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

Ahhhh-so. That would certainly account for it. I reread Post 3358 and still didn't see a 2010 reference to indicate that the quoted material was current. And, hey, I flunked Mindreading 101 in school. LOL

 

The Roamer was never a high-production car but, like Ned Jordan's creations, was aimed at a more upscale clientele than Henry's Model-T. But, somewhat like the Jordan, Roamer was crafted and marketed to appeal to people's dreams, aspirations, self-perception, rather than only to practical transportation considerations.

Even in its peak year of 1923, Roamer made only about 2,000 high-quality cars. Graced with an unabashed Rolls-Royce grille-shell knockoff, the Roamer was succinctly billed, "America's Smartest Car." Okay, circumspect enough, but other Roamer ad phraseology left absolutely no doubt of the make's intentional and blithely nonchalant snob appeal! Roamer, the company stated, was imbued with "a certain insouciance." LOL !!! Heck, even snooty Packard didn't go to those lengths, folks.

Officially, Roamer was built in Kalamazoo, MI, most of its life from 1916 to 1929. Albert Barley and Cloyd Kenworthy hired Karl Martin (of Martin WASP fame) to design snappy-looking Roamers, and he did just that. Unlike Jordan, Roamer used various power plants during its tenure, including Rutenber, Duesenberg, Continental, Buda and Lymoming engines. Early on, well-promoted high-performance events helped cement lasting favorable public opinion. (Unofficially, these cars could exceed 100 mph, properly equipped.)

Realizing that he was missing a profitable market segment, Albert Barley launched a low-price entry, named after himself. But the Barley lasted only from 1922 to '24. Likewise, with Roamer sales seeing decline, Barley then tried the Pennant. It, too, floundered in the market for barely 12 months, in 1924-25. Importantly for this thread, Roamers are darn rare, BUT Barleys and Pennants flirt with status on our EXTINCT-MAKE list! That is, unless a knowledgeable HAMBer can come up with a photo or other evidence that any still survive. In the final analysis, increased competition in the '20s and high unit production costs probably get most of the blame for the demise of the once-proud Roamer brand.

Digging deeper, Roamer had derived when Albert Barley bought, reorganized and renamed the Streator Motor Car Co., itself derived of the Erie Motor Carriage Co. Streator had been making the Halliday automobile. Barley sold that off, and new investors moved Halliday production to various Ohio plants -- also making the short-lived Falcon in 1922. SO WHAT??? Well, folks! It means we're now scratching to see if any examples of cars still exist, anyplace, with the names Streator/Erie, Halliday or Falcon. Whoa, this search never ends, does it?







This 1919 Roamer rumble-seat roadster pretty well typifies the eye appeal
that was a hallmark of a fairly elite auto brand on the U.S. scene from 1917
until growing moribund and unwanted by the late '20s. This photo is from
Hemmings Classic Car, 2/1/06, and sincere thanks is due Hemmings for
this view of a rare, fine automobile!


And here, thanks to American-Automobiles.com, is a '20 Roamer,
looking spiffy indeed!

 

1920 Halliday touring car ad, sincere thanks to American-Cars.com!



Also with sincere thanks to American-Cars.com, a 1912 Halliday roadster.

 

Following up with more pix of two rare birds discussed here recently.

NICE 1921 Roamer town car, thanks to Royal Feltner's great site, EarlyAmericanAutomobiles.


And a spiffy '23 McFarlan, also Royal Feltner.

 

Here's a Gardner touring car of 1924. The company was founded in 1919, and Gardners were made in St. Louis from 1920 through 1931.

The Gardner is a make that virtually embodied the optimism of the Roaring 20s. With no need to brag, the terse Gardner slogan was, "It Speaks for Itself." Starting with four-bangers, Gardner was using only sixes and eights by 1926. Neither exorbitantly priced nor cheap, even the early Gardner fours were from Lycoming. The St. Louis Gardner plant capacity was an impressive 40,000 per annum by 1922, and Gardner used that capacity to produce a wide variety of body styles to suit any mid-price car buyer. From '26 through '29, Garnder was an eight-cylinder-only marque, still only tipping the scales a little over $2 grand.

But in the end -- even before the stock market crash of '29 -- lower-cost autos from the burgeoning mass-producers, GM, Chrysler and Ford, had worn down Gardner's market share, and the company slipped permanently into red ink after 1927 -- and into automotive history, remembered as one of the better "assembled" cars of the era.


