The Awesome Vintage Cars Thread

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GranTurNismo





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I could see a Continental AV1790 tank engine fit in that thing.
 
 
The 1921 Ley T6 designed by Peter Jaray is one of the most influential cars in terms of aerodynamics in automotive design. Although it’s design is very odd, it’s the first ever car to have a “pontoon” body shape where the fenders are flush and parallel with the rest of the car like almost every car today.
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The car had a 20HP 1500cc engine. Jaray claimed with a conventional body the car could only do about 40MPH but with the streamlined body it was able to do over 60MPH.

Also, despite being nearly 100 years old the car has a drag coefficient of 0.29 which means it’s more aerodynamic than a Bugatti Chiron which has a drag of 0.35 in Top Speed Mode.
 
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I've been utterly obsessed with this 1912 Grégoire 12/24CV Triple Berline by Alin et Liautard for a while now. It appears it was converted into an ambulance during the first world war, but I can't find anything on it after that. I have to assume it did not survive the war. As far as I can tell, it was the only triple berline built by anyone on any chassis.




 
1934 Alvis Speed 20 SB Tourer, by Vanden Plas. Coachbuilder Vanden Plas started out in Belgium in 1870 and made their way to the UK in 1913 via Warwick Wright (now Peugeot dealers) who began building building bodies under license from Carrosserie Van den Plas Belgium. By the 1920s they had become an independent business building bodies for Bentley, in the 1930s diversifying to coachbuild for Alvis, Armstrong-Siddeley, Daimler, Lagonda, Rolls-Royce and Talbot.

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The Ruxton was a front-wheel-drive luxury car with a convoluted history out of proportion with it's four month life-span.

William Muller worked at the Budd Body Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His idea was to build a prototype that Budd could license to another company while Budd would make the body for them. Muller designed the drivetrain while Joseph Ledwinka designed the body. At a time when most American cars were 72 inches tall, the Ruxton was only 53 inches tall thanks to the lack of a driveshaft. The engine was a Continental-built 4.4 liter side-valve straight-8 making about 100 hp. The transmission was designed by Muller and was unique to the car, with second and third gears behind the worm-drive differential and first and reverse gears in front of it.

Archie Andrews (not the comic book character) was on the boards of both Budd and Hupp. He tried to convince Hupp to make it but they passed. Andrews formed New Era Motors to build it, using the idle Moon automobile production facilities. Andrews named the car after investor William V.C. Ruxton who did not actually invest in it, and in fact sued Andrews just to make a point that he did not support the car or Andrews. Andrews got tired of waiting, so he attempted to take controlling interest in Moon which they resisted. Eventually in June of 1930, it went into full production at Moon. 300-500 were built before it all ended less than four months later. Andrews tried to keep it alive by getting Kissel, who were building the transmission for them, to build the entire car. Again, Andrews attempted to take over the Kissel company so he could get them to build the car. Kissel retaliated by filing for receivership, and the dream was over.

Many Ruxtons came with a paint scheme created by Joseph Urban featuring long broad bands of color designed to emphasize the cars length and lowness. It is, to me, the height of Art Deco design. Even when it's just black and white, it's still colorful and eye-catching. I'm not sure how many still survive, but it's not enough.









 
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Have some more Ruxtons. Yesterday was all about the sedans and the Joseph Urban paint. Today I'm showing off the open body styles.



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The last one is special. It was built by William Muller, the engineer at Budd who created the Ruxton in the first place. He thought a short wheelbase model would appeal to the young sporting man who enjoyed driving fast cars. He wasn't wrong. It is chassis number 1004, the second off the production line. It kept the same 100 hp 4.4 liter side-valve Continental straight-8, but the wheelbase was cut down from 130 inches to "just" 114. The rear bodywork came from a Dodge. Instead of the Ruxton badge, it says "Muller Front Drive." It earned the nickname "The Alligator" when it got into an impromptu tug of war at the 1930 Indy 500 with the Cord L-29 pace car. Muller kept it and it was his daily driver for years. The car has no top. He said when it rained, he just hunched down and drove faster. When he finally tired of it in the 1950s, he hired a man to destroy it for him. He didn't want anyone else driving his dream car. Instead, the car was secretly sold to car collector Cameron Peck, and thankfully survives. According to conceptcarz.net, 18 of 289 Ruxtons built still survive.

EDIT: Another source says 19 survived. Here is a photo of a roadster taken in 2008. No idea if it's been restored. I believe between these two posts, I have just about every surviving Ruxton.
 
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Populuxe Cowboy
The Ruxton was a front-wheel-drive luxury car with a convoluted history out of proportion with it's four month life-span.

William Muller worked at the Budd Body Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His idea was to build a prototype that Budd could license to another company while Budd would make the body for them. Muller designed the drivetrain while Joseph Ledwinka designed the body. At a time when most American cars were 72 inches tall, the Ruxton was only 53 inches tall thanks to the lack of a driveshaft. The engine was a Continental-built 4.4 liter side-valve straight-8 making about 100 hp. The transmission was designed by Muller and was unique to the car, with second and third gears behind the worm-drive differential and first and reverse gears in front of it.

