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

One of two known to exist. I used to work for the man that owned the one in the picture. He had 10 shares of Climber Motor stock hanging on his office wall. Made in Little Rock, Ar. and was said to be able to climb the state capitol steps, hince the name.

 

DeuceGuy: Brush was around for over a decade, so surely survives, both in museums and in collectors' hands (cool fatc: all the WOOD in the chassis!).

Those OTHERS you mentioned, THOUGH OBVIOUSLY NOT EXTINCT, have to be VERY RARE! Metz & Saxon in particular.

Now, the IHC AutoBuggy: I think THIS one is of particular interest BECAUSE I just don't think many people today REALIZED that International Harvester (formerly McCormick Reaper) EVER MADE A CAR. IH, most feel, I'm sure was just a truck maker, right? I need to cjeck, but I think the AutoBuggy even goes back to 1907. One variation on the body was a sort of "pickup" bed.

 

The KING automobile was built by car pioneer Charles Brady
King. Notably, King and Cadillac were just DAYS apart in intro-
ducing the first U.S. V-8s! Thouh KING is unlikely to be
EXTINCT, below are three that nearly WERE!


1915 KING Model D touring in junkyard (got restored!)


1916 KING Model EE


1917 KING Model EE

 

There was a car called the "Californian" that was built in Fullerton, California, in a building at the intersection of Harbor Blvd and Orangethope Ave. as I recall around 1917, 1918. I lived in Fullerton in the 1980s and '90s and read and heard about it but trying to research that term in Google today is virtually impossible as everything relates to California. Think they made a total of three cars and none were known to survive. Now that is rare! Need a real historian on this one!

 

I Wish those damn things were extinct, even looks like a dino

 

1927 Erskine.Believe it was made in Huntsville Alabama.I forgot the details.Its in the Depot Museum in Huntsville.

 

Don, thanks for mentioning the Erskine, since the younger generation of today probably wouldn't know what to make of it! First off, over 95,000 units were made by Studebaker, ranging from 1927 through 1930 models. So, they'd be far from being truly extinct, as your example in the Hunstville Depot Museum shows -- though only a small handful of that body style reportedly exist!

While the '20s were still roaring, Studebaker President Albert Erskine (born in Huntsville, AL, incidentally), had a small, Europen-style car designed, which the directors unanimously voted to call the Erskine. To keep the price tag under a grand, Stude used a Continental engine, rather than the company's advanced engines. But in 1928, Ford debuted the Model A at about half the price of an Erskine. The company then discontinued the smaller Erskine and made it bigger like the rest of the Stude line. Sales remained flat and, after 1930, the Erskine was simply absorbed into the parent line (some say replaced by the short-lived Rockne).

On a sad note, Studebaker entered receivership in the darkest days of the Depresion. Feeling the company's apparent impending demise was his own fault, Albert Erskine shot himself in the head on the Studebaker proving ground.

 

Thanks for filling in the info.That was interesting.I had heard of a Huntsville connection but didn't know for certain what it was.

 

Hey there, Don! I think that has been the pleasure and attraction of this thread, buddy!

Actually, the original proposition is nearly UNDOABLE, since it's near impossible to say what make may REALLY be extinct.

Instead, this seems to have morphed into a thread about what's really early and RARE (sometimes only ONE, in fact!) to lots of discussions about rarely-mentioned makes, one-offs, etc.

Been fun! So I hope guys keep chipping in their two cents!!! Don't need to be an expert to ask an honest question, right?

 

I spotted this jewel at the Pile-up, it was one of the highlights of my day there. I'm going to guess it's a 1925 Flint, division of Durant, with roots back to Willys. Built to compete directly against the Buicks. Not 100% sure on the year, so I stole a shot off Wiki for comparison purposes. Hopefully the owner is a HAMB'er and can share more with us. I'm not 100% sure the headlamps are original but check out the details in the glass work. It's amazing how well the marquee emblem on the radiator has held up.

 

1954 I was in Dirty Eddies' junkyard in Pleasant Hill, ca, and saw a Heine-Velox Landau, 12 cylinder car in bad condition. pressure lube to chassis points, etc.

1970 in Santa Rosa, Ca. inspecting a house and in the shed behind the house was the same Heine-Velox chassis without the body

Don't know what happened to it!

Traderjack

 

TraderJack !! Man, did YOU locate pieces of a VERY rare car!!! Serious WOW factor! The Heine-Velox was made in SanFrancisco TWICE: 1903-1908, 1921-1923.

