Pierce Arrow Land Speed Racer with Aluminum Foil Body

It depends on a number of factors. Such as if it would be invited to places like Pebble Beach in barn find condition or as a restored car. I would love to see it displayed again in as-is condition like it was last week at the Festival of Speed here in Florida where it was one of the stars of the show even in this shape. If invited to Pebble Beach as a restored car I personally can not undertake a $100,000 plus restoration so it will probably be put into the hands of someone that can.

 

People keep referencing the one with the fin on the rear, which is similar, but not the same car. I can see many differences in the two.
The roof is further back on the wheelbase on your car. The roof height is taller on yours, and the whole body is slimmer.

I do hope you find some history, as there has to be some on a car like that.

 

Thunderbowl Comet Ha ha ha I dropped one of those this morning Ha ha ha ha ha

 

How about posting this on landracing.com

 

They have the info and are helping look into it...

 

I believe "Bluto" from the HAMB owned the Comet at one time... I'll check...

 

If that is true I would be very interested in seeing any photographs that show the internal build techniques used on that car to see if this car may have been built by the Harlan Fengler, the Comet's builder as well.

 

The Comet sat for many years in Acton, CA. It stood in front of an old place with a lot of junk around it. It's been gone, from there, for 20+ years. It is still in existence. I think I read somewhere that it is an L-29 Cord under the custom body. Not the same car as the Pierce

 

It's not the same car: Here's an engine bay shot by Alex Tremulis from his visit to the Comet/Golden Eagle around 1970ish. As the chief designer at Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg in 1936/37 he knew what to look for under the hood, since this car had the Cord L-29 drivetrain. I had posted this up on the A-C-D Club's forum to get more info on the car and their responses can be found here: http://forums.acdclub.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=5100&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=75

 

I have actually ordered the movie "Speed" that the Comet/Falcon was featured in to see if my car may be in some of the backgound shots and to compare contruction to see if my car was perhaps built by Fengler.

Fengler was indeed a serious racer and had been a part of Indy 500 teams and the development of a 24 cylinder engine for a land speed record attempt with another famous former racer. There is even an article about him driving the Comet/Falcon over 150mph in some of the movie scenes so contrary to what the ACD website comments say about this Comet/Falcon car being built to go only 60mph, that just isn't the case. It would go easily double that according to reports published in the 30's.

 

Very interesting car. Tracing the history of the car will be the hardest part of the restoration, or preservation. It would be a thrill to restore this car and bring it back, preserve our automotive heritage. that and there is a lot of shapping that will be done on the body.

 

You guys finished the Timbs Buick? Very cool car. I remember seeing that car outside the hotrod garage in the movie Gone in 60 Seconds and wishing they showed more of it!

 

Just a couple more thoughts to help figure out what you've got.

Cut off a sample of the body skin and send it off to Failure ****ysis Labs/Exponent in Menlo Park, Ca. (http://www.exponent.com/paints_coatings_polymers/#tab_overview). They can cross section the sample and figure out the steps to its fabrication. The number of layers of doping as well as the materials (linen, cotton, exterior paint composition, etc.) will show up like the rings of a tree. That will give you a better idea to the date as far as materials and construction for its body and may lead you to its builder. If/when the time comes to recreate the body, you'll also have the recipe to do an accurate restoration identical to the original.

Get a hold of any experts in the construction of those Weymann flexible bodies as you can. They may also be able to shed some light on how it may either be the same or different as the Weymann technique and Walker's fabric bodies from that era.

Other guys in the 1930's just did their own. Herb Newport, Phil Derham and Alex Tremulis teamed up to produce the Aeronaut fabric bodied Ford shown below. Here's what they said about the fabric skinned automobile:

Alex Tremulis: "The Weymann principle saved us 611 pounds and was very quiet. Bert Walker, founder of Weymann, used to tell me that fabric construction was cooler in summer and warmer in winter. I worked for Phil Derham in Indy for about three months... We had at least 10 Aeronauts on the production line, I remember. We used to dope them daily with about 15 coats to shrink and stretch them. When painted, they were just like metal. For a while, an Aeronaut was being considered as a pace car for the Indy 500. Unfortunately Harry Liebhart, our angel, was bringing the one finished car back from Denver and sideswiped a taxicab just three blocks from the plant. He paid for it, cut off our financing, disappeared for two months, and the venture collapsed... It was a very low budget operation. I think I was being paid $35 a week, but the experience was fabulous.”

