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

Its a Bantam, not an artificial reef.

 

Okey-dokey, Bantam was an American make at the time, and good catch, HotRodMetal! No old Bantam should become part of a manmade reef! And here's another U.S. make.



Thanks to ConceptCarz, here is surely what must be the finest example of a very early, rare AND significant car! Shown here at the Meadowbrook Concours d'Elegance is a 1903 Northern runabout from the vaunted Brass Lamp Era and built from 1902 to 1909. I say "significant" because the Northern -- or "Silent Northern" as an approving public came to call it -- was the first car mass produced by auto pioneers Charles Brady King and Jonathan Maxwell. (Sources conflict on where Northerns were built -- Detroit or Tarrytown, NY.)

The initial single-cylinder engine was originated by Maxwell and refined by engineer-genius King. At the turn of the century, both men had been pivotal forces at Olds, leaving in 1901 to build their own car after the famous fire at the Olds works. Given the men's automotive roots, the new Northern closely resembled the Olds in many aspects.

For 1904, Northern also offered a two-banger. But Maxwell left and with Benjamin Briscoe formed Maxwell-Briscoe. (Note: 22-year-old Alice Ramsey helped make the make famous when, in 1910, she and three female companions consumed 59 days driving coast to coast.)

After King left Northern in 1908 to start his own long-running marque, Northern declined financially and was soon bought up by Wayne, thence itself subsumed by EMF.

According to ConceptCarz, the Northern pictured was a first-place AACA winner in the 1950s and sold in 2008 at Hershey for nearly $50,000.

 

1902 Northern Runabout
Northern Mfg Co. Detroit, MI
1902-1905

 

1916 Adams Racer, All original
George Adams built it to race in the
1916 Indianapolis Race, but missed the entry deadline.

 

Thanks Jimi! I too am never afraid to help in the garage and I'm always ready and willing to learn! That's why I'm here, another fantastic resource! Thank you for the warm welcome and I'm finding this particular thread most fascinating!!
~gabby

 

I'm looking for a picture of a car, probably extinct.
But a Porsche racer campaigned in the early 60's with a modified Corvair motor. I actually have some of the home made speed equipment used on it.






These were made by a guy named John Mills who lived in Kenmore, NY and worked at the Tonawanda engine plant as a forklift driver. The car ran at Watkins Glen in the early 60's. It was white with dark colored numbers (red?) and was number 61or 62.

I've been trying to search archives of old pictures of Watkin's Glen, but so far nothing.
Just thought I would toss this out there.

These were like a cross ram setup.
To use on the Corvair, the factory intake had to be machined off and these attached. They used two 348/409 center carbs on the manifold.

Would love to see a picture of the motor all together............

 

Mike, is anything known about George Adams? He doesn't seem to have been part of Adams Farwell, so my interest is piqued.

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Good attitude, Gabby! Great to have another old-car nut on board here. HAMBer Kurtis started another thread you'd probably enjoy also: "Auto Racing 1894 to 1944."



R.E. Olds at the wheel of the Olds Pirate on Ormand Beach about 1896

 

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1953 - 1961 Eshelman Sportabout, Baltimore, MD​

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Vice-President Richard Nixon with a young friend​

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in a child's-version of the Eshelman car.​

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SWI, this can't be the same Eshelman you referred to in post #761 and #3120, can it? ​

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(But maybe it was from the mind of the same inventor, Cheston Eshelman?)​

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In fact, yes, I dug around, and it's the SAME Cheston Eshelman!!!​

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Eshelman Golden Eagle​

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(From Wikipedia) ​

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The first Eshelman Golden Eagle was an ordinary mid-1960s Chevrolet Corvair retrimmed with special emblems and other ornamentation and marketed through used-car dealers by Eshelman Motors Corporation of Baltimore, Maryland. By 1967 the model was called the Eshelman Golden Eagle Safety Car and was based on the contemporary Chevrolet line, but now each Golden Eagle had a patented standard 15 mph (24 km/h) impact-resistant "crash absorber" fashioned by incorporating each car's spare tire into the front bumper. Advertising claimed the cars were "Designed for the owner who has a special value for his life and the lives of his loved ones." Known Golden Eagle dealerships included the former Kislack Kar Sales in Houtzdale, Pennsylania and Plaza Motors in Niagara Falls, NY, but exact sales numbers are not known.​