The company owner volunteered his personal car for rescue forces during the 1906 earthquake -- carrying supplies, the injured and the dead.

The H-V was an ULTRA-expensive car, costing nearly TWICE the price of a Rolls-Royce! YES, extras like pressure-lube to all key chassis points.

1970 is now a long time ago, SO, ALL WE CAN DO IS HOPE SOMEBODY DIDN'T KEEP THE CAR YOU SAW FROM GOING EXTINCT !

 

Yup, ChiefWannbe, the Flint was a solid but mid-price car made by Billy D. to plug a price slot in his lineup. I think he kept cost down by using Continental engines. There's info available on the Flint with any search engine.

IF I'm not mistaken, the Flint is one of several brands ditched after the Stock Market crash of '29, Locomobile being another Durant brand deep-sixed.

 

1921 Heine-Velox. According to an item written by "Eric M." on the site, "Cars
at Large," this may be the only running specimen of one of the rarest and most expensive (then and now) cars ever made. V-12 engine and hydraulic brakes,
too! And, according to Kevin Tikker, it seems this car, once at the Reno museum
is now located in Alaska! Kevin said that one H-V wound up in someone's back
yard as a CHICKEN COOP, before eventually being rescued and restored (this one?
Seems likely!). Two other H-V cars are reportedly in southern California and are
in poor, unrestored condition. Not certain, but I get the impression a FOURTH may
reside in Wisconsin. (BTW: YES! They really WERE THAT LONG! WB over 140
inches!!!)

 

Check out this huge "Weildy" V-12. Apparently NONE of the EARLY Heine-Veloxes
survive, and only a handful of the later ones, inlcuding this '21. FOLKS! Though
not totally EXTINCT, the Heine-Velox has got to be one of THE rarest, NEAR-
extinct American cars we've discussed since this thread got started!

FUN stuff.

 

The Moose Jaw Standard was built in MJ Saskatchewan in the mid twenties. There is ONE example that I know of that has been or is being restored for the Western Development Museum in Moose Jaw. If I remember correctly, I think there were only a half dozen built and the one remaining came out of a field somewhere in Alberta.

I have a grille shell and rad I bought off Fordnutz a while ago from a Rugby. Not that rare, but neat.

 

Erskine's are not that hard to find...just gotta know where to look

Still a great thread.

 

I thought we were supposed to pick them off the list?

Royal and Royal Princess - Royal Automobile Co. Chicago, IL 1905
This Electric Car went 75 miles on one charge.

 

Sorry HJManiac, I didn't mean it like that, but I probably "miscommunicated," buddy! My fault. No, no, just toss in ANY make you think there may be NONE of left (OR only one LEFT, only one got actually MADE, etc.).

The way this search has turned out isn't exactly what I set out for at first. BUT, it's been one HELL of a fun discussion!

FOR EXAMPLE, just recently, we established that there's only ONE 1933 Peerless V-16. Likewise, only ONE known complete, running Heine-Velie. The WASP manufactured in Vermont (!) has only 2-3 extant copies in museums.

So, as I said, just great FUN!

 

The Everybody's Automobile & Everybody's Motor Car Mfg. Co.



Everybody's
Everybody's Motor Car Mfg. Co.
St. Louis & Alton, Illinois
1907-1909
Everybody's Motor Car Mfg. Co. organized in 1907 built an American Automobile called Everybody's. This light weight runabout was powered by an air cooled flat twin engine that developed 10 horsepower. The reported price of the Everybody was $400.00. Very few of these Runabouts were produced in St. Louis, Illinois and Alton, Illinois.

 

The Darling Automobile & Darling Motor Company

Darling
Darling Motor Company
Dayton, Ohio
1917

The Darling Motor Company produced a five passenger touring model. The Darling was powered by a six cylinder Continental engine with 303 cubic inches. The wheel base of the Darling was a long 130 inches. All known examples were equipped with wire wheels. The cost of the Darling in 1917, $1985.00.


According to this 1917 Saturday Evening Post magazine ad below, the Darling was "The Car With The Best Features Of all" and the magazine ad on the right states "Discriminating Minds Agree Upon Certain Features As Being Ideal In Motor Cars"
<CENTER>
1917 Darling Motor Company Magazine Ad </CENTER>The magazine ad continued - "In designing the Darling, which is such a departure from the conventional, our engineers not only have selected and combined the best features of all cars but in addition they have added their own new and original ideas."

 

Hi, Mr57. I suppose technically it was about U.S. cars, but what the heck? For many decades, Canadian and US. auto production have been linked at the hip anyway!

