1921 Mercer Sport Touring

Does anyone have a source to find the weight of the above vehicle? Your help would be appreciated.

Bill,

www.Sealcoveautomuseum.org

Bill, the Mercer catalogs that I have for that era do not show weights, even the Series 5 Instruction & Care manual fails to list a weight.

The 1925 edition of the Branham Automobile Reference Book shows the shipping weight as 3,900 for the Sporting and 4,000 for the Touring.

My 1921 annual issue of the MoTor is buried but the AACA Library might be able to help.

Bill,

According to the Lester-Steele Handbook of Specifications for cars 1920-1942, there is a weight listing for a 1921 Mercer Touring Car (Ready For The Road) of 4000 pounds. It doesn't specifically say Sport Touring, only Touring Car. I hope this is helpful.

with payment up-front The 100 pound difference between what Mercer called "Sporting" and "Touring" is probably about right for most L-heads. By the literature, Tourings had wood-spoke wheels, and an extra pair of occasional seats in the rear compartment, which folded flush into the back of the front seats. The wood wheel hubs are heavy. The extra mass of the wood wheels and detachable rims could noticeably exceed that of the four Rudge Whitworth wheels and hubs; but the difference between that of spare wires compared to the tyres on detachable rims would work the other way. The total mass of the two steel-frame folding seats would be considerable, but I have none to weigh. Difference in body mass would not be great. In the slightly later Series 6 there was probably more variation with body builder. I had enough patterns make new body frames for my two S 6 Tourings. Don Pedersen did not have enough woodwork to copy, (. though I found out later that his was a dual-cowl phaeton). There was a man in Canberra who made a very acceptable and reasonable job of making new body frames; so I took a chassis frame, all my patterns of wood remnants, and all the panels I had to Wally with payment up-front for five complete body frames. John Hancox got one, and another went to Colin Drake in western Victoria. I shipped the third to Don, but I gather that there were substantial alterations needed because his panels were different. Unfortunately Wally suffered family problems. I goy the fourth body frame, without door frames. Money was returned for the fifth body.

Probably in the 1920s, few body builders were as particular as Pierce Arrow, who insisted on very fine tolerance in accuracy of wooden body pieces. But we should not be surprised at small mass difference between identical cars. But 3900 and 4000lbs should be fairly reliable figures.

I have just found in MoToR for January 1921 Show Issue page 163.

"Touring Car Weight" " Ready for the Road " is given at 4000 lbs for Mercer. I may be able to dig out the full Road registration certificates for my 1918 Series 4 Sporting from 1979-1980. Mass would be listed. That may be misleading or not, Because the body was sheeted in panel steel instead of aluminium; possibly because of aviation priority then. I have, somewhere, but not yet digitised, a front view of Joe Fisher's 1915 Sporting and Charles Accisano's 1916 Touring, parked side by side at Bretton Woods during the 1980 Glidden Tour. There is a large difference between then in frontal area. The 22/70 was noticeably lower, but the Touring has a much taller windscreen and top.

Ivan, This is a little off topic, but I have often wondered about the difference between the Touring and the Sporting body. I got a chance to measure a sporting at the reunion in 09 and the body behind the cowl is about 3 inches longer on the touring. The doors are a little longer and the rear body is a little longer on the touring to make the room for the jump seats. In the photos notice the spares are tilted on the touring to allow body rear seat room. Maybe this makes up for the weight difference.

Thank you, All;

Just ordering new tires to get our Sport Touring on the road for the summer; we hope to be driving museum visitors around the neighborhood off and on this season. Come see us! www.sealcoveautomuseum.org

Bill

Given that the car I saw at the Seal Cove museum several years ago had wire wheels, I believe it is a "Sporting" model. Mercer did not have a "Sport Touring" model. Per the photos in Type 35o's posting, it would either be a "Sporting" (Rudge-Whitworth wire wheels) or a "Touring"(Howard demountable wood wheels). Per Ivan's post, the "Sporting" will have 3 storage compartments behind the front passenger's seat accessed from the rear passenger compartment whereas the "Touring" will have "roll top desk" type shutters hiding the jump seats.

You are correct, "Sporting" model, I'll need to check for those storage compartments tomorrow when I'm at the museum, and if things go as planned you need to come visit for a ride this season.

thanks,

Bill

Given that the car I saw at the Seal Cove museum several years ago had wire wheels, I believe it is a "Sporting" model. Mercer did not have a "Sport Touring" model. Per the photos in Type 35o's posting, it would either be a "Sporting" (Rudge-Whitworth wire wheels) or a "Touring"(Howard demountable wood wheels). Per Ivan's post, the "Sporting" will have 3 storage compartments behind the front passenger's seat accessed from the rear passenger compartment whereas the "Touring" will have "roll top desk" type shutters hiding the jump seats.