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

Hey there, cl, you are very right. We just recently showed the ol' sotne-face at the wheel. A reprise:

 

Okay, here's a "What is it?"

 

Heeeey! What's that pulling the trailer? Terraplane?
Graham? Other? (Thanks to a site, pinecrestretreat.)

 

Here is a rarely seen 36 Hudson straight 8 coming up for auction.

<table class="details fullwidth"><tbody><tr><td class="bold nopad">Estimate:</td></tr><tr><td class="nopad">$80,000-$100,000 US</td></tr> <tr> <td class="extrapad">108 bhp, 254.47 cu. in. “Powerdome” L-head inline eight-cylinder engine, single-barrel carburetor, three-speed manual transmission, solid front axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, semi-floating rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, and four-wheel mechanical drum brakes. Wheelbase: 116"

- Efficient and powerful eight-cylinder engine
- From the first year of streamlined design
- One of fewer than 10 examples remaining
- Well presented with many recent improvements

Few realize that the Hudson marque was named after department store magnate Joseph L. Hudson, one of the eight founders of the Hudson Motor Car Company. While Hudson’s reputation was built on its Six and Super Six models of the 1920s, it moved further up-market with the Eight of 1930.

The Eight was remarkably efficient and powerful, quickly enjoying high demand among various law enforcement agencies and proving quite capable of catching Prohibition-era “bootleggers.” In fact, Hudson’s Eight remained far more powerful than Henry Ford’s V8 throughout the 1930s, and overall, Hudson’s automobiles represented a strong value.

This dashing 1934 Hudson Convertible Coupe also illustrates Hudson’s shift to streamlined design. It was first restored in 1970, beginning with a solid, rust-free original car, and according to the Hudson Register, it is extremely rare as one of fewer than 10 examples remaining today. The prior owner rebuilt the engine, including new Babbitt-type bearings, as well as the clutch.

Recently, the current owner acquired the Hudson and invested some $30,000, with brand-new leather upholstery, new carpeting, a new wood-grain dash, a custom-built black convertible top with red piping, a glass rear window, a new matching top boot, a restored top mechanism and a new set of Coker wide whitewall radial tires. Features include suicide doors, a rumble seat, a flip-out windshield, a factory-fitted spotlight, an intricately hinged array of engine-cooling vents, an Art Deco “bird in the nest” hood mascot and a very rare factory radio, which is complete but requires connection. Incredibly rare and very well presented, this 1934 Hudson Eight Convertible is an outstanding and drivable alternative to the much more common Ford V8s of the era. Best of all, it runs cool in traffic, with more power and performance to boot.</td></tr></tbody></table>

 

Here's one I came across last evening in an old Auburn Cord Duesenberg Club Newsletter from 1977. A 1947 Delechaux Cord Prototype. In a letter from Griffith Borgeson to Jerry Gebby;

The pix are of the Delechaux Cord prototype which was exhibited, in chassis form at least at the Paris show of 1947. A friend of mine owns the power train and frame (and would be willing to sell them). The thing is interesting in that it anticipated the Issognosis east-west layout rather accurately. I trust these pics will be of interest to Cord enthusiasts (GB)

 

Thanks...read up on the Astral, Atomic Power? anything ever come of this or just dreamin? I want a Studebaker Atomic V/8 with proton injection and a super-collider exhaust system...

 

SunRoof, this is fascinating! Cord was GONE after '37, so WHO
was behind this proposal??? The details would be great, fer shur!

 

Yo, RixRex, only place I know of to get a PRODUCTION
version of the Stude-Packard atomic-powered Astral!
I think the Plexiglas bubble was an OPTION! LOL



Image is THANKS to a site, verdegonebad.wordpress.
Of course the Jetson family are characters created by
Hanna-Barbera Productions, the series' original creators
from 1960.

 

O.k., I assume that the Issognosis east-west layout refers to mounting the engine in a transverse manner? Have never heard of this car. Engine looks a bit small to power that tucker sized drawing.

 

Apparently a REAL orphan! Even Royal F doesn't have info,
just a pic! COULD THIS BE THE ONLY ONE IN EXISTENCE???

