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

Speaking of Alex Tremulis, here is a great thread of car pictures personally taken by him.

This photo and thread of the car built by Vaudeville star Ralph Cook in 1932/33

 

1925 DaVinci

This car is a prototype built by James Scripps Booth as the ultimate car in the shop of Louis Chevrolet in Indy in 1925. The car cost around $100,000.00 to build, an immense amount of money in 1925.

Booth was previously a cycle car manufacturer and also ran a firm bearing his name based out of Detroit that made full size cars. After departing that firm he went off on a tour of the world to seek out the best in auto technology and this was the result of that effort.

The car featured many advanced things for cars in 1925 including a worm drive rear end which allowed the car to sit considerable lower to the ground than any other contemporary car. It also has a remote hood release, adjustable peddles, idiot lights, and other things. Booth decided to sell his design to an existing manufacturer instead of starting yet another company to build them himself.

He proposed this design to several manufacturers including Chrysler and Stutz, the latter lead him on a bit before saying no. Stutz then proceeded to build practically the identical car, billing it "the Safety Stutz" due to its low center of gravity. After Stutz stole his thunder, Booth evidently abandoned the chore of getting funding to go into production, opting instead to sue Stutz. He eventually won the suit, but his settlement largely went to the attorneys representing him. By this time the innovative features of the car had been adopted by many companies. In later years he built one more vehicle, a cyclecar called the daVinci Pup.

More Here;

http://www.4stargallery.com/mycaraddiction/1925 DaVinci.htm

 

There are a few surviving Custer Cars out there. Although the Custer Specialty Company was fairly prolific it seems most of these cars have vanished into obscurity. L.L. Custer invented and manufactured a variety of items including the invalid cars that were available with electric or gasoline power, as well as the Custer "Cootie" Car which was a miniature automobile sold for street driving and also as an amusement ride.

This past weekend I restored the wiring and rebuilt several other components of one of my Custer invalid cars - While not fully extinct, certainly rare to see one operating.

Here's a link to a YouTube video of it: http://youtu.be/WVYWUE5YEAc

HTML:

[IMG]http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3266/5868018120_3b33936436.jpg[/IMG]

 

Top Woodie Collection bid: 1946 Mercury Sportsman convertible, one of just 205 produced with fewer than six known to exist, sold for $335,000.

Russo And Steele Aug 2009

 

1910 Otto Speedster

<table class="details fullwidth"><tbody><tr><td class="extrapad">30/35 hp, 241 cu. in. inline four-cylinder engine, three-speed transmission solid front axle and live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, and two-wheel mechanical drum brakes. Wheelbase: 123"

- Offered from the Estate of John O’Quinn
- One of only two examples known to exist
- Formerly in the Midlands Motor Museum Collection
- Featured in AACA magazine article
- Special body with double rumble seat

The Otto Gas Engine Works of Philadelphia billed itself as “The Largest and Oldest Builders of Gas and Gasoline Engines in the World,” playing off Nicholas Otto’s 1867 invention, albeit in Germany. In any case, the Otto company embarked on automobile manufacture in 1910. They were, according to the late historian Beverly Rae Kimes, “handsome cars, long and low, and sturdily built.”

The Otto we have the pleasure of offering here is one of only two examples known to exist. According to a copy of a 1959 article in the AACA’s Antique Automobile, which featured the stories of both surviving cars, both cars were “owned by AACA members and [were] restored to prize-winning condition by their owners.” This particular example was owned by John William Kurtz of New York, who acquired it from its second owner and who, in describing the nut-and-bolt restoration he carried out in the 1950s, stated, “the body on the Otto was different from any of those that were in the catalog but I was told by Mr. Cole from whom I purchased the car that it was made specially for Mr. Burns, the original owner.”

Following Kurtz’s ownership, the car wound up in the ownership of the Midlands Motor Museum in the UK, from where it was sold in 1988 to the Mallya Collection and subsequently displayed and used in Europe and Africa. It finally returned to the United States in 2002 and today is presented in older restored condition. The cream finish, red accents and red upholstery all exhibit a handsome patina. Of particular note are the interesting double rumble seats, which Antique Automobile described as a $25 factory option. A rare early brass era car with a powerful 30-horsepower four-cylinder, this Otto is perfect for driving events.

