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

Driggs-Seabury Vulcan

An unusually complete offering from a gunmaker

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Feature Article from Hemmings Motor News
December, 2011 - David Traver Adolphus



If Driggs-Seabury Ordnance Corporation is remembered at all today, it's as the maker of the World War I Lewis machine guns, and their association with Savage Arms, whom they bought in 1915. But with the workforce, foundry and precision machine tooling capabilities of an ordnance maker, they had all the ingredients needed for an early automaker. This they did periodically, under their own brands and for others as well, including a Teens Driggs-Seabury cyclecar; Twenties Driggs automobile; Commer truck; Twombleys for the 1914-'15 model years; and Vulcans for an Ohio company.
The Vulcan name, however, originated with Driggs-Seabury because in 1912, a year before they built the cars under contract, they were building a range of commercial Vulcan trucks at a Sharon, Pennsylvania, factory.
<TABLE align=left hspace="5"><TBODY><TR><TD></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>Vulcans were standard mechanical fare, with models named "First" for the three-tonners, through "Fifth" for a seven-ton model, "Second," "Third" and "Fourth" stopping at four, four-and-a-half and five tons on the way. First through Fourth used an L-head, 331-cu.in. four making 30hp, while the larger truck used a 36hp 390. Illustrations show the 390 sporting a "Vulcan" logo, and this was only one of many parts made in-house, which included the radiator, transmission, running gear, axles and worm gear steering. Driggs-Seabury's initial announcements stated that they intended to build a comprehensive range of trucks from one to eight tons (First through Ninth, presumably), but they may have been more special order products rather than standard catalog fare.
Three- through five-ton Vulcans had a water pump, while larger used thermosiphon cooling to move water through a cellular radiator in a shock-mounted, cast-aluminum housing. Bosch high-tension dual ignition started them, and power went via a cone clutch to one of two three-speed transmissions with integral differential, depending on tonnage. Rear wheels were chain-driven dual artillery spoke detachables in standard SAE sizes, front and rear track 66 inches in all models. All Vulcans had drop-forged axles, heavy pressed-steel frames and a 144-inch wheelbase up to three tons, 162 inches above that. An additional selling point for Vulcan was an unusually high top speed, governed to 18 MPH in a First.
Vulcan prices started at $3,600, and Driggs-Seabury publicly debuted a Third and a Fifth at the January 1913 New York Truck Show in Madison Square Garden. More than 200,000 people passed by that week, and reviewers praised the obvious quality of Vulcan construction. The Savage acquisition and need to produce guns for Europe seem to have quietly phased out the trucks in 1915, although not before they sold several hundred to the British, French and Russian armies.

This article originally appeared in the December, 2011 issue of Hemmings Motor News.

 

Nice Photograph, were did you come across this rarity?

 

The 1950-1951 Lincoln Lido and Capri were the result of a harsh reality: Despite the great strides made with its new 1949 models, Ford Motor Company still had a lot of catching up to do.

True, its cars now boasted contemporary flush-fender styling and fully modern chassis with independent front suspension and longitudinal semi-elliptic rear leaf springs. But years of engineering stagnation had left Dearborn with flathead engines , while rivals had begun to issue more efficient overhead-valve designs. Further, the firm lacked its own automatic transmission, now fast-becoming a sales necessity, especially in Lincoln's price class.

These deficits would be duly corrected, but Ford lacked something else in 1949: a "hardtop-convertible." General Motors surprised the entire industry that year with its airy new Buick Riviera, Cadillac Coupe DeVille, and Oldsmobile Holiday.

Though sales started out modestly enough -- just 9,499 -- one didn't have to be clairvoyant to see that they could only go up. And they did with the 1950 arrival of lower-priced Chevrolet and Pontiac models and a trio from Chrysler Corporation, which had considered hardtops back in 1946.

Ford, still on the financial ropes in 1949, found itself unable to answer GM's initiative right away. But since the first postwar Ford held the key to Dearborn's future, it naturally got the firm's first hardtop, rushed out for 1951 as the Custom Victoria V-8.

By that point, Ford had pretty much finalized an all-new 1952 corporate lineup that included Mercury and Lincoln hardtops, but there was neither money nor time for them in 1949, or even 1950-1951.

Nevertheless, company pride dictated some kind of quick response, so Ford did about the only thing it could: give ordinary coupes hardtop styling flair. The result was a quartet of 1950 limited editions: Ford Crestliner, Mercury Monterey and Lincoln's Lido and Capri. The last are probably the most collectible of the bunch, being not only the most expensive and luxurious, but the rarest.

