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

Yes it was a Ford Courier Cab with 6 inches removed Thru the Center ,With a Handmade Front Panel. The First Lil Truck he built was Made similarly from a Crosley ,here are some pics of the Article in January 55 issue of "Hotrod" magazine

 

Here is the chassis. I don't know what it is made of. I think there is a number of interesting things going on with this car. Check out the hinge on the back that allows the entire spare tire to swing out like a door. Also the suspension looks unique and potentially underslung.

 

Funny, it looks like air cylinders for the rear shocks, but I would vote for some kind of rubber shock absorber in there, I remember reading about some manufacturer experimenting this kind of stuff on small light cars but can't put a name on it. It was widly used on the Austin Mini though.
@Sunroof, the Cord to Citroen 4 banger conversion was "popular" in France (if we can say so for such rare cars) Because of the cost of gas after WWII and the impossibility to get spare parts for those cars.

 

From this site:
http://asso.proxiland.fr/avec/default.asp?a=7631&b=&m=


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"...............En 1927-28, les établissements Sensaud de Lavaud produisent en France une voiture automobile révolutionnaire (trop pour l’époque!) qui sera présentée aux salons de Paris, mais peu seront vendues. Voici les caractéristiques de ces voitures, dont on possède les photos de 2 modèles:




– Châssis en Alpax (alliage d’aluminium) coulé monopièce;




– Moteur 6 cylindres en Alpax avec chemises humides et soupapes en tête de 5475 cm3 refroidit par ébullition de l’eau, le radiateur servant de condenseur. Ce moteur fut produit par la fonderie de Crans (Isère);




- Boite automatique à variation de vitesse continue (déjà essayée sur une voiture Voisin);




-Différentiel à glissement limité;




– Suspension à roues avant indépendantes (système Lancia Lambda) à ressorts par blocs de caoutchouc;




– Direction à crémaillère et volant réglable en hauteur et profondeur;




– Roues en Alpax coulées incorporant le tambour de freins, et ceci avant Bugatti.




Notez que la boite présélective Wilson apparaît en 1928 et la Cotal en 1934.




Mais cet homme ne s’arrête pas là car en 1933, il conçoit une boite automatique hydraulique sans être un convertisseur de couple. Cette boite sera essayée sur les premières Citroën Traction, les 7A, sans le dispositif épicycloïdal à 2 vitesses (qui en aurait assuré le succès!) On suppose qu’il s’agit d’un sabotage dû à André Lefevre qui n’aimait pas Sensaud de Lavaud. Pensez au « NIH » (Not Invented Here — pas inventé ici), autre point de rejet.

Jean BOULAND




NDRL: Un Museu Dimitri Sensaud de Lavaud existe à Osasco, à Sao Paulo au Brésil."

​

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So it did have rubber suspension. Reading the specs on this car sound more like a 2011 car than 1928.
The Alpax chassis would make it impossible to fix, thats a huge drawback and would be a good reason why none if any survived...

 

Here is the translation:

"............... In 1927-28, the? Establishments Sensaud Lavaud produce a car in France r? Revolutionary (for too? Era!) Which will pr? Feels ? e fairs in Paris, but few will be sold. Here are the characters? characteristics of these cars, which are poss? of photos of 2 mod? of:

? Ch? SSIS Alpax (alloy? Aluminum) casting? monop? this;

? 6 engine Alpax with wet shirts and T-valve? Of 5475 cm3 cools you by? Of boiling? Water heater serving as a condenser. This engine was produced by the foundry Crans (Is? Re);

- Automatic? variable speed continuous (d? j? essay? e on a car Neighbor);


-Diff? Tial? limited slip?;

? Suspension? independent front wheels? pending (system? me Lancia Lambda)? springs by rubber blocks;

? Direction? cr? maill? wheel and re r? adjustable height and depth;

? Color wheels Alpax?'re Incorporating drum brakes front and this Bugatti.

Note that the box pr? S? Lective Wilson appears t in 1928 and Cotal in 1934.

But this man s? Arr? You not? because in 1933 he con? ilo without a hydraulic automatic transmission? be a torque converter. This box will be tried? E on first? Re Citro? N Traction, the 7A, without the device? Picyclo? Dal? 2 speeds (which would have ensured? Success? S!) Assume that? S it? Of acts? Of sabotage? ? Andr? Lefevre who don? Not love Sensaud Lavaud. Think? NIH? (Not Invented Here? Not invented? Here), other discharge point.

Jean BOULAND

NDRL: A Museu Dimitri Sensaud Lavaud exists? Osasco,? Sao Paulo, Brazil Jersey.

 

Here is another picture which shows the hinged spare.

