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Suburban History From Wikipedia

Many automotive companies in the United States used the "Suburban" name to indicate a windowed, station wagon type body on a commercial frame including Dodge, Plymouth, Studebaker, Nash, Chevrolet, and GMC.

Chevrolet began production of its all-steel "carryall-suburban" in 1935. GMC brought out its version in 1937. These vehicles were also known as the "Suburban Carryall" until GM cut the name to simply "Suburban."

With the end of production of the Dodge Town Wagon in 1966 and the Plymouth Suburban station wagon, only General Motors continued to manufacture a vehicle branded as a "Suburban", and they were awarded an exclusive trademark on the name in 1988. The Chevrolet Suburban is one of the largest SUVs on the market today. It has outlasted many competitive vehicles such as the International Harvester Travelall, Jeep Wagoneer, and the Ford Excursion. The latest competitor is the extended Ford Expedition EL, which replaced the Excursion.

The Suburban of today is a full-size SUV with three rows of seating, a full pickup truck frame, and V8 engine. It is one of the few station wagons available with all bench rows. The Suburban retains the same height and width dimensions as the Chevrolet Tahoe, with an additional 20 inches added on to the length of the vehicle. The extra length provides a full-sized cargo area behind the up to 9 passengers to carry their luggage for an extended trip, and tow a sizeable trailer. This class of truck remains much more popular than full-sized vans which can carry even more passengers and tow trailers.

In recent years, the Suburban has been popular as a police car, fire chief's vehicle, or EMS fly-car. Suburbans are also popular when converted for duty as a limousine. The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas operates a fleet of purple Suburbans to serve VIP patrons and high rollers. The United States Secret Service mainly uses black Suburbans, and operates fully armoured versions for the President of the United States when he attends less formal engagements.

In the late 1990s, GM also introduced a RHD version of the Suburban, badged as a Holden, for the Australian consumer. It proved to be a failure, however, and GM withdrew the Suburban in 2000 from Holden's lineup.

 

The History of the Suburban

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" cols="2" width="640"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2"><center>[SIZE=+1]All good suburbans congratulate[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1] themselves on their choice of abodes.[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1](Westminster Gazette, September 1, 1906)[/SIZE]</center> <center> <hr width="100%"></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">

[SIZE=+1]The first known written use of the word "suburban" was in 1625, when it appeared in one of John Fletcher's last plays -- spelled "suburbane." John Milton's "Paradise Regained" of 1671 was the first appearance of the modern spelling without the final e. By 1817, "suburban" was being used as an adjective to describe someone of inferior manners. By the end of the 1800's, it had dropped this negative connotation, opening the way for its use as a product name.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]Of slightly less antiquated origins, the term "carry-all" first saw print in 1837, and had lost its hyphen by '51. A common, 4-wheel wagon, the carryall seated 4 and had some space for luggage. Unlike the word "suburban," "carryall" is not of the King's English but originated in the US, though it may have been influenced by "carriole," the French word for cart. Also, "carryall" has always been a noun, whereas "suburban" has been most commonly an adjective for half its life -- a situation that likely caused subsequent difficulties in registering it as a trademark.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]With the beginnings of railroads in America, the word "depot" was applied to train stations while the British usage leaned toward "terminal." Combined with "hack" (a vehicle for hire) we got the term "depot hack," which, with "carryall" and "break," all began being applied to forms of the versatile passenger/goods wagon. Although the fine distinctions of nomenclature were never rigidly adhered to, a buggy was lighter than a wagon, and both had a single transverse seat. The carryall had a second transverse seat and the break had a seat placed longwise along each side, behind the 2 seats of the carryall. There was often an awning or roof for shade, though the break was more apt to be uncovered as it originated as a vehicle from which to shoot game. (From the term "shooting brakes" for game thickets) The styles typified by the depot hack and the carryall saw wide use as business pick up and delivery vans, as family conveyances, and, with the rise of public education, as rural school busses.[/SIZE]
</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]basic configuration of the "carryall" wagon[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]{derived from a drawing}[/SIZE]</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>
</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>
</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]The 4 wheel wagon, with its required steerable axle, dates from about 2600 BC, with finds coming from both the Sumerian and the Indus cultures. The more complex Sumerian designs crossed into Europe first, but during the explorations and colonizations of the 15 & 16 hundreds, the simpler designs from the Indian Peninsula became better known. The basic Indian configuration was that of a tray like platform with the axles sprung below and the seat(s) above. This method of wagon construction was strong and simple and saw unprecedented popularity in North America. It was but one of several trends that arose in the 1800's and which would ultimately influence today's vehicles and the terminology applied to them.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]Lack of an ossified social structure, the growing freedom and affluence of the individual, and the propensity to travel prompted by steady westward expansion all helped increase the private ownership of wagons in America. While design and nomenclature were taking shape in the 1830's 40's and 50's, the privately owned wagon was becoming a middle class symbol of "having arrived." A century later, the horseless carriage was to play much the same role, for blue collar families as well as middle class.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]A growing country and a growing economy fostered a steady demand for wagons, both commercial and private. This demand built an extensive industrial base, and by the end of the 1800's over thirty thousand manufacturers were involved in the North American wagon industry. Some small builders turned out as few as a dozen rigs per year, while 100,000 per year came from Studebaker Brothers Mfg. in Indiana, and were distributed all across the continent. [/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]In 1876, Nikolaus Otto patented the gasoline engine developed by his chief engineer, Fritz Ring. Before that decade closed, Ring's engine had been applied to the wagon. Eventually, a steel frame was needed to reinforce the basic wagon platform, both to bear the concentrated weight of the engine and to handle propulsive forces now applied to the rear axle suspension points. This construction layout prevailed well into the 1960's, when unit-body construction began supplanting the separate frame for all but some heavy duty and commercial vehicles. (In fact, this influence is still visible in the early stages of present day unit-body manufacture.)[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center></center> </td> <td> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]1896 King. Note similarity to buckboard in the ad at the right.[/SIZE]</center> </td> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]{from 19th century ad for Bradley wagons}[/SIZE]</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]1899 Panel from Detroit Automobile Co.