Sincere Thanks to "How Stuff Works" for the above information.

Image one; Most people either loved or hated 1950-1951 Lincoln Lido and Capri bathtub styling, but at least it was memorable.

Image Two; Both the 1950-1951 Lincoln Lido and Capri were outfitted with extra chrome for sparkle.

 

Like Crestliner and Monterey, the hardtop 1950-1951 Lincoln Lido and Capri were mechanically identical with their linemates, but easily distinguished by contrasting leather-look vinyl roof coverings.

Both the Lincoln Lido and Capri sparkled a little more than other Lincolns, with bright drip rails, rocker moldings, and twin door mirrors, plus a gold-color Cosmopolitan hood ornament on Lido and chrome wheelarch "eyebrows" front and rear on Capri. Interiors took on a more opulent look, too, with unique door panels and premium upholstery of leather and cord cloth.

Size was the principal difference. Lido, the "junior" Lincoln coupe, shared its body with Mercury, but on a wheelbase three inches longer ahead of the cowl. The Lincoln Capri bowed as an upmarket version of the senior Cosmopolitan coupe. Prices reflected this. At $2,721, the Lincoln Lido cost $192 more than the standard coupe, while the $3,350 Lincoln Capri stood $221 upstream of the regular Cosmopolitan model. The 250-pound-lighter Lincoln Lido was predictably faster and more agile than the Lincoln Capri, but not much.

Dearborn also did about the only thing it could in lieu of its own automatic transmission: use somebody else's. After an unsuccessful try at buying Ultramatic from Packard, it secured GM's Hydra-Matic, which was the better choice. Lincoln first offered it beginning in June 1949, and would continue to do so through 1954.

With their smooth and reliable -- but less efficient -- flathead V-8, the "bathtub" Lincoln Lido and Capri weren't as fast as ohv Cadillacs, Oldsmobile 88s, and hemi-powered Chryslers. Yet they could do a genuine 100 mph and exhibited granitic long-haul durability. As proof, Johnny Mantz drove a standard sedan to 11th overall in the 1950 Mexican Road Race, averaging 91 mph on some sections and actually leading the vaunted Oldsmobile 88 of Herschel McGriff by 11½ minutes.

But this didn't help the sales of the Lincoln Lido and Capri -- hampered by those stiff prices and a very late introduction (July 5, 1950) -- nor Lincoln in general, whose 1950 volume reached barely half the record 1949 total. Nevertheless, the pseudo-hardtops returned for 1951 with the minor styling and mechanical changes applied to all Lincolns. These included longer, squared-up rear fenders for Lincoln Lido, no wheelarch "eyebrows" for Lincoln Capri, and identifying name script for both. Not surprisingly, demand remained very limited.

Just how limited is hard to say, because Lincoln lumped Lido/Capri production in with that of the standard coupes. It seems likely, though, that no more than 2,000 Lidos and 1,000 Capris left the factory each year -- not the rarest cars in Detroit history, but rare enough to have made them collector's items long ago.

Thanks Again to "How Stuff Works" for the above information.

The 1951 Lincoln Lido Coupe was a successor to the "bar of soap" design style.

 

The Capri version was based on the Lincoln Cosmopolitan body.

 

The Mercury Monterey's special touches were designed under the direction of William Schmidt, whose Lincoln-Mercury Division stylists performed a light face lift of Eugene Gregorie's 1949 Mercury design for 1950. The custom coupe came with a choice of canvas or vinyl roof coverings, and fabric-and-leather or all-leather seats. Bright trim edged the windows on the inside, and a deluxe steering wheel was used.

Pictures below courtesy of "Second Chance Garage;

http://www.secondchancegarage.com/public/photogallery/1950-mercury-monterey-dsf.cfm

 

Title:

Oscar Mayer Ice Delivery Truck



Description:

A man uses tongs to remove a block of ice from the back of an International D-300 owned by the Oscar Mayer Company as he makes a delivery to a residence.







Man delivering ice from an Oscar Meyer truck, Madison, Wisconsin, 1940. Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Image ID: 6915.

 

sorry for the late reply, just red it today. you're right, it was fully destroyed, the latest home of his collection burnt down to the ground, it happened just 10 miles from my home. i formerly worked in a classic car garage, and next to me were the Raffay-collection stored in the 90's, they moved away to the later burnt building in i think 2003 or so. every test drive of customer cars or sometimes bikes led me to my 'neighbours', two very experienced and talented workers who was employed by Mr. Raffay to watch over his beauties and prepare them for rallies and meets world wide. i saw this Lohner-Porsche in action, he had an unbelievable collection of prototypes and uniques and orphan cars... after these weekly ten-minute-coffee-brakes i went back to work just like a dumb school knowing just nothing, while working on the simple 2-stroke DKW cars... they fixed everything or rebuilt it, for there are no spareparts ever produced for some of these cars!! Horch, Austro-Daimler etc.. a shame this collection was destroyed!