 

Born in 1932, Elizabeth Taylor has passed away at 79. She's is shown below with Montgomery
Clift in one of THE very best movies EITHER ever starred in, "A Place in the Sun" (1950). ANY
car "Liz" ever owned -- or even sat in for a movie! -- would be VERY valuable, indeed. Rest in
peace, Liz. Thanks for the years of entertainment and for just ... being LIZ.

 

Found: Front-Drive Fifties Mystery

Courtesy Of Daniel Strohl; Hemmings Classic Car

So what does everybody make of this? We recently heard from George Albright of Ocala, Florida, who has sent us photos of some of the unusual cars he&#8217;s bought in the past, and who just recently bought this, well, vehicle, with only the vaguest idea of what it is. Supposedly, it was built in about 1950 at the Grumman factory in Wichita, Kansas, and the four men in the photographs are identified as Cameron Bailey, Max Roy, Kelly Krentz, and A. A. Reddy. The steel birdcage-type construction is typical of aircraft construction and the wheels were taken from aircraft landing gear, but the engine is an air-cooled Onan two-cylinder, which drives the front wheels only through a pair of three-speed motorcycle transmissions, possibly Harley-Davidson or Indian.

While it certainly looks similar to some of the flying car concepts that abounded at that time &#8211; particularly Molt Taylor&#8217;s Aerocar &#8211; it is definitely not an Aerocar, and we doubt that this was even designed as anything but a roadable car, given the lack of attachment points or bracing structures for wings. Rather, this appears to be a prototype or one-off design for an economical front-wheel-drive automobile.

However, none of the names of the men given have popped up in our research. Aside from aircraft, Grumman did indeed build vehicles meant for ground transportation &#8211; and still does today. They delved into bus manufacture in 1963 and today build the LLV postal vehicles you see delivering your mail. But so far, we haven&#8217;t seen anything that references Grumman building a front-wheel-drive automobile at that time. Whatever the history behind this thing, we&#8217;re glad to see it&#8217;s still around.

UPDATE: According to Randy M., Grumman has never had a facility in Wichita, so there goes that part of the story. He also noted that this birdcage style of aircraft construction wasn&#8217;t utilized by Grumman and that it quickly fell out of favor after World War II. Oh, and the wheels and tires were not taken from aircraft, rather from some sort of ground support vehicle. Thanks for the input, Randy!

Click on the post title for more pictures.

 

Amazing, when my friend bought this rare '31 Peerless Club Sedan last summer, we could find no pictures of a Peerless Club Sedan in any books or any where on the internet and then recently, a vintage picture of a '31 Peerless Club Sedan shows up on ebay and an all original '31 Peerless Club Sedan shows up in Rhode Island, supposedly stored since the '70s. Only 5 1931 Peerless Club Sedans are said to still exist.

See a video and more pictures of the Rhode Island Peerless here;

http://tomlaferriere.com/1931_peerless_custom_eight_club_for_sale.htm

 

Wow, Jim! What a red-letter day, eh? When you brought this up months ago, it was surely interesting on the thread topic. BUT, I honestly never thought visual evidence like THIS would show up, especially so relatively quickly! CONGRATS to you and your friend both!!!

 

I remember when I was just a wee lad (early 50s) walking with my father and going by a driveway that had a Peerless sedan parked in it. I had to ask the old man what "peerless" meant. He actually gave me a good explanation.

Seeing these photos awoke a long-sleeping memory. I looked for any shots I might have made of this marque, but came up empty. Maybe at the next Concours event I shoot...

Great photos, great car.

 

On the HUNT here again! It's a one-of-a-kind prototype built in 1936, and Coachbuilt says that it still exists -- but WHERE?

It was called the DeVo [sic] and was the brainchild of Norman DeVaux, whom our Barry knows well. The car was built for Devaux and F.F. Beall, specifically for foreign markets, by the M.T. Moller Co. of Hagerstown, MD, the year before Mathias P. Moller passed away at 84.

DeVo automobile, a diminutive 4-5 passenger sedan introduced by Norman deVaux and F.F. Beall in late1936 using a 4-cylinder Continental on a 102&#8221; wheelbase chassis. The export-only motorcar never got off the ground although the prototype remains extant and is thought to be the very last vehicle built by the Moller organization.

M.P. Moller had to have been a wise businessman, witness the fact that his holdings were quite diverse. Over the decades, ventures included production of several successful auto lines, including the Crawford, Moller and Dagmar marques, as well as NUMEROUS taxi lines, prominent among them being the well-known Luxor and the opulent Paramount. Additionally, Moller built cars and/or bodies for several other companies and individuals (including James Martin of aeronautical repute), in addition to general stamped-steel products. Wow.