[/SIZE]</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> [SIZE=+1]Through the 80's & 90's, various wagon builders began turning out light runabout horesless carriages. Almost immediately, owners began improvising cargo platforms on the rear of their cars, and grossly overloading them. Builders followed with sturdier versions for such use. Motor trucks quickly appeared in configurations based on the long proven utility of the basic wagon designs. It was during this period that variants of the depot hack evolved into the panel, the canopy express, and the station wagon. It was the canopy express which eventually became the Chevrolet Carryall-Suburban and today's ubiquitous SUV.[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center> </center>
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[SIZE=+1]Both "carryall" and "suburban" began being applied to automotive models in the early 1920's. Dodge listed various wood bodied station wagons as "Suburban" or "Suburban Carryall," and Chevrolet reportedly had several models called "Suburban," although General Motors officially only claims "use in commerce" since 1934. Throughout the 20's, 30's and 40's, there were numerous automotive brands using these two words for model names. (see list at the end of page two) Usage and hyphenation varied considerably, often within the same piece of writing.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]During the first 2 decades of the 20th century, many automotive brands offered depot hacks, station wagons, panels, and canopy expresses. These bodies were of wood construction and were made by numerous specialty body builders ("coach builders" such as Cantrell, Hercules-Campbell, US Body) The 1923 Star (another brand from Durant, founder of General Motors) is credited with being the first "production" station wagon, and it was likely the first to have been styled by the car company instead of the aftermarket body builder. In 1929, Ford became the first car manufacturer to build its own station wagon body and these were carried on their car chassis. The move toward placing station wagon bodies on commercial chassis got a boost in 1933, when Dodge contracted with U.S. Body & Forge of Tell City, Indiana to produce wooden station wagon bodies on their 1/2 ton truck & pick up chassis. Known as the "Westchester Semi-Sedan Suburban," this early commercial station wagon was the first to have roll up windows -- front doors only.

[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]1932 Canopy Express and Panel. Note the fabric roof.[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]1936 'Burb
[/SIZE]</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]In 1934, the name was shortened to "Westchester Suburban" and Dodge was selling them to the army. (This contract was most likely a legacy from Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing, who had used 250 Dodge touring cars in the 1916 campaign against Pancho Villa.) Plymouth also jumped in for 1934, having a similar USB&F wooden wagon body on a whopping 35 of their top of the line sedan chassis. Plymouth was also calling it a "Westchester Suburban" In 1937, Studebaker also began using USB&F woody bodies for their pickup based "Suburban Car," and Dodge and Plymouth changed roles, Plymouth going to their commercial chassis for the Westchester Suburbans, and Dodge reverting to their car chassis. The following year, Plymouth shortened the name of their wagons to just "Suburban," and by 1941 they were again being built on the car chassis.[/SIZE]
</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]In 1933, while Dodge was preparing to sell wood bodied wagons to the army, Chevrolet began building an all steel version of the venerable canopy express for the National Guard and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Significantly, the bodies utilized a one piece steel roof, not the fabric covered insert then prevalent. There is evidence that the steel bodied Carryall-Suburban made its appearance for this Government sale, probably in '34. During '33 & '34, Chevy had a station wagon which was a typical "woody" on a car chassis. Bodies for these were supplied by Hercules, but by '37, the car based wagon was carrying a Campbell wood body and the name "Suburban."[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center></center> </td> <td> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]Cantrell bodied 1937 [/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]Chevy wagon on the car chassis[/SIZE]</center> </td> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]Note the hyphen in [/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]Carry-all in this ad for the 1937 'Burb[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]The steel wagon on a commercial chassis was dubbed "Carryall-Suburban" and saw listing in the Chevrolet catalog for '35, and GMC brought out its version for '37. Although the panel was evolving towards a steel body during this same time, it still had the fabric covered wood roof in '36. The Carryall-Suburban traces its heritage to the Canopy Express. This is not just because of the gov't sales of these models in 33 & 34, but because of the parts used to build them. The first Carryall-Suburbans had a drop down tailgate in the rear opening. The hinges and fixtures for this tailgate were incorporated into the rear edges of the body sides which were manufactured for a tailgate, not for (a) side-hinged door(s). The "barn doors" option for the rear of the Carryall-Suburban was first listed for '38. As often happens, this option actually appeared in production sometime during the model year prior to its official listings. Some unknown number of '37 model Carryall-Suburbans left the factory with the double rear doors. This is attested to by Lou, an Early 'Burb member who owns a pair of unmodified '37 barn door Carryalls. That these are not early '38 models is shown by the VIN's as well as the placement of the gas tank attachment points. ('37 tank attached to body, '38 to frame)[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center></center> </td> <td> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]BEFORE & AFTER[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]Max, Ginny, Roger & friend with their 1937 Canopy Express

[/SIZE]</center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]1937 'Burb [/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center></center> </td> <td> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]Lou still drives this unrestored '37 Canopy Express [/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> <center> </center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]1938 'Burb[/SIZE]</center></td></tr></tbody></table>

 

<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" cols="2" width="640"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2">[SIZE=+1]The Chev/GMC Carryall-Suburban remained the only steel bodied station wagon until WW-II, when Dodge began selling a steel bodied "Carryall" to the military. These were the 4WD rigs that later became renowned as the Power Wagon. It was after the war's interuptions that steel bodied station wagons began generally to supplant the woody. Willys in '46, quickly followed by Crosley, was the first to put steel bodied wagons on non commercial chassis. The first steel bodied Plymouth Suburban came in '49. In the field of station wagons on commercial chassis, Chevy remained the only steel bodied entrant until the 1950's, when International Harvester's Travelall acquired a steel body. Then in 1958, Dodge released the Town Wagon which was carried through the '66 model year with an unchanged body and production of only a few hundred per year.[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]With the demise of the Cornbinder, the Chevy (& its GMC counterpart) remained alone in the field until 1990's when their burgeoning popularity spurred other manufacturers to bring out models to compete against it.[/SIZE]

</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center></center> </td> <td> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]1942 Dodge Carryall[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]1946 Willys steel wagon[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center></center> </td> <td> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]U.S. Body & Forge woody on a '38 [/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]Plymouth Westchester Suburban[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> <td> <center>[SIZE=+1]Crosley had the second steel wagon[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]on a car chassis[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]Note the holdover '58 styling of this 1964 Dodge Town Wagon.[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]Mechanicals had kept pace with the rest of the Dodge truck line.

