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

Barry from your ad I came across a few minutes ago, it appears the roadster was a Beacon and, apparently would have been on the stubby 101 chassis like the sedan we pictured, above, and used the little four-banger engine, seems to me. There do seem to be a LOT of styling cues that match the sedan from ConceptCarZ. I don't, however, see a standing hood ornament on this ad example (but that would probably been an option anyway, not standard, right?).

 

Don't know if they put it on the Roadster. As I stated, I've never even seen a photo of a Roadster.

I surmise that a small, inexpensive, car that was made an orphan by the demise of Continental's leaving car production made it an ideal candidate for the metal drives of WWII.

This may be the most elusive of all the cars I seek.

 

Barry, I hear you, man. And that's what this thread is about -- at least TRYING to arrive at a reasonable assumption that NONE of a particular make, model, etc., survives at all.

And, sir, I think you certainly have a live one here (or should I say, dead one?). You may be seeking something even more elusive than Jim Stecker's '31 Jordan Speedway Ace-Z, or a '21/'22 Murray-Mac, and at least as elusive as the 1915 LuVerne Special Speedster I keep asking about -- without results.
It's been FUN. BUT, it's even MORE fun when we actually TURN UP something that we'd written off as extinct!!!

To that end, I HOPE we can find a pic of the Continental roadster you seek, Barry. Never say die!

 

Just found this. Very interesting.

 

Barry, seems as though, for the reasons YOU speculated upon, most ANY Continental of that era is today scarce as a Dodo bird!

Hey, I like the side doors VS regular louvres on the hood of that ACE. Any idea what year this little newspaper syndicated piece ran???

 

The writing on the bottom says 1988, interesting.

 

This is fairly handsome.

 

This is the '32 DeVaux, very rare in its own right, but sharing many styling cues.

 

Classic car porn.

 

Careful, Barry, you'll get the thread shut down! Nyuk, nyuk. (Actually, it was the depression, and they couldn't affort a dress for the girl!)

 

I collect sculpture of nekid women, so it would fit right in.

That would make another interesting thread. "Show us your naked statues!"

 

Here's another Beacon. All indications seem to show that only the sub-$400 Beacon achieved many sales to write home about. And the higher-priced Fler & Ace barely sold at all -- explaining why mostly only the Beacon survived into '34. Barry, I am glad you brought Continental up again on this thread, as I never really thought just how RARE these cars are!





This photo of a '33 Continental Beacon two-door accompanies a Hemmings
article on the history of Continental Motors Corp. by Daniel Strohl, written
and published in 2008. Appreciation is expressed to Mr. Strohl & Hemmings.

 

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This is fairly handsome.



Indeed it is! Looks almost as good as same year Hudson. I must assume this is an ACE model from '33 ???

 

I know Dan very well. He's most helpful. I met him on his first assignment, covering the Glenmoor Gathering of Significant Automobiles. He's written articles on the Porsche and the Mark II. My last communication with him was on this very subject.

 

I believe it was marked 1933.

 

The Diana radiator ornament gets my nekid-lady vote, hands down. Art Nouveau. HOWEVER it's surely not perfect. The work would have had more visual focus and impact WITHOUT all the busywork at the bottom (symbolism vague, too). I'll take Pierce's bowman any day -- but I'm straight, honest.

 

This is the '32 DeVaux, very rare in its own right, but sharing many styling cues.



Nice-looking roadster. Pert, progressively stylish for the year and, well, rather jaunty looking! Looks just as good as the Chevy and darn-near as good as the Ford.

But, I'm still amazed at some of the moved by existing car companies as the depression really deepened. And most bold moves either didn't help sales much OR turned out as blunders. Using Continental as a case in point: Seems to me, the prudent strategy would have been to ride out the storm for a while and hope for economic recovery. Jumping into making whole cars (especially three different series, three different wheel bases), amounted to a BIG roll of the dice!!!

A parallel that comes to mind is Hudson's huge tool-up cost for the abysmally ugly Jet -- which turned out to be the last nail in Hudson's fiscal coffin. Luckily, Continental's financial base was sufficiently broad to keep them afloat as they extricated themselves from the car-building biz!

 

I meant "moves" in the previous comment, of course. Duh!