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As I've said before, I find it fascinating how many CHARACTERS have populated the U.S. auto industry! And I usually cite the most glaring example as Newton VanZandt who, history tells us, spirited away automomobiles by night from the ReVere automobile factory in Logansport, IN, and re-badged and sold them out East as Richelieu automobiles!!!​

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Well, Cheston Lee Eshelman was NOT a crook . . . but a CHARACTER he was! Cheston had a comparatively normal upbringing after being born in 1917 near Carlise, PA. But thereafter, little was normal, and some of his accomplishments were downright exceptional -- even notorious. He died at a ripe age in Florida in 2004 after establishing a lifetime rep as afairly successful inventor, flyer, and a manufacturer of various things mechanical.​

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As a headstrong aviation student in 1939, Cheston got lots of news ink for crashing a rented Luscombe monoplane in the Atlantic off Georges Bank, Massachusetts. That in itself wasn't so unusual as the story he put in writing for the police -- who promptly put him in a cell!​

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The novice would-be aviator claimed that he had been trying to fly to Mars, okay? Police found 55 cents and some bullets (gun absent) on his person. His written statement went on to say that the attempted Mars flight was "to survey a temporary hideout for the harmless people so they may escape in time of war the slave-enforced ultra-tragedy when the maniacs versus the he-men feud to destroy themselves and their possessions." ​

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Ri-i-i-i-i-i-ight! Exactly the cover story I myself would have told after wrecking a perfectly good airplane.​

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In 1941 Cheston impressed the military by building and successfully demonstrating a wingless pancake-like airplane dubbed the "Flying Flounder." The government didn't order any Flounders, but in '43 Cheston was given a patent for a small flying-wing sort of airplane. Obviously, Eshelman was just ahead of his time.​

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He established his own company in Baltimore in '45 to manufacture more conventional devices, such as mowers and garden tractors. Through the '50s, Cheston expanded his lines to include boats, scooters, golf carts and small one-cylinder cars named after himself. A plant fire in '56 led Cheston to concentrate on Eshelman cars, and he included a child's version of his already small cars (see previous post). Not one for ostentatious advertising, Cheston made do with small ads in the back pages of the popular lay mechanical periodicals.​

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We have already touched on Eshelman's inventive efforts in the '60s. But probably the best remembered example was the so-called Eshelman Golden Eagle which was, in part, a "safety car" employing the modified Corvair's spare tire in an energy-absorbing front bumper system. ​

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Clever and practical, yes. BUT . . . a Mars landing in a Luscombe monoplane probably would have garnered more ink!​

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I don't know about anybody else, but I get bummed when the system eliminates all the paragraphing. Makes even a short piece like Post 3166 unnecessarily hard to read.

 

Oh yeah, same Eschelman, but of all things, I didn't know there was a dealer in Niagara Falls!
I have yet to run into an Eschelman in any form in person, so some may have been sold in my area..........how about that.

 

I caused quite a stir with this on the History Auto racing 1894-1944 thread

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=380814&page=163

 

GMRoder, I know HJManiac is gonna love this pic! The REO bodywork here is like nothing I ever saw (or could have IMAGINED for that time)!!!