Photos are thanks to Oldtimergallery.Cars
(autogallery.org)

 

Most Gardners would be considered rare today, of course. But in its death throes, the company built a last-ditch one-off front-wheel-drive car, powered by a Lycoming six and sporting a low-slung Baker-Rauling body on a big 132-inch wheelbase. Announced in early 1930, these models never made it past the prototype stage. As well, Gardner built a handful of funeral cars into 1932, so these are very rare too, although they were mostly built on Pontiac chasses. Though Gardner "commerical" cars were still making profits, the company decided to get out of the car business while ahead.


1930 Gardner front-wheel-drive sedan prototype,

 

1927 Gardner eight sedan is owned by Gale & Dorothy Munsey, members
of the Golden Era Automobile Association. This shot is from Royal Feltner's big site.

 

Alrighty, gang, I ran smack into a brick wall -- again -- trying to find a pic of a 1950 assembled (not kit) SoCal sports car called the Yank. These were made only in 1950, by the Custom Auto Works, San Diego.

They ran a 134-CID four-banger Willys ("Go Devil"?) with 3-speed tranny and sported an aluminum body riding on a 100-inch wheelbase. HP was a tad over 60, and top speed neared 80. Dubbed a "poor man's sports car," the Yank tagged at only a grand. It was reportedly pretty good looking and weighed only 1,500 pounds. These cars weren't just a pipe dream that never made it off the drawing board; at least some got built, as the marque is listed in the Standard Catalog of American Cars, 1946-1975.

HJ knows Willys engines, and SWI found a photo of a near-mythic "Pup" mini-car when I despasired of seeing one. So, ANYBODY got any broader info, personal knowledge OR ACTUAL PIX of a 1950 Yank???

 

Danish Modern Buick




Sincere Thanks to Daniel Strohl of Hemmings Classic Car for the above.

 

I found this interesting photo on ebay. It was taken in front of the Bjorkman clothing store in in downtown Mpls.

This was the Bjorkman delivery truck. The picture is circa 1920's according to the ebay listing but the truck looks to be an early '30s to me. Not sure on the make of the truck. I Would assume that it was custom built.

Bjorkmans's moved to the first enclosed mall - Southdale in 1955.

Southdale is located in Edina, a southern suburb of Minneapolis.

 

Thanks for the post, Knox is a great one!

I love this car, would be one I would drive the daylights out of!

I hate to correct...again , but the site the image came from lists this as a 1914 model..which it is not. It is actually a 1911 Model R. The model R ran a 590 ci OHV 6 developing 60 hp and coupled with a 4 speed transmission, this massive car was capable of speeds of 80+ mph. This particular car was located in on a farm in central California in 1958 where it was being used as a farm tractor. The car had been badly stripped to the point that only the basic driving chassis, engine and radiator survived intact and modified with tractor implements. the rest of the car (including many of the rare, impossible to find parts) had been simply "thrown out" in the scrap pile.....fortunately nobody got rid of the scrap pile, so the man who restored it just went "scrap pile diving" to reclaim over 90% of the missing portions of the car. The restoration was completed in the late 1960's or early 70's.

Here are a few more

 

For a sports car, this one certainly seems ignored.
If it was a fiberglass body "Forgotten Fiberglass" would have something on it.
So far, nothing............

 

SWI, yeah, man! If it weren't on record as having existed, the YANK might go on the list with Sidney, Ohio's BREMAC -- you know, in the building stage but stillborn. When we come upon these rarities (remember the Murray & the Jordan Little Custom?), it just makes me want to know more and, hopefully, see a pic!!! Doesn't it you? Which regular first said: This is addictive?!?!?!?

 

MrModelT, looks like you're becoming a regular on this thread. We all love to get more hands & heads involved in the search for rare & extinct cars & trucks. But YOU are all the more welcome because of your obviously studied knowledge, our friend!

I surely appreciate your catch on the 1911 Knox. Royal Feltner has a great site and a mega-ton of enthusiasm, but there are occasional errors, some obvious, some not so obvious. SO, thanks for setting the record straight -- one of the things I like about the HAMB: SOMEBODY almost always has the right facts!

Even better is the great story you related about how this fabulous rare Knox was rescued from death's door! This is very much like the Dixie Flyer the Ausie chap near Brisbane just finished restoring after two or three years' research and work! (BTW, I think he said he's bringing it all the way to Louisville in June, too!)

I swear, the true STORIES that go with the cars & people who built them make the hobby (and this thread) even more riveting!


590 cubes & 60 horses? Quite an engine for 1911, eh?

 

Amco versus Rutenber - was there ever a connection between these 2 engine makers?

 

I'll be all ears on that Zak, as I don't know much about Rutenbers -- nothing at all about Amco!

 

Even though the humble little Crosley was always blessed with -- er, uh -- UNDERwhelming looks, I've always been fascinated with how Powell Crosley hung in there for so long, trying to bring the public a small car version they would fall in love with. As a result, I've turned over rocks every time the Crosley name comes up while surfing the 'net. And as they always say: You learn something new every day!

