Grandpa

The shape of the Selden hood, on the side of the upper panel, does not match the unknown car. Note that the unknown car evidently has some hood damage (a slightly depressed area near the centerline hinge) due to a aggressive opening of the (aluminum?) hood.

Re. the object on the lower rear side of the back door - - - The object is an exterior door hinge, which can also be seen in the factory photo of the circa 1917 Marmon. The upper hinge(s) are of the concealed type. An exterior door hinge was used because of the slight inward curvature of the lower body.

Re. the question of the car being a taxi - - - The car appeared in the 1920 movie "His Royal Slyness", staring Harold Lloyd. When new, the car was high priced and extremely unlikely to be used as a taxi at that time. By 1920, the mid-teens car was an older used car that was converted to a taxi. The conversion likely included the replacement of the original bail type exterior door handles with a straight type.

The fairly straight cowl and the minimal intrusion of the rear fender into the rear door indicates a long wheelbase large car and not a taxi. Could be a circa 1917 Marmon.

Re. the finish on the harmonic damper (question from Bloo, above) - - - The harmonic damper is fitted to the engine after the engine is painted. I am not sure what the correct finish is for this part. From the factory photo, it appears that the damper has a couple of different finishes; it looks like the pulley on the damper may be cadmium plated. I will have to check into the correct finish for this part.

Re. the finish on the shock absorbers (question from kgreen, above) - - - The factory photos of the assembly of 1941 Buicks at the Linden, NJ, plant clearly show the shocks painted chassis black. I would go with a black finish.

Re. engine running hot - - - A friend had a 1941 Buick Super in his shop that was running too hot. The engine had been hot tanked and rebuilt by others. With the use of a pressure washer (garden hose water connection and a compressed air connection) he cleaned out the water jacket in the back of the block through a water pump opening. He used a straightened coat hanger to reach the rust debris that had accumulated in the block. The cleaning took a couple of hours, but yielded a lot of rust debris. Also, note the finishes on the shock absorbers and the generator pulley.

The odd looking fan on the 1941 Roadmaster engine is designed to produce less noise. From my experience with my 1941 Roadmaster, the fan may make less noise, but doesn't cool the engine very well. Buick recognized that there was a cooling problem and redesigned the fan postwar. I installed a 1952 Roadmaster fan on my car and it does cool the engine a bit better.

Another thought - - - If the unknown car is a six cylinder Knox, perhaps the factory fitted the car with a Knox truck transmission because of the massive torque of the large engine. This theory could account for the difference in the design of the transmission shifter gate / hand brake assembly. Unfortunately, I unable to find any online images of the shifter / hand brake assembly for a circa 1913 six cylinder Knox passenger car or a Knox truck of the same vintage.

Additional comments on the engine pictures I submitted (above) - - - • The engine with the normal looking fan is a Special / Super engine. • The engine with odd looking fan is a Century / Roadmaster engine.

The pictures, below, are 1941 Buicks being assembled in Linden, New Jersey, USA. The 1940 Buick engine is likely painted in the same fashion - - - Engine color on the manifolds, a cadmium plated water pump pulley, the harmonic damper is fitted after the engine painting (but not sure of the color), the exhaust pipes are painted chassis black, the generator mounting bracket is painted engine color, and the fuel and vacuum lines are painted engine color.

Forum member, 1912Stav, pointed out that there are differences between the unknown car and the Knox speed record racer that driven by Joan Newton Cuneo. One notable difference is that the unknown car does not have the rear wheel chain drive sprocket visible in the photo. It turns out that Knox also built six cylinder with a conventional rear axle. Pictured is a circa 1910 Knox six cylinder race car driven by Fred Belcher. Since the unknown car appears to be in excellent condition when photographed circa 1913 (dated due to the age of the passenger, Dolly Cuneo), I would like to suggest that the unknown car could be a circa 1912 to 1913 Knox six cylinder race car. Since Joan was attracted to fast cars, a six cylinder Knox would appeal to her. Unfortunately, women were banned from organized racing about the time the photo was taken of the unknown car. Thus, there is a possibility that the unknown car is a Knox six cylinder race car that was never raced in organized events.