 

I'm sure some guys & gals on the HAMB will get their blood pumping of this car from Royal Feltner's site. It's NOT that Stutz Bearcats are extinct (though not common). It is that the Bearcat has the distinction of being a period-defining iconic car, just as the Blue Streak was for the early '30s. This surely is a nice specimen!


1918 Stutz Bearcat Roadster
Ideal Motor Car Co. Indianapolis, IN, 1911-1935

 

And SINCE we're onto sweet, yellow roadsters, here's another one!
(Note, the Pullman auto was in no way related to the company that
was famous for rail coaches.)



1910 Pullman Raceabout
York Motor Car Co. York, PA, 1903-1917

 

And a reprise on the Bearcat!



1923 Stutz-Bearcat
Ideal Motor Car Co. Indianapolis, IN, 1911-1935

 

And WHO here doesn't love a Kissel???



1923 Kissel Gold Bug
Kissel Motor Co. Hartford, Wis., 1906-1931

 

This picture comes from the June 1963 Minnesota Region, Horseless Carriage Club Of America newsletter. It is of the 1909 Luverne that has been in the same family since 1950. The quote next to the picture reads;

One of two hundred produced at Luvene Minnesota from 1909-1915, and is believed to be the only existing Luverne today.

That may have been so in 1963 but the 2010 National Horseless Carriage Club Directory lists a 1905 Luverne owned by a fellow who lives in Luverne Minnesota.

 

Carl Cedargren's 1913 Hudson Speedster, a former Pebble Beach and Amelia Island class winner.

 

"Geronimo." Engine J-322, built by Hal Ulrich, one of D. Cameron Peck's mechanics, back in the 1940s.

 

Philbert the Puddle Jumper

Jay Remembers the Three-Wheeled Car

Once, a 17-year-old could build a three-wheeled car and drive it around the country.

By Jay Leno

October 1, 2009

Ten years ago, I received a letter from a man named Bob Shotwell who lived in a small town in Minnesota. He knew that I liked old cars from watching me on television. And he wanted to give me one.

He recalled that he asked his father for a car as he was about to graduate from high school in the early 1930s. But his dad replied that if he wanted a car, he should build one. So, 17-year-old Bob scrounged parts and made his own car. It was a little three-wheeled coupe powered by a 77.2-cu.-in. four-cylinder 1931 Indian motorcycle engine. Bob called it Philbert the Puddle Jumper. He and his brother, Edward, made headlines in local newspapers in the Northwest when they drove it on a 6000-plus-mile jaunt. He told me that he eventually racked up 150,000 miles on it.

Bob Shotwell went on to a career as a pilot for Northwest Airlines, retiring in 1975. He married and raised two children--and his little coupe was always an important part of the family's life.

But at age 82, he was afraid that the car would end up being torn apart by motorcycle guys for its precious Indian engine. He didn't want that to happen. So, he said he'd give me Philbert as long as I promised that I wouldn't break it up.

I liked the idea that the car had been in one family all these years, and that Bob and his brother had driven it all over. He sent me a picture of him standing next to the car (above left). That clinched it.I sent an Intercity Lines transporter to Minnesota to get it. The coupe had been sitting outside for years. When the transport driver saw it, he was delighted. "This is the only car we've ever shipped where we don't have to check off all the damage," he told me. "I just checked Damaged."After the three-wheeler arrived at my garage, I examined it. I was simply dumbfounded. It's a classic hot rod, cleverly built by a young guy with innate engineering ability, made of whatever parts were available to him.

Interestingly, the editors at Popular Mechanics sent me a copy of The Boy Mechanic, a book the magazine originally published in the 1930s and republished this year. It was aimed at boys age 8 and up. I looked at a lot of the projects. No kid today could build them. I don't think guys in their 20s could tackle some of them. But back in the '30s, there was no TV, no video games--some people didn't even have a radio. So, kids developed the skills to create their own neat stuff. Bob Shotwell was obviously a child of that era.

He took a front end from a Model A Ford, cut it down a little bit and used the hubs from a '32 Ford. But at the little coupe's heart is the Indian four-cylinder engine with its integral three-speed transmission driving the single rear wheel via a chain. There's no Reverse. And there were two little electric blowers for cooling everything in the engine compartment.