Every make starts with a prototype, right? Well, in Crosley's case, it was TWO prototypes -- sort of. According to crosleyautoclub.com, Powell Crosley first dabbled with auto-making some time in the 1920s with what he called the DeCross Cycar. As titilating as that is, I have no idea WHAT it looked like nor whether it survived. SO, any help there would be much appreciated, folks!

Not including the DeCross experiment, Crosley cars survived -- in one form or another -- for around a quarter-century, from 1937 through 1963. If you're like me and always tended to dismiss the Crosley as doomed from the start, it's pretty amazing to ponder the reality. The club info pegs the Crosley forerunner that mattered at 1937. During development, it became known by the unattractive acronym CRAD, standing for Crosley Radio Auto Division. Natch, economy and simplicity were the watchwords, so the Crad even sported a miniscule 18-inch rear track, eliminating a differential. Odd-looking bird, but it does bear resemblance to the actual production '39s, doesn't it?


1937 CRAD, the prototype for the 39 Crosley, thanks to crosleyautoclub.com.



And here's a scarce '42 Crosley convertible sedan, owned by Mick Thompson and Del Thompson, members of the Golden Era Automobile Association.
​

 

Everybody knows that Powell J. Crosley finally threw in the towel after the 1952 season, right? Well, that's what I thought, anyway. That's until recently running across the Croften Marine (San Diego) update of the Crosley Farm-O-Road multipurpose of 1959 to '63. Covered, but here's a glimpse of a nice specimen. Only a few hundred of the Crofton Bug/Crosley-updates ever got built.

Crofton Bug, Crofton Marine Co., San Diego, 1959-1963
​

More recently still, I learned that there was an INTERIM attempt to breath life into the Crosley line again, about 1955-56: the Panda. The story goes that Finn Hudson of Kansas City, MO, wanted to build a little roadster and a wagon with Crosley engines as one option (turned out, the ONLY engine available). One of the roadsters actually got built before the venture folded. Though not a world-beater, it's not an unattractive little car, folks.



Don Kline grew up in Kansas City. In 2000, he related his account of his own ownership and first-hand experience with the Panda. His dad bought all of the Small Cars, Inc., wherewithall from Finn Hudson in '57 and gave then-15-year-old Don the ONLY Panda prototype roadster! Does this sound like a youngster's dream-come-true? A one-of-a-kind for your first car!

For whatever reason, the Klines sold the Panda about 1960, and Don said he last saw it on the road around Kansas City about '64. Last spotted in 1974, this prototype Panda is believed to be still in existence, in private hands.


Don Kline at age 15 at the wheel of the Panda in 1957. Don supplied the photo to crosleyautoclub.com, and they all have our thanks for the info and views of a rare machine!

SO, CROSLEY ACTUALLY HAD FOUR ITERATIONS, SPANNING A QUARTER-
CENTURY, FROM 1937 THROUGH AS LATE AS 1963. TO WIT:

'37 CRAD
'39-52 Crosley
'55-'56 Panda
'59-'63 Crofton

​

SOURCE: crosleyautoclub.com
​

 

One of you guys should step up for this. It's outside my area of interest.

Bay State Automobile Factory photos 1922-24 Lot of 16 images.

 

This is a 1921 Sheridan Series B-40 touring car, and it's owned by Emil and Rose Winterhalder of the Golden Era Automobile Association. Made in Munice, IN, only in 1921 and 1922, very apparently very few Sheridans survived. The Winterhalders say that their touring is one of ONLY TWO still in existence. Whoa and wow!

The Sheridan name does even appear on a majority of lists of early auto makes, and details are about as scarce as the cars themselves! (Seems we know more about the LuVerne and the Pan than we know of the Sheridan, though all are about equally rare.)

All I could find is that they were made by the Sheridan Motor Car Co., Muncie, and one (only?) engine they ran was a Northway V-8. SO, anybody in HAMBland know any more about this short-lived make? Better yet, anyone know of another, or others, still around?

 

Forerunner to the Prius.

JG

 

The Bay State Automobile & The R.H. Long Company

Framingham, MA

1922-1924

The Bay State is an American Automobile built in New England at Framingham, Massachusetts by the R. H. Long Company.

Advertising below claimed that the Bay State was equal in every detail to Automobiles costing $3,000 to $6,000 or more.

Engines in the Bay State was a powerful six cylinder made by Continental. Approximately 2,500 units were produced in the Framingham plant. Designer was a former Winton Automobile Company engineer.

The cost of Bay State 2 door four passenger Coupes were $2400.00, 4 door five passenger Sedans 2500.00, 4 door five passenger Touring car $1800.00 and the three passenger Roadster $1,800.00. Advertising below had the gasoline consumption at 17 miles per gallon.