I do recall the Rugby make name, but haven't been able to ocme up with further info (a survivor, e.g.) yet. That's the fun of this thread.

Guys, PLEASE help me track down some info on some of these makes that have been mentioned!!! Too much for one guy, even though I DO love cars, ALL cars!!! LOL

And, KEEP 'EM COMING!

 

I volunteer at The Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland Ohio.

www.wrhs.org click on Crawford Museuem in the top toolbar.

Here is the Hoffman you spoke of.


<TABLE border=0 width=424><TBODY><TR><TD height=336>

1903 Hoffman General Utility Rear-entrance Tonneau ​

</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

 

Maniac, that's a LONG time ago for the Everybody's & the Darling! ANY idea if one exists, anywhere???

 

Great, Maniac! Hey, since you vol at the Crawford, do they still display the '31/'32 Jordan Speedway Ace occasionally?

 

It was on display from last November through last April.

I had worked in the GE Lighting Cleveland Equipment Plant in the early'80s which was the former Jordan Mfg facility.

On display now for first time
The Jordan Model Z Speedway Ace has never been available for the public to see. Never, that is, until last month: After seven years and several hundred thousand dollars in restoration costs, the ivory roadster with the red leather interior now shimmers at its new temporary home, the Crawford Auto-Aviation Museum in Cleveland's University Circle, courtesy of Stecker.
It's a surviving symbol of Cleveland's heyday. It's also a symbol of the story of Ned Jordan, a spats-wearing fellow who lived at just the right time to make a Horatio Alger-style splash that ended, as so much else did, with the 1929 crash.
At the start of the 20th century, Jordan began his career as a reporter at the Cleveland Press, then as a sports reporter in Wisconsin. His dreams were grand, though, and soon he was working as manager of advertising, publicity and sales for a big automotive company in Kenosha. He also made a point of marrying an heiress, Charlotte Hannahs.
With his wife and some money, he moved back to Cleveland in 1915. His silver-tongued spiel quickly raised $100,000 from investors on top of $100,000 he already had, big money back then. He wanted to start a car company, though his plan was not to manufacture cars but rather assemble the parts and transform them into fine machines.
And that's what the Jordan Motor Car Co. did from its location at 1070 East 152nd St. The first Jordans were four- and seven-passenger touring models and roadsters -- unlike a convertible, a roadster has no top -- followed by sedans and limousines.
Jordans were said to feel lithe on the road, and that, plus the fact they had electric starters and not hand cranks, meant they were easy for women to drive. That was helpful, since just a year after Jordans began rolling out, the men were away at war.
Unlike Henry Ford's black Model T, Jordans came in evocatively named hues: Mahogany maroon. Venetian green. Copenhagen blue. From the start, Ned Jordan's florid prose drew notice, because here was a car-company owner who still wanted to spin a tale. In 1920, he advertised the Jordan Brougham as follows: "Like a phantom thing possessed, with two fiery eyes piercing the night."
Soon, Jordans were one of the first cars to be advertised in women's magazines and in four-color ads. Then, he designed a car especially for women, the Playboy. (He thought of using the patriotic term Doughboy at first but sensibly passed.)
On a train ride out West, Jordan got really inspired. He said he saw a young woman with a suntanned face riding a horse, and maybe he did. The advertisement that resulted became iconic. "Somewhere West of Laramie . . . there's a bronco-busting, steer-roping girl who knows what I'm talking about. She can tell what a sassy pony . . . can do with eleven hundred pounds of steel and action. The truth is, the Playboy was built for her."
The ad appeared in the Saturday Evening Post on June 23, 1923. (Advertising Age later named it one of the top 100 ad campaigns of the 20th century.)
With that ad, Jordan captured a moment of heady freedom for women who felt they could do anything and go anywhere and that a Playboy might just be the means to do so. And if a woman couldn't have a Playboy, or drive one, then she could dream of it. After all, the 1920s were full of possibilities.
A final try falls short
For Jordan, they were as well, but the highs -- eventually 65,000 Jordans were made -- began to fade. Jordan's marriage unraveled, and then his business did, too.
But before it all went away, there was one last reach for glory: the Model Z, conceived in 1929. Its engine claimed 114 horsepower, on a 145-inch wheelbase (meaning the length from the center of the front wheel to the center of the back wheel.) It had airfoil running boards and two chrome-plated horns below Woodlite headlights.
Peggy Turbett/The Plain Dealer In August, this Jordan Model Z Speedway Ace placed second in a competition at the Concours d'Elegance at Pebble Beach, Calif., one of the most prestigious car competitions in the world. It is owned by Jim Stecker, shown here with his son, Scott.