Bob made a frame with chromemoly steel tubing and angle iron. He hammered the body panels by hand out of flat stock steel at his father's radiator repair shop. He even designed a pair of little outrigger rear wheels, probably taken from shopping carts, to keep Philbert from flipping if the rear tire blew. Bob took two years to build the car and he spent about $300 on the project.

I was really impressed with Bob's ingenuity and resourcefulness. As we began restoring the car, I felt a real kinship to the man. Simply by looking at what he had done, I knew I liked Bob Shotwell. As with musicians who admire each other's music, I felt a bond with this mechanically minded man.

But the decades had taken their toll on Philbert. The engine wasn't just worn out; it was exhausted. We replaced the original gravity-feed carburetor with an SU carb--modern compared to what was there--and an electric fuel pump. We saved the block and crank but put in new pistons and rods, and replaced all the valves. Everything we did on the car was difficult, since it all had to be hand-fitted.

We also had to upgrade things for California's climate. First, we replaced Bob's oil cooler with a larger one. But on my first test run, I smelled acid. Driving in the Los Angeles heat had melted the battery. So, we put air scoops on the roof to feed a more powerful fan. We also removed his fender-mounted spare tires and smoothed the fenders to give the car a sleeker look.

As we were working, I checked in with Bob from time to time. When I first got the car, I think he thought that we'd have it in shape and running over a weekend. But it was an overwhelming project and took a few years.

I never did meet Bob Shotwell. He died in 2004. But I know he was thrilled that his car was not simply broken up and salvaged for parts. I think he'd appreciate the modifications we made to modernize the car without changing it much. I keep in touch with his wife, Peggy. She still lives in Minnesota, and since her husband's car is in Hollywood now, it's of interest to people back there who've known about it for years.

Maybe the best thing about Philbert the Puddle Jumper is that it is a driveable and vital link to a very different time. A kid building a three-wheeled car and driving it for decades is something that could have happened once, but that world is lost forever.

Just think: In those days a 17-year-old could go to the motor vehicle bureau to get license plates for a homebuilt, motorcycle-powered vehicle. The folks at the office would say, "What kind of car is that?"

"Oh, I made it myself."

"Lights work? Horn work? Okay, here are your tags."

Can you imagine?

Now Leno's, the car is restored and ready to rumble.

 

1937 Brauks 8 Custom Terraplane 5 Window Coupe

This green 1937 Brauks 8 five window coupe is a one-off custom-built early car ready to be restored or rodded. This may be one of the first custom "pre-hot rod" cars ever build. The car was created by George S. Brauks, a St. Louis, Missouri foundry pattern maker and carriage builder. The front of the car is a 1937 Hudson Terraplane 2 door coupe. From the cowl back, the car appears to be a sectioned 1936 DeSoto 4 door trunk back wood-framed sedan. The rear door and body were sectioned out, then the front door was shortened. Finally, the entire body was narrowed lengthwise on the centerline to create a narrow body width. The hubcaps is embossed "Brauks 8". For the power train, Mr. Brauks made custom foundry patterns, cast the parts blanks and then machined the one-off straight eight L-head 115 CID 65 HP motor and three speed manual transmission. The crankshaft features a dual 90 degree offset design. Many of the ancillary motor parts are also handmade. The intake and exhaust manifolds are custom fabricated from welded tubing. The cast iron 8 cylinder head is only 22" in length. The motor is out of the car, apart, complete and ready to be restored. The brown fabric interior is all there. The dash is in good condition. The car uses Terraplane gauges, which are in restorable condition. This is an opportunity to own and restore a professionally-built one-off 5 window custom 5 window coupe. It is the only one in the world and likely one of only a few cars ever built with a custom-built power train.

 

Great story. And I am glad Jay makes "space" in the
Big Dog Garage for this unique piece of Americana!!!

 

Hey, Jim! That is a great revelation. So, apparently, there are IN EXISTENCE TWO Luverne automobiles, and that presumably)
would be IN ADDITION to the one you were aware of that's currently in deep storage (year unknown?). So we'd have a 1909 and a 1905, plus one unspecified?



Gosh, sure would be great if the one in storage turned out to be the '15 Special Speedster with 377-CID, 5-inch-stroke, 60-horse Beaver 6 !!!