Salesrooms and service stations for the Bay State automobile were Boston, MA, Worcester, MA, Framingham, MA Springfield, MA Lowell, MA and providence, RI. R. H. Long Co. became the R H Long Motor Sales Co and sold Pontiacs in the 1940s and 1950s. Today they are a Cadillac dealer.

 

GREAT video and a beautiful car!

The article accompanying the video link states that this was the 'first turbocharged car". The car shown in the video is NOT turbocharged, but has a front-mounted roots type crank-driven supercharger.

Wikipedia says this car was originally planned and designed with an exhaust-driven turbocharger, but that this proved unsuccessful and the car was then fitted with a crank-driven roots supercharger and this was the way it was raced.

Still, one of the best early racing car videos I have ever seen!

 

Bay State Advertising

 

Here is one That you will never see anywhere else, the 1910 Hunt Special...the only one of it's kind in the world and the only one ever built.

Here is the history from Conceptcarz.com:


William H. Hunt and his brother Clarence were machinists in National City, and following a visit from a representative of the Ford Motor Company in 1904, became the first automobile dealers in town. Over the next two years the brothers only sold one car, but they created a lively repair business among other ventures. They also hired themselves out as chauffeur/mechanics for special trips. it was for this service that Arnie Babcock, son of the man who had built the Hotel Del Coronado (who lived on a ranch 40 miles south of Ensenada, Mexico) contacted Clarence Hunt. Arnie's many meetings and doctor appointments in Sand Diego (he had contracted tuberculosis) were taking a toll on his autos, even with Clarence in the drivers seat. The roads between San Diego and Ensenada were very rough and kept Arnie's cars in the Hunt brothers' shop.

Arnie Babcock commissioned the building of a car that could perform over the tough stretches of road. It was called the Hunt Special and nicknamed 'Alkali Ike.' It has a powerful engine, a double chain drive, a 60 inch tread (the width of the ruts in the roads), and an 18 inch center clearance. Clarence Hunt was killed before it was finished and Babcock succumbed to TB before he ever rode in the car. William Hunt, who lived just three blocks from his business in National City, died in 1974 at the age of 97. Baja California is now considered one of the toughest off-road racing areas in the world. This car, designed for the toughest road conditions, survived them all.

Unusual on this car is its false hood. Since Emile Levassor of France had developed an auto with its engine placed vertically in front of the car driving the rear wheels by means of a shaft, European cars had engine compartments out in front of the passenger compartments. You will notice that the engine of this car is underneath the floorboards. Imitating the style of those European cars, the Hunt Special was designed with a hood although the space is virtually unused. The car was originally tested without a rear seat or top. It is unknown when these modifications were made.

 

Not the only. It just so happens that yesterday I uploaded the specs for a Sheridan, 1921 model 4. As the name implies, it's a 4 cylinder. Will go a-scouting for the V8 specs.

http://www.carfolio.com/specifications/models/car/?car=215182

 

SunRoof , quick work finding the Bay State info. American-Automobiles.com is one of the best sites on the 'net for quick, concise info.

I like this pic, man. A lot of young people today wouldn't know that this is how most cars were built, early on. Just a keen pic!

The Bay State sounds like a good assembled car at the price, doesn't it? The Continental SIX was 242-CID and 27 hp with Stromberg carb. Stroke was long & torquey at 4.5 inches. Wheelbase a roomy 121 inches, fairly average for cars of the early '20s. With only some 2,500 built, I imagine they are SCARCE today???

 

If the Winterhalders are correct (Post 3388), THIS must be the OTHER existing Sheridan. I just ran across this big '21 touring car on Amesbury, MA, resident Royal Feltner's great site, www.earlyamericanautomobiles.com, and I thank him for coming up with yet another rarity! Don't got there, unless you have time to get lost in Royal's myriad pix of great oldies! Anyway, the Winterhalders can't be far off, for sure, as the Sheridan name does NOT appear on most lists of early auto makes

 

I'd be surprised if any Bay State Automobiles exist today!!!!

 

Birmingham Motors - circa 1921<!-- google_ad_section_end --> <hr style="" size="1"> <!-- google_ad_section_start -->This picture dates to 1921, as does the car. It is a Birmingham, of which very few were made.

The body is covered in an alligator-style material.

Birmingham Motors succumbed to a stock and mail fraud charge and never recovered, and it is believed that no cars survive today.

The lovely lady behind the wheel is Ms. Margaret Gorman, the first Miss America.

Paul Arena, Jr.
President, Staten Island Region AACA
Editor, "Ragtops & Rumbleseats"