[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <center>[SIZE=+1]First series 1955 was the last Canopy Express[/SIZE]</center> <center></center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1] By the time the SUV craze got into full swing, the name useage for the rigs had already settled down. Except for Chrysler and GM, all the former brands using the names "suburban" and/or "carryall" had fallen by the wayside, and Chrysler had reverted to listing their station wagons by the same name as the comparably equipped sedan. This left the Chev/GMC Carryall-Suburban the sole vehicle of its type, and the sole vehicle using the "Suburban" name. Thus it was at last possible for GM to establish a trademark through usage and association. The SUBURBAN® trademark was registered to General Motors for motor vehicles on May 31st, 1988. GM has since reserved the mark to the Chevrolet division; beginning with the 2000 model year, the GMC version of this venerable wagon will carry the YUKON® name.[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]In the course of 70 years, the Chevrolet Suburban has gone from being the only steel wagon in a sea of suburbans to being the only SUBURBAN® in a sea of steel wagons. Imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <hr width="100%"> <center>[SIZE=+3]USAGE NOTE

[/SIZE]</center> [SIZE=+1]Chevrolet & General Motors have not always been consistant in use or spelling of the Carryall-Suburban name. The following have been seen in the manufacturer's own printed material. Sometimes, more than one form will appear on a single page.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2">
[SIZE=+1]Carryall Suburban * Carry-all Suburban * Suburban Carryall[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]Other references to these GM vehicles compound the situation.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]For consistancy, I have used the form "Carryall-Suburban" for the pre-1988 Chevy/GMC steel bodied station wagon on commercial chassis, even when the cited work uses alternative spelling(s). For references to post-1988 Suburbans, the appropriate form is SUBURBAN®.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=+1]For non General Motors users of these names, I have tried to follow the user's spelling and hyphenation. Where this has varried, I have tried to use the form with the best ties to the maker, ie ads and brochures prevailing over articles and reviews.[/SIZE]</td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <hr width="100%"> <center>[SIZE=+3]WHO'S WHO

[/SIZE]</center> [SIZE=+1]Chevrolet Suburban 1920's[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Carryall Suburban (see usage note above) 1933-present[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]GMC same usages as Chevrolet except for '55 & '56 when the GMC counterpart of Chevy's Cameo pickup was labeled "Suburban"[/SIZE] [SIZE=+1]Desoto...Suburban 46-50[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Carryall 50-52[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Dodge...Suburban Carryall 1920's[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Suburban 1920's[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Westchester Semi-Sedan Suburban '33[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Westchester Suburban '34-? [/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Carryall 42-44?[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Suburban 54-58 [/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Hudson...Suburban 32-35[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Carry-all 40[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Nash...Suburban 46,7[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Super Suburban 48-55[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Plymouth...Westchester Suburban 34-38[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1] Suburban 39-63, 68-78[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Studebaker Suburban Car 37[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]Terraplane Suburban 35[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]This list is by no means complete.
[/SIZE]
[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]
<center>[SIZE=-1]This Suburban history article by:[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+2]Mike Huntington[/SIZE]</center> <center>[SIZE=+1]Early Suburban Owners Club Historian[/SIZE]</center> <center>
</center>[SIZE=+1]
[/SIZE]
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Roth built the Mysterion in 1962, but it kept breaking and finally was torn apart and pieced out. But someone made a re-creation.
Mysterion - Ed Roth Custom Hot Rod

Dave Shuten's Carbon Copy of a Show Car Legend
February 24, 2009
By Chris Shelton

​

For this story to make any sense, there's something you must know about Ed Roth's Mysterion: It's long gone. "But ..." you implore, "what about this yellow thing here?" Well, this "thing" is the fruit of a belated effort--and one hell of a story that begs to be told. We're short on space, so let's fly. We'll start with the history.
Ed built the Mysterion in his Maywood, California, "Studio" in 1962. He and righthand-man "Dirty" Doug Kinney built the outlandish body and nose by Roth's patented "spitwad" method and shaped it to a figure that appeared exclusively to Ed. He then laminated the plaster buck with a resin-soaked fiberglass mat and once the resin kicked, Ed and Dirty chipped the plaster buck out of the "body." Ed then left Dirty Doug with sharp tools and explicit instructions: Make it smooth. Unorthodox? You bet ... even by today's standards.
Ed found extreme success by topping his prior creation, the Beatnik Bandit, with a blow-molded canopy--an especially appealing feature to kids raised on B-grade sci-fi films. He repeated the same canopy on the Mysterion, although with a twist: He had the Mysterion's bubble blown in a tripartite shape. The Mysterion was just as bizarre under its alien skin. In his inimitable fashion, Ed cobbled up a set of framerails from what some speculate as C-channel trailer rails. To give the rather slabby sides a bit more character, Ed and Dirty drilled a series of holes down the sides to emulate some of the "lightweight" cues they found on contemporary dragsters.

​

Ed found even more inspiration in dragster practice. The NHRA banned "exotic" fuels (nitro and alky) between 1957 and 1963. The act initiated a fairly bizarre practice: Top-class racers, in an ever-increasing need for speed during the prohibition, resorted to stuffing multiple engines in their diggers. That more-is-better philosophy aligned perfectly for wild-man Ed Roth, so he sourced two Ford FE-series engines (ostensibly 406s, but it's probably show talk) and crammed them between those drilled girders. As if that wasn't enough mass for the little car-to-be, consider that he mated each engine to its own Ford-O-Matic slushbox. Then he did something absolutely preposterous to anybody who's ever driven a banjo-axled Ford: He transmitted all that theoretical power to a glass-axled rearend made from two banjo centersections.
The frontend, while still unrealistic, portended the future to a degree. Ed cut flanges and welded them to a stretched Ford axle. He drilled the flanges and located the axle to the frame with--get this--four articulating links (Sprint Car practice at the time, yet it didn't reach the hot rod world at large for almost a decade). He sprung the front with fabricated cups and coil springs of surely indiscriminate spring rate. He lopped the backing plate flanges off the spindles and fabricated wheels from flat-plate centers and 16-inch cycle hoops. In what must've amounted to an exercise in restraint, Ed painted the engine blocks, heads, and transmission cases black. What didn't go black went straight to the plater's. The body and nose got a very out-there greenish-yellow paint. The Mysterion's interior didn't fail to impress, either; it featured yards of what looks like Sasquatch hair in lieu of carpet. Contrasting the rather drab hair was a single contoured seat sheathed in metal-flecked vinyl. The Cragar steering wheel only accentuated the spangled cockpit.

The steering wheel and seat...

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The steering wheel and seat interference should give a good indication to the Mysterion's tractability. The wheel is a genuine Cragar piece. The gauges are uncommon Stewart Warner Twin Blue dials.