There's a TON more on Moller and his works (though nothing more on the ultra-scarce DeVo auto) HERE: www.coachbuilt.com/bui/m/moller_mp/moller_mp.htm.

Can ANY HAMBers help locate the DeVo car and info about it? Barring that, a PIC of the prototype from 1936?

 

After not saying anything about DeVo for MONTHS, I post an A.P.B. here. THEN, I suddenly stumble on a lead! I'll have to contact Dawie in South Africa & see what he may know!

this link - index.html
The one and only DeVo is alive and well and living in South Africa. ...
www.the-automobile.co.uk/search_index_08_06_24.txt

 

google.co.za has a facility to search South African pages only. Such a search produced the following:

The car belongs to the bride's grandfather. That's a Gauteng province plate, and the wedding venue's phone number has a Johannesburg code.

The wedding took place on 1 November 2008.

I'll see what else I can find.

 

Holy cats, Dawie, you're fast! It really is a petite car -- and wonderfully kept. Just makes us want to see about 10 more pix of this one-of-a-kind! HUGE thanks for searching, and best of LUCK in finding more. And seeing the newlyweds with the car is a TREAT! Life is good.

Jee-whiz I love it when a group of people can pursue a thread like this. Even when we've concluded that certain cars are actually EXTINCT, we've often turned up a factory photo, magazine ad illustration, tech info, etc. In other cases, it's been a surprise and a victory to find ONE survivor of a make we'd though maybe EXTINCT. Then, there have been all the one-offs, concepts, prototypes, experimentals, odd-balls, too! Ton of fun, showing and talking about them all amongst the guys and gals.

I'll see if I can do at least a quick run-down on a number of the ones we've pretty much nailed as EXTINCT, rare and ULTRA-RARE. 'bout time, I think.

 

By the way, Chrisp, Wrench409 and ALL who participated in the search and commentary RE the STRAIGHT-12s of Voisin and Packard: Kit Foster sent his thanks and appreciation for the info and especially the PIX of the two engines. One he didn't have at all, the other only a poor, grainy pulp illustration from an old Packard Cormorant. So, in Kit's behalf, THANKS, all!!!


Packard, c. 1922


Voisin, c. 1934

He'd done a feature on his "Carport" site on various cylinder configs through the many decades. Now he says he's fired up to do a follow-up! And we helped a tad.

BTW, most people probably know Kit's work, but if there are any newbies looking, you can LOSE yourself at "Kit Foster's Carport"! Don't go there if you don't have some time!

 

I spose this is a little sacrilegious, but wouldn't it be interesting to use one or the other motor in a rat rod? Sorta like Brian Thomas' Straight-8 Packard or Richard's Pontiac...but with just a little more "over the top" to it.

I spose a Marmon V-16 or even the WWI-vintage Napier W-12 in the photos could be fun. I bet it was a blast for the driver of the Napier-Bentley.

 

These are not necessarily extinct as I have seen several Model "T" and Model "A" Snowmobiles but I have never seen a Chevrolet Snowmobile. They are interesting though.

 

Hey, SunRoof! Brrrrr! NO windscreen or side curtains, either!!! EEE-YOW!



Cute little '22 car! The Wing Midget was advertised as something way more
than the earlier cyclecar craze. I'm only guessing, but I'll bet none of these
double-chain-drive jobs still exists. Women drivers probably busted 'em all
up! JUST JOKING, LADIES!!! LOL

 

I came across some more infos on the Voisin 12 again from a Rene Bellu book
In 1936 it was introduced to the public at the Paris auto show but with a sealed hood because there was no engine in it, from the show there is only one picture known of the car, apparently the car wasn on display there only for some hours.
Here's the pic

Since the car wasn't introduced to the press, the monthly mag "Horizons" published on their cover a fake Voisin Coupe Ailee V12L

You can see that the bumper, the wheels, the horns are wrong and the grill is just painted over an Aerosport picture
Then their are those drawings of the Ailee coupe and the Croisiere sedan

 

Jimi; Hey, SunRoof! Brrrrr! NO windscreen or side curtains, either!!! EEE-YOW!

SunRoof; Look again, the doctor had side curtains. LOL

 

OOPS! I guess that I needed t blow that up, what with my OLD eyes! Nyuk, nyuk!

 

Not a Chevy snowmobile, but a 30/31 Model A that (supposedly) was used by the USPS (or whatever it was called back then...US Mail Service?) in the Colorado Rockies. Please pardon the low image quality. The photos were shot with a cheap point 'n shoot around 10 years ago while I was snooping around in Minnesota.





