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A Family’s fascination revives story of the Cole Motor cars


kfle

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It was on June 18th of 2018 that I joined the AACA and made one of my first posts on the forum titled “looking for owners of Cole Motor Cars.  At the time I had a 1913 Cole Series 9 Touring Car.  Since then, it has been a whirlwind 16 months for my 19 year old son and me!  Over that period of time we

 

1. Acquired two more Cole motor cars

2. Made lots of friends, connections, and relaunched the Cole registry at www.colemotorcarregistry.com

3. Organized a Cole owners meetup this spring with ten Coles in attendance

4, Helped the Gilmore Car Museum put together a special Cole exhibit of seven cars and lots of artifacts

5. Had the Coles at three Concours events and two CCCA events as well as several other events,tours, and shows

6. Tracked down two previously unknown Coles to Bring the total to 77 known surviving Coles today 

 

This week, classiccars.com did a great story on us and the Coles and you can read it at this link.

 

https://journal.classiccars.com/2019/10/03/familys-fascination-revives-story-of-the-cole-cars/

 

What an amazing amount of fun this has been!  The best thing has been sharing this journey with my son and we are attending our first Hershey event this week. We hope to see and meet some of you!

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Very well written article.  A friend of mine attended that Cole meet last summer at the Gilmore Museum.

 

While he was in Michigan, I was in Reno for the big truck show and attended the National Automobile Museum (formerly Harrah's), and saw the two door version of the 'Toursedan'.

 

Craig

Cole_8_HDTP.jpg

17_Cole_1.jpg

17_Cole_2.jpg

Edited by 8E45E
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10 hours ago, 8E45E said:

Very well written article.  A friend of mine attended that Cole meet last summer at the Gilmore Museum.

 

While he was in Michigan, I was in Reno for the big truck show and attended the National Automobile Museum (formerly Harrah's), and saw the two door version of the 'Toursedan'.

 

Craig

 

 

Craig,

 

Thanks and the Tourscoupe is a nice car.  I have not had a chance to get out there to see it myself yet, but will someday.  There is another car of that model that exists that is down in Australia now, but I have not been able to track down the current owner.  .

 

Kevin

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6 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

Congratulations, I've enjoyed all your Cole posts. Have a great time at Hershey, the first one is unforgettable. Bob 

 

Thanks!  We are hoping to run across some Cole parts at Hershey, but it is not going to be easy.

 

Kevin

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The first time I ever heard of Cole was a good 50 years ago in early grade school.

 

Scholastic Book Services, which sold books to schools published 'Tad Burness's "Auto Album"; a compilation of his syndicated line-drawings to various newspapers from 1966.  Included in the first volume was this 1920 Cole, although I have yet to see one with the octagon-shaped rear quarter windows.

1902_Cole.jpg

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21 minutes ago, 8E45E said:

The first time I ever heard of Cole was a good 50 years ago in early grade school.

 

Scholastic Book Services, which sold books to schools published 'Tad Burness's "Auto Album"; a compilation of his syndicated line-drawings to various newspapers from 1966.  Included in the first volume was this 1920 Cole, although I have yet to see one with the octagon-shaped rear quarter windows.

 

 

Thanks for sharing that picture, I had not seen that one before!  There is one that we know of that survives which is a 1920.  About 10 years ago the guy that owns it was doing a restoration on it and then it went to the back burner.  I talked to him a few months ago and he is going to get back to the project and finish it up.  It really was a great looking model.  Below is a picture from ten years ago as it was all being taken apart.  Also a picture of the page from the dealer book about the model in 1920.  The car as optioned with the disc wheels in your picture would have cost almost $4000 new.  image.thumb.png.4880651fabafe35c08335d6961bdaee2.pngimage.thumb.png.9f571e743384e837f65fb4d7dcd20458.png

 

 

 

 

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5 hours ago, STEVE POLLARD said:

Beautiful...... I have to ask, what are those vertical cylinders mounted on the front of the vehicle ?

 

 

Thanks,

 

 

Steve 

 Those are Westinghouse Air Shocks for an early type of air suspension.  Cole worked with Westinghouse a few years earlier on these and started offering them on cars at that time.  There is an air compressor under the front seat and you ran the hose to each cylinder and filled them up to between 45 and 90psi.  The car would raise up 3 to 4 inches and would provide a nice comfortable ride.  Two cylinders were on the front and two were on the back.  