More pics;

http://www.rmauctions.com/FeatureCars.cfm?SaleCode=HF11&CarID=r162&fc=0#

 

1907 Dolson Model F Touring

Fantastically original automobile from a pioneer Michigan (U.S.) manufacturer. 4-Cylinder Milwaukee engine, 40 hp, 125&#8221; wheelbase. The body is a curvy Roi de Belges in original condition with original upholstery. All original and matching lamps. Formerly in Garganigo and Zimmerman collections. A unique and well-preserved survivor.

Thanks to Prewar.com and Hyman Ltd. for the info and pictures;

http://www.prewarcar.com/classifieds/ad52618.html

http://www.hymanltd.com/search/Details.asp?stockno=4493&recordCount=1

 

1907 Dolson Automobile Co Ad: Models H

More on the 1907 Dolson

http://books.google.com/books?id=Mn...t&resnum=1&ved=0CBwQ6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=1907

 

Jim, that's an excellent and tightly written item there about what is -- obviously -- an ULTRA-RARE car of only two survivors. And what a beautiful specimen of the 1910!

It surely seems to say something about public attitudes toward autos in those early years when the OTTO was made in four years, yet ONLY TWO SURVIVE? Where, today, we'd make new parts, back then when a company went out of business, a car would be put out to pasture and eventually parted out for other uses, or simply scrapped .






Otto (1910–1911; Ottomobile 1912)<SUP id=cite_ref-clymer209_214-8 class=reference>[215]</SUP>

Otto; Ottomobile - Otto Gas Engine Works Philadelphia, PA 1909-1911
Otto; Ottomobile - Ottomobile Co. Mt. Holly, 1912
Otto; Ottomobile - Ottomobile Co. Philadelphia, PA 1912

 

Given the original theme of the thread, now's a perfect opportunity
to mention TWO cars that are, very probably EXTINCT: The Otto-
mobile of 1899 and the Otto-Kar (Ottokar, Ottocar) of 1902 to 1904.
I don't know at this point if the "Otto" indicates a relationship to the
Otto SunRoofCord posted. If anyone can find evidence either of
these has a surviving specimen, that, of course, would be great!



Built in Cleveland. Illustration THANKS to American-Automobiles.com.

 

Real Deal: Meet an original — and rare — ’51 Merc

Story and photos by Angelo Van Bogart

October 4, 2011



Sometimes it pays to be left in the dust. Take the Mercury Monterey two-door sedan as an example. In 1951, the Monterey was one of the dustiest new cars on a showroom floor at a time when nearly every other car manufacturer was offering the two-door hardtop convertible — the latest, greatest, raciest and most romantic body style awaiting optimistic postwar American new car shoppers.

A hardtop history

The hardtop sensation began in 1949 when General Motors added a steel top to 1949 Cadillac and big Oldsmobile and Buick convertibles en masse, then to Chevrolets and Pontiacs for 1950. The new body style was dubbed the “hardtop convertible” and, along with the public, Chrysler Corp. and Ford Motor Co. took notice, although the body style was not new to either manufacturer.



Among domestic manufacturers, Ford was probably first to the hardtop with the 1938 Lincoln Model K Coupe de Voyage, a one-of-a-kind fastback custom built by Judkins. With little doubt, Judkins borrowed the Coupe de Voyage’s fastback hardtop design from French coachbuilder Letourneur et Marchand, which installed the body style on a handful of contemporary Delahaye and Delages.

Chrysler Corp.’s early effort came just after World War II, when it fit hardtop roofs to seven Town and Country convertibles to create its own hardtop, also with pillarless side windows.

However, GM’s effort dedicated two things to the hardtop body style that neither Chrysler or Ford had provided with their earlier efforts: quantity and publicity. After GM debuted the 1949 Cadillac Coupe deVille, Buick Riviera and Oldsmobile Holiday, almost every domestic manufacturer except Mercury and Lincoln had added a hardtop to their lineup by 1951; Plymouth, Ford, Rambler, Packard and Hudson included.



Mercury didn’t yet have a hardtop by 1951, but its flashy Monterey coupe was just as good looking.

To hardtop or not: Ford’s answers

In 1950, Ford answered the hardtop craze with the stop-gap Crestliner, a specially appointed mid-year model based on the Tudor. Swooping side trim, unique hubcaps and a vinyl roof covering were the Crestliner two-door sedan’s most identifiable features, all of which continued on the 1951 Crestliner. In 1951, Ford also offered its first hardtop — the Victoria, a convertible with a fixed steel top and pillarless side windows — and put an end to the fancy Crestliner two-door sedan by the end of 1951.

