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Does anyone know the name of this car?


mrmunroe

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Guest De Soto Frank

This make and model is listed in Tad Burness's "American Carspotter's Guide: 1920 -1939"...

All sorts of "forgotten" marques are flooding my mind, but I'm thinking this car is a

Dixie Flyer, c. 1920 - 1922 ?

The portholes in the hood are unique to this marque.

(It also bears a slight resemblance to the invented "1928 Porter" from the eponymous TV-show, "My Mother the Car", mostly the radiator shell with the "widow's peak") <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

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Guest De Soto Frank

Found it! Listed bewteen "Diana" and "Doble Steam" in Burness' American Car spotter's Guide: 1920 - 1939.

This car is a 1922 Dixie Flyer, made by the Kentucky Wagon Mfg. Company, of Louisville. They were produced between 1916 and 1922, when they were absorbed by National.

The 1922 vitals are: 4 cyl Herschell-Spillman engine, 192.4 cid; 112 inch wheel-base; 4.72 gear ratio. The hood portals were specific to the 1922 models...

The only models pictured are touring cars.

Kentucky Wagon Manufacturing also produced a line of trucks under the name "Old Hickory" (?), in honor of President Andrew Jackson...

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You're the man Frank! Thanks for the effort and information.

I can picture my father-in-law, sitting on a cloud, taking a break from his harp playing, explaining to anyone who will listen, why his Dixie Flyer was more economical than other cars, because it only needed two wheels.

Lou

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Guest Silverghost

Several possible ideas why two wheels are mssing...

1) to prevent someone from stealing it!!!

2) To prevent someone from using it !!!(early teenager Grounding tecnique..)

3) Early version of the police parking "Boot"!!!

(Too many un-paid parking fines..)

4) One of Joey Chittwoods early attempts at driving on two wheels at thrill shows...He would later become very famous at driving on two wheels!!! This could be a very rare photo of his very first two wheel "Stunt Car"!!!

5) He still owed the mechanic money on that big "Engine Job"...(My restorer-Mechanic friend still uses this tecnique today to get his money!!!) It usually works!!!

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Guest Silverghost

Frank: Herschell-Spillman I believe was a builder of Merry-go-round Carosells . Their first units were driven by small steam engines...

Later they used early repulsion electric motors as well as their own small gasoline engines!!!

I would suppose that they mght have supplied these engines for this, and other early autos!!!

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Guest De Soto Frank

This looks like the picture that Burness used for his Carspotter book...

One of the best brithday presents I ever received... Mom and Dad gave me the '20-'39, and '40 - '65 volumes when I was about eight years old... the '20-'39 edition is literally falling apart now !

I used to pore over those two books at night, in bed, flashlight under the covers sort of thing... <img src="http://forums.aaca.org/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Any idea when the photo of our mystery car was taken ?

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De Soto Frank,

How's about showing these enquiring minds what the covers of those Burness Books look like?

Regardless of their tattered appearance, they look like awesome library additions!

Chadwicks of the early teens had portholes, too, but they were just 3-holers.

TG

435461-57BuickStonehenge2.jpg

Here's a car <span style="font-style: italic">sans</span> portholes that you might enjoy seeing;

It lives in Charlotte, and is <span style="font-style: italic">totally</span> rare.

post-43799-143137923776_thumb.jpg

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Guest De Soto Frank

Thanks for the pic of that great S-10 !

I will see if I can get someone to scan the covers of my two Car Spotter's...

I believe they were published by Classic Motor Books...

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Uncle Dave (the Dixie Flyer descendant) says the date on the film was May 1928.

He also says he's got a Dixie Flyer emblem around somewhere.

We'll scan it and send it if he locates it.

He had the emblem and some other pics of old cars and figured it belonged to one of them, until they discovered this film.

I guess that's why his screen name is Junkyard Dave . . . . he never throws anything away!

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Guest De Soto Frank

Interesting that the ad for the "new 1921 Dixie Flyer" shows a steam locomotive in the background that has a oil-lamp headlight (smoke vent on top of the square headlamp box), c. 1880 - 1900 style...

Most locomotives operating in 1921 had been retrofitted with electric lighting...

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I am so happy to find this picture of a Dixie Flyer. Many years ago I was given a 'foot rest'

that came from a Dixie Flyer that had been owned by my father. My uncle gave it to me. He said

my father bought the Dixie Flyer sometime not long after he recovered from WWI. My father used it

to drive people from Benton, Arkansas to Hot Springs, Arkansas, for the grand price of $5. My

uncle said the car broke down all the time, and Daddy finally just gave up and abandoned it. Wish I

had it today!! Anyway, thanks so much for the picture. I have wondered for years what a Dixie

Flyer looked like.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest De Soto Frank

A little more trivia... one of the grand old railroads once had a "name train" called "the Dixie Flyer"...

Discovered this while reading a 1945 biography on Roy D. Chapin - the man who created and lead the Hudson Motor Car Company...

When he was a young man, apparently he made a trip on the "Dixie Flyer" to visit his wife/in-laws in Georgia... presumably he was travelling between Detroit and Savannah, GA...

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Guest stude8

Louisville & Nashville line.

Dixie Flyer, Arriving Nashville from Chicago, 1954

Dixie Flyer #95 from Chicago via Danville, Terre Haute, Evansville pulled by an FP7A arriving at Union Station on a Saturday morning about 9:30am. Photo taken from Broad St. viaduct

You can see the photo titled above at http://www.koyote.com/users/whsulliv/louisvillenashville009.htm

Stude8

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