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10 minutes ago, Fargoguy said:

Awesome article! I was at the pre-42 event with my daughter and enjoyed the Cole gathering- not only on display- but being driven around the grounds!

Glad you enjoyed and driving them around is the best part!

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1 hour ago, 8E45E said:

I hope that example gets its well-deserved restoration.  

 

I also like this sedan in the ACD Museum:

1919_Cole.jpg

Yes, that is a great 1919 Toursedan.   You would really like the 1917 Cole Toursedan that is in the Gilmore exhibit.  It was advertised as the car that could go from a closed car to an open car in less than 10 minutes.  It was accomplished by a special body that was developed between Cole and Springfield.  The body was also sold to a few other makers in 1918 and 1919.  The Cole you shared from the national museum also has the same mechanism and the body was made by Springfield.  Here is a walk through video I made about the 1917 Cole Toursedan as you really don't get to see it how it works when it is just sitting there.  

 

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Thanks for the tutorial on the operation of the side windows on that Cole Toursedan.

 

Auburn offered a hardtop-like steel-topped touring, and also Studebaker offered the Duplex Phaeton and Duplex Roadster steel-top tourings, but unlike the Cole, but they had roll-up side curtains.

 

Interestingly, in China, Shanghai Horse Bazaar and Automobile company made a hardtop coupe in 1924 with roll-up side windows similar to the Cole Toursedan/Tourcoupe.

 

Here is that Made in China 1924 Studebaker Light Six which is currenly in the Studebaker National Museum.

 

Craig

 

1924_Stude_Light_Six_China.jpg

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1 hour ago, kfle said:

 Those are Westinghouse Air Springs for an air suspension.  Cole worked with Westinghouse a few years earlier on these and started offering them on cars at that time.  There is an air compressor under the front seat and you ran the hose to each cylinder and filled them up to between 45 and 90psi.  The car would raise up 3 to 4 inches and would provide a nice comfortable ride.  Two cylinders were on the front and two were on the back.  

Those were offered on a number of the higher-end cars at one time.  Perhaps Cole was the first with them?

 

Here is a 1923 Locomobile with those Westinghouse air springs:  

 

1923_Locomobile-1.jpg

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25 minutes ago, 8E45E said:

Those were offered on a number of the higher-end cars at one time.  Perhaps Cole was the first with them?

 

Here is a 1923 Locomobile with those Westinghouse air springs:  

 

1923_Locomobile-1.jpg

It’s hard to say any company was definitely first at anything in the early auto industry, but Cole was very early collaborator and user of them years earlier than the 1919 ACD Cole.

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4 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

Is there any detailed information on the Cole that ran in the first INDY 500 in 1911? Bob 

I don't have a lot of information, but did find this information in the Cole information that I have from an old Cole Bulletin.

 

“As for the teams and drivers, some of them spent their Sunday off as guests of “Farmer Bill” Endicott, the driver of the No. 42 Cole, who had many of the boys out to his farm in Crawfordsville, Indiana for a big, home-cooked country meal courtesy of his wife. Many of them drove out to the Endicott farm in the race cars they would pilot in the big race on Tuesday, May 30. (1911)                                       