 

After two years of ownership, participation in 5 Concours, and numerous posts on the subject, all over the internet, I am now convinced that mine is the only roadable, restored or patina'd 1933 Continental Flyer in the western hemisphere. There is a restored factory RHD Flyer in New Zealand, but that's it.

I entered the car in the Orphan Car Show in Ypsilanti last year. Of the thousands of collectors, spectators and judges, most had never heard of the brand and not a single person at a single show told me they had ever seen one in person.

After taking the car apart two winters ago I found that there was no wear on the car, at 50,000 miles. I simply put it back together to factory specs, with some modern seals, took a cue from a friend that spent 365 days driving a Model-A and set out across Michigan on the old stagecoach trail that winds back and forth across I-94. Albeit slow, it was an uneventful trip. I think I drove by more garage sales in one day than I have in the last 10 years.

 

From: http://www.kitfoster.com/carport/2005/02/doin-continental/

February 16th, 2005
Doin&#8217; the Continental



Wayne Graefen is a car journalist&#8217;s best friend. He travels widely, is always on the lookout for remarkable vehicles, and takes lots of pictures. This time he&#8217;s come up with the Continental drift.
These days Continental is synonymous with Lincoln, but when this Continental was built no one at Ford Motor Company had contemplated such a model. This is a 1933 Continental Flyer, built by the Continental Automobile Company, a division of Continental Motors. Continental? Didn&#8217;t they build engines, not cars? Well, yes. Through the 1920s Continental was the chief supplier of engines to manufacturers of so-called &#8220;assembled cars,&#8221; those built from parts supplied by outside companies (&#8220;outsourcing&#8221; is nothing new).
Continental&#8217;s Muskegon, Michigan, plant had been supplying engines for the DeVaux automobile, built in nearby Grand Rapids. But in 1932, when the DeVaux-Hall Motors Corporation failed, Continental took over its Michigan assets to settle unpaid bills for engines. Building the last few DeVauxs in the plant, Continental brought out their own car for 1933, in three models: an entry-level Beacon four-cylinder model, a Flyer (the type photographed by Wayne), and a top-of-the-line Ace. All cars, of course, used Continental&#8217;s famed Red Seal engines. 3,310 were built in 1933, and a further 953 Beacons were sold in 1934 before operations ceased. Continental Motors was acquired by Ryan Aeronautical Company (builder of Lindberg&#8217;s Spirit of St. Louis) in 1965, which in turn was purchased by Teledyne in 1969. Today Teledyne Continental Motors builds piston and turbine engines for light aircraft.
Wayne snapped this Flyer coupe at a Veteran Motor Car Club of America meet at Fredericksburg, Texas, in July 2003. A bit down at the heels, it was solid and complete. It sold quickly.

 

Illustration of Continental Flyer coupe, left side


Illustration of Continental Flyer coupe, left side​

 

There was another coupe on e-Bay recently that was in better shape. The owner said that if he couldn't get $20,000 for it he was going to turn it into a hot rod.

I believe that mine is still the only Continental Flyer that's roadworthy in the western hemisphere. There's a restored RHD car in New Zealand.

I drove mine today.

 

These were great looking cars, and it is amazing (to me) the low survival rate, even knowing the attrition of WWII scrapping. With a reliable, readily available engine, one might expect many of these to keep running right through WWII and survive.

Barry, no doubt about it, you have a very special car -- and a great collection! But it surely appears that the long-sought roadster went the way of the dodo in a long-ago scrapyard. Shame, but at least there is a tiny handful of survivors to represent this unique, short-lived marque!

 

1933 Continental Ace Not a Flyer



Please Click on link:

http://www.specialtysales.com/1933-continental-ace--c-3538.htm

 

Just answering a challenging dare.

1933 CONTINENTAL Flyer

http://vehicles.oodle.com/view/1933-continental-flyer/3058295607-santee-ca/



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Price:
$23,000

Summary:
Used 1933

Location:
Santee, CA


Description:

1933 CONTINENTAL FLYER. 1 of ONLY 4 LEFT IN EXISTENCE AND OWNER HAS DOCUMENTATION OF THIS. COMPLETELY SOLID STEEL CAR. 350 MOTOR AND TRANSMISSION. NEW MICKEY THOMPSON WIDE TIRES. Also NEW brakes, wiring, paint, and master cylinder. Three new tempered windows in back installed by owner. New 20-gallon fuel tank. Aluminum radiator with electric fan. Seats redone, no upholstery. 350 4-bolt, 670 holly, 350-400 horsepower. Brand new engine. Lowered price to $23,000 obo possible trade for Harley bager 07 and newer.