I surfed the web for more photos of Joan Newton Cuneo. There are a couple of images that I would like to share. The car marked as #15 is a Rainier, circa 1911, with Joan behind the wheel. In my prior post, the car which has spare tires on Joan's right may be a Rainier (rather than a Knox). The other car, with the passengers, is Joan with her family. This car is likely chain drive, note the shape of the rear fender; perhaps a Knox.

The photo that was posted of the unknown car shows a woman and a young girl. From checking Wikipedia, Joan Newton had two children with her husband Andrew Cuneo. The oldest child was Maddalena (Dolly) Cuneo born in 1901. Thus, the girl shown in the unknown car photo is very likely Dolly at an age of about 12 years old (about 1913). This date is in agreement with the vintage of the hat (circa 1912) on the driver. The photo of Joan (alone, below) appears to be at the wheel of a Knox. Therefore, the unknown car photo is very likely that of Joan Newton Cuneo, and her daughter Dolly, in a Knox. Dolly looks a lot like her mother.

As for the "bump out" on the right side of the hood - - - The photo, below, shows the routing of the ignition wiring in a stock (non-racer) 1911 Knox. The "bump out" could be to locate (and shield) the wiring from a hot engine. At 111 mph (Joan Newton's record setting speed), the Knox engine would be really hot.

I found this photo of a 1911 Knox that doesn't have the "bump out" on the right side of the hood. Perhaps the Knox driven by Joan had a modified hood. From looking at online Knox photos, the "bump out" wasn't for steering column clearance. Perhaps the "bump out" was made to keep the ignition wiring away from the hot (and perhaps oily) engine.

I have some doubts that the unknown car is a Knox. Note that the Knox has a "bump out" on the right side of the hood for steering column clearance. This feature does not seem to be present on the unknown car.

Could be an after-market fog light for a 1951 Ford passenger car.

After a bit of net surfing for Stoddard-Dayton images, I found a photo that shows the first design hand brake detent bar and a gated shifter than looks very similar to the unknown car. Evidently, the unknown car is an earlier race car than most of the images available online.

Shown is a Stoddard-Dayton (photo taken mid-1930s) which shows that the gas tank behind the seats and a long chassis with space for spare tires stacked horizontally behind the gas tank.

I think that Stude17 has nailed it; the unknown car is a Stoddard-Dayton. Stoddard-Daytons of the period have two sectors for the spark and throttle controls. However, I was unable to find a photo that shows the hand brake detent bar mounted on the outside of the lever with the teeth facing up. I think what is shown in the available photos of Stoddard-Daytons is a series of "running" design changes in the hand brake construction. The first design is shown on the unknown car (outside detent bar with the teeth facing up). The second design also has the teeth facing up, but with the brake lever designed such that it straddles the detent bar. The last design has a brake lever which straddles the detent bar, but with the teeth facing down (the post by gwells). Evidently, the designers realized that a design with the teeth facing up was a poor choice, since road dirt and stones would be more likely to cause a jam in the operation of the brake. The photo of the car with a yellow body / red frame shows the second design and the other photo shows the last design and the two sectors for the park and throttle controls.

A friend told me that the tank on the side of chassis, below the driver, is an oil tank as used on Simplex raceabouts of the period. The "aerodynamic" design of the oil tank, as well as the four spare tires, implies that the car may be intended (or used in) a road race. Two of the spare tires appear to be well used. I checked Simplex online pictures, but could not find a match to the gear lever gate or the handbrake design. The handbrake support has a strap (with the detent teeth) over the outside surface of the lever, just above the pivot point, which seems to be a fairly unique design feature. Most of the cars of the period had the handbrake detent teeth located on the side of the lever facing the chassis.

The factory photograph of a 1906 Elmore is not a close match to the unknown car. Note the hood sides.

• Re. the letters on the driver's seat: They appear to be "EAG". • Re. the unknown car being a GJG Pirate runabout: The shape of the top of the hood on the GJG car does not match the unknown car. • Re. GJG brand name on the driver's seat: The company would likely use their "triangle" logo on the seat (rather than initials); see below.

The hat that the woman is wearing has a fairly close match to the hat (less the feather) offered in a 1912 millinery catalog.