58L-Y8

1927-30 Erskine 1932-33 Rockne

Delaware, Lackawanna & Western Railroad ran from Hoboken, New Jersey to Buffalo, New York. 'Phoebe Snow' was their spokeswoman character that promoted travel on their line as cleaner because they burned anthracite coal. Its a switchman's lantern.

The upward sloping hood and cowl also are unusual at the time when most had a distinct transition from the straight, horizontal hood line to an upswept cowl. The design does balance nicely with the corresponding slope from the windshield rearward. The large, delicate wire wheels in thin fenders look very sporting.

Looks very nice, but note it is missing the stainless steel trim from the rocker panels as well as the small pieces from ahead of the front wheelhouse to the bumper and from the bottom of the fender skirts, and the lower quarters to the rear bumper. These were rust problem areas on these unit-bodied 1958-1960 Lincolns and Continentals, so look carefully. There is also a ribbed piece of trim that inserts between the rear seat back and the top cover when the top is down. Its installed by hand as are the covers for the forward part of the top mechanism, all three are stored in the trunk. That ribbed trim piece is frequently missing and very hard to find.

Walt, Good eye, that appears to be a Roamer from the early years, 1916-1919. They certainly presented an elegant, sporting image compared to most of their contemporaries. It always makes me laugh to read in the Standard Catalog how they were promoted with "brochures quoted Oscar Wilde and used tony phrases such as 'a certain insouciance' to describe the product" Not sure how a cars acts with 'lighthearted unconcern, nonchalance' by Webster's Dictionary.

Thanks for your insights. The chassis frames for convertibles were always strengthened with additional plates and gussets. What I was referring to is the body itself, which were based on the coupes but because of the low production number made did not warrant extensive special tooling, hand labor being relatively cheap then, employed to create those styles. Those I've seen show considerable hand-work and lead work around the upper body surfaces, which wouldn't be in evidence had tooling been used. The hand work makes them more interesting.

1937 Hudson convertible coupes, both sixes and eights, were build on a 122" wheelbase which makes determining which the car is without seeing the grille emblem is impossible. What we can say is the convertible coupes were and are a rarity. If you have a chance to examine an unrestored example, the amount of hand-work modifications to the coupe body to build them was extensive. When an order for a convertible was received, its easy to imagine sales sending a note down to the body department to divert a coupe body to the shop that build those off the regular assembly operations. Lots of cutting, hammering, welding, leading.

1937 Hideous Mess Eight

Did H-S sell the rights to a very fine designed V8 in your experience? What other carmakers sourced the V8 from Standard?

Thanks for the enlightenment, sounds as if H-S essentially developed the V8 then outsourced its manufacture to others. Wonder if they had a royalty contract with Standard to receive some dollar amount for every engine sold to others who used it?

Thank you for enlarging on the subject. It would make sense that the separate companies would begin to make improvements to the design as they saw fit. Did Hershell-Spillman continue to build and supply the V8 in its original form to other car makers in parallel with Peerless and Standard making their versions?

Bob Thank you for answering my question. I seemed to recall the Standard V8 was credited to Hershell-Spillman but did not know that Standard acquired the manufacturing rights to do so themselves. Was the Peerless V8 essentially the same or modified in some ways?

The Brunn Touring Cabriolet has far nicer proportions than the factory convertible sedan, should bring more just on that basis. An unrestored Packard example, to be differentiated from those on the Lincoln K chassis, appeared at Hershey eight-ten years ago in the Chocolate Field. It was possible to examine how Brunn built them. The top other than the windshield casting was all wood covered with canvas fabric. Looking into the cowl, door shells and trunk area confirmed what I suspected: the front cowl and door structures are the same as the convertible sedan, only the rear section of the body was framed and shaped metal by Brunn. It should have been a more cost-affective method to present custom styling while utilizing existing components readily available. Addendum: Looking at the above, Brunn did a poor job of engineering a compact folding top stack, which might be impossible with a functional, exposed landau irons. To Brunn's credit, the top-to-rear deck intersection is nearer the rear axle plane which is key to better proportions for closed cars. Packard to its credit, did a fine job of concealing the massive convertible sedan top mechanism in a well. The proportional drawback is the broad C-pillar sail panel with the roof-to-rear deck intersection well beyond the rear axle plane. Had they created the convertible sedan with rear body proportions like the Touring Cabriolet, it would have been a knockout!

That heavy skirting was a Bohman & Schwartz trick, grafted on modernize the look in the mid-'30's. Frankly, all it did was make the cars look heavy and without grace.

That Duesenberg is identified on Page 201 of Fred Roe's text as having a body built in 1931 by Seattle Auto Rebuilders, mounted on car 2451, J439. It was remounted on another chassis in 1935, later it was replaced with a Murphy dual cowl phaeton replica, but this convertible sedan body was being restored to use on yet another Duesenberg J chassis. Its still out there somewhere, seems as if it went through the auctions cycle a few years ago. Some elements of this body make me wonder if Seattle Auto Rebuilder modified an existing convertible sedan body from another car to create this one. I can't quite put my finger on what car that body and coachbuilder it came from.

A pretty common '48 Packard in good condition, with the rare gray woodgrain trim option.

Notice this REO has the Self-Shifter early automatic transmission, a feature that makes the car worthy of preservation in and of itself.

Why only eleven Gardners? Why not as many as possible? Will there be a centennial meet event or is this a virtual meet to celebrate the occasion?

Matt Would you make an exception for the '36-'39 Brunn Touring Cabriolets? The landaulette seem the prefect example of an archaic configuration left over from the horse-drawn carriage/Edwardian Era when the dowager ladies would be chauffeured on the parkway on a sunny Spring afternoon to 'take the air' on the way to high tea. None were designed with a top well for the folded top to be concealed neatly in, hence the 'folded mattress' look of the top stack perched on the rear of the body.

This is listed as a 1930 GMC Taxi though I would think it was titled a Yellow cab for the Yellow Coach and Truck Division. Whatever the case, it might be a sole survivor. https://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/d/puyallup-1930-gmc-taxi/7054284488.html Added pictures for the record.

Matt, Looks wonderful, no doubt drives even better. It does evoke that "Miami Vice" vibe. What keeps me out of such a car? Besides the dollars is the certain heart attack that would happen the first time it had to have M-B dealer service and repairs when I looked at the bill! Driving around this little town in a M-B like that would start speculation about what narcotics I had started to deal in.

Richard Quinn, the acknowledged expert on pre-war Studebakers, wrote a fine article in the Antique Studebaker Review on the 1933 Model 92 Speedway President. There were only 651 cars total in seven body styles and two trim levels. Only 8 survivors are accounted for worldwide. More likely this is a Model 82 President, as noted, 125" wheelbase with a 250 ci straight eight. For all intents and purposes by specification, it was the 1932 Model 71 Commander restyled and renamed. There were 1,194 built.

The only one that comes to mind is a Mercedes-Benz CLS 550 sport sedan. A grand touring with wonderful four place interior lavishly trim and tailored, hardtop-sedan style half-door construction. I assume the car drives as wonderful as it looks.

Yes, '41 Packard 110. Is this only a cropped section of a larger photo?

Easy enough to check, only the Speedway President Model 92 is 135" wheelbase with the 337 ci straight eight. The Model 82 President is 125" wheelbase with the 250 ci straight eight. Both interesting rare cars, the former more so than the latter but still worthwhile. Please, let us know your findings.