​

Understandably, the Mysterion hit big. It appeared on the cover and inside the September '63 Rod & Custom cover, as well as numerous other magazines, and even on and inside a how-to book. Various publications illustrated the Mysterion's comfort (or abject lack thereof) by virtue of a very massive Ed Roth or two very svelte ladies crammed under the bubble. Eventually Revell scaled down the Mysterion and offered it as a kit to every aspiring Mysterion owner.
Ed peddled the car for a season and showed it at all the big venues. Eventually he cut a deal with Bob Larivee Sr. (Bob relinquished the Beatnik Bandit and another car for the show-stopping Mysterion). Ed must've known what he was doing, for Bob to this day refers to the Mysterion as "a total piece of sh--.""It broke all the time," he says. "The weight from the engines alone constantly cracked the frame--and that was from riding in a trailer from show to show!" After numerous ad-hoc repairs at various venues, Larivee divested himself of the Mysterion. Someone eventually parted out the car and it ended up in the Midwest. Bill Roach purchased the empty shell and nose in the '70s from a bank that lost big on a shyster. The body eventually horse-traded back to Ed. Ed, who wasn't particularly fond of looking back in the first place, wasn't entirely happy to steward the car a decade after its glory. According to Bill, "At one point while Ed was driving the car across country, he talked about pulling over on some interstate and setting the body on fire and calling the cops to report a spaceship crash."
While a succession of trades lost the Mysterion to time, the loss didn't faze Roth devotee Mark Moriarity. For those who haven't heard, Mark's the consummate Roth collector. He not only dedicated a room to Roth in his Minnesota home, he dedicated the whole damned house to him. Along with enough ephemera to choke a horse, he has Ed's Road Agent and a sickeningly faithful clone of the Outlaw ... in his living room.

The nose endeavor required...

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The nose endeavor required numerous rarities: '62 Plymouth Sport Fury headlight bezel, a 4 1/2-inch Harley Davidson spotlight, and two '49-51 Ford accessory reverse lights.

​

Well, at one point Mark happened upon a clone initiated by fellow Minnesotan Mike Scott. It included the unique parts: a rough body and nose and started axles. Other obligations sidelined the Mysterion project, so he found a buyer: Dave Shuten.
Dave is one of those collectors who should be on Ritalin; he collects everything. He's not some come-lately rich guy who just discovered cars, either; he's a die maker at Grand Rapids, Michigan's GM plant and he bleeds 30-weight. In his defense, he's incredibly devoted ... to cars. Working from grainy magazine covers, model box tops, and faded book pages, Dave very faithfully reassembled the "new" Mysterion. He scanned and measured the images and re-scaled the model kit back up to 1:1 proportions-off GM hours, of course.

Dave found six Stromberg WW...

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Dave found six Stromberg WW carbs to match the Mysterion's and fabricated wedge-shaped boxes to level them over the vintage Edelbrock 3x2 manifolds. The exhaust plumbing is a near work of art. It required numerous bends and elbows and countless splices. The two inboard headers snake around between the engines.

​

What Ed chose out of convenience 40-plus years ago proved difficult to find in the new millennium. The four-link frontend, for example, used 16 '63 to '67 Corvette tie-rod ends--of which Shuten found in new old stock parts bins (eat your hearts out, Vette snobs!). Those six carburetors atop the engines aren't exactly common, either; they're Stromberg/ Bendix Model WWs from '50s GMCs. Ever seen a silver-flaked Cragar wheel? They're rare, pal. How 'bout Twin Blue Stewart Warners? Fight over 'em with the eBay snipers for a while. We won't even get into how valuable NOS '62 Sport Fury headlight bezels became over the years.
The most difficult part of the resurrection: "The bubble," Dave says. He built the form and headed to Lakeville, Minnesota's Masterglas--the same cat who blew the bubbles for the Futurian and Road Agent's restorations. In all, "it took us three trips, 13 tries, and I can't tell you how many tooling changes for that damned thing."
The rest, while labor intensive, proved obtainable. He spliced the two '46 pickup rearends. He filled and ground a stretched axle. He trimmed what Ed did. He also polished everything himself--six decades of pits and all. Steve Sours merely dipped already-polished parts.

The interior is an exercise...

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The interior is an exercise in '60s kitsch. Dave found a reasonable facsimile to Ed's gorilla hair. The television is a 1962 solid-state Panasonic unit and features a whopping 8-inch screen.

​

Dave blocked the body and sprayed it House of Kolor Stark White with clear. Along the way, Dave acquainted himself with New York-based painter and nutcase Fritz Schenck--himself an Ed Roth devotee on a quest of his own (see his story on his Roswell Rod on page 54). In the very cold Michigan winter (January 15 to be exact), Fritz drove in from the coast and laid down some eyeball-blended HOK Kandy Lime Gold with white pearl in an impromptu booth in Dave's garage. Fritz also 'striped the body.
Dave reassembled the car with a number of correct parts. He found an early Panasonic solid-state TV. He animated the bubble top with hydraulic rams. Seat Covers by Stews clad the alien-looking seat in silver Zodiac vinyl. The wheels were no easy task; Dave plasma-cut the flat plate to form the centers for the fronts. He then welded them to 16-inch motorcycle wheel blanks. Radir Wheels cut an offset groove into a set of 8.20-15 slicks. Dave even talked a very hesitant Rich Conklin into chroming a set of 15x8 Radir hoops for the application.
Dave debuted the Mysterion along with Fritz's Roswell Rod at the 2005 Detroit Autorama to great review. As a matter of fact, the only other displays to boast larger crowds that weekend were the Ken Reister/Chip Foose Ridler Memorial winner and a patriotically themed monster truck--each of which eclipsed both bubble-topped cars combined by well over tenfold cost-wise.

Dave fabricated this rearend...

read full caption



Dave fabricated this rearend from two '46 Ford pickup axles. The hindquarters required '61 Galaxie taillights.

​

In closing, consider this: Forty years after Ed Roth built a frivolous car that showed briefly at best, a 30-something kid with a family and mortgage painstakingly collected, modified, and made the parts he needed to faithfully recreate it. Roth would've undoubtedly shook his head and asked why the kid didn't build something of his own design, however, I don't think even Roth fully understood his impact on American pop culture.
We don't have Ed Roth walking around anymore; we only have his stories and artifacts to remember him by. The prospect that someone would make the effort to give us something that was lost to time and the idea that it still strikes awe in showgoers four decades after its salad days is an endorsement of Roth's significance. It's for that reason that we thank you, Dave, and your patient wife, Michelle, for a job very well done.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hi Jim-
Well I AM in Indiana....but it's about a 4 hour drive from here.
At the time I visited I had a car club friend that lives in Auburn that was tight with the museum. He took us all over the place, storage and all. That's how I accidently ran across those two little Walker Dynamotive milk trucks (in the album). Ironically, he works for Navistar and is responsible for a lot of what's there in the way of I-H stuff. I haven't heard from him in quite a while though. I'll drop him a line and see if he's still gainfully employed. This economy has been pretty rough up that way. If I do get in touch with him I'll see if he has any info on the Speedwagons. How "early" are you talking? Like 1915 or so? That's what this one is supposed to be.