Of course, the '50s analogy is not apples-to-apples, because the market conditions were different. In 1933, fewer people had the price of a new car -- regardless of HOW much they wanted or need one. In 1953, consumers had plenty of choices of makes, models and prices; and they had money to buy. BUT, they weren't going to let even a respected company like Hudson shove an ugly, under-powered, ill-thought-out "car" like the Jet down their throats.

 

Here's a discussion on the Continental Engine Company.

http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=177362

 

Okey-dokey, read that.

I don't know if anybody might be interested, but I know where there is a 226 Super Hurricane in a circa '55 W-O 4WD wagon. And all the 4WD & trans are there, too.

 

<DD class=gallery-caption>A 1914 Trumbull, built in Bridgeport, Connecticut </DD>

 

I don't know if this one's been posted here before,
and I hope it's not too new for this thread.but how
about the 1956 Nash Rambler "Palm Beach"
concept car??. It never went into production of
course, probably due to the sudden untimely death
of AMC president George Masom who was pushing
for the car and who had commissioned Pinin Farina
in Italy to design and build it as a styling exercise
- but also using as as many standard 'off the shelf'
'Nash-Hudson-AMC mechanical parts as possible -
with the full intention of AMC eventually putting the
car into production!! Too bad it never made it!

Mart3406
===========================================

 

Mart, Studebaker stylists obviously paid attention to this one!

 

Mart, a BIG thanks for finding good pix of this one. Every time I think we've touched on every prototype and styling exercise of the '50s, somebody turns up another one. And THIS one is a pretty balanced design! I'd take this Nash over several of Exner's demo Pinin Farina cars, seriously. I'd be interested in what other HAMBers think, but I feel the only thing needed is some tweaking on the mid-section of that grille -- probably widening it to an oval shape instead of a near-circle, as is. Now, it appears to be ready to suck a lemon.

 

Almost yells, "Studebaker!" doesn't it?

Mart, I'm with you. This is a car that DESERVED to go into production. The other -- and truly tragic -- casualty of George Mason's sudden death was, of course, the final phase of building a Big Fourth U.S. auto company by merging Nash-Hudson and Studebaker-Packard.

Sadly, we'll never know what cars and trucks might have come out of such a conglomerate, whether the public would have embraced the new mega-company, how it might have affected competition and creativity, etc. Mason's unfortunate departure at a critical juncture leaves all that in the realm of timeless theory and speculation, eh? Sad. We can only wonder.

The realities, we DO know, and they too are depressing. From a practical standpoint true Hudsons died with the '54s, and Packard shuttered its doors in July '56. Studebaker soldiered on through '64 in South Bend, then fled to Canada. Only Nash hung on for long, in the new guise of AMC, finally being subsumed by Chrysler in the late-'80s. As the the thread theme indicates: EXTINCT, corporately speaking.

How might it all have played out differently, had Mason stayed in the leadership picture? Anybody want to advance a couple of theories? Could Kenosha, Detroit and South Bend have worked out practical logistics and achieve economies of scale -- especially without simply falling into the ridiculous badging game? Could a single parent-company board have been realized? And how much autonomy would Stude, Packard, Hudson and Nash have maintained within the new corporate structure? What, perhaps, new "shared platforms" have been developed for building cost-efficient -- yet still exciting -- cars and trucks? Would truck resurge in the new joint business plan? Input welcome.

 

The only thing that looks really out of place on the 'Palm
Beach' is the use of the old, stalwart but very pedestrian and
'totally obsolete by '56', Nash flathead-6.

[ Pic - http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=1030704&d=1279342937 ]

(Note too, the use of the single 1-bbl 'Carter YH-style' sidedraft
carb and the modified intake piping used to make the Nash 6 fit
under the 'Palm Beach's' extremely low hood-line)

