1915 Walter Marr "Twin Six" Buick

[Guest shadetree77]

Wife and I attended the Old Car Festival at the Henry Ford Greenfield village yesterday. Had an AMAZING time that included rides in a 1915 Buick truck, a 1923 Buick, and a 1926 2.5 Ton International. Another highlight of the day was getting to see this 1915 D55 Buick that was owned by Walter Marr into which he placed a 12 cylinder experimental engine. It was actually two six cylinder engines mated together via a machined aluminum crankcase. AMAZING sight to say the least. It was being displayed by Walter's great-grandson Paul Marr (standing to the left of the car in the side shot). Here a a few pictures and a video of the engine running.

 

Edited September 13, 2015 by shadetree77 (see edit history)

[Pete Phillips]

Wow! I love it. Thanks for posting, Robert.

Pete Phillips

[JohnD1956]

A truly awesome car in every dimension!

[Brian_Heil]

Nice to see it also, and to see it running so well.  At the 2003 Centennial, they were still getting it together.

[dibarlaw]

Shadetree:

 Thanks for posting this video and photos. The 1915 V-12 to me is the most intriguing design of an early Buick. Also I do love these big 7 passenger teens Buicks and seeing that beautiful V-12 running is a real treat!

 As a side note. Today on TCM I watched "The Bride Came C.O.D." 1941 from Warner Brothers. Starring James Cagney and Bette Davis. In one scene  they pull a 1915 C-55 out of a barn to get away from the ghost town where they are stranded. The 1915 C-55 has been sitting since 1919 (22 years). After some tinkering, pumping up the tires and getting some AV gas from Jimmy Cagney's stranded plane, they are ready to try and start the car. Jimmy could not get the car started by cranking. The next thing was to have him push it to a hill. Once going down the hill it backfires a bit and starts to run. That is until it tears itself apart on the rough desert rocks and flips on it's side throwing Bette and Harry Davenport out into a cactus  (I am still in tears over it's loss).

 They probably left the car in the desert where they shot the scene. I wonder......

[AC Fuhrman]

"When better automobiles are built, Buick will build them."

And they really did too!

Thanks for posting this - never knew about it.

 

[smithbrother]

OH my, a MODIFIED BUICK, needless to say, I LOVE IT,

 

Dale in Indy

[Dandy Dave]

Yep. So Cool. They were only Steps away from the Chartreuse Lady at the 2008 BCA 100 year GM show. I spoke Paul and some of the other family members with them. They also had the Cycle car there although it had running problems and did not make it through the parade several days later. Larry Schramm and his truck did though, as well as the my 1915 Buick just in front of the old Farmer and family. Also Robert. There were two Twin 6's Built. Find the other, Bring it home, Get it running and I'll be by to take it for a drive.   Dandy Dave!  

Edited September 22, 2015 by Dandy Dave (see edit history)

[Terry Wiegand]

And I had the distinct pleasure of rebuilding the caged-valve assemblies on this car for Paul.  My long time friend, the late Terry Dunham, was responsible for getting Paul and I together on this project.  I went in with a new set of stainless valves and had a new set of valve springs made to Buick Motor Company Engineering Specifications.  I wish that I could post photos on here, but no such luck.  I have a lot of photos that I took during the process.  I would really like to write an article about the caged-valve rebuilding process that I and my friend have perfected.  Since this involves pre-war Buicks it would be doubtful if the article would ever get to appear in the Bugle because of BOD directives.  When the article is written I am going to approach West Peterson and ask if he would be willing to run it in The Antique Automobile Magazine.  You guys are right - this is without any doubts one of the rarest of the rare Buick automobiles in existence today.  The technology that Mr. Marr used in this engine was absolutely astounding.  The cylinder blocks are modified 'Light Six' castings.  The two banks share a common crankshaft with fork and blade rods so that the two cylinder banks are straight across from each other.  He did this to save on overall length so that an existing C/D-55 frame could be used.  There is a lot more that I could say about this car but I will save that for the article.  I did get to hear the engine run in Flint in 2008 and it sounded very healthy.

 

Terry Wiegand

South Hutchinson, Kansas

[Mark Shaw]

Nice to see the video and photos...  Good job Terry!

[MrEarl]

Great reporting shadetree, thanks for sharing!

[Thriller]

Terry,

I'd bet you a steak dinner that such an article would be printed in the Bugle. It sounds like you have a wealth of knowledge that would not only benefit us pre-war Buick folk as well as shed some light on a century old feat of engineering.

I for one look forward to reading that piece.

[MrEarl]

Take his bet Terry, I was only going to bet a dollar to a donut