In addition to the pair of Cords featured in the