      The forty-second and forty-third entries were both Cole cars manufactured by the Cole Motor Car Company, which had been founded in Indianapolis a few years previously by carriage-maker Joseph J. Cole. The drivers entered were William “Bill” Endicott in the No. 42, and John K. Jenkins in the No. 43. Louis Edmunds was listed to serve as relief driver for both. Endicott was a tall thirty-one-year-old Indiana farm boy, who was born near Indianapolis (his brother was Harry Endicott, the driver of the No. 3 Inter-State in the big race). Bill Endicott went from the farm to being a tester and the first race driver for the Cole factory, and was known for his short but illustrious career in which he captured several victories in the 1910 season, including the Massapequa Sweepstakes, and then retired. Using his earnings from this season (around $10,000), he then bought a farm and moved to Crawfordsville, Indiana. “Farmer Bill” Endicott, as he was then called, was a family man with a wife and four children. His teammate John “Johnny” Jenkins was an equally colorful figure. Jenkins had started out as a lightweight prizefighter. His last fight had been against Jimmy Britt in Oakland, California, the result being a draw. Left with two broken hands from his career in prizefighting, Jenkins then became a race car driver. His debut event in the United States was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in a 1910 100-mile event, in which he drove and American car. He also distinguished himself in a twenty-four-hour race at Los Angeles, California, where he finished third in a Cole after a remarkable comeback from an altercation with the race-winning Fiat. Jenkins was thirty-two years ole at the time of the 1911 Indianapolis 500, and resided at Springfield, Ohio. The two Cole cars entered in the race were of considerable difference in engine size, with Endicott’s No. 42 Cole “Wizard” having a 471 cubic inch four-cylinder engine, to Jenkins’ much smaller 286 cubic inch four-cylinder No. 43 machine. Both were painted green, and used Firestone tires and rims, A.C. spark plugs, Schebler carburetors, and Monogram oil. The team uniform color was green. The smaller engine in the No. 43 Cole may have proven too much of a handicap, however, for this car failed to pass the seventy-five mile per hour qualification test in the days preceding the race, and was therefore disqualified from the 1911 Indianapolis 500. Johnny Jenkins did get to participate iin the race however, but as a relief driver for his teammate Bill Endicott in the No. 42 Cole.” Stats report that Endicott did not win this race, but the Cole was still running when the race ended."

 

 

Here is a picture of the car and the only Cole ever I believe to have used chain drive.  There are no records as to whatever happened to this car after the race. 

image.thumb.png.9f4dd0cf7e19ad8cc4aabcb864e2221a.png

 

 

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Hello! I approached you about a week ago at the Gilmore Museum while taking their Model T driving school. It was a pleasure meeting you and I certainly enjoyed seeing the display with the Cole cars. Oh, and yes, driving those Model T's was worth the drive to get there! Looking forward to more of you posts.

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1 hour ago, zipdang said:

Hello! I approached you about a week ago at the Gilmore Museum while taking their Model T driving school. It was a pleasure meeting you and I certainly enjoyed seeing the display with the Cole cars. Oh, and yes, driving those Model T's was worth the drive to get there! Looking forward to more of you posts.

I remember and glad you got to see the Coles!  The Model T class is always fun.  Yesterday was the last one for the year at the museum.  It was nice meeting you.

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From what body companies did Cole source their bodies? 

Was the Springfield Body Company cited above as the source of TourSedan bodies the same one that became the in-house coachbuilder for Rolls-Royce of America?

Your insights as to why Cole expired as an automaker by 1926.  Its been attributed to being financially wounded by the postwar recession and J.J. Cole's decision to wind down operations before his personal fortune was depleted.  Were any efforts made to sell the company to or merge with another automaker?

 

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6 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

Is there any detailed information on the Cole that ran in the first INDY 500 in 1911? Bob 

 

Bob, once again you come up with the good questions. Your mention of Coles racing jarred my memory about the Fairmount Park races in Philadelphia. There were two Coles entered in the 1910 race driven by the Endicott brothers referred to in a previous post. Both cars had 201 cubic inch engines, were in the 161 to 230 cubic inch class, and neither finished. In the 1911 race there was one 286 cubic inch Cole driven by Basle and it was also a DNF in the 231 to 300 cubic inch class.

 

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the late Dick Ringfelt and his charming wife and had a great ride in his wonderful 1913 Cole 6-60 roadster. These are fine cars and I am very impressed with Kevin Fleck for all the work he has done to preserve the cars along with his outstanding research. 

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58 minutes ago, A. Ballard 35R said:

 

 

 

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the late Dick Ringfelt and his charming wife and had a great ride in his wonderful 1913 Cole 6-60 roadster. These are fine cars and I am very impressed with Kevin Fleck for all the work he has done to preserve the cars along with his outstanding research. 

Is that the nice unrestored car with a gray body? If so I sold the owner a Peter Helck sketch about 18 years ago at Hershey. Bob 

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6 hours ago, 1937hd45 said:

Is that the nice unrestored car with a gray body? If so I sold the owner a Peter Helck sketch about 18 years ago at Hershey. Bob 

This is the Cole that Ringfelt owned, a 1913 Cole Series 8 Roadster 6 cylinder.   It now resides in the Palmetto Collection in Florida.  https://collectiononpalmetto.com/automobiles

 

The grey unrestored 6-60 Cole that you refer to now is in a large private collection in Indiana.