Although Ford Motor Co. offered the Ford Victoria in 1951, the company refrained from adding hardtops to the Lincoln and Mercury convertibles until 1952. The exact reasoning may never be known, but perhaps it boils down to one thing: it knew a good thing when it created it, and it left it alone.
When the “Big Three” unveiled their first postwar automobile redesigns in 1949, the Mercury was among the coolest. Car-crazed gearheads with an eye for design and a knack for cutting immediately saw more potential from 1949-’51 Mercury two-door sedans and began customizing them. While new 1949-’51 Mercurys were still on showroom floors, Sam Barris and the Ayala Brothers were chopping the tops of Merc coupes and creating magazine cover cars. Just a few years later, too-cool actor James Dean appeared in “Rebel Without a Cause” behind the wheel of a mildly customized ’50 Mercury coupe and the 1949-’51 Merc became a cult figure with legions of followers.



Minnesota’s climate is generally kind to vinyl, which helped preserve the Monterey’s original two-seam vinyl roof.

Flashier than a Frigidaire

The completely-new-for-1949 Mercurys were handsome cars out of the box. From the assembly line, the sleek and smooth Mercury featured fenders that melded into the body, a low and cozy roofline, a hood and trunk that flowed into the flanks and an electric razor grille that all made the car look flashier than a Frigidaire, and that’s not something all 1949 cars could claim. During the first new postwar Mercury’s three-year run from 1949-’51, the body choices were limited to two- and four-door sedans, a convertible coupe and a station wagon. All were powered by a 255.4-cid flathead V-8 with a two-barrel carburetor good for 100 hp in 1949 and ’50 and 112 hp in 1951.

With Mercury a mid-scale make competing against upper Studebakers and Dodges, as well as Hudsons, Oldsmobiles and De Sotos, Ford Motor Co. had to answer the two-door hardtop threat. The answer for Mercury came on June 20, 1950, with the Type 72C Monterey. Essentially a dressed-up Model 72B Club Coupe (six-passenger, two-door sedan), the Model 72C Monterey two-door sedan’s most obvious ploy to distract eyes from the pillar between the coupe’s side windows was a vinyl roof covering like that used on the Ford Crestliner. However, there was more to the Monterey than a shiny roof covering.

Luxurious appointments gave the Monterey coupe an added richness, from the gold-winged hood ornament to bright drip moldings to chrome-plated garnish moldings to a two-tone interior to an artificial leather headliner. By adding $10 to the 1950 Monterey’s $2,146 base price, an all-leather interior substituted the standard bedford cloth and leather upholstery combination. Colors were limited to black with a yellow vinyl roof, Contaro Red Metallic with a black top and turquoise blue with a dark blue roof.

Mercurys had undergone little more than trim changes from 1949 to 1950, and although the 1951 had more drastic updates to the 1949 body, the Monterey returned. The rear fenders of all 1951 Mercury cars now extended beyond the rear deck lid and held vertical tail lamps in the ends, the rear window was enlarged and wrapped around the rear of the roof, and the electric razor grille grew to a sharp point and ran the full width of the car.
Monterey-specific features from 1950 were mostly carried over into 1951. The vinyl roofs and short list of colors were carried over, but the special Custom steering wheel was deleted from the standard list and a Mercury coat of arms next to the “Monterey” emblem on the doors replaced the bust of the god Mercury used in 1950.

The price for the 1951 Monterey rose to $2,314, putting it $66 below the price of a convertible and $367 more than the two-door Sport Coupe upon which the Monterey was based.



All-leather seat upholstery was one of the few options available on the Monterey. This car sports is original red-and-black hide.

Monterey of the day

Many “bath tub” Merc fans buy a 1949-’51 stocker and turn it into a custom. Roy Berg of Aitkin, Minn., went the other way, and sold a custom ’51 Merc to make way for the original, 65,000-mile 1951 Mercury Monterey featured here.

“I like all [1949-’51 Mercurys], but if I had my druthers, it would have been a ’49,” Berg said. “What sold me on this one was that it was the Monterey.
“The vinyl top, the interior is rolled and pleated leather, it says ‘Monterey’ on the doors and it has a little emblem on the doors, the hood wings are gold and they are separate from the base,” Berg pointed out. To purchase the rarer Monterey around 1991, his custom Merc went off into the sunset, but Berg hasn’t looked back.

