road was being reconstructed along the Genesee River in Rochester (near the U of R) about 1925. They were running it through an area that had become a dumping ground for old cars, so they were using a steam shovel to mash cars flat and burying them in a sandpit nearby.

Of course the area looks still different from the mid-20's maps today, so it would probably take an archeologist to locate the mangled remains. And that assumes there's anything left to find - either due to rust, or dug up intentionally or accidentally in the meantime.

 

here the bobbie kar

 

I searched this thread and didn't see a link for this one. The other wikipedia link didn't work for me either. This is a list of defunct manufacturers in the US and the list is HUGE!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_defunct_United_States_automobile_manufacturers

 

heres one from chicago, and is says only three chassis are left, does that count as extinct?

 

i have a book, the complete book of collectible cars, and in the back are some unknow makes but it only goes back to the 40's and didn't sears offer their own car out of the catalog back in the 30's???

 

Arca39, hey, I don't know where you managed to find the BobbiKar material, but that's cool. The TOP pic shows a little roadster, WHICH George Keller didn't have in the works when he up and died of a heart attack. SO, it's good to see what the BobbiKar roadster version might have looked like!