 

BF2D8C90-8A7F-4EF9-9B12-7A29E55B1C76.jpeg

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8 hours ago, A. Ballard 35R said:

 

Bob, once again you come up with the good questions. Your mention of Coles racing jarred my memory about the Fairmount Park races in Philadelphia. There were two Coles entered in the 1910 race driven by the Endicott brothers referred to in a previous post. Both cars had 201 cubic inch engines, were in the 161 to 230 cubic inch class, and neither finished. In the 1911 race there was one 286 cubic inch Cole driven by Basle and it was also a DNF in the 231 to 300 cubic inch class.

 

Several years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the late Dick Ringfelt and his charming wife and had a great ride in his wonderful 1913 Cole 6-60 roadster. These are fine cars and I am very impressed with Kevin Fleck for all the work he has done to preserve the cars along with his outstanding research. 

For races in 1910 and 1911, Cole always just used stock Cole 30 speedsters and maybe just removed a bit more of the body and did some tuning.  Here are a few pictures of Endicott and the typical cars that would have been in the two races that you mentioned.  

004-Bill Endicott.jpg

#1866 in Cole Speedster.jpg

003- Endicott LA 4-9-10.jpg

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9 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

From what body companies did Cole source their bodies? 

Was the Springfield Body Company cited above as the source of TourSedan bodies the same one that became the in-house coachbuilder for Rolls-Royce of America?

Your insights as to why Cole expired as an automaker by 1926.  Its been attributed to being financially wounded by the postwar recession and J.J. Cole's decision to wind down operations before his personal fortune was depleted.  Were any efforts made to sell the company to or merge with another automaker?

 

Some great questions and I will answer this a bit later when I have some more time.  The fortune and money was the smallest factor and Billy Durant tried to buy Cole 3 times!  Ill explain more today.

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On 10/6/2019 at 9:38 PM, 58L-Y8 said:

From what body companies did Cole source their bodies? 

Was the Springfield Body Company cited above as the source of TourSedan bodies the same one that became the in-house coachbuilder for Rolls-Royce of America?

Your insights as to why Cole expired as an automaker by 1926.  Its been attributed to being financially wounded by the postwar recession and J.J. Cole's decision to wind down operations before his personal fortune was depleted.  Were any efforts made to sell the company to or merge with another automaker?

 

Cole used several different body makers over the years but hardly ever publicized who the maker was.  Some bodies were general makers, some were small contract runs, and some were completely custom.  Confirmed body makers for Cole were Springfield, Fisher, Rubay, Willoughby, Racine, Robbins, Rex, and a few others.  Springfield did make bodies for Rolls Royce, however it is not the in house builder by the same name.  

 

 Now, on to the demise of Cole.  The Cole Motor Car Company actually ceased operations in the Fall of 1924.  The board voted to liquidate in April of 1924 and then Cole was invited to pace the Indy 500 with their new balloon tires.  The race created demand, so Cole did one more run of about 700 cars in the late summer of 1924 that many people call the 1925 Coles.  After that run was done, they liquidated and paid off all shareholders and a small profit for the year.  Jj Cole passed away of heart disease about five months later.

 

in 1921/1922, the post war depression did impact Coles profit and sales, however that is not the reason Cole decided to liquidate.  The primary reason was that Cole’s suppliers would not let him engineer the components to Coles specifications and design.  Cole was big on innovation and this would not allow him to innovate any longer.  The trend in the industry was towards high volume and low cost and JJ Cole had no interest in that.  Based on that trend and due to the change in suppliers approaches, JJ Cole was not having fun any longer didn’t want to waste resources or his family fortune and decided to liquidate the company.

 

Billy Durant tried to buy Cole three times, including towards the end of the company, however JJ Cole refused him every time.  Cole thought that Durant sucked the soul out of the companies he purchased and didn’t want his name associated with that.  He was a man of principle and didn’t think Durant would manufacture up to Coles standards and engineering.  Also, in 1922 Cole had worked out an agreement and plan for ten Indiana automakers to merge and form a competitor to Durant’s GM.  They had all agreements in place and a good plan forward, however when it went to the Wall Street banks to finalize the deal, they slow walked it and never finalized it,  There was speculation that the big Detroit automakers had a hand in getting the bankers to kill the deal.  