Herb Newport: "Just before Phil left Duesenberg, we got to working on this Ford idea of building a light, fast V-8 ch***is with a fabric body on it. We built it sort of like an airplane and made arrangements with the former Weymann Body Co., at that time managed by A.H. Walker, to make the bodies for us. We chose Walker for two reasons - he was familiar with fabric body construction, and the old Weymann plant in Indianapolis was very handy. But the bodies we built didn't use real Weymann flexible construction. Rather, our bodies used a solid wooden frame covered with wood strip paneling, like boat-strip planking-each strip being about 3/8 inch thick and half an inch wide to get the shape. When that was all sanded and smooth, we covered it with cotton padding and finally covered that with airplane linen. The linen was then painted with the same paint as the metal fenders, hood, etc., and you couldn't tell it was fabric unless you actually touched it."

You never know what connections there may be. Newport designed Ab Jenkins' Mormon Meteor I/II with Tremulis helping out on III. And I'm sure you already know Jenkins' long time ***ociation with Pierce Arrow and his land speed records at Bonneville.

By the way, we saw the Timbs Special at Pebble Beach last year. An amazing world-cl*** restoration!

Here's the fabric-bodied Aeronaut:

 

Didn't I see this car in a TV show in the 60's in some sci fy show? Then again, maybe I didn't. Must have been the drugs......

 

There is no relation to the Weymann construction technique in this car. Those cars had wood framed bodies and the joint formulation was patented. This car has a steel skeleton.

 

This car does have a partial steel "birdcage" but there are large parts of it that are also aluminum. You can see those as the brightly colored "ribs" in the body.

 

Looking at the photos a little closer it was a well constructed car, the frame work looks well thought out.

 

that thing is going to be AWESOME!!!

 

I actually like the movie but the comet scenes aren't as good as the photo's in this thread.

You'll know right away that these two cars are different... tha Comet was very tall and appears to be much longer.

 

Google 1933 Pierce Silver Arrow. I believe you'll find your car.

 

The car could have been finished in 41, and intended to run in 42, which would account for It's not having been run.

 

You need to see your eye doctor. That car is not a 33 Silver Arrow. Not even close

 

Still nothing yet. I put the car on ebay hoping exposure from that site may lead to some new information but so far no go. Next is a trip to Daytona beach to look through their archives. Anyone have any other suggestions? I still find it very hard to beleive that this car was kept a secret for 70 years.

 

REWARD: THERE IS A $100 REWARD TO BE PAID TO THE FIRST PERSON THAT CAN PROVIDE A PERIOD PHOTOGRAPH OF THIS CAR OR VERIFIED PROOF OF THE BUILDER OR ANY RACE HISTORY FOR THIS CAR! While not enough to get rich researching this car, it is enough to make the search a little more fun knowing that you were able to beat out every other car expert on the planet for bragging rights as "researcher extraordinaire". Every expert has so far been stumped by this car over the last month. I have also started a Facebook page for the car where I will be posting details of the car and of course the winner.

https://www.facebook.com/PierceArrowLandSpeedRecordCar<!-- google_ad_section_end -->

The only verified history of the car thus far has been that the car was at the 1989 Turkey Rod Run at the Daytona Speedway where the owner for the past 25 years displayed it on the way home from buying it. There was also supposedly a vendor there that sold old photographs and magazine ads that offered the owner a photo of this car racing for $35, which he declined.

 

I wish you luck and so hope you find out what it is. I liked the FB page and Subbed this one so I can keep up on anything you find and hope they don't lock this thread up.
Ths car looks just to important to have been forgotten about.

 

Cool!

 

That car looks a lot like the speed attempt car depicted in the 1936 movie Speed starring Jimmy Stewart.

 

The movie car in Speed was originally Chrysler powered The body was later mounted on a Cord L-29 ....... no Pierce EVER

It was promoted by many owners BUT it was really a prop!

I will never understand the ''Every puppy needs a name'' that people attch in search of history

Hartung's car was not a BMW but a Veritas! Check out AUTOMOBILE QUARTLY #14-1 for the Veritas history

 

James,
I also thought of going to Daytona to do research....I will be going in July, but on a saturday.....

a $35 photo in 1989??? the vendor "saw him coming"......

I have spent hours researching this car already.........

 

James, Some more thought about your research.
AAA sponsored and had to approve all record attempts on the beach.
They are located in Tampa....close enough.....
I bet if you spend some time their going over their archives you may come up with
some info, as you only have to search between 1931 and 1935.