 

I caused quite a stir with this on the History Auto racing 1894-1944 thread

Hey, SOUNDS as though that thread is working the way it should! You surely got some SINCERE interest going. (BTW, Jim Dillon is a real Packard-V-12-phile. He knows those complicated engines -- heck, even though we're probably talking Duesy on the Adams racer.) --- Jimi

 

GMRodder, I know I can speak for all the regulars on this thread RE your positive attitude AND about REO 's good and well-deserved reputation. R.E. Olds was an engineer and mechanic in the beginning, and he never lost that passion. He's well-remembered for putting extra nickel into engine blocks to prolong life between rebuilds. The REO name graced automobiles from 1905 to 1936, and it was still on well-made trucks through 1975. Sure after 31 years, REO went out of business (car-wise) in the middle of the depression, but so did virtually every other hold-out independent. So, REO and REO owners have nothing to apologize for, as the cars were superb (they were even used as 'shine runners). You need to search this thread, 'cause there are some KEEN Flying Cloulds, Royales, etc. !!! I'll post a REO Wolverine tomorrow, bro!

 

From: Hemmings Blog

ehdubya says:
February 18, 2009 at 2:13 am
The REO is Australian, the caption for that image in the NSW State Library reads… ‘Reo truck with a tank capacity of 1075 Imperial gallons. The tyres were 7.50 x 20 therefore it was a chassis of nominally 3 ton load Each capital city had a similar streamlined Reo truck, but they were taken out of service by 1948 for a larger model.’

 

Hey Jimi-

This might be a clue:

Findlay, Ohio

The Adams Bros. Co., 1911-1916, built one-, one and one-half- and two-ton trucks. In 1916 the company changed its name to the Adams Truck, Foundry and Machine Co. and then built one-, two-, and two and one-half-ton trucks.

 

Mike, over on the other thread late yesterday, HAMBer ehdubya reported that the Adams racer HAD been listed at the Wells Museum near Ogunquit and Kennebunkport on south coast of maine but does not appear in their listings now. I WONDER if (as I think sometimes happens with museums) they put unrestored cars away in favor of decked-out cars so that they can "put their best foot forward." That's to say, I wonder if it's still in Wells, just warehoused somewhere.

 

Mike, you seem to have unearthed an Adams car just about as scarce as the Adams-Farwell here. None of the other autos with "Adams" in their name coincide chronologically with the 1916 racer. American-Automobiles.com confirms the Adams of Findlay was only made for two years. It also confirmed a four-cylinder engine. Much like John Deere, sounds as though the company wasn't really positioned for automobile production, got off on the wrong foot, then beat a hasty retreat back to what they did best!

In the Adams brothers' case, that meant building trucks, of course. And if you stretch truck production to WWI when they went under, MAYBE they built the racer as a special one-off, eh? I wonder if Royal has any more photos of the car, since that one doesn't show other angles and close-ups that would answer a lot of questions.

 

Newspaper article about Adams.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=cYsvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=pNwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5771,3143942

 

1906 Adams-Farwell

Adams-Farwell
Adams-Farwell was a American automobile manufacturer from Dubuque, Iowa, founded by Herbert and Eugene Adams and Fay Oliver Farwell at the end of the 19th Century.
From 1889 to 1905 they built five prototypes of a car with 20 to 25 horsepower air-cooled three-cylinder rotary engine with a vertical crankshaft over the rear axle.

Only prototype no. 5 got into serial production. From 1905 to 1912, Adams-Farwell built 52 such cars, the last one called Model 9 and used a 5 cylinder 8 litre rotary of 50 horsepower. 1904 saw the introduction of a convertible brougham where the front driver&#8217;s seat could fold up which allowed controls to be transferred to the rear seat. The forward control model was dropped in 1908, after which no new models were introduced, with only small changes made from then on. Prices reached a lofty USD$3,500 by 1912.

 

1911 Franklin Model M


Race Car

Speed Car


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How about the Buckeye Car Company right here in Anderson In.
or Cole in Indianapolis In. Dont have any pix but have been told about them
actually seen 0ne Cole at the trim shop beautiful automobile.

 

My grandfather Lou was a well known New York City multi-media artist, sculptor, movie maker, and puppeteer up to the 1970s. He knew lots of other NYC area artists from the turn of the century through the '70s, and one of them was the famous New Yorker cartoonist, George Price.