 

Cole really was a great American success story and is quite fascinating,  the issue is that the real information about Cole is not easily accessible.  Most of the auto history books have some inaccuracies about the Company and it is not surprising.  We have and have access to a collection of all of the ads, manuals, dealer books, documents, original news articles, and a very rare copy of a book that was written in 1954 about Cole.    The book was written by a doctoral student at Indiana University and a very small run was produced as it was really a doctoral dissertation.  The author had access to the complete company archives, former surviving Cole employees, and the Cole family.  The company archives were destroyed in the 60’s in a flood and the family did not share them to many prior to that.

 

Hopefully this his answers your question. 

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29 minutes ago, kfle said:

 Now, on to the demise of Cole.  The Cole Motor Car Company actually ceased operations in the Fall of 1924.  The board voted to liquidate in April of 1924 and then Cole was invited to pace the Indy 500 with their new balloon tires.  The race created demand, so Cole did one more run of about 700 cars in the late summer of 1924 that many people call the 1925 Coles.  After that run was done, they liquidated and paid off all shareholders and a small profit for the year.  Jj Cole passed away of heart disease about five months later.

 

in 1921/1922, the post war depression did impact Coles profit and sales, however that is not the reason Cole decided to liquidate.  The primary reason was that Cole’s suppliers would not let him engineer the components to Coles specifications and design.  Cole was big on innovation and this would not allow him to innovate any longer.  The trend in the industry was towards high volume and low cost and JJ Cole had no interest in that.  Based on that trend and due to the change in suppliers approaches, JJ Cole was not having fun any longer didn’t want to waste resources or his family fortune and decided to liquidate the company.

 

Cole really was a great American success story and is quite fascinating,  the issue is that the real information about Cole is not easily accessible.  Most of the auto history books have some inaccuracies about the Company and it is not surprising.  We have and have access to a collection of all of the ads, manuals, dealer books, documents, original news articles, and a very rare copy of a book that was written in 1954 about Cole.    The book was written by a doctoral student at Indiana University and a very small run was produced as it was really a doctoral dissertation.  The author had access to the complete company archives, former surviving Cole employees, and the Cole family.  The company archives were destroyed in the 60’s in a flood and the family did not share them to many prior to that.

Thanks for your brief history lesson on Cole.  

 

In hindsight, with the Great Depression looming just four years later, he liquidated at almost the right time.

 

Would any of those 'archives' that were destroyed in the 1960's flood include all the build sheets for the Cole cars?  Or were they hopefully saved? 

 

Craig

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I watched the video of the blue Cole and was surprised to see the exterior door handles look the same as on my 1925 McLaughlin Buick,  haven't seen them before on any other car.  Old Sam must have got a buy on them from the same supplier as Cole!!  Couldn't figure out how to crop and enlarge the handle on the screen shot Cole.  Leon

IMG_0044.jpg

Screen Shot 2019-10-07 at 8.14.39 PM.png

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kfle, i love what you're doing to help teach us about the Cole car.  I also noted these Cole photos in the latest CCCA magazine.   All neat to see.

 

1693694675_IMG_2420(1).jpg.64e669b3cd64a7c016f1b83def72f1ba.jpg

 

 

IMG_2419 (1).jpg

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14 hours ago, kfle said:

Cole used several different body makers over the years but hardly ever publicized who the maker was.  Some bodies were general makers, some were small contract runs, and some were completely custom.  Confirmed body makers for Cole were Springfield, Fisher, Rubay, Willoughby, Racine, Robbins, Rex, and a few others.  Springfield did make bodies for Rolls Royce, however it is not the in house builder by the same name.  

 

 Now, on to the demise of Cole.  The Cole Motor Car Company actually ceased operations in the Fall of 1924.  The board voted to liquidate in April of 1924 and then Cole was invited to pace the Indy 500 with their new balloon tires.  The race created demand, so Cole did one more run of about 700 cars in the late summer of 1924 that many people call the 1925 Coles.  After that run was done, they liquidated and paid off all shareholders and a small profit for the year.  Jj Cole passed away of heart disease about five months later.