Later, Phil

 

Hey there, CustomCab/Phil! Man, I'll take what I can get. Sure beats a dumptruck from the '30s when REO was still using the Speedwagon nomenclature!

This 1915 REO Speedwagon is a good deal more stout and substantial than how I'd pictured the earliest Speedwagons -- but, then, Ransom Olds was a quality-conscious guy, down to using more nickel in motor blocks (policy) than about anybody in the car industry.



1915 REO Speedwagon

Right off hand, I don't remember when Olds split from his original partners (because Olds wanted to keep building LIGHT cars, the partners, BIG cars -- BOTH actually "won" in the long run).

 

I used to have a '35 AND a '36 suburban:

 

Wikipedia pegs REO Motor Car Co. from 1905 to 1975. During its long run, REO built automobiles (through 1936), light trucks, medium and heavy-duty (from 1910) trucks and, for a time, buses on their truck frames. Before mass auto-producers emerged in this country, REO rapidly became the fourth wealthiest car company in America with profits exceeding $4 million per annum. Two auto models for which REO is best remembered include the Royale eight-cylinder and the Flying Cloud.



The earliest REO Speedwagon (if there WAS one that year) would have probably been based on the chassis of cars like this 1906 REO runabout. Sincere thanks is pressed to Wikipedia, the Free Online Encyclopia and the Wikimedia Commons Project for this great color photo of an EARLY REO!

 

Hey there daBirdGuy Glenn! Good to see you on here again. Hey, what did you eventually do with the Suburbans???

 

Jimi,

I got to do a little work on an '07- fun cars!

 

'31 REO Royale Victoria 8 by Murray, designed by Amos Northrup, as elegant
as anything in the U.S market in its time (or ANY time?). Thanks expressed
to flicker. To see more GREAT Royales, just search this thread for several
more BEAUTIFUL pix, previously posted by threader SunRoofCord (Jim).

 

Jimi...
The lawyers got em. Last I heard it went to Japan.

 

Reo Trucks: 1910-1966 (Photo Archive)



http://www.powells.com/biblio?isbn=9781583881811

 

1911 REO Truck With Solid Oak Body

R. E. Olds Transportation Museum...Lansing, Michigan

 

Here's something else I ran across that shows an early REO (1917 and 1921).

 

1920 REO Economy Truck

R.E. Olds Museum...Lansing Michigan

 

1904 Olds Model T Delivery Truck

R.E. Olds Museum....Lansing Michigan

 

Gosh, guys, great to see this revival of REO !!! Like I-H, it's not a well understood make today, SO it's damn GOOD we revisited it -- this time from the light-truck end!

Surely looks as though the WWI era may well have been the time when the "SpeedWagon" nomenclature originated. One HUGE THANKS again, everybody!

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1896 Daimler Builds World's First Truck

• [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Converted horse-drawn cart initiates a new category of vehicle