In the mid '70s, when I was around ten, I was already a major car nut and I really liked antique cars. Lou told George about me, and George drew a picture of a car that he had at least 50 years prior called a Havers Sax. It was a rough sketch, and it looked like almost any other brass era touring. I found info on a Havers, but not a Sax model. He could have confused "Sax" with the engine, a six cylinder, but who knows.

If I can find the drawing, I'll scan and post it.

-KK

 

1912 Havers Six-44
The Havers Company was organized in Port Huron, Michigan in the spring of 1910 by brothers Fred and Ernest. The first cars were built in a plant that formerly housed the Port Huron Engine and Thresher Company and in 1912 the company relocated to another Port Huron facility which was formerly used as a factory for the E-M-F automobile.

The first production vehicles were sold in 1911. Named the Six-44, they had six-cylinder engines that produced 44 <NOBR style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: darkgreen; FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" id=itxt_nobr_1_0>horsepower</NOBR> and were mounted on 115-inch wheelbase. In 1912, the wheelbase changed to 122-inches and in 1913 and 1914, larger engines were offered as well as longer wheelbases.

In 1912, when this example was produced, Havers had built and sold 200 <NOBR style="FONT-FAMILY: verdana, helvetica, sans-serif; COLOR: darkgreen; FONT-SIZE: 100%; FONT-WEIGHT: normal" id=itxt_nobr_2_0>vehicles</NOBR>. Unfortunately, in 1914 the factory was destroyed and the company did not have the funds to rebuild.

This 1912 Havers Model Six-44 Touring Car is one of only a few Havers automobiles in existence today.

more photos here:
http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/chassisNum.aspx?carID=15629&iDNumID=5336

 

Very cool, and pretty close to extinct. Good chance this is the car.

-KK

 

It is going up for auction on June 5th at the Pate Museum Sale:

http://www.rmauctions.com/CarList.cfm?SaleCode=FW10

 

Thanks, AJ! And the Havers? Hell, I never realized what a low-production make this was. Couldn't have been more than a couple of thousand cars -- at BEST. And, as SWI mentioned, just because a car was AROUND for a while DOES NOT mean many (any) survived. That is a point that started to sink in with me when we examined the Luverne, and SunRoofCord was THE only person who knew of one (just sitting in a barn or shed) -- even though the make was around (making cars, I mean) for 10-12 years.

I love this thread, and I love the HAMB. Thanks AGAIN, all you guys and girls!

 

Man, this Havers is quite a story, actually. I eat my words from yesterday, as that was a generalization. The more one reads on the Havers brothers, the more one realizes what an EXCEPTIONAL car and company they were!


Quite apparently, the ball got rolling as early as 1908, but (as someone else mentioned) 200-cars-per-annum didn't happen 'til 1912 And the 1914 fire led the brothers to stay out of the business for good. Maybe just as well, since the brothers reportedly lost money on every moderately priced car. SO, perhaps as few as 500-or-so of the LUXURY cars were built, given production pace apparent from the record. One wonders if, maybe, the Havers brothers were better car guys than they were marketers, since they built a luxurious car comparable to most of the best of the day -- WHILE charging a modest price for them. Yike. No way to make dough, is it?


NOTABLY, the pictured 1912 tourer is THE ONLY HAVERS pictured (other than drawings) on every site I searched!!! (Even ConceptCarz shows this same car, noting that it is "one of a few" still in existence.)


Also, one source erroneously hinted that Havers used some four-cylinder engines (the convention of that time). But that's not so -- SIXES only, a 44-, 55- and 60-horse L-head six. However, I could not find the maker of the mills. For such a low-production car, I can't imagine Havers made their own engines!



1912 Havers 6-44, above, thanks to Royal Feltner's great site.




The 1912 Havers tourer above; below, an ad for the 1910, BOTH thanks to AmericanAutomobiles.com