alsancle

Actually, it ends up it was built by the same guy. I was able to track down the complete history of this car. I have updated my website at http://townisp.com/~alsancle with all the info. A.J.

Thanks to Bob's posting above about the Schumacher-Cusick special I was able to track down the complete history of this car. I have updated my website at http://townisp.com/~alsancle with all the info. A.J.

There are good deals and bad deals at auctions. I'm sure that sometime at 10:00 pm on Thursday night there were a couple of decent deals at BJ too. Personally, I doubt I would buy a car there because you are paying for the hoopla on most of the cars, which I would rather not do. HOWEVER, anybody with half a brain or a calculator can figure out the buyers premium on top of their bid and calculate their total cost on the fly. You can get a decent deal at an auction even when you factor in buyers premium, sellers premium etc. Of course, I'm assuming that you know the market for the car you are buying and you know when to stop.

It is impossible to "force" prices up unless sombody (I won't use the word "sucker") agrees to pay. An open market is a wonderful thing. When the demand isn't there to meet the supply, poof, last years 400k hemi car will now bring 200k. Why get worked up about it?

BJ for now at least only allows cars to be "no reserve". That mean highest bid takes the car. In order to bid on your own car you need to register as a bidder, $350.00, then if you happen to win your car back you can pay the 8% seller commission as well as the 8% buyers. If you happen to live in Arizona you will also pay 5% sales tax. So..... if you pay 50k to buy your "100k" car back it is going to cost you roughly 8k or over 10k if you live local. That doesn't count getting the car there. Sure, people buy their cars back, but it ain't cheap to do it.

Dave, that sounds really neat. Do you think you could post a couple of pictures? I don't know that I have ever seen one in person. A.J.

People tend to gravitate towards particular makes and then move up within the make as they get more hooked. The Nash is a spectacular car, and if the body was on a packard chassis it would probably go for 400k. A.J.

The car must have needed a bit of freshing up. Dave doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would burn money for the sake of it. Color is really subjective, but I just didn't like the blue on the Lebaron Speedster. Tastes tend to change over time too, in the late 70s and 80s we went through what I like to call the "Circus Wagon" phase where everything was painted bright red. I was as guilty as everyone else - my dad painted his 540k red - and I was all for it. I don't think bright colors are as popular right now.

Catolog description is online at http://www.goodingco.com/auctions/palmBeach_2006/lot32.html A.J.

Brian, Hopefully it is a challenger, although I will probably buy it either way - I seem to only regret the stuff I don't buy as opposed to what I do buy :-). Somebody was going to build a race car out of it so they rear end is some kind of two speed setup with heavy duty hydrolic brakes. Fortuntely I don't need any back end parts. My car is the "Schumacher Special" from a previous thread. Check out www.townisp.com/~alsancle for pictures and history. The numbers stamped on the right rear axle housing of my car are as follows: On top, one of the following CV0, JV0 or GVC. On the bottom, 349. Do you have any idea what those mean? I do know that 2.7 turns of the drive shaft result in 1 turn of the wheel. A.J.

Thanks Brian. I have located a relatively complete 27 chassis and engine and I was wondering how many of the parts would interchange to use on my 28. The asking price is 4k which I did not think was unreasonable. A.J.

Does anyone know the basic difference between the straight 8 engine from 27 to 30? My understanding is that they are more or less the same with tweaks to boost the horsepower each year. Is that correct? thanks, A.J.

I think it would be a pebble beach contender with a full restoration. The color right now is criminal. I agree that price pumping happens, but in this case there is no reason as there are no other cars coming to market. The Deitrich Conv coupe with a 12 would probably bring 1.5 to 1.75 fully restored I would think. I know that one needing a full restoration went for 1 a couple of years ago. As an aside, my dad big Al, passed on one of the LeBaron phaetons for 7500 bucks back in the late fifties. A.J.

