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Thanks! Yes for sure on the taillights. It was one single taillight that would have been on it on the drivers side. The good news is that I have an original Cole tail light that needs a bit of refurbishment but it will be going on it at some point.

Also, here is a video of the engine on my 1920 Cole as it is running. Essentially the same engine.

Cole introduced their Flathead V8 in January of 1915, three months after Cadillac which was October of 1914. While both engines were actually build by Northway, Coles was quite a bit different. Charles Crawford was the Chief Engineer at Cole and he spent 6 months at northway working on their design. It was bigger than Cadillacs and was the first flathead V8 with detachable cylinder heads. They worked a few bugs out during 1915, but overall the engine worked so well that Cole standardized on it in 1916 meaning that you could only get a Cole with a V8. This picture kind of makes it look small, but it is quite a large engine.

Sounds great!

That's a good one! Planning to bring this one to the CCCA Museum show in June.

A new Cole is joining the collection and it is a very special one! This 1916/17 Cole 8 Toursedan is powered by a 356.4 cubic inch V8 and has a convertible body by Springfield. It is the only known Cole of this model that survives today. The Toursedan was advertised as a car that could be 5 different styles in under ten minutes. It had special engineered windows and side pillars that slid and folded down into the doors as well as a glass partition that could be lowered very easily. So it could be a limo, town sedan, Open touring car, two windshield open touring car, and berline limo. This Toursedan retains its upgraded original tapestry interior and the American Flag blue paint color was restored in the late 1990's. Cole had a partnership with Springfield bodies and launched the two door Tourscoupe in early 1916 and then the four door Toursedan in late 1916. Very few Toursedans were ever produced as Springfield went abruptly bankrupt in mid 1917. Springfield reformed in 1918 and went on to produce high end bodies for Rolls Royce and other companies. The patent for the convertible body was sold off during the bankruptcy and was relaunched as the California top under a different company. Here is the Cole Toursedan with one side open and the furthest side closed so you can see the difference. Here is the car from the rear with the American Flag blue paint color in the sun. The Cole was originally purchased in January of 1917 by Waldo Wagner of New York. Mr. Wagner was over 7ft tall and here is a picture of him with the car in the bottom picture. In the top picture that was his friend. The car was then sold off by the family in 1977 for a large at the time sum of $9000 in Georgia. We are the fourth caretaker of the car. There are two of the Tourscoupe versions that survive today. One was sought out by and owned by Bill Harrah and is still in the Reno museum as it was not one of the autos that was sold off. The other Toursecoupe is in Australia. The American Flag Blue color was a special color patented by Cole to honor the Great War that was going on then. JJ Cole got an original early American Flag from Betsy Ross's Granddaughter and matched the flag blue color perfectly. He then offered it as an option on Cole cars for 1916 and 17. Here is a picture from 1916 showing that connection. Jane Ross is pictured with a Tourscoupe. Also, here is an Ad for the car back at the beginning of 1917. If you are ever in the area of the Gilmore car museum and want to see the Cole collection, just let me know.

Here is one in the Detroit area, Pontiac to be exact. M1 Concourse | Private Garage Community, Test Track, and Corporate Event Headquarters

This whole switch to electric vehicles is way more complex than people want it to be, especially in today's world. It is not as simple as buying an electric car and replacing a gas car and energy problems are solved. Where does the nickel and lithium come from to make all those EV batteries? How do you actually charge all of those EV cars on a power grid that has not been updated and would take trillions to improve? Where do you get the fuel to create the electricity to power all of the cars? Have you been following some of the recent news out about some of this stuff? Nickel's price surge could threaten automakers' ambitious electric-vehicle plans (msn.com) Electric car prices could go up even as fuel prices soar - The Verge Russia-Ukraine War Alters Europe's Plan for Energy Independence | Engineering News-Record (enr.com) The case for hydrogen trucks | Grid limitations will make long-distance battery-electric haulage 'near impossible': Hyzon Motors CEO | Recharge (rechargenews.com) Clean energy advocates say NH grid changes aren't nearly enough (palmbeachpost.com) Palo Alto's climate goals threatened by inadequate power grid | A New Shade of Green | Sherry Listgarten | Palo Alto Online | An electric vehicle is one way to save big as gas prices rise. These issues limit who can benefit (kcra.com) California, Facing Power Crisis, Frets Over Electric Car Charging Routines (newsweek.com) These are big problems and not sure governments, corporations, and people will be able to work together to solve them.

I have an office and full bathroom at my shop. So I do my real job out of that office and love it. Nothing like working around the car collection. In between meetings or when I need a break, I can just step out and wrench on a car or go for a drive. The office is right behind the Model T Speedster with a window looking out into the shop. I also have a loft above the office and bathroom where i setup a sitting area, TV and pinball machines. The shop is also about 10 miles from the Gilmore Car Museum so I can just head up to their weekly cruise ins or other events throughout the summer.

Unfortunately, I don't have a higher resolution picture, but this is a dashboard from a 1916 Cole. I am trying to determine what the gauge is with the green and red on it. I have not seen another and am wondering if it is an accessory or maybe even something later that was added to this car. Any help or thoughts is appreciated.

Depends on if the lock rings were originally plated or not. Here is a Disteel Wheel ad from the period and you can see they were black on the inner part, main part painted to match the car, and then the lock ring painted black again. This design is how the Cole in the first picture I shared is done. Some cars had the lock ring plated to really pop.

