Cunningham Motor Cars

[mchaplin]

Hi. I am trying to assemble a registry of Cunningham cars, as well as a consolidated place where people interested in Cunninghams can retrieve the informationn online.

I have some data compiled by Bernard Weiss, of the Pierce Arrow Society which I am in the process of putting online as well as a brief history of the Cunningham Company as a link.

If you know of any Cunningham owners or the existance of any cars please advise. Or if you have any literature, owners manual, or any other materials related to the Cunningham, I would like to scan them and make them available online to interested parties.

The web address of the group is http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/cunninghamcars/

Thanks.

mark

[Bill Boudway]

Hi Mark,

I only know of three Cunninghams: Jack Passey, Watsonville, CA, Ralph DeAngelis, Stamford, CT, and the one in the Smithsonion in Washington.

I also remember another one that my friend's dad owned in State College, PA in the 1960's. It was a basket case that was sold to someone in Oregon.

Bill Boudway

gnbboudway@msn.com <img src="http://www.aaca.org/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

[Steve Moskowitz]

Bob Lutz at General Motors has at least two of these cars and was on the ill-fated venture to build a new Cunningham. He is probably a wealth of info on Cunnninghams

[novaman]

Hey Bill,

What about the one that was on display next door to the Strong Museum in Rochester during the Founder's tour? I'm not sure who actually owns that one. Also there was one taken out of a basement in Rochester a number of years ago. I don't know if this was the same one.

I do have some digital photos of the car from the tour. I'll have to hunt them up.

[1937hd45]

There was a 1920's Cunningham roadster in the Briggs Cunningham Collection, that I would think made the trip to Florida with the rest of the collection.

[automuseum]

The Seal Cove Auto Museum, located on Mount Desert Island in Maine, displays a 1910 American "Traveler" Underslung, Chassis #2465, Engine #2051 once owned by Briggs Cunningham and exhibited at his Costa Mesa museum.

The car was originally owned by Isabel Weld Perkins Anderson, wife of Ambassador Larz Anderson. The American Underslung was acquired by Briggs Cunningham in 1948 at the time of Mrs. Anderson’s death and the creation of the ‘Larz Anderson Collection’ under the Veteran Motor Car Association of America that opened the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in 1949.

Today, the Underslung is owned by the Richard Paine Jr. Automobile Charitable Trust and is on permanent display at the Seal Cove Auto Museum, founded by Richard Paine Jr., in the 1960s.

[Guest 34ACD]

There is a Cunningham ambulance currently on display at the California Automobile Museum in Sacramento. It is owned by a descendant of the Cunningham family who also owns a 1928 Cunningham limo that is also occasionally on display there. They are both large, wonderful vehicles with a very early V-8 engine of their own manufacture. Briggs Cunningham had no relationship to the original Cunningham cars made in New York except that I believe he once owned one of the earlier vehicles.

[Barry Wolk]

That's correct. Bob Lutz owns a C-3 Continental and a C-4 race car. They are both from the early '50s.

[Rusty_OToole]

For those who are confused, there were 2 separate Cunningham car companies. The first made big cars, mostly limousines and hearses, with big flathead V8 engines, in Rochester New York from 1908 to 1931.

The second was based in Palm Beach Florida where sportsman Briggs Cunningham built sports cars powered by Chrysler hemi engines from 1951 to 1955.

[Guest 34ACD]

Exactly. However, the original James Cunningham Co. started by making horse drawn hearses and even Civil War mess kits over their 120 years. They got into the large car business in 1907 under the Cunningham name and occasionally bodied other vehicles like Packards and Cadillacs. They never produced in volume. The company basically ended in 1937 making custom bodied-flathead Ford towncars much like Brewster. The very last vehicles made by Cunningham actually were pre-war half-tracks for the military. There are some reports that Cunningham made small garden tractors as late as the 1940's—a fascinating company in the history of the automobile. The California Auto Museum also has one of the Ford-Cunninghams on display occasionally, owned by the same individual.

Edited April 23, 2011 by 34ACD (see edit history)

[Dave Mellor NJ]

I was going to mention about the Cunningham Fords as noted by 34ACD. I think they also made Cunnungham Buicks. Don Weir of York, Pa. Maitains a record of all Brewster and Cunningham Fords, Buicks and perhaps others. He also arranged for the recent donation of the "Otto" roadster to the AACA Museum. You should contact Don I'm sure he will be glad to assist you.