• [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Rapid development of the first truck range of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft [/FONT]
• [FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Superior concept for the short-radius distribution of goods [/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]All beginnings are difficult – not only for people who are ahead of their time. While it is true that the world’s first truck initiated motorized road transport as we know it today, it did not attract a single buyer in Germany. In the early stages, the truck had to overcome a great deal of resistance – much more than the passenger car.
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Unlike the car, the truck had a hard time winning recognition in the early days. Whereas the high society had welcomed the car with open arms as an enrichment of their personal freedom, the truck came up against severe skepticism in industry: capital goods had to earn money. And of course, Gottlieb Daimler’s first truck was matured only to a limited extent – even though its time had definitely come.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Two-cylinder engine instead of a drawbar[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It was one of the greatest talents of inventor Gottlieb Daimler to find ever more applications for his engine. He came up with the motorcycle, the motorized handcar, a motorized fire-fighting pump, and – eventually and almost inevitably – with the truck. Back in 1896, he set up the first truck on iron-clad wooden wheels – a type of carriage without a drawbar but with an engine instead.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pragmatism was a hallmark of this vehicle with a coach-box, a vertical “cab” reaching up towards the skies, as well as with a platform with the logo “Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft Cannstatt” printed on the side. Strictly speaking, this was a converted horse-drawn cart whose chassis featured transversely mounted, fully elliptic leaf springs at the front and coil springs at the rear. This complex suspension was important not only because of the poor road conditions at the time but also because of the engine’s distinctive sensitivity to vibrations.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The rear-mounted four-hp two-cylinder engine called Phoenix had a displacement of 1.06 liters. It had been adopted from the passenger car, and operated in much the same way. The engine’s typical features included glow-tube ignition and spray-nozzle carburetor. Gottlieb Daimler quoted “the compactness and elegance of the design, the noiseless and jerk-free operation and the odorless exhaust gases” as the major advantages of the Phoenix engines which had been designed to operate on as many as three fuels: gasoline, coal gas and lamp fuel.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Pinion drive as a forerunner of planetary axles[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]The truck engine operated on gasoline – which, however, had to be bought at the chemist’s at the time. On the other hand, this vehicle already boasted a feature which was to become the trademark of New Generation trucks through to the SK at a much later stage and which is still indispensable in present-day construction site vehicles – an early type of planetary axle.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Belts transmitted the power produced by the engine, which was installed in an upright position underneath the rear end, to a shaft – with pinions at both ends – mounted transversely to the vehicle’s longitudinal axis. Each of these pinions meshed with the internal teeth of a ring gear which was firmly connected with the wheel to be driven.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Lack of interest in Germany[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Despite of this, Gottlieb Daimler did not enjoy success with his first truck in Germany. Nevertheless, a buyer was found in the mother country of industrialization, in England. In that country, steam-powered vehicles had long since managed the step from rail to road – where these fossils did not become extinct before the 1950s. At the same time, however, England was a country in which coke and coal were particularly cheap – which is why a vehicle with a gasoline engine was hardly given a chance.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]On the other hand, it was on the British Isles that the Red Flag Act was abandoned in 1896. This was a decree with which the horse lobby successfully defended itself against the machine-driven means of transport for a long time. Until 1896, horseless vehicles were not allowed to drive faster than four miles an hour and had to carry a crew of three people: two for operating the vehicle and one for walking ahead of the vehicle, red flag in hand, to warn other road users.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Green light in the mother country of industrialization It was a lucky coincidence that the Red Flag Act was abrogated in 1896. Daimler’s “Motorized goods vehicle order no. 81 ... for the transport of 1,500 kg”, as the entry in the order book of Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft reads, was given the green light in the mother country of industrialization. It was nevertheless not before 1901 that a truck proved to be superior to the steam-powered truck, customary on the island at the time, in a comparative test in Liverpool.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It goes without saying that the engineering needed time to mature. Nevertheless, Daimler rapidly advanced into the five-ton payload category. The output of the first truck range launched soon afterwards ranged from four to ten hp, payload capacity from 1,500 to 5,000 kilograms. Shortly after the world’s first truck had been supplied to England, Daimler presented a range comprising as many as four models which he offered from September 1896. In the same year, Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach moved the six-hp two-cylinder Phoenix engine, previously mounted at the rear in the style of an underfloor engine from Büssing, to underneath the driver’s seat, and the four-speed belt transmission equally moved to the front.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Decisive improvements as early as 1897[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]However, this solution still left a lot to be desired, especially as the belt transmission, which had proved itself in passenger cars, was suitable for heavyweights only to a limited extent. Therefore, as early as 1897, just one year later, the truck was finally given a face that clearly distinguished it from the car and paved the way towards ever greater output and payload. The engine found its traditional place right at the front, ahead of the steered axle, and transmitted its output via a four-speed gearbox and a full-length longitudinal shaft and pinions to the rear wheels which continued to be iron-clad.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Inventor Gottlieb Daimler improved not only the powertrain but also the engine. The glow-tube ignition was replaced by a new low-voltage magneto ignition from Bosch, which ignited the gasoline/air mixture in the engine which had been enlarged to 2.2 liters. A completely new design principle was adopted for the radiator. In April 1897, Wilhelm Maybach had completed his groundbreaking tests with the tubular radiator which represented a decisive improvement of the cooling system – an indispensable precondition for a higher power output.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Practical testing in brickworks[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]But even Gottlieb Daimler must have felt somewhat scary in view of so many innovations in so short a time. For the time being, he proceeded somewhat more carefully before he launched a new five-tonner (in those days, the tonnage always related to the payload capacity, not to the gross weight). Without much ado, he handed over the truck, which was highly advanced by the standards of the time, to brickworks in Heidenheim, where its weaknesses were systematically identified in arduous day-to-day operation – and eliminated.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]After that period, however, Daimler left no stone unturned in promoting his trucks. With his five-tonner, he set out to Paris to present this new truck alongside a four-hp belt-driven car. In this lively metropolis, a competition organized by the French Automobile Club was followed by a motor show in the Tuileries Garden, where Daimler exhibited his latest scions. “Large crowds, many vehicles of all kinds – our truck and taxi attract a lot of attention,” Daimler’s wife Lina noted down on June 15, 1898, pleased with her husband’s success.[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Yet those with a doubtful view of the truck with combustion engine remained in the majority for a long time to come. It was generally assumed in Europe that combustion engines were right for passenger cars, and steam engines and electric motors for commercial vehicles. Fears were still too great. People were reserved not only because gasoline had to be bought at the chemist’s. Few people understood the engineering which, incidentally, was far from being able to cope with all the hardships the roads had in store for vehicles at the time. The buyers of Karl Benz’s first bus, for instance, returned the vehicle to him in winter 1895/1896 because they had difficulties negotiating the ruts carved by heavy-duty horse-drawn carts into the roads.[/FONT] [/FONT]

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

REOs in popular culture
The band REO Speedwagon took their name from the REO manufactured REO Speed Wagon light delivery truck, an ancestor of pickup trucks.
A REO is mentioned in a humorous 1933 short story by James Thurber entitled, The Car We Had to Push. It tells the story of Thurber’s family car, which would only start if pushed a long way. After several odd adventures, the car is destroyed by a trolley car.
Diamond Rio is an American country music band formed in 1984. The name Diamond Rio came from the names of two truck manufacturers, Diamond T and REO (the latter of which became misspelled in the band's name).

REO Speedwagon took its name from the REO Speed Wagon, a flatbed truck and fire engine, manufactured by the REO Motor Car Company. ("R.E.O." are initials of the company's founder, Ransom Eli Olds, who also founded Oldsmobile, once a division of General Motors.) The band was hauled to gigs by a friend who owned an REO Speedwagon. Since they could not pay him, they agreed to name the band after him (or at least his car.)

First named the Grizzly River Boys, and later changed to the Tennessee River Boys. Olander and Johnson, who previously worked with Keith Whitley, joined a year later, followed by Prout and Williams. The band's name was finally changed to Diamond Rio, because others had thought that the previous name made the group sound like a gospel music band. The name Diamond Rio came from the names of two truck manufacturers, Diamond T and REO (the latter of which became misspelled in the band's name).

 

The Jeep FJ-3 Fleetvan was a compact delivery van manufactured by Willys Motors and Kaiser-Jeep from 1961 to 1965. It was based on the DJ-3A Dispatcher, but equipped with the F-134 Hurricane engine. Two models were available, the FJ-3 and the longer FJ-3A. It came standard with the familiar Borg-Warner T-90 three-speed manual transmission. A Borg-Warner automatic was offered as an option.
Right-hand-drive FJ-3s were made for the U. S. Postal Service. Most of these had horizontal grille slats in contrast to the seven vertical slats found on standard models.
An FJ-6 model was introduced in 1965 for postal use, which was ultimately replaced by the FJ-9 introduced in 1975.

Willys Jeep Fleet Van

The Fleet Van was well suited for multistop work such as postal and general delivery vehicle use. The FJ-3 featured sit-down or standing driving positions.

According to the "Standard Catalog of American Light Duty Trucks", Willys introduced the Fleetvan, FJ-3 and FJ-3A, in 1961. Other than 1964, in which none were manufactured, this vehicle was available from 1961 through 1966. The firewall should contain the following:

"WILLYS product made by KAISER JEEP CORPORATION".

Ed Boblitt received the specification sheets from John Landolt, the Jeep Corporation historian in the late '70's, which listed only 831 total production in 1961 and 1962 for the Fleet Van. I also have information that only 47 of the "extended body" FJ3A versions were made. Most were USPS vehicles with a small window in the side panel and a rollup door in the rear.