 

in 1921/1922, the post war depression did impact Coles profit and sales, however that is not the reason Cole decided to liquidate.  The primary reason was that Cole’s suppliers would not let him engineer the components to Coles specifications and design.  Cole was big on innovation and this would not allow him to innovate any longer.  The trend in the industry was towards high volume and low cost and JJ Cole had no interest in that.  Based on that trend and due to the change in suppliers approaches, JJ Cole was not having fun any longer didn’t want to waste resources or his family fortune and decided to liquidate the company.

 

Billy Durant tried to buy Cole three times, including towards the end of the company, however JJ Cole refused him every time.  Cole thought that Durant sucked the soul out of the companies he purchased and didn’t want his name associated with that.  He was a man of principle and didn’t think Durant would manufacture up to Coles standards and engineering.  Also, in 1922 Cole had worked out an agreement and plan for ten Indiana automakers to merge and form a competitor to Durant’s GM.  They had all agreements in place and a good plan forward, however when it went to the Wall Street banks to finalize the deal, they slow walked it and never finalized it,  There was speculation that the big Detroit automakers had a hand in getting the bankers to kill the deal.  

 

Cole really was a great American success story and is quite fascinating,  the issue is that the real information about Cole is not easily accessible.  Most of the auto history books have some inaccuracies about the Company and it is not surprising.  We have and have access to a collection of all of the ads, manuals, dealer books, documents, original news articles, and a very rare copy of a book that was written in 1954 about Cole.    The book was written by a doctoral student at Indiana University and a very small run was produced as it was really a doctoral dissertation.  The author had access to the complete company archives, former surviving Cole employees, and the Cole family.  The company archives were destroyed in the 60’s in a flood and the family did not share them to many prior to that.

 

Hopefully this his answers your question. 

kfle

 

Thank you for your in depth answers to my questions, it greatly appreciated that you're sharing your knowledge of this obscure marque.  The body makers cited were some I surmised might have been sources.   Willoughby histories have mentioned the company built series-custom bodies for Cole.

 

Not surprising that suppliers began to balk since larger, high volume runs were becoming the norm, low volume builders were just a nuisances for them, sadly enough.

 

Mr. Cole was prescient when it came to Billy Gurant, look what he did to Locomobile...

 

I hope you will consider writing an updated Cole history since you likely have the greatest amount of knowledge on them.   Others beside myself would welcome such a history.

 

Steve 

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24 minutes ago, 58L-Y8 said:

I hope you will consider writing an updated Cole history since you likely have the greatest amount of knowledge on them.   Others beside myself would welcome such a history.

That would be nice to see, especially with all the information on Cole you have in your possession.

 

I have a few marque histories/founder biographies which are all interesting reads during winter:

 

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/michigans-c-harold-wills-the/9781625859877-item.html?ikwid=ch+wills+wills+st+claire&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=4

 

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/tatra-the-legacy-of-hans/9781845847999-item.html?ikwid=tatra&ikwsec=Home&ikwidx=1

 

https://www.amazon.ca/Made-Standard-Alexander-Petryshyn-2000-12-04/dp/B01FEOYGGU

 

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-ca/books/alvis-the-complete-story/9781785005879-item.html?ref=recently_viewed%3A home%3Asearch%3Asearch results

 

Craig

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19 hours ago, 1935Packard said:

kfle, i love what you're doing to help teach us about the Cole car.  I also noted these Cole photos in the latest CCCA magazine.   All neat to see.

 

1693694675_IMG_2420(1).jpg.64e669b3cd64a7c016f1b83def72f1ba.jpg

 

 

IMG_2419 (1).jpg

Thanks for sharing.  The top picture is me and the 1925 Cole and the bottom is my son and his 1923 Cole 2person Coupe.  Both pictures were taken at the CCCA Michigan Grand Classic.  It was a fun event and I doubt that many Coles have shown in the CCCA even though they are Full Classics.  

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20 hours ago, garnetkid said:

I watched the video of the blue Cole and was surprised to see the exterior door handles look the same as on my 1925 McLaughlin Buick,  haven't seen them before on any other car.  Old Sam must have got a buy on them from the same supplier as Cole!!  Couldn't figure out how to crop and enlarge the handle on the screen shot Cole.  Leon

 

Thank you for sharing this.  There are several Coles that used these, though it was not consistent for all body styles during a given model or Series.  I wonder who the supplier was for the handles.  