He first spied the unrestored 1951 Monterey more than 20 years ago. The coupe was buried under bolts of leather in an upholsterer’s shop, where it had already been gathering dust for more than 10 years. Berg, a street rodder at heart, was in the shop to have work done on his big-block-powered 1940 Ford coupe when the unmistakable Merc lines called to him. “The first time I saw it, you could hardly see it under the leather,” Berg said. “It was a storage rack.

“I liked the car and I asked [the upholsterer] if he would sell it and he said no,” Berg recalled. “A couple years later, he said he was ready to sell it, so he sold it at the price we agreed it was worth.”
After Berg purchased the Monterey, its path wasn’t clear and it almost followed the “lower, leaner, louder” custom pattern of thousands of Merc coupes before it.

“In the early days, we were going to modify it, re-upholster it,” Berg said. “The customizing would have kept the same look on the outside, but it would have had modern brakes and air conditioning.”

Before any modifications were undertaken, Berg had a chance to drive the Monterey to a few shows and enjoy it in its stock configuration. Then, a house project came along in the later 1990s and the Monterey began collecting dust again. During those years it sat, Berg was barraged with opinions of what to do with his coupe.

“I caught grief over [potentially] modifying it. People said, ‘Don’t do that to that car,’” Berg said. One opinion in particular swayed him to keep the Merc a fine unrestored original.

“I took it into Frank’s American Motors — I couldn’t make up my mind to paint it or not — and he said, ‘If you’re going to paint it, get it out of my shop.’”



The original 255.4-cid flathead V-8 was good for 112 hp in 1951, and this unit has brought 65,000 miles of smiles to its owners. This flathead is backed by the three-speed manual with optional overdrive; the Merc-O-Matic automatic was also available.

While Berg may be accustomed to trophy-winning jaw-droppers with spotless engines and mirror paint, he also appreciates a good original. Before the Monterey, one of Berg’s rides was a well-preserved 50,000-mile 1935 Ford Standard Tudor. He decided to keep the Merc largely original down to the paint, upholstery and vinyl top. However, he has been improving the trim to maximize the car’s wow factor.

“The big thing was the buffing out of the car and all the stainless — that’s a nightmare,” Berg said. Frank’s American Motors also buffed and waxed the original paint while the dings in the stainless were removed from the trim.
Other cosmetic improvements include a replated rear bumper and guards in place of the dented original bumper and replating the rear trunk emblem to match, an NOS trim piece on the passenger front fender and better rear tail lamp trim. The cracked original plastic exterior emblems have also been replaced with new pieces.



The tail lamp lens accentuates the 1951 Mercury’s vertical rear fender treatment.

To keep the car reliable, a new fuel tank, brakes and brake lines were installed by Frank’s American Motors, as well as a new fuel pump and water pumps on the flathead V-8.

When new and now, Mercury Montereys are rare. In the 20 years Berg has owned his Contaro Red Metallic 1951 Monterey coupe, his appreciation for the car’s uniqueness has only grown.


“There are no production figures on the Monterey,” Berg said. “I can find production figures for [Club Coupes], of which the Monterey was part. They say somewhere between one-quarter and one-eighth of Club Coupes were Montereys.”

Mercury built 142,166 Club Coupes in 1951, and if an eighth of them were Montereys, that would put production at around 17,771 cars; at a quarter, it’s about 35,542 cars. That may seem like a lot of cars, but many Montereys may have had their identities masked during the custom treatment.

Perhaps because of the popularity of Merc customs, many people don’t know what to make of the vinyl-roofed Monterey.

During the Minnesota Street Rod Association’s 2011 Back to the 50’s event, Berg repeatedly heard the same surprising comment from spectators:



“The biggest comment I heard at Back to the 50’s was, ‘Why did they ruin that car by putting a vinyl top on that thing?’ People hadn’t seen it before,” he said. “Then there was one gentleman from California that had one. I was sitting in the chair and he said, ‘I haven’t seen another in a long time and this is in nice shape.’”

While the Monterey’s original paint shows some pits and other patina from its 60 years in Minnesota, Berg seems content to leave the paint and the remainder of the car largely original.

“It’s a toss-up,” he said. “I think if you want trophies, you have to paint it. I got enough trophies in the garage.”

 

I can't remember if this was brought up or not.
I recall the ReVere thread and ran across the fact Leno has one.

Museum to provide blueprints for restoration of the car, one of five known to exist</b>
by Kevin Lilly

The Cass County Historical Society Museum is working indirectly with Jay Leno, host of The Tonight Show, to get another ReVere motor car ready for the road.