​

<CENTER>Jeep Postal FJ3 Fleetvan</CENTER>


FJ-3 Specifications

• Four cylinder F-head engine
• Three speed synchromesh transmission
• 4.56:1 rear gearing
• 9" drums brakes
• 15x5 wheels
• Rated at 1000lbs payload
• 70" sliding doors on each side
• Double-open rear doors
• 80" wheelbase
• 133" overall length
• 4x2 operation

Jeep FJ-3/FJ-3ASpecifications
Manufacturer Willys Motors and Kaiser-Jeep
Also called Fleetvan
Production 1961-65
Assembly Toledo, Ohio
Successor FJ-6
Class Compact van
Engine(s) F4-134 Hurricane
Wheelbase 81 in
Length 135 in (FJ-3)
154 in (FJ-6)
Width 64.7 in
Height 90.1 in

 

I have a book called REO Trucks 1909-1967 by Herman Sass,
kind of a home published book back in the days of mimeograph copying, published in 1991.
collection of old articles and ads of REO trucks

 

The Automobile

It is probable that the firm developed only one automobile, the big 7-seater touring car which was advertised in the December 1908 issue of the magazine Motor Age at $3,500. G. Marshall NAUL in The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars 1885 to the Present (ed. G.N. Georgano, New York, E.P. Dutton, 1973) states a manufacturing year of 1909 only, adding: "The Piggins was a very large car with wheelbases of up to 11ft 1in. T-head, 6-cylinder engines of 36hp and 50hp were used. The latter unit was of 7.8 litres' capacity and drove a seven-seater weighing 3,700lb which cost $4,500." <!--David BURGESS WISE in The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles (London: Hamlyn, 1979, reprinted New York, BookSales Inc, 2000) concurs in stating that the Piggins was manufactured only in 1909 and adds: Marketed as the "Practical Piggins," it was a big six of 36hp or 50hp.-->Kimes provides slightly different prices and wheelbase lengths for the two models: the 135-inch 50hp at $4700 and the 117-inch 36hp at $3500.
Although the company boasted that vibration had been so reduced that a coin could remain on edge on the chassis while the engine ran, and Charles Piggins claimed in 1908 the motor would be inaudible a few metres away, this motor, with its external pushrods, would probably have been fairly loud and the large size of the unit meant it would have been a serious air polluter by today's standards.
Piggins Brothers almost certainly did not have the coachmaking expertise to construct their own bodies, and would probably have had to contract out the more difficult tasks in engine-making as well. Their arrival in the business could scarcely have happened at a worse time, as a shakeout was coming to the automobile industry which destroyed the smaller manufacturers. The year before the Piggins car came onto the market, Henry Ford had begun production of the Model T in 1908 and created a mass market for automobiles. It is claimed that by the time Ford had made his 10 millionth car, nine out of ten of all cars in the entire world were Fords. A Model T cost just 850 dollars in 1909, whereas the less powerful of the Piggins cars cost 3,500 dollars, four times as much. In time the Model T became even cheaper.
A market existed for what were dubbed "high hat" cars - very luxurious automobiles - but customers naturally expected proof of superb quality and reliability. In 1907, Pierce-Arrow, one of the United States' premium brands, had brought out their first six-cylinder car, the 65-Q Great Arrow with a 135-inch wheelbase. Its price gives some idea of the upper range of the 1909 market: from $6,500 to $7,750. One or possibly two of the 48-hp Pierce cars were bought by President William Howard Taft for the White House in 1909. The Piggins cost about two-thirds as much as the "presidential" brand, yet had no proven record in use.
At the time, the Piggins was the biggest and most expensive car yet produced in Racine, according to Kimes. A few more cars may have been built - or at least sold - into 1910. We have no figures on how many of the Piggins passenger cars were made in all, but it seems likely that the number was tiny and that the project turned out to be uneconomic.
A Piggins car was the first automobile to be stolen in Racine, according to Gerald Karwowski's timeline of city history. The car, normally driven by a chauffeur was taken in 1910 from the locked garage of Solomon Haas, owner of a tannery, in the rear of 1119 Park Ave. The news report, dated 1910-10-06, from the Racine Times or Journal states:

The auto was a Piggins car made in Racine, 1909. Its original cost was over $3,000 which is covered by an insurance policy for $2,500. The car was a 38-horse power, six cylinder, dark red color, leather top, folding glass window shield. The number was 6,540 W. The initials S.H. were painted on each of the doors.
The stolen automobile was found abandoned in a suburb of Chicago today. The police receiving a telephone message to that effect this afternoon. Haas' chauffeur has gone down after it.
Mr Haas has had bad luck with his car this season. About three months ago, while he and his wife were driving to Rockford, the car ran into a culvert near Beloit, throwing both occupants out of the machine and injuring them somewhat. Mr Haas has brought suit against Rock county for $5,000 damages. The case is now pending.

The Trucks


Piggins Brothers appear to have manufactured trucks for a considerably longer period than they did cars. The date of one surviving sales brochure, The Piggins Motor Truck, is not certain, but the inclusion of a picture of the unusual Piggins axle, for which a patent was sought in 1912 and granted in 1914, as well as photographs of trucks already sold, indicates that the brochure dates from about 1913. The brochure shows two basic chassis designs:

• A high vehicle with a vertical steering column, where the driver's feet were directly over the engine: examples of bodywork include the flatbed trucks, with and without load-securing stakes, and the flap-side (Rapid Transit Co.) truck in the brochure. It had a four-cylinder engine available in various bores, and its 41-inch-wide chassis could be extended backwards to carry a maximum of five tons on a vehicle 18 feet long.
• A lower, more agile vehicle, evidently derived from the touring car, with an oblique steering column, where the driver sat behind the engine: the ambulance/hearse shown in the brochure is of this type. The sanitary ice-cream truck also appears to belong in this family, although its front axle has been moved from the forward end of the chassis and has been placed under the engine, giving it a shorter wheelbase to suit city streets. This series generally had six-cylinder engines

The mention of lumber in the brochure suggests the trays of the trucks were made of wood, not steel. It is assumed that the chassis itself was a steel frame. The cockpit sides, footboards and compartment doors below were of solid aluminium, according to the brochure. The photos of the actual trucks suggest there was not only considerable variation in the bodies, but even in external features such as the 18-inch aluminium wheel hubs and radiators:

<TABLE border=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%"><TBODY><TR><TD width="80%" align=middle>Driving a Piggins




</TD><TD vAlign=top width="10%" align=right> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><!--INFORMATION SECTION STARTS HERE-->
Publicity material stated that the Piggins engines were made and finished in the company plant at Racine, and this was probably true of the truck axles too. The chassis, suspension, wheels and fittings might have been obtained from outside suppliers, with assembly done at Racine. Aluminium was extensively used in the truck bodywork, and perhaps in the car too, possibly because it was easier for a small plant to form.