 

The Luverne is one of the makes that really captured my fancy early in this thread -- WHICH has been an incomparable, enriching learning experience for me, thanks to some very dedicated, well-studied auto historians who have been regulars, plus the occasional informed "visitor."



In particular, the Leicher Brothers cars are fascinating to me in that they were never intended for a "mass market" as the Model T was. Instead, like the Spaulding and the Geronimo, they were built as a "regional" automobile. They were almost in the made-to-order category, but it is clear that the Leichers only built what seemed to be in demand in Minnesota and nearby northwestern states. (NOTE: I goofed earlier and said northeast. My bad! But at least the goof was obvious and probably deluded no one!)



Check out the STANDARD equipment that came on a 1912 Luverne for a bit over $2 Grand. They were right on top of the electric starter, too! They must have been pretty fancy, what with leather & horse hair interior upholstery, German-silver-plated radiator shell and nickel-plated exterior trim. I'd go so
far as to categorize the Leicher Brothers as very PROGRESSIVE, coming out of the brass-lamp era. This equipment list is THANKS to AmericanAutomobiles.com.

 

Here's a different angle on the Curtiss Aerocar from 1938. Tractor up front is Chevy, if I recall correctly. Reminds ya a tad of the LaBatt's rig we had on a few months back.



1938 Curtiss Aerocar, thanks to, thewallacecollection.net/.

 

This story of how the man contacted Jay Leno and asked to give him the car is something my dad told me about many many years ago and he called it the "Bill Harrah" effect. Basically Bill Harrah could buy cars that were not for sale to anyone else (and pay less also) just because he was Bill Harrah. Guys would have a car locked in the garage that was absolutely not for sale to anyone, until Bill came calling.

That is a neat car, btw. Just need to clean up the front end treatment a tad and it will look very nice.

 

Sorry Jimi; The 1909 Touring car IS THE ONE that's in deep storage. Been in the same family since 1950.

 

OK, Jim-Bo. BUT, we have an actual 1905?

 

Ya just don't get to see many Graham Brothers trucks. This '28 "screen-side" is owned by Michael & Louise Luberts, members of the Golden Era Automobile Association.

But somebody, please clarify something for me. I thought the Graham brothers helped Dodge early on, then went their own way -- BUT with some sort of contractual agreement not to do trucks. THEN (as I recall, perhaps wrongly) Graham had to get out of trucks altogether. I am confused.

 

Pan Motor Company, St. Cloud, Minnesota, 1918-22

he founder of this company, Samuel Conner Pandolfo, created one of the largest frauds in the history of the American car industry. Pan Motor was incorporated in Delaware in 1918 to give the appearance it was a legitimate company. There was a large factory built in St. Cloud, Minnesota and and the company started production. The car had many attractive features including an adjustable lever that allowed the seats of Pan cars to be transformed into a double bed.

The concept seemed to be a good idea but the company totally mislead investors on the production levels and profitability. Pandolfo ended up raising over $9.5 million by selling stock to 70,000 people. By 1919, the investors were getting nervous and lawsuits were filed. Most plaintiffs were charging misrepresentation in literature mailed to prospective shareholders. Consequently, in December, 1919, the Federal Court of Chicago found Pandolfo guilty of mail fraud.

Pandolfo was finally arrested was was sent to Leavenworth to make license plate while in prison. Pan Motors went out of business in 1922 after only producing 737 cars in four years. The company was liquidated in 1925. The shareholders lost everything.

Of the 737 cars produced, only 5 are known to still exist; 3 by private owners (2 in MN, and 1 in NY), 1 by the Pantowners Car Club in St. Cloud, MN, and 1 in the AACA Museum in Hershey, PA.

 

For every person who buys the line that
Sam Pandolfo was simply a conniving crook,
I'll wager you'll find TWO who think he was
a saint. Read Posts # 2730, 2732 and 2734.
Still today, you'll find staunch defenders --
especially in St. Cloud -- who think Sam was
railroaded. (You can't fight city hall, eh?)
How many "crooks" return to the "scene
of the crime" after prison, to a HERO's
welcome-home?

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=4 width=160 align=left bgColor=#ffffff border=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=top align=middle></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>



Sam Pandolfo