Here is my 1923 Cole with Disteel wheels. Paint themed and striping is done as original to this car.

Ed - I have wondered the same thing with the survival rate of Coles. That big V8 engine (only the Cunningham had a bigger V8) in 1915 on has very low survival rates versus production. I thought collectors and speedster builders would have loved the platform for having fun but it just wasnt so. My hypothesis is two parts: 1. Many Coles were turned into work trucks and tow trucks. About 6 of the surviving Coles today were turned back from tow trucks during restoration over the years. Cole had a very strong chassis and springs as well as the powerful engine so they were perfect for making work trucks 2. The government and military purchased quite a bit of the Cole production at the time. Also local governments purchased for fire and police as well as I have order acknowledgements and stories about businesses purchasing Cole's for the salesman so that they could get place to place quicker and in style. See the attached agreement offering the factory and all parts needed to build trucks. This was probably similar for White. 3.

Ed - Great to see that you went down the rabbit hole with Whites just like I did with Coles. You are absolutely right in what you have presented and I have found those 'lists' in some publications were not completely right. I probably have the largest repository of dated Cole documentation and actual Cole factory materials and it offer a glimpse into how many of the auto magazines/published articles at the time were not 100% accurate. If you think about it is not surprising at all as the free flow and ease of access to information was not an easy thing at the time. Another thing that I have found in Cole's own documentation was that JJ Cole didnt believe in model years and he released everything as a Series and Model. For example in 1914, Cole released had three different series that were released. A lot of the big books on history like to do everything by model year so they completely messed up when some Coles were actually released and out. These smaller very capable high quality manufactures would also produce and modify anything for their customers. Attached is a blurb saying this from a 1916 Cole bulletin that was the magazine that went to Cole dealers. Very few of these Cole bulletins are seen elsewhere so the big books that were put together in the 60's-80's didnt have access to this stuff. Another example is this very long wheelbase Cole 4 person roadster that they built for a customer. According to all lists, dealer brochures, etc, this car shouldn't have existed, but Cole built it for someone. My 1923 Cole 2 person Coupe was custom built for JJ Cole Jr. and there is no other Cole model like it at the time. I can go on with other examples and the documentation but you get the point. You have some special White's and it is great to see that you have done the research on them to preserve the history and raise the education and awareness on the company.

Ok I’ll check the carb. I never use E10 gas in the cars as 100% non ethanol gas is plentiful in west Michigan.

Yes all is good and thanks for asking. Just been extremely busy and haven’t had as much time for the cars as I would like!

Ok I will have to try that. My other Coles don’t require me to do it, so didn’t think I would need to.

I have a 1920 Cole with a Stewart special Cole vacuum tank which was high volume. I rebuilt it not long ago as it was completely gummed up from previous owner leaving old gas in it. When I get the car running it pulls gas from the tank and cycles correctly. However after I stop the engine and let it sit for the day the vacuum tank empties itself of gas and the gas runs back into the gas tank. This means that I need to refill the vacuum tank manually to get the engine started as it can’t pull enough fuel from the tank into the empty tank to start the fuel hungry V8. Any ideas on what would be causing this and how to correct it? The gas cap on the gas tank is vented correctly. Here is a video of the engine running so you can see the vacuum tank.

Ed is spot on with his advice. Quality, displacement, stopping power, and size are what you should look at. Cole checked all of these for me and only the Cunningham has a bigger displacement V8 engine. Even though Cole is very rare, their engineering and who they used for components was forward thinking so they are easier to work on than you might expect. I also used to be over 300 pounds and had no problem fitting behind the steering wheel and driving one. Of course, finding one for sale and at a decent price is not an easy job as they rarely go up for public sale. Here is my 1920 Cole Aero 8 7 Person Touring.

That is not a 1912 Cole. It is a 1913 Cole Series 9 6 Cylinder Touring. Here is the story that I posted about a few years ago.

Our garage helper is a Newfoundland named Cole. Here he is with my son in back of the Cole Aero 8.

There is a lot of history here that is not really out there in the public domain. JJ Cole died in 1925 of heart disease shortly after he liquidated the company. The Cole Motor Car company was still profitable when it was liquidated in late 1924. JJ Cole Jr. started a new Cole incorporated and sold parts and service until about 1932. He retained ownership of the Cole factory building and real estate. They almost revived the Cole Motor Car company in the 1930's but decided against it for various reasons. JJ Cole Jr. passed away in the early 1950's from heart disease as well and Joe Cole took over the real estate, collection, etc. The Cole family rented out the factory building and their real estate to other companies until about 1990 when it was sold off to the county in Indiana and became the county jail annex. So essentially, the Cole incorporated was a company that was primarily real estate. They still did have quite a bit of left over Cole parts and archives as well, however in the early 1970's there was a big flood of the river by the factory and the basement was flooded ruining all of the parts and documents so they were destroyed. The Cole family had six Cole Motor Cars in the basement of the factory that they maintained and kept in good condition. They started selling them off in the late 1980's when they left the factory building.

That is a 1913 Series 9 Cole and it is still around, though buried deep in a large collection so not seen in years by the public.

There are only two Cole Series 10's that are known to survive today and they are both in the state of Washington. They cannot be traced to this car based on what is known by the current owners but who knows.

That was a huge price for sure and probably why it wasnt purchased. There is no record of the Cole family buying this car at the time. I imagine they guy who found it was playing up the price based on trying to sell it to the Cole family thinking they would pay more with an auto with from their namesake.