For sale by:
Private Party

Posted:
<NOBR>May 31</NOBR> on eBay Classifieds

 

1938 Diamond T, a one-off design built for Seagram&#8217;s

Written by Daniel Strohl





As Rollan Jerry wrote in the recent SIA Flashback article on coachbuilt trucks, many such vehicles were built in Canada for beer brewers because Canadian laws at the time banned them from advertising their products in print. Apparently that ban extended to spirits distillers as well, as evidenced by this recently found 1938 Diamond T, a one-off design built for Seagram&#8217;s, the famed Canadian distillers.



Yes, it looks rather horrible. According to its known history, after Seagram&#8217;s commissioned Toronto-based Smith Brothers Body Works to build the steel-bodied truck in 1938, Seagram&#8217;s used it as a delivery van and mobile billboard until 1949, then sold the truck to Holman Construction in Rockwood, Ontario, which simply painted over the door signs, then hauled building materials with it, possibly until the early 1980s, when Holman sold it to a scrap dealer. How it escaped the crusher remains unknown, but it now sits at Ron Fawcett Motors, a well-established restoration shop, in Whitby, Ontario.





I spoke with Art Carty at Fawcett, and he said the company would like to find a buyer who can fund the truck&#8217;s restoration rather than restore it themselves, though it looks to be all there, save for the wood structure underneath the steel skin. Seagram&#8217;s is in no position to buy the truck back &#8211; the company closed its museum in 1997 and has since been sold off to other beverage companies.

We searched American Beer Trucks and the two recent SIA articles on streamlined and purpose-built trucks, but saw no additional photos on the Seagram&#8217;s Diamond T, and only have the one directly above provided by the folks at Fawcett. Smith Brothers, however, did build the most famous of the Canadian streamlined beer trucks &#8211; the Labatt&#8217;s White truck and trailer, so we have to wonder whether Count Alexis de Sakhnoffsky had a hand in designing the Seagram&#8217;s Diamond T as well.

 

Hey Barry2952-

Right in your own backyard! May not be Flyers though.

Eclectic Motorworks, LLC
445 West 22nd Street
Holland, MI 49423
616.355.2850
carlheideman@yahoo.com



1934 Continental Coupe

With everything reattached it is ready to go back to the owner. Sitting next to the coupe is its sister car, a 4-door 1934 Continental sedan.


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1934 Continental - Sheetmetal Restoration

• <A href="http://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/dhtc05.html">Grille and Car - 4 Pictures
• After sandblasting- 5 Pictures
• Dogleg repairs - 5 Pictures
• Hammerform parts - 5 Pictures
• More dogleg repairs - 4 Pictures
• Trunk floor repairs - 5 Pictures
• Repairing the wheelwells - 5 Pictures
• Front fender repair - 6 Pictures
• Rear fender repair - 5 Pictures
• Ready to go home - 4 Pictures

http://www.eclecticmotorworks.com/previous.html

 

Those are a face-lifted 1934 model called the "Red Seal" to play on the reliability of their base product, the engine. They were 101" wb Beacons with a different grill and horizontally slatted hoods. They had the C-400 4-cylinder engine. The 107" Flyer and 114" Ace were discontinued for 1934.

Those are rare cars, indeed.

Here's a brochure for those cars.

 

Barry, where were the Continental cars assembled? I can remember the engine plant still standing in Muskegon when we moved there, and I've always been intrigued by these cars because of their connection to my hometown.

 

They were assembled in Muskegeon and in Detroit. One of the plants, I believe, was adjacent to a Hayes plant, where the all-steel bodies were made.

 

Here I thought they were built in Grand Rapids - weren't they successors to the DeVaux?

 

I guess you could say that. DeVaux went under owning Continental $500,000 for private labeled "Hall" engines used in the DeVaux cars. They went under with a bunch of bodies but no motors, as Continental had cut them off.

Continental forgave half the debt and bought a factory that built DeVaux for $40,000. This, I believe, may have been the Grand Rapids factory.

Continental built out the rest of the '32 DeVaux bodies as Continental DeVaux.

 

So look what I ran across yesterday running in the 2012 Great Race!
A Peerless running that unique V8 engine we have discussed as possibly being a Hershell Spillman motor.