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6 hours ago, 58L-Y8 said:

kfle

 

Thank you for your in depth answers to my questions, it greatly appreciated that you're sharing your knowledge of this obscure marque.  The body makers cited were some I surmised might have been sources.   Willoughby histories have mentioned the company built series-custom bodies for Cole.

 

Not surprising that suppliers began to balk since larger, high volume runs were becoming the norm, low volume builders were just a nuisances for them, sadly enough.

 

Mr. Cole was prescient when it came to Billy Gurant, look what he did to Locomobile...

 

I hope you will consider writing an updated Cole history since you likely have the greatest amount of knowledge on them.   Others beside myself would welcome such a history.

 

Steve 

Steve,

 

The real killer for Cole was Northway.  Northway made engines for both Cole and Cadillac going back to 1910, though typically the engines were completely different.  For example Cadillac released their V8 in October of 1914 and it was a 60 degree solid head design with 270 or so cubic inches.  Cole released their V8 in January of 1915 and it was the first 90 degree flathead V8's with detachable cylinder heads and was a larger 346 cubic inches.  Both engines were made by Northway, though Cole's Chief Engineer spent 6 months at Northway in Detroit during 1914 working on Cole's specific design.  Cadillac ended up adopting Coles V8 design in 17/18 due to it running much better and Cole standardized on the v8 for all engines in 1916 going forward.  Northway stopped letting Cole change engine designs in 1922/23 due to competitive issues and Durant.  

 

On the topic of an updated history, the head of the Gilmore Car Museum research library and myself were just talking a week ago about authoring a book.  He has also been talking to the Society of Automotive Historians about publishing it.  We have an interesting angle and just may do it.  The Gilmore library had over 70,000 Cole documents and information donated to them a year ago by an avid collector and historian who created the original registry and ran a Cole club for three decades.  A great deal of history sites and books have wrong info on Cole.  For example if you go to the Cole Motor Car Company page on Wikipedia, it states that JJ Cole tried to build a car with his son in 1903 as a first attempt and that never happened!  The thing is that his son was 4 years old in 1903 🙂 When I have some time i will update Wikipedia and put some cited information on the site.  Time to do the work is the limiting factor now, but we will see what happens.

 

Here is a great Cole family photo of JJ Cole pulling his only son, JJ Cole Jr. on a sled in a 1910 Cole 30 Flyer.  

 

Kevin

Pulling son edited #1.jpg

Edited by kfle (see edit history)
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21 hours ago, 8E45E said:

Thanks for your brief history lesson on Cole.  

 

In hindsight, with the Great Depression looming just four years later, he liquidated at almost the right time.

 

Would any of those 'archives' that were destroyed in the 1960's flood include all the build sheets for the Cole cars?  Or were they hopefully saved? 

 

Craig

Unfortunately all build sheets were destroyed.  

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Great article Kevin, you and Ben should be proud if all you have uncovered for all us us to enjoy.

First exposure to the Cole was about 40 years ago when a friend (Bud Stanley, DDS)  restored a 1914 Cole Touring Car for Millard Newman's

"Trans Am Tours".  They were transcontinental tours for 1915 and older cars.  Bud restored the big touring car in white with red leather upholstery. 

It looked like the Great Leslie from the movie the Great Race.  Bud an Gyneth took many of those tours before switching to a American Fiat. I've

heard that the Cole is still around and being enjoyed.

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19 minutes ago, Paul Dobbin said:

Great article Kevin, you and Ben should be proud if all you have uncovered for all us us to enjoy.

First exposure to the Cole was about 40 years ago when a friend (Bud Stanley, DDS)  restored a 1914 Cole Touring Car for Millard Newman's

"Trans Am Tours".  They were transcontinental tours for 1915 and older cars.  Bud restored the big touring car in white with red leather upholstery. 

It looked like the Great Leslie from the movie the Great Race.  Bud an Gyneth took many of those tours before switching to a American Fiat. I've

heard that the Cole is still around and being enjoyed.

Thanks!  I have never seen that car in person though I am familiar with it from the files.  It is a great looking one!  Here is a picture of it.  

 

7982500762_fc106ecf35_z.jpg

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