Archie Andrews (not the comic book character) was on the boards of both Budd and Hupp. He tried to convince Hupp to make it but they passed. Andrews formed New Era Motors to build it, using the idle Moon automobile production facilities. Andrews named the car after investor William V.C. Ruxton who did not actually invest in it, and in fact sued Andrews just to make a point that he did not support the car or Andrews. Andrews got tired of waiting, so he attempted to take controlling interest in Moon which they resisted. Eventually in June of 1930, it went into full production at Moon. 300-500 were built before it all ended less than four months later. Andrews tried to keep it alive by getting Kissel, who were building the transmission for them, to build the entire car. Again, Andrews attempted to take over the Kissel company so he could get them to build the car. Kissel retaliated by filing for receivership, and the dream was over.

Many Ruxtons came with a paint scheme created by Joseph Urban featuring long broad bands of color designed to emphasize the cars length and lowness. It is, to me, the height of Art Deco design. Even when it's just black and white, it's still colorful and eye-catching. I'm not sure how many still survive, but it's not enough.






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Those paint schemes are phenomenal! I've never seen anything like it.
 
The Franklin Motor Company of Syracuse NY built air-cooled cars from 1902 to 1934 when they ceased production. At least of cars. The company's name and assets were sold to a new company called Air-Cooled Motors. They used Franklin's air-cooled engine expertise to become manufacturers of airplane engines sold under the Franklin name. When Preston Tucker needed an engine for his Tucker 48 sedan, he worked a deal with Franklin to build it. In fact Franklin stopped building aircraft engines entirely just to focus on the Tucker contract. And we all know how that ended. They were able to resume production of the airplane engines and continued production until 1975 when Air-Cooled filed for bankruptcy. The Polish government bought the name and designs. They went into production in Poland as PZL-Franklin, later shortened to PZL-F. In post-communist Poland, the company was renamed Franklin Aircraft Engines Sp. z.o.o. and they are still in business.

When the Great Depression hit, Franklin's model lineup was just the Airman, a car with a big inline six. The problem was that it cost about $2350-$2450 when your typical new Ford or Dodge was only $500-$650. Needing a cheaper car, they contracted with Reo. They would buy Reo Flying Cloud cars minus the engine, grill and hoods. They would install those parts themselves and sell them as the Franklin Olympic. The Reo was $995 and the equivalent Franklin $1385, but at least the Franklin had about ten more horsepower. Franklin had long believed they needed a true multi-cylinder car to stay competitive in the luxury market. Work began on the V-12 engine as early at 1928, but didn't go into production until 1933. Only 200 were built before economic reality caught up with them.

1933 Franklin 16-B Airman Six


1933 Franklin Olympic Coupe Roadster


1932 Franklin Series 17 Aircooled V-12 2-Door Club Brougham
 
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Four V16s


1930 Cadillac V16 Madam X Sedan


1930-1937 Cadillac V16 Engine OHV 452 cid (7.4 liter) 45° angle 165 hp


1938 Cadillac V16 Convertible Coupe


1938-1940 Cadillac V16 engine flathead 431 cid (7.1 liter) 135° angle 185 hp


1931 Marmon V16 Coupe by LeBaron


1931-1933 Marmon V16 engine OHV 491 cid (8.0 liter) 45° angle 200 hp


1932 Peerless V16 Prototype


Peerless V16 Engine OHV 464 cid (7.2 liter) 45° angle 175 hp
 
I love the "parlor on wheels" look of early cars, especially electric cars.


1912 Baker Electric Model-V Special Extension Coupe


1912 Baker fitted with a solar panel in 1960. Notice the "No Skid" tires that actually say "NO SKID" in the tread pattern.


1916 Detroit Electric


1916 Detroit Electric Model 57


1916 Detroit Electric Model 60


1920 Detroit Electric Model 82 Brougham


1931 Detroit Electric Model 97 Coupe


1916 Owen Magnetic (not electric, but used a spinning magnet for a transmission. There is no physical connection between the magnet and the driveshaft.)


1916 Rauch and Lang J-6
 
There's something about the American roadster of the 1920s that I've always loved.


1921 Wills Sainte Claire V8 A-68 Roadster


1926 Kissel 8-75 speedster "Goldbug"


1925 Mercer Series 6 roadster


1927 Chrysler Imperial Series 80 Roadster


1923 Jordan Playboy MX roadster


1926 Auburn 8-88 Roadster
 
75 years ago on December 27 1945, mass production of the Volkswagen Beetle began under British control.
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The VW plant in Wolfsburg during WWII turned to repairing aircraft and making V1 flying bombs, using a workforce of 12,000 Russian POWs.

When the allies liberated Germany from the Nazis in 1945, British Major Ivan along with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers were tasked with taking charge of the Wolfsburg Plant to see if anything could be salvaged.
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But the plant had been bombed three times, there were no windows and the cellars were full of water. But much of the machinery was intact with some stored in barns in the countryside, Ivan Hirst decided there were enough parts and machinery to resume Beetle production.
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He got an order for 20,000 cars for the occupying allies to use, and production started giving jobs to 6,000 German workers and laying the foundation for VW.
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By the time Ivan Hirst gave up his task at VW in 1949, the new business had built 50,000 Beetles, established a dealer network and was exporting the Beetle.
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I love the French automaker Avions Voisin which made cars from 1919 to 1939. Nearly all Voisins used sleeve-valve engines, a very unique design that few other manufacturers used. These two use Voisin's 3.0L straight-six engine. Only one of the coupe and I think eight of the sedans were ever built. These are easily my favorite Voisins. On both cars, they have roof sections that slide backward to create large sunroofs. Both have small moonroofs in the top that become the back windows as the roof slides back. I consider both to be Art Deco masterpieces.



1935 Voisin C25 Aerodyne



1934 Voisin C27 Aerosport Coupe
 

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