Most of the work to Leno&#8217;s world-renowned car collection is done by Big Dog Garage, which, according to its Web site, is &#8220;somewhere in southern California.&#8221; Last week, the general manager of Leno&#8217;s crew, Bernard Juchli, contacted the local museum ilooking for information on the ReVere.

It turned out the museum had what Leno&#8217;s group was looking for and more. Stored in an acid-free, archival safe were original blueprints in pristine condition signed by chief engineer Adolph Monsen, also one of the 1917 founders of the ReVere Motor Car Corporation.

The folks at Big Dog Garage needed specifications on the traction arm that goes forward from the rear axle and the wiring diagram.

Thelma Conrad, curator of the museum, said the museum had no record of who donated the blueprints or when, but she said the good news was that someone had the foresight to save them.

Leno bought his ReVere in the state of Washington. Juchli said it was pretty much complete upon purchase, but it was in need of restoration.

&#8220;It&#8217;s all there,&#8221; Juchli said. &#8220;But it&#8217;s not running.&#8221;

And anyone who is familiar with Leno&#8217;s automobile collection knows each car must be in working condition. As stated on Leno&#8217;s Web site, the cars are not museum pieces, they are for driving.

&#8220;He drives everything,&#8221; Juchli said. &#8220;He&#8217;ll drive it on the street for sure.&#8221;

When the restoration is complete, the ReVere is not going to be 100 percent original, but Juchli said it would be &#8220;as close to original as possible.&#8221;

Currently, Leno&#8217;s ReVere is down to the bare chassis awaiting a new body, which is in the process of being entirely rebuilt. The wooden parts of the frame are also being replaced.

Leno&#8217;s ReVere had been in an accident so the frame was an inch out of square before being straightened. Now the body can be put on so the seams in the doors line up properly, Juchli said.

The car is in need of a traction arm because the one on the car at the time of purchase had been &#8220;hacked together,&#8221; Juchli said.

The wiring diagram will be for guidance. &#8220;Having that will make life a lot easier,&#8221; Juchli said.

Mike Hardy, head of the committee that oversees the use and maintenance of the museum&#8217;s Revere, said, &#8220;The wiring diagram may be the most important document we have. They were excited to know we have it.&#8221;

Hardy, a long-time car enthusiast, said he would enjoy meeting and talking with the technicians from Big Dog Garage.

&#8220;They are welcome to look at anything we have,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is my hope that they will come out and see the car. That way they could check out whatever they needed to.&#8221;

Conrad and members of the Cass County Historic Society are willing to send copies and photographs of whatever Leno&#8217;s crew is requesting. If other information is needed, representatives from Big Dog Garage might have to make a trip to Logansport to inspect the Logansport&#8217;s ReVere firsthand.

&#8220;We might have to,&#8221; Juchli said. &#8220;The car is rare.&#8221;

When in production, the ReVere was an expensive high-performance luxury car. Now, only five are known to exist, including the 1920 ReVere Model A Touring Car on display at the Logansport Mall. According to a 2006 article in Hemmings Classic Car, production numbers range between 247 to 2,700, depending on the source.

The Cass County Historical Society Museum has an extra part, which happens to be a rear traction arm.

&#8220;In case we don&#8217;t have the particular blueprint, we have a perfect torque arm that came along with the car,&#8221; Hardy said. &#8220;It&#8217;s the only extra part we got with the car, and it&#8217;s in good shape.&#8221;

Like Leno&#8217;s ReVere, the traction arm had been damaged and repaired.

The project to restore Leno&#8217;s ReVere will take six months

&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to make it right,&#8221; Juchli said.

How the ReVere returned to Logansport

In 1997, Rick Crawley spotted an ad for a ReVere for sale in Hemmings Motor News. Before seeing the ad, he did not know there were any still in existence.

Crawley spearheaded the entire fund raising campaign to bring the car home to Logansport, said Thelma Conrad, curator of the Cass County Historical Society Museum.

At the time, the Society did not have $50,000 to purchase the car, so he went on a six-week crusade to raise the money from his local car club and the community. A total of $70,000 was raised, and the ReVere returned to the town of its production.

The car is valued between $50,000 to $100,000. In the case of the ReVere, it&#8217;s rarity may actually be holding its value down, Mike Hardy suggested.