Dave, This is the first time since Harrah sold his that one of the LeBaron (speedster or Phaeton) has come to market that I know of, although I could be wrong. There is at least one Dietrich car per year on the auction block lately. Taste is subjective - I love the Dietrich cars but I understand the premium for the LeBaron. A.J.

On a high profile car like the LeBaron Speedster it is hard to play games. Everyone knows who owns it and if it ends up back with that owner everybody will know the auction was a sham. The consenus there was that the price was more or less appropriate for that car. A.J.

I assume you are talking about the one that Rob Williams has for sale? See http://www.autocollections.com 1930 Stutz ?Jones Special? Indy Race Car This car was entered into the 1930 Indy 500 Race by owner Milton Jones, a Cleveland Sportsman. It is equipped with a 322 cubic inch Challenger 16-value engine. The car was driven by L.L. Corum in the 1930 Indy 500 Race. The car performed flawlessly in the race at an average speed of 85.34 mph, and finished the race in 10th place. The magazine, The Motor, wrote ?Perhaps the most meritorious performance of the 1930 Indy 500 race was that of the Jones Special?.

Does anyone know what year chevrolet introduced the straight 6? thanks! A.J.

Art, I posted to Atlas F1 forum when you first mentioned it. Haven't really gotten much of a response there. That is a good point about making a broader search as related to racing and I was planning on doing that. There was a "Schumacher-Cusick" special that ran in the 37 Vanderbilt cup which is not the same car (Ford powered monoposto) but perhaps a relation. Thanks, A.J.

The license plate bracket doesn't seem visible in the early picture. I can't tell if the one in the later pictures is the same but turned upside down? A.J.

Thanks, those are great suggestions. The 28 stutz had single action shocks so ones on the there now are definitely later. The car is a bit of an engima in that many things about it say race car, such as the open wheels, exhaust about 2 inches from the passenger, no top, no windshieldwipers, all aluminum body. However, the long wheelbase doesn't make sense unless you were going to stay in a straight line. One of the stories passed down is that it was intended for some sort of speed run. A.J.

I have updated the website with some current photos. http://www.townisp.com/~alsancle Also, see attached front view. I would love suggestions on how to research the speed/racing scene in and around Boston in the late 20s & early 30s. A.J.

I have updated the website with some current photos. http://www.townisp.com/~alsancle Also, see attached front view. I would love suggestions on how to research the speed/racing scene in and around Boston in the late 20s & early 30s. A.J.

I have updated the website with some current photos. http://www.townisp.com/~alsancle Also, see attached front view. I would love suggestions on how to research the speed/racing scene in and around Boston in the late 20s & early 30s. A.J.

Today my dad and I decided to check the rear-end ratio. I haven't been able to decipher the stamps in my last post. 2.7 turns of the drive shaft result in 1 turn of the wheel. Does that make it a 2.70 rear? In theory that would make for quite a high top end. I would assume somebody must have made up some special gears as I've seen no reference to Stutz gears this high? A.J.

I'd love to give you some pictures as the car looks remarkably like the very last pictures on my website. Unfortunately I can't give you any current pictures as my dad committed to allow Fed Roe (author of Duesenberg: pursuit of perfection) to write an article for the CCCA magazine showing the discovery. Fred was the author of the original article. Hopefully that will happen in the very near future so if you don't mind waiting a few months I can post a bunch of current pictures. I'm sure there is some sort of race history somewhere as everything about the car says it was built for speed with the one exception of the long vs short chassis. I don't know if it was in the vanderbilt race but that is just the sort of clue I'm looking for! This is pretty neat in that it really was in a barn covered in junk! The man that had bought it in 1951 would talk about it around town but would never allow anyone to see it. He always referred to it as a Duesenberg. He died a few years ago and his son finally allowed my dad a look. The son remembers playing in it as a young boy (he's in his 40s now) We bought it with the understanding that we would restore it and allow the seller's son to see it and ride in as a memory to his grandfather. regards, A.J.