The original car (in the modern sense of automobile: Piggins Brothers used the term by itself to mean a passenger vehicle, but "commercial car" to mean a truck) had button-upholstered armchair-style seats.
Its controls, visible in the photo at right, comprised three pedals, a big spoked steering wheel and two levers, one of which is a gear-lever of the type common on early cars. The other may be a second gear-shift or the hand-brake. A close look shows that accessories included a klaxon with a rubber bulb and a long twisting pipe ending in a horn opening. The side-lamps were made of brass and would have burned liquid fuel.
As far as is currently known, no specimen of a Piggins car or truck has survived, so it is not possible to assess the vehicles' driving qualities, but their road behaviour would have resembled that of modern cars, with rear-wheel drive and leaf-spring suspension on all four wheels. Both the cars and the trucks lacked modern comforts, with the driver required to hand-crank them to start. The controls would have been heavy and the vehicles had only basic protection from bad weather.

The driving instructions in the trucks brochure include the following interesting advice for the pioneer driver:

• Do not let clutch in too sudden as it strains everything too severely
• Do not apply brakes too suddenly as you are apt to break something
• When stuck in mud do not churn wheels, get shovel and remove dirt, as you are likely to ruin your tires

Where the trucks are shown with occupants, they always had a crew of two. The heavy touring car was also probably driven mainly by employed chauffeurs rather than by owners, and would have required frequent lubrication and other maintenance. The car had a very long wheelbase, which would also probably not have been very manoeuvrable in city traffic: it was mainly intended for open-road travel. Even if a glass windscreen was bought for it, the occupants would have worn warm clothing and goggles as protection against the breeze. Photographs show that this car had right-side steering, which was common in the United States before the First World War.
The newspaper account of the Solomon Haas car states that it was painted dark red and had a leather top and folding glass windshield. Haas had a chauffeur, and would have ridden with his wife at the very back, over the rear wheel. Haas was thrown out of the car on a rough road not long after he bought it, but it is not recorded that the car suffered any damage in this early accident.

​

 

Good stuff on trucks, guys. SunRoof, I was surprised to find the Daimler didn't get a good reception for the first trucks! And it was good to hear the "red-flag" story again, about a long-time kooky practice in England.

HJ, THIS is one aspect of the familiar musical-group story that I have NEVER heard. SEEMS to be THE missing piece of the puzzle!

QUOTE: The band was hauled to gigs by a friend who owned a REO Speedwagon. Since they could not pay him, they agreed to name the band after him (or at least his car.)

 

I don't know about you, but I'll give the prize to Studebaker for being THE car company that was MOST like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, metaphorically speaking! More than any other company, Stude face-lifted more models -- and at least TRIED to make them look new to consumers. When the last Hawk was done in '64, for example, it owed its lineage to 1953.

Minus Packard's capital and on the ropes in the late '50s, Stude totally re-skinned a smaller model and rolled out the "new" Lark line. As only America's second real compact car of the time (after AMC), the '59 Larks were so successful, at first, that Studebaker was able to stay alive for a few more years.

Following upon THAT sleight-of-hand act, Studebaker decided to freshen up its moribund pickup trucks for 1960 by sawing the new Lark in half and making a "new" truck cab from it! Once again, it WORKED! And once again, success was fleeting, as sales declined after initial public enthusiasm. Not ONLY was the Studebaker Champ pickup half car, it sat on a frame dating from 1949, and at least one of the engine offerings dated back to -- get this -- 1939!

Tons of the rust-prone Champs went back to their base elements, making a clean specimen a rarity today. Below is a nicely restored Champ, clearly showing the "resemblance" to the Lark line. Though Dodge -- decades later -- would claim its Dakota to be the first mid-size pickup, they must have conveniently forgotten about the Stude Champ!

<TABLE style="WIDTH: 456px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=columnheader-price style="WIDTH: 456px; HEIGHT: 20px; BACKGROUND-COLOR: #000066; TEXT-ALIGN: center">Stock #3723-STL </TD><TR><TD><TABLE style="WIDTH: 456px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR><TD style="WIDTH: 456px; TEXT-ALIGN: center"></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
This prime '63 Champ pickup was sold recently
by Gateway Classic Cars, Fairmont City, IL
</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

The Imp Cyclecar & The W. H. McIntyre Co.

Imp
The W. H. McIntyre Co.
Auburn, Indiana
1913-1914

Built by the W. H. McIntyre Co. of Auburn, Indiana for only two years, 1913 and 1914. The Imp was a pioneer manufacturer of Cyclecars in America. The passenger rode in a tandem seat directly behind the driver.

The Imp was powered by a V-Twin (two cylinder) air cooled motorcycle engine. The engine had a heavy flywheel and developed 10 to 12 horsepower. The transmission was of the friction type (4 speeds forward) and the rear wheels were driven through long V-belts outside of the car.



1913 Imp Cyclecar
The W. H. McIntyre Co. also produced the McIntyre (1909-1915) and W. H. McIntyre was general manager of the Kiblinger (1907-1909).



1914 Imp Cyclecar
Other specifications included frame construction, light weight wood, sheet metal body, no axles, independent wheel suspension, seats two passengers, wheelbase 100 inches, thread 36 inches, tires 28 x 2 1/2 inches, weight 600 pounds, top, horn and extra lights. All for a price of $375.00.



<CENTER>1913-14 Imp Springs </CENTER>
The Imp Cyclecar had many original and unique features, particularly in its spring construction.
Instead of having axles there are two flat springs set crosswise of the frame and with their ends attached to yokes between which the wheel spindles are fitted. Those in the front being attached to a pivoted steering knuckle, while those in the rear are fastened to a rigid arm.




Imp Cyclecar Factory - Auburn, Indiana

 

The Champ P2 Pickup bed is actually a FULL SIZE 1958 - 1960 DODGE bed.

 

Wowee, odd looking Imp! When I look at the method of "transmission" on this car, the words that come to mind are: "Be SURE to keep hands, feet and clothing INSIDE the vehicle during the entire ride!" LOL



I think it's really kind of sad that Ford and others purposely drove the once-popular cyclecars completely out of the picture. They were practical (usually air-cooled) transportation for people who didn't need to carry a munch of cargo.