In '56 though, AMC didn't even have a V8 engine of it's own yet,
relying instead on the 320-inch OHV V8 bought from Packard and
because Mason, with an eye on putting the 'Palm Beach' into
production 'in the very near future' specifying the use of
as many 'off the shelf' AMC mechanical parts as possible, that
probably explains why the 'Palm Beach' prototype got the staid
old flathead-6. If the 'Palm Beach' had gone into production in
'57 or later though, as Mason had been planning, hopefully the
production version would have at least gotten 'the new for '57'
AMC 327 V8. Or, if Mason's hoped for but also never realized
merger of AMC with Studebaker-Packard had gone through in
'55 or '56, in time to save the Packard foundry and nearly
brand-new 'state of the art' engine plant, maybe the 'Palm Beach'
might have also gotten a 374-inch (or some even larger version!)
of the twin-4bbl Packard V8 as used the '56 Caribbean. But we'll
never know, because Mason died suddenly and neither happened.
Whichever V8 had been used though, it probably would have
spurred further and faster development of either engine into
something really special and truly fitting of a car like the 'Palm
Beach". To my mind, it's a total shame and tragedy that Mason
died when he did and along with him, both his plans for putting the '
Palm Beach' into production - and also any last hope of a merger
of AMC with Packard and Studebaker. If that had happened - and
with the innovator and visionary, Mason at the head of the new
company - instead of the receiver-appointed committee of bankers
and accountants who ended up in charge at Studebaker-Packard,
or the staid, conservative and 'averse to risk taking' "businessman"
George Rominey who replaced Mason at AMC - a merged company,
with Mason at the head of it, could have created a new, large and
truly viable auto manufacturer with enough financial capital,
production volume and genuine vision and 'car smarts' to compete
with the "Big Three" on their own terms.

Mart3406
===============================================

 

Well said, Mart!



From '36 Buick, here's another nekid lady radiator ornament for Barry,
thanks to American-Automobiles.com. Sorry couldn't find a better
photo.

 

I returned from a two-week vacation to learn that "good car news" had transpired while I was away. As he'd promised, Bernie Jacobson of Melbourne had shipped his Dixie Flyer Firefly halfway around the world for display in Louisville, the city where it was built in 1922.

AACA members had followed Bernie's near-three-year quest for resto info and the restoration itself. Deborah Yetter of the Louisville Courier-Journal reported July 2 that Bernie not only returned the car for a three-day display at the Kentucky Fair Exposition Center, under the auspices of AACA, but I was surprised to learned that he (seemingly suddenly) sold the car to Kentucky Trailer which plans to keep the Flyer on permanent display. Thriving Kentucky Trailer is the descendent company surviving the old Kentucky Wagon Mfg. Co. that built the Dixie Flyer cars from 1916 through 1922.

From Post #3242:​

Seems nearly incomprehensible Bernie started out nearly three years ago with the Flyer -- at death's door! Bernie posted this rusty shot on an AACA forum in 2007, and we thank AACA!



In mid-May, Bernie had just posted this nighttime photo for his fellow AACA members' gratification, as the car neared complettion and prep for the six-week ship voyage back to Louisville. Way to go, Bernie! Thanks again, AACA & Bernie!

If it seems sad that Bernie will fly home to Australia July 30 without the Flyer, well, apparently he felt that Louisville provided the most fitting ending to his labors of love. He has restored some 100 cars and plans to immerse himself in another project! Deborah's complete article, "Dixie Flyer Back in Louisville -- for Good!" can be read at www.courier-journal.com/article/20100703/NEWS01/70303.

The Firefly was the only sporty model, and the final new model, introduced by the Kentucky Wagon Co. before it left the auto business, being subsumed, along with Jackson, into the National auto company. The Flyer was powered by a long-stroke 192-CID Herschell-Spillman four. These replaced the original Lycoming engines.

BTW, Kentucky Trailer is today the country's largest builder of specialty trailers and "vans" for the moving and storage industry. Their customer list includes names like Allied, Atlas, Mayflower, North American , Wheaton, UPS and Frito-Lay.
​

 

Located by SunRoofCord, this actual photo shows what a snappy model the Firefly was.


While in Louisville, Bernie Jacobson praised the AACA Library staff, as well as fellow AACA members, for invaluable pointers in restoring the super-rare Flyer. For a very exciting read on Bernie's project, PLUS commentary and photos of the early-July Louisville visit, do yourself a favor and visit AACA at: http://forums.aaca.org/f190/dixie-fl...hs-252653.html.

In keeping with the theme of this thread, it seems clear that only 3-and-a-half Dixie Flyers in all still exist in the WORLD! Besides Bernie's Firefly, a running Texas example turned up, and there's one in Iceland (yes, ICEland!). Also, Bernie himself tracked down a disassembled (possibly incomplete) one, actually in Louisville and NOT for sale.

 

Hope this doesn't spoil the intent of the thread as Lincolns are not extinct. Since prototypes came up I'd like to share these 1958, '59 and '60 Lincoln styling pictures. One of the design team gave a speech to our group and allowed me to scan his copies.