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Kouri V-12 Speedster


Guest ChrisSummers

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Guest ChrisSummers

Can anyone share more information on this automobile? It has sort of a "black sheep" reputation among Pierce enthusiasts, I'm told, and was in the Harrah's collection until 1986. Supposedly it was used in a Shirley Temple movie.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Geese, I hate to see that no one is even commenting on this car. i saw it in person at Harrah's in the early '80s (I have a panaramic picture taken from the Model T along one wall that was put ther for people to crawl on and in). I remember seeing this car. I own a Pierce, and have owned several. This is an interesting car, but sometimes interesting is not desirable; I speak from experience, I once owned a 1947 Davis three wheeler; interesting, but try to sell one, it is not desirable.

I don't know, a heavily modified Pierce does not get anyone's juices flowing; and a lot of people don't like the Pierce frogeyes in the first place, and thus dismiss them as second class Classics. A real mistake, as they are, mechanically, fantastic cars. As for stylng, I once gave a ride in my Pierce 1931 phaeton to a past president of AACA (I won't mention your name, Ron), and his comment was something along the lines of "gee, the fender lights look a lot better sitting in the car".

Happy (Fierce Sparrow) motoring! David Coco Winchester Virginia

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Guest ChrisSummers

I think the Pierces that were equipped with "normal" headlights look like Franklins...not as distinctive as the "frogeyes" but still beautiful. I prefer the 1936-38 Pierces above the others because of their more-streamlined styling, with the dark blue V-12 berline in Clive Cussler's collection a personal favorite.

Interesting you used to own a Davis. I've always wanted one. If I'd had the money when you had the car, you would have been able to tell another story!

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Yes, the Davis was quite interesting. One thing that you don't hear about three wheel cars, they are tough to ride in on old roads. The nice tires on normal cars ride in the same areas that thousands of other cars have worn smooth; but the middle placed wheel on a Davis rides right on the hump in the middle, which sometimes is very rough! I would have kept the car, but was between jobs and moving across the country at the time I acquired it (and that is a long story, it'll be in my life story when I finish writing it!); and it was hard to justify, as I was moving 8 or 10 other cars at the time.

I found the Davis in my hometown of Alexandria, Louisiana, owned by a gun collector and eccentric older gentleman; it took me 6 months to gain access to his house to meet him (he had serious security, and you could not just drive up his hidden driveway safely), another 2 months to see the car, and a couple of years of visiting (we actually became good friends) to be able to buy the car. It now lives in the Carolinas.

David C.

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  • 6 years later...
Guest SteelJester

I've been trying to find out more about this vehicle myself. From what I have seen it is hard to find solid evidence on what it is. I to was under the impression that it was in the Shirley temple movie The Stowaway. Upon watching the movie it's looks to be a Duesenberg. There was a possibility that it was a salt flats car to, but again hard to find the information on it. I have some pictures of the car if it could help.

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Guest SteelJester

My family and I have been the care takers of this 1933 Pierce-Arrow for a while now, and It's time to preserve or restore some of the paint. Before we decide what direction, we need more info. I'm looking for what ever I can find on this car, but so far there is no information. I have some basic info on the car and pictures any help would be awesome.

Engine# 360003

164inches axle to axle center line

Off the frame Horn in the front: 2652-1

Steer box : 25172Front

on right side of the axle is SAE1040(then it has an upside down equilateral triangle with vertical lines in the center)A, so: SAE1040(triangle)A

Left side of axle: Salisbury 12277

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A well done custom car that even caught the eye of Bill Harrah, and was displayed in his collection as late as the early '80's when I saw and photographed it there....while it has some Pierce components, it's not a Pierce...just a very interesting early custom. Your family has some great cars and interesting tastes based on the background of the pictures. I'm not sure what the history of the car has to do with preserving or replacing the paint, don't believe it's original paint, the only reason to be concerned about preservation....nice car and collection....

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Guest SteelJester

Also trying to find an old version of Orphan Annie shot in 1936. I believe the car was in this movie and was mistaken in later years as Shirley Temple.

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The remains of Harrah's collection became the National Automobile Museum in Reno, Nevada, and is a very nice museum. http://www.automuseum.org/ I don't know if they kept any records from when it was Harrah's, that whole episode when Bill Harrah dies was a mess. He left no instructions for the cars (which at one point number 1600 or so), so they were sold to Holiday Inn as part of the Harrah's hotel company. There was such a fuss when they started selling cars that HI donated numerous to start the new museum.

I remember when the auctions were held (I think there were three of them) that a lot of collectors were saying, with so many antique cars dumped on the market, that values of all cars would decrease. Not so, of course, they were just absorbed into the collecting community and prices didn't change a bit.

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Harrah had some talented automotive sleuths. In the 1980's we restored a 1917 Bell touring built here in York, PA. An assembled car, nothing in the least outstanding about it. We wrote to Harrah's research library at the time and they responded that they had records of 5 owners of Bell automobiles. All 5 turned out to be previous owners of the car we were doing which had only ever changed hands locally, never by auction.

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Harrah's collection was amazing, that's a neat story on their research...... I won't tell the whole story again, but was able to get in the parts warehouse in the early 80's right before the big sales. Was restoring an early Franklin, they had warehouse racking rows of parts for Franklins (a Harrah's favorite make), and drawers full of hubcaps, all arranged by year.....hundreds and hundreds of them....

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