The Duesenberg, also a car in Jay Leno&#8217;s collection, is not as rare but worth approximately $1 million car. Leno has five of them.

&#8220;It is not a well-known car,&#8221; Hardy said of the ReVere.

 

same 1922 Moon from my post here, earlier in this thread.

HJmaniac wrote a great post here about the history of the Moon, also earlier in this same thread, if you are interested.

I saw it again yesterday, in the same location.

This time they had the top up, so I snapped a few more photos.

It is a gorgeous car and I love all the buttons, switches and levers everywhere.

You HAD to pay attention to drive back then!

Enjoy,

-W

 

1937 Chevy ain't that rare but this one trully is exceptionnal, bought new by a french nobleman,I'm gessing it was a coupe he had it immediatly shipped to Duval of fame to get the car converted to a 5 seater convertible with a large trunk the proportions are right on the money, this car is very elegant.








I saw this car on the road about a month and half ago without the chance to take pictures of it but 2 weeks ago I got the chance at the Rouen Autoshow.
It's a one of one, in 1938 I believe Duval built an Alfa his last build.

 

1965 Ford Custom 500 427 R-Code









http://www.mikesclassiccars.net/view...sting_id=68249

Ford built 327 R codes in 1965. No breakdown on body style
<!-- google_ad_section_end -->
I wonder how many were Custom 500's? Not many I bet and how many have survived?
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1966 Ford Custom 427 R-Code Sedan





Probably even more rare than '65s

 

I have never seen one of those Tudor Fords with the formal roof line...ever. Only the more common Galaxie. That roofline seems more at home on the Fordor. I'm kinda liking the look.

 

1925 Hertz Model D-1 Five Passenger Touring

Chassis no. 95030, engine no. IOU-1688. This rare and desirable vehicle was built by the Hertz Company and was to be used as part of their Chicago-based rental car fleet. The car has a Yellow Cab chassis, which is powered by a Continental, six-cylinder engine. The touring car body has a non-folding, &#8220;California&#8221; top complete with a headliner and removable side curtains, including glass windows! This example was reportedly used as a Chicago taxi until 1934. A very well-preserved and original car that has truly survived in untouched condition and appears to be complete with all of its proper and original components.

More Pics;

http://www.auctionsamerica.com/events/feature-lots.cfm?SaleCode=LH11&ID=r141

 

John D. Hertz

From Wikipedia;

John Daniel Hertz, Sr. (April 10, 1879 &#8211; October 8, 1961) was an American businessman, thoroughbred race horse owner, and philanthropist.

Born Sandor Herz in the town of Ruttka, Kingdom of Hungary, since 1920 Vrútky, since 1993 in Slovakia,<sup id="cite_ref-sawyers_0-0" class="reference"></sup> part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His family emigrated to the United States when he was five.

As a young man, Hertz was an amateur boxer, fighting under the name "Dan Donnelly." He won amateur championships at the Chicago Athletic Association and eventually began to box under his own name and became the manager for Benny Yanger. He lived at 880 Fifth Avenue.

In 1903, Hertz married Francis (Fannie) Kesner of Chicago with whom he had three children: Leona Jane, John Jr., and Helen. John Jr. became an advertising executive and was briefly married between 1942 and 1944 to film star Myrna Loy.

John and Fannie Hertz were major figures in Thoroughbred horse racing. They owned a horse farm at Trout Valley near Cary, Illinois, another known as Amarillo Ranch in Woodland Hills, California in the San Fernando Valley. However, Stoner Creek Stud on Middletown Road near Paris, Kentucky would become their most important breeding and training center. Among their top horses were the 1928 Kentucky Derby winner and American Horse of the Year, Reigh Count, who sired the legendary Count Fleet, winner of the United States Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing in 1943. Both horses were inducted in the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame<sup id="cite_ref-sawyers_0-4" class="reference"></sup><sup id="cite_ref-magazine_4-0" class="reference"></sup>

Hertz had extensive and complex business interests, mainly in the transport sector.

Hertz first job was selling newspapers, and eventually he became a reporter for the Chicago Morning News. When the paper, then called the Chicago Record merged with another paper, he lost his job. Although he couldn't drive, in 1904 he found a job selling cars at the suggestion of a friend.<sup id="cite_ref-sawyers_0-2" class="reference"></sup> Because of the number of trade-ins, he came up with the idea of creating a cab company with low prices so the common man could afford to ride in them. In 1907, he had a fleet of seven used cars that he used as cabs.