Note the skis mounted inside the front wheels.

Can you imagine driving a mail route with something like this? I'm sure there was a body box with a manifold heater and it must have been one hell of an improvement over horseback or horse-drawn sleigh, but still..."the mail must go through."

 

Very cool, that's a 28-29 BTW.

 

Cool. I think the definititve Voisin book is Automobiles Voisin: 1919-1958 by Pascal Courteault. Unfortunately, the book is unobtainable mostly and when you can buy a copy the cost is insane.

 

Back on page 32 of this thread, we took a look at a '53 Buick Skylark Hardtop that is said to be a factory one off.

Now, a '54 Skylark Hardtop has shown up in an upcoming Mecum Auction. So, the question is; Is it a factory built car or not? There is no information about the car in the listing.

Seems like I have read about a '54 Skylark Hardtop in the past that was not factory but memory is telling me that car was Maroon.

Here is an interesting thread I found that pretty much proves that this is NOT a factory built car.

http://www.hometownbuick.de/1954/showthread.php?6100-shylark-HT

 

Jim, maybe the answer is obvious to those who know the auction world, but I don't, so here goes: Wouldn't it be unethical (or worse) to represent a car as factory when it is not? And avoiding the issue would be, in effect, the same as misrepresentation, right? or am I over-simplifying a complex matter?

 

I've been wanting to write something about the Hol-Tan automobile of 1908 for quite some time, folks. BUT, there are LOTS of defunct and extinct makes, SO it takes a metric ton of time! In my opinion, the Hol-Tan goes in the NEVER-WUZ category.

Not that there were no cars bearing the Hol-Tan name, derived from the surnames of the founders, Hollander and Tangeman. Problem was, they were just re-badged Moons from St. Louis, sold to Hol-Tan in New York City for the specific purpose of carrying the Hol-Tan crest. Notably, Moon was a relative fledgling company itself at the time. The circumstances leading to "creation" of the Hol-Tan marque are not all that odd. The company had sold imported Fiats, as well as the race-winning but short-lived, American-made Shawmut . The worthy Shawmut (1906-08) -- also now EXTINCT -- went out of business after fire destroyed the factory and all but one of the cars then under construction. Fiat decided to build Fiats in the U.S., which they did through 1918. But when Fiat PULLED their license from Hol-Tan's dealership, Hol-Tan had to have SOMETHING to sell, fast!

BTW, auto historian Curt McConnell has said NO Hol-Tans survive today -- EXTINCT. Even that begs the question how many of the by-order-only Hol-Tans were actually sold in '08. Perhaps due to the purchase and shipping costs from St. Louis, Hol-Tan simply couldn't hold down unit costs and make a profit. Seems likely. Custom coachwork could also be done in New York, but even the run-of-the-mill Hol-Tan (nee Moon) could run $3,000 and up! In 1908? Ouch!

The Hol-Tan company returned to being a dealer ONLY by 1909, selling Lancia and Delaunay-Bellville autos.




This ad from the November 24, 1907, New York Daily Tribune actually
foists a fib upon the reader, in that the company had LOST its Fiat import
license. A dealer, Hol-Tan never actually made any cars of their own,
and the few Hol-Tan autos sold in 1908 were, in fact, rebadged Moons
from St. Louis!




For reference, here's a 1909 Moon tourer, thanks to Royal Feltner
of EarlyAmericanAutomobiles.

 

When the Phelps automobile factory shut down in late 1905, the Shawmut Automobile Company moved in and made the famous Shawmut for four years. The Shawmut was one of the best automobiles built while it lasted.

It won the Pan Pacific Race in 1909 from New York to Seattle with no spare parts and no major mechanical problems.

Ford claimed victory but he was later disqualified for changing engines.

In November of 1908, the Shawmut factory burned with all of the cars and supplies. A Shawmut car was borrowed from a customer to compete in the race.

Because the Shawmut factory could not find investors to make more cars, it was closed down.

The Pan Pacific Race has been thouroughly researched and can be read at;

www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com/shawmutrace.htm

The entire race was covered by only the New York Times and their account is depicted here. No automobille magazine of that period covered this race.

Consequently Henry Ford got away with rigging it and was backed up by all of the important people that were involved with it. One other driver finished the race and he verified Shawmut's claim to no avail.

More Here;

http://www.carlustblog.com/2009/12/the-great-race.html

And Here;

http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=2151

Pictured is;

1.

A 1908 Shawmut Roadster

2.

The Shawmut and Model "T" Ford automobiles that were used in the Pan Pacific race on display at the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle Washington in 1909. Photo by Frank H. Nowell, Courtesy UW Special Collections