WNTD: 1931-33 Canadian Frontenac De Vaux cars,engines.Leads?

[George Albright]

Dear Friends I am looking for one of the 1931-33 SOHC engines ,built by Van Ranst and Louis Chevrolet for the Canadian built Frontenac Six Automobiles,built by Dominion Motors of Toronto,successor to Durant of Canada. I would consider a complete car also. The same basic car was built in Michigan and Oakland California as the 1931-33 De Vaux car,with a flathead six engine designed by Col. Hall but actually built by Continental Motors. They used many left over parts from the Durant Automobile. Attached is a photo of Van Raust and Chevrolet with the motor I am looking for. This is from the Borgeson book written in the 1960s. Leads appreciated.Please pass this on to the DeVaux Registry and other De Vaux car owners. I will be at Hershey. Thanks,George Albright,Ocala,Fla. email; gnalbright@gmail.com cell 352 843 1624

[JustDave]

hello george i have 2 devauxs and an extra 32 motor but neither is overhead valve or overhead cam

dave

[George Albright]

It appears the Canadian built Frontenac used a SOHC six,but I am not certain. All USA made De Vaux cars used the Continental flathead six designed Col. Hall. It is possible that the engine pictured was just a prototype engine,and not used in the production Frontenacs. Hopefully a Frontenac owner will weigh in. Geo.

[Durant _32]

I hope you found what you are looking for. No our Frontenac never had this abortion and doing a search you might like to refer to C. W. Van Ranst - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia part of says An engineer by trade, Van Ranst developed the overhead valve cylinder heads for the Ford-Frontenac engine fielded by Louis Chevrolet in 1921. Re some of your remarks DeVaux was not 31 - 33 but model 675 1931, Continental - DeVaux 680 1932. 1933 and 1934 were Continental Motors own cars the Flyer, Beacon and later the odd ball Ace 1933. 1934 was Beacon only and end of all auto production in 1934 by Continental. Here we had first the 31 Frontenac E with 22A continental engine. Next was a slightly altered 32 Model E - 670 also 22A, next was the 32 685 with 32A then 1933 we had the C-400 Fronty, and C-600 Fronty with same named engines. Sort of a clone of the Beacon with C400 and Flyer with C600 but Canadianized with things like Depress Beam lights used on all Dominion cars Durant and Frontenac. We had glove boxes US didn't. And unlike the mis informed info being spread for years Dominion stopped production Dec 1933, the 1934 C-400 and C-600 Frontys now had radio's and Pullman seat features. The Frontenac Ace was an import and Frontenac name added to the grill. Also Durant didn't stop 1931 with only Lansing left in US and last model the 619, and production shut down in summer, Dominion continued the 614 / 618 vehicles. I have what seems to be the sole surviving 1932 614 sedan and another member of DMAC in Ont has a coup. You will not find any info on a 633 Durant for 1933 yet two survive a coup and a sedan. None of our cars or Durant Motors ever had overhead valve engine except the first cars model A22 and B22 Durant's. Star had the flat head. Unlike Continental who was out of the pic 1934 Dominion Motors officially ended June 23 1944 when the last section of their factory and the remaining lands was sold to Frigidaire without enough funds left to pay shareholders. They also gave up their Charter as Dominion Motors Limited. That ended the only all Canadian car co since. Hopefully this answers some of your questions. A lot cane be found in DurantCar site by our deceased Canadian DMAC member or DMAC site itself. Two of us have been researching mainly the 30's cars and how each Co was welded to one another, Durant, DeVaux, Continental and Dominion Motors. Lot of similarities between Reo produced at Dominion 32 and later also with Hayes bodies. Only the 633 has a hood very similar to the Reo with doors not louvers. Some Reo's had wood spoke wheels by Motor Wheel Co and the 633 coup does also.