 

Great pictures. After working on my brothers 1915 Standard with a Herschell Spillman V8, it looks like Peerless took the design and modified it. The other Standard 8s have similar heads and they all differ from the Peerless V8 heads that I have seen.

Look at the plugs on the top of the pistons and how the water jacket bolts up. On the HS engine I have attached the plugs push in and compress like welch plugs where the Peerless appear to screw in. The wanter jacket uses a threaded pipe joint on the HS where the Peerless has a flat flange with two bolts on the top. I also noticed the large bottom intake on the heads is a pipe fitting on the HS and a two bolt flange plate on the Peerless (nice improvement). They must have made or "sanctioned" their own engines.

The fan has a shaft on the Peerless that is really long. Also, the carburetor seems to pick up air from the front where the HS had the magneto.

What is that circular thing with the holes in the center of the Peerless head in the previous post???

The further image below shows some good pics of the HS V8 from a period trade magazine.

 

Reply to post #1194. There were actually six or more 12-cylinder Duesenbergs made. One of these was the aforementioned "Gentleman's Speedster" (internally called the "Bobcat" or "Bearcat"). It was a separate project created in-house at Auburn (photos of the clay model exist). Before that (1931) other V-12 Duesenberg experimental work was done on both a lwb and swb passenger car, internally referred to as D-1 & F-1. One of these chassis exists today. However, in 1935 Buehrig, Newport and Wright created a new Duesenberg (replacement for the aging model-J), anticipated to be launched in 1938. Five different bodies were designed (a berline; fastback sedan; limousine; phaeton & cabriolet). LeBaron was commissioned to build these out of aluminum. They were delivered in 1935-36. As with the Gentleman's Speedster, they too were to be powered by surplus Auburn (Lycoming) V-12 engines, only bored out to 491cid AND optionally supercharged!!! At least one was so powered as dyno data exists. The mostly completed prototypes were shelved for a few months. Dec. 1936 Tremulis was hired (just as Buehrig was leaving). E.L. Cord's first assignment for him was to dust off the LeBaron prototypes and reconfigure the front end so as to use still less expensive existing s/c V-8 Cord 812 power. To further complicate, E. L. sent Tremulis an ameteurish model with his own rendition of how the new Duesenberg front end should appear. Behind locked doors at the Experimental Department in Connorsville, IN, Tremulis et. al. proceeded to completely change the front end character of the Duesenberg prototypes to comply with the boss' demands. To quote Alex years later, "I felt like what I had done was paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa". Today two of the five prototype Duesenbergs exist. Harrah restored the berline in 1970. It exists at the Nat'l Auto. Museum in Reno. E.L. Cord took that car just prior to bankruptcy and gave it to his wife, Virginia. Cord Corp. President Lucius Manning conscripted the cabriolet for himself just hours before bankruptcy was filed. I own that car, which is currently under restoration. Rumors of the phaeton surviving persist, though it has not been reported seen since 1960.

 

The Charles Thomas Special, that is. Built to satisfy as what Thomas saw a fast-approaching need for smaller American cars. To Thomas, who predicted the world's oil reserves would dry up within 15 years of building his vision, a car that could reach 70+ MPH and deliver more than 30 miles per gallon of gas was just the ticket. His 1939 Special was an early preview of the 1949 Playboy automobile, which he played a part in designing and building.

Like the Playboy, the Thomas Special's body was welded to its frame - a sort of unibody approach, with the cost, weight and poor packaging of a body-on-frame design, coupled to the higher repair coasts of a unibody

Not quite extinct though.
The one and only still exists, but in need of total resto

 

Most likely this would have been Tucker #1026 and #1027. #1026 was the only red (maroon) Tucker tested at Indy. #1027 was Waltz Blue. The other Waltz Blue car tested at Indy was #1031 however it arrived late in testing so it did not travel with #1026.

Tucker #1027 went on to roll over during testing.

 

i've driven by that a hundred times and sill wondered what the fuck it was lol

 

Originally Posted by OLD-OLD TIMER
Hello I used to live in Lafayette In. In the summer of 1948 at a Standard oil station
at South St. and bypass 52 I and buddies seen a red and a blue one stop there for
gas. For years everyone said we made up the story but in the movie they said that
6 or 7 were on the way to Indy 500 track for testing. Lafayette was about 150 to
175 miles from Chicago and a good place to stop for gas.

TuckerFan, I'm glad you could find it. I looked yesterday and could not, apparently because the post didn't mention TUCKER by name. At least I know I didn't imagine it! LOL