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1933-34 Continental Motors Registry


Barry Wolk

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In 1932 the troubled DeVaux Company ceased production owing the Continental Motors Company $500,000 for engines for the cars they produced. Continental forgave half the debt, kicked in $40,000 and purchased the assets of DeVaux, which consisted of a plant and a bunch of Hayes buck-built bodies. These would be built as Continental/Devaux. There were 1,428 made.

As they were building out the remaining bodies Continental hired a European designer to come up with an innovative all-steel body to be made by Hayes. The steel structure allowed for suicide doors, allowing better ingress and egress from these tiny cars.

There were three models in 1933, a 101" wheelbase "Beacon", a 107" Flyer and their luxury model, the Ace. They were fitted, respectively, with 45, 65 and 85hp Continental "Red Seal" engines, Budd suspensions and other parts common to the boutique assemblers that used Continental engines.

There were 4,091 Beacons, 1,745 Flyers and 650 Ace models made for 1933. The Flyer and the Ace were discontinued for 1933 leaving a face-lifted Beacon for 1934 with the name "Red Seal" to take its place. I do not know how many were made before the board of directors pulled the plug on the venture that nearly broke the company. Continental went back to their roots producing automotive, industrial and aircraft engines.

In 1978 George Farris started a Registry of Continentals, which is now outdated. If you know what happened to any of these cars, please direct the owners here. My serial number is 1286, the 285th Flyer built.

I own the car formerly listed as the Alfred Stremple car. Alfred bout the car in 1966 from its original owner who put 33,000 miles on it. Al put another 17,000 miles on it over the next 44 years leaving me at the third owner of this simply elegant car.

Continentalowners.jpg

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  • 2 years later...

I like your beautiful Continental Barry, and I am very intrigued by the whole story of the Continental automobile. I have had a chance to see a couple of Beacons and a fairly complete Ace sedan in need of complete restoration, but I don't think I have ever seen a Flyer. From what you say, your Flyer sounds like a pretty good car. I hope you are still enjoying it. Take care,

Jerry K

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  • 6 months later...
Guest TREETOPS

I am the owner of the 1933 Continental Beacon listed on the sheet as being owned by Johnny Hensley who was my partner in a business in Lexington, KY Johnny is deceased for many years. I am thing of retoring the beacon for th second time and making it a street rod (HEAVEN FROBID) because I am missing the radiator, the radiator cover and grill and the hood.

The frame is broken in two places at the wish bones. Let me know if anyone has a parts car.

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Guest TREETOPS
I am interested in purchasing your business coupe. I have a complete chassis from my Flyer.

NO thanks, not interested in selling at this time.

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  • 5 years later...
On 5/21/2019 at 7:05 PM, Tim Hahn said:

 Can anyone tell me where the serial is number is stamped or where the tag is? Thanks, Tim   aaweld@lewistown.net

 

Depends on which model you have.

 

According to my 1938 Redbook :

 

Beacon and Flyer Serial # - "On front of cowl, right side".

Motor number - "Stamped on nameplate on left side of crankcase".

 

Ace serial # - "On right side front floor board".

Motor # - "Stamped on nameplate on right side of cylinder block".

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Hello Barry I know we’ve talked before about the continentals and the devauxs,I hope you have more luck finding a coupe than I have at finding a devaux cabriolet,I’ve got 2  31 devaux coupes a custom coupe and a sport coupe and a 32 standard coupe,several years ago there WAs a continental coupe on a trailer at the Pomona swap meet for sale,I have not seen it since,good luck with the search if I see another I will send them your way,p.s. a couple of years ago I sent you some info of a picture of a continental convert,was it right,good luck dave

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I currently own some of the 1933 Continental Cars. Let me start off here by saying this post is extremely hard on me. I lost my husband a few months ago and these were our pride and joy. We spent many of trips and hours looking for parts to restore one and even found an original engine just before he started having health issues. I have 3 continental, a 2 door sedan Beacon in great condition, a Beacon Business Coupe, a good sold car, have the engine needed to make original and a 4 door Flyer, also a good sold car but we never got to figuring out what it might need. And of course parts we picked up along the way. At some point I will probably sell because I can not drive them and can't see letting them sit, but I'm not ready yet. 

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  • 3 months later...
On 5/20/2014 at 2:27 PM, Barry Wolk said:

I am interested in purchasing your business coupe. I have a complete chassis from my Flyer.

If you are (or someone else is) still interested in purchasing a 1933 Beacon coupe, we have one for sale. Original steel body and frame. Rebuilt as a hot rod, and currently running. Reach out to me if you're interested. 

2021-08-07_10-43-48_105.jpg

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