The cars were all-aluminum, which made them light, considering their power. Inside, the instruments were like those on an airplane and included a compass, an altimeter and a tachometer. For the ladies? A rumble seat could be elegantly entered from the front seat. Plus the car was one of the few with a radio.

It was said to be the Jordan Motor Car Co.'s finest hour, but then the bells tolled and the company passed into history. Jordan started a new career as an ad man in New York in 1935. He died in 1958, at 71.
The one Model Z that remained after World War II passed into obscurity, until Jim Stecker came along.
Stecker, a real estate investor, is a classic-car collector. He won't divulge the extent of what he owns, but he'll tell you why he collects.
"To some people, cars are a phallic symbol," he says. "As a poor little boy growing up in Glenville, a car represented success. The man who owned the building where my family lived drove a 1948 Cadillac." Eventually, Stecker got one, too, along with a desire to acquire more automobiles.
Interestingly, he'd not only heard of the mystery car, he'd seen it.
By chance, he'd once encountered "Laddie" Canker in Collinwood and saw the Jordan -- looking very little as it does today. He wanted to buy it, but Canker, who'd bought it for a song when he was 16 (because no one cared much about a 1930s car then), wasn't selling. After he died, someone from Probate Court let Stecker know. Canker's sister was ready to sell.
"I saw Janet Lord in that old house in Collinwood," says Stecker. "When I met her there, I saw pictures of Clark Gable, Bob Hope and Tyrone Power -- each of 'em was in a photo with Janet."
Stecker became the Jordan's new owner, and Jim Capaldi, of Capaldi Restoration in Willoughby, became the expert artist who brought its beauty back, despite its being a one-of-a-kind with no source for parts.
As Stecker's son, Scott, says, "Just having one bolt made could cost $800."
Last August, Jim Stecker took the completely transformed Jordan to Pebble Beach, Calif., where it competed in the Concours d'Elegance. It placed second in its category, the Open Car Classic. The best part for Stecker? Getting to drive the car, with his three teenage grandsons from California as passengers, from Pebble Beach to Carmel.
"It could still go 100 miles an hour, which it was built to do," he says. Not that he tried it, but it could.
Ned Jordan might have told you it could go even faster.

 

Here is a link to pictures I took at the Northeast Auto Museum in Norwich NY, this is commonly referred to as the "Franklin" Museum as there are more Franklin's there than anything else. If you look through the pictures you will see a Map on NY State and a key to all the automobile manufacturers in NY. Way more than you would ever think. Also FYI, a horizontally opposed air cooled Franklin Helicopter Motor was converted to water cooling to power the Tucker Automobile.
http://rides.webshots.com/album/563667160aFfmyV


Great thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

HJManiac! What a prince! I'd FORGOTTEN that's Jim Stecker's is the even rarer "Z" Ace!!! Great post ON WHAT COULD DEFINIATELY BE CALLED AN EARLY "FACTORY" HOTROD !!!

 

sw66, right on, guy. And a lot of people don't realize just how many DECADES the Franklin AIR-COOLED cars were around -- outlasted all other air-cooled and all electrics but the Detroit (which was built in FEW #s and basically hand-built through 1938. THANKS!

While NOT extinct as a make, some of those early AND later Franklins are probably scarce as hens' teeth, for sure.

 

Tucker used a variation of their helicopter engine. See below.

The H. H. Franklin Manufacturing Company, located in Syracuse, New York, was a a maker of automobiles between 1902 and 1934. The company was founded by Herbert H. Franklin with the assistance of engineer John Wilkinson. Franklin automobiles offered the first six-cylinders (by 1905), the first automatic spark advance (1907), and were the leading air-cooled automobiles on the market (most other autos were water-cooled, which was problematic for cold-weather buyers such as those in Syracuse). Franklin also manufactured air-cooled engines for light aircraft and early American helicopters.
The company produced automobiles as The Franklin Automobile Company. The company went bankrupt in 1934, but a group of former Franklin employees formed Air-Cooled Motors of Syracuse, bought Franklin's name and assets, and continued production of Franklin air-cooled engines for several years. The company eventually passed through several corporate hands including Republic (aircraft),Tucker Industries (Tucker automobile), and Aero Industries; the latter renamed it Franklin Engine Company. In 1975 the company was purchased by the government of Poland and relocated to Rzeszów.