Hertz founded the Yellow Cab Company in Chicago in 1915 which offered taxicab service at a modest price. The distinctive yellow cabs became popular in his home city and were quickly franchised throughout the United States. He then founded the Chicago Motor Coach Company in 1917 to operate bus transport services in Chicago and the Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company in 1920 to manufactured taxicabs for sale.

In 1923 he founded the Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company to manufacture coaches and later cars. In 1924, he acquired a rental car business, renaming it Hertz Drive-Ur-Self Corporation.

Also, in 1924, Hertz fronted the city of Chicago $34,000 to install the city's first traffic lights on Michigan Avenue.

Competition between the Yellow Cab Company and Checker Taxi in Chicago was fierce and frequently violent with a number of shooting and deaths.

By 1925 the Yellow Cab Company was owned by the 'Chicago Yellow Cab Company' which in turn was owned by Hertz, Parmelee and some other investors. In the same year he established The Omnibus Corporation to control both the Chicago Motor Coach Company and the Fifth Avenue Coach Company in New York.

In 1925 Hertz held the following positions:

• President of the Yellow Cab Company
• Chairman Benzoline Motor Fuel Company
• Chairman Chicago Motor Coach Company
• Chairman Fifth Avenue Coach Company
• Chairman New York Transportation Company
• Chairman Omnibus Corporation of America
• Chairman Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company
• Chairman Yellow Sleeve-Valve Engine Works
• Chairman Yellow Truck and Coach Manufacturing Company

In 1926 he sold a majority share in Yellow Cab Manufacturing Company together with its subsidiaries, Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company and 'Hertz Drive-Ur-Self' to General Motors. Hertz became a main board director at GM at the same time.

He then sold his remaining interest in the Yellow Cab Company in 1929 following the firebombing of his stables where 11 horses were killed.

In 1933, Robert Lehman sold Hertz a minority interest in Lehman Brothers investment bank in New York City and he remained a member of the firm until his death.

In 1938 Hertz was prepared to buy Eastern Air Lines from General Motors but the airline's General Manager, Eddie Rickenbacker, was able to raise the necessary financing to acquire Eastern before Hertz could exercise his option.

In 1943, Hertz sold his remaining financial interest in Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company to General Motors.

Using The Omnibus Corporation he re-purchased the car rental business from General Motors in 1953. The Omnibus Corporation then divested itself of its public transport interests, changed its name to The Hertz Corporation and floated on the New York Stock Exchange the following year.

During the Cold War era, Hertz established the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation with the purpose of supporting military research. Friend Edward Teller urged Hertz to orient his foundation to fund education in the applied sciences. The Hertz Foundation fellowship program was originally administered primarily by scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who are associated with the military's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile defense programs. For his significant contribution to the security of the United States, in 1958 he received the highest civilian award given by the Department of Defense.

Hertz died on October 8, 1961.<sup id="cite_ref-5" class="reference"></sup> His wife died two years later.<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"></sup> They are buried together in the Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York).

 

Jim, THANK YOU for informing folks about the early taxi companies. I do think most people nowadays don't realize how many companies built taxis, AND how many "livery" companies actually built their OWN cars, at least for a time. THANKS again!

 

Wow, 1901 Franklin, first year they were out. I don't think this
has been posted before; somebody let me know, and I'll remove it.
Franklin air-cooled was built from 1901 to 1917 in Syracuse by the
H.H. Franklin Co. Thereafter, the company was named the Franklin
Automobile Co. until 1934. As I recall, two former Franklin employ-
ees carried forward as Air-Cooled Motors, and one of their products
(modified) became the power plant for the short-lived Tucker cars.
Photo is from the archives of the New York Public Library.


I WONDER HOW MANY '01 FRANKLINS STILL EXIST . ANYBODY
want to venture an opinion or known stats?

 

BTW, Moeller and Crawford partnered to build several makes of taxis, from functional cars to VERY fancy. This, besides building several regualr passenger cars, including Crawford and Dagmar. COACHBUILT has a ton of interesting reading, if one seraches Mathis P. Moeller or M.P. Moeller.

Incidentally, Moeller's first major success was a a well-remembered, longtime builder of pipe organs, sold all over the world.

 

That would be Carl Doman and Ed Marks. Carl Doman is the engineer who built the 275 horsepower "hotted up" version of the 335 for the potential Tucker Talisman...

 

Hey there, Gyronaut! You wouldn't happen to have photos of the juiced-up Talisman mill, would ya?

 

I can't find any pics of it. Alex Tremulis had said that as the Tucker plant was closing, souvenir hunters took files of photos, sketches, drawings and plans. He came back to the plant and found most of his stuff had been ransacked. If there are still photos of the powerplant, it would probably be in Carl Doman's old files.

But I'll recycle this article that Doman sent to Tremulis as published in the Aircooled Motors newsletter. The Tucker motor development from Aircooled Motors' point of view...

 

<TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=1 borderColor=blue cellPadding=10 width=750 bgColor=#efefef><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD><!------- header-jc-lower - end -------><!------- header-jc-lower - end -------><!------------- variable information starts here ----->
<CENTER>


</CENTER>

<CENTER></CENTER><CENTER><TABLE border=0 cellPadding=5 width="95%"><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><!----- Row 1 ---------><TD>
<CENTER></CENTER></TD><TD><CENTER>
</CENTER></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER><!---------------------------- photos - end -------------------->1940 White Horse
White Motor Company made Heavy Duty Trucks for many years. The 1930&#8217;s was the time that home delivery of many different products and services was getting started. White Motor Company decided they wanted to be part of that growing market and they came out with a model called &#8220;Horse&#8221;. So the name that you would call this new truck was a &#8220;White Horse&#8221;.
These trucks had some design differences compared to other delivery trucks of the time. The rear suspension was different because they used coil springs for the rear axle compared to the leaf springs that all other trucks used. Another big different item was the engine. The engines in these White Horse Trucks were Franklin air-cooled engines. This will be challenging when it comes to work on the engine because we never worked on these engines before. Ed O&#8217;Brien, a member of our Divco Club, has one White Horse truck that is operational and in very good shape as an original truck. He hasn&#8217;t refurbished it in any way since he got it from a Dairy that formerly owned it.
I bought this truck from California and it was stored in a shed for 15 years or so and is in good condition. The second White Horse that I own is from a junkyard in Uniontown, Pa. The junkyard truck will be used as a parts truck to refurbish this California truck. Neither of these trucks are Stand & Drive units but we are going to try to convert it to a Stand & Drive truck if we can.
<!------------- variable information ends here -----></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

I don't believe I've seen this little Met prototype pic before. Would this be about 1950?
Anybody know some serious Met history? I ran onto it on the BIG site, OldCarandTruck-
Pictures.com, to whom I say a big THANKS!​

​

 

http://www.tilthammer.com/bio/brear.html

My greatgrandads brother.

 

From: http://www.mocna.us/MetHistory.html

NXI Prototype vehicle​

In the late forties US car manufacturers consisted of the "Big Three" (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) plus a few smaller companies especially Nash, Hudson, Packard & Studebaker. Of the smaller companies, probably the most dynamic was Nash Motors (The automotive arm of Nash-Kelvinator), which was led by the innovative George Mason. Whilst the other companies continued on from where they had left off before war-time, Nash Motors felt that the market had changed. They realised that women now played an ever increasing role in US society, since they had become involved in wartime production. Women were now more likely to be working, and also families were now moving out to the suburbs, and there was a real need for affordable transportation as many families would need two cars.​

If Nash Motors were to survive, they would not be able to tackle the "Big Three" head-on with similar cars that they produced. Instead they would be better off to try to fill "niche" markets that the other manufacturers were not addressing. With this in mind, George Mason had his engineering team investigate many possible cheap basic transportation solutions. His attention was drawn to a freelance automotive designer named William Flajole, who had also identified that a small car built to American standards had a potential market. Nash Motors commissioned Flajole to build a prototype vehicle using this concept, and incorporating several innovative features. This prototype was called the "NXI" (Nash Experimental International). Mason was still not sure whether to put the project into production, so he set about displaying the prototype at "Surviews" (Survey/Previews) around the country, and inviting automotive executives, motoring journalists etc. to view the NXI and give their opinions via a Questionnaire. The car was shown with two engines , a small Fiat (Italian) engine and a larger Standard (UK) engine. Already Nash had realised that such a vehicle would be difficult to make in the US where the factories were geared to larger cars and engines.​

 

1950: Nash NXI. To test its theory on small cars, Nash designed and engineered the NXI prototype. Exhibited at special events to gauge public reactions, including an unveiling at the 1950 Chicago Auto Show, the experimental NXI lead to the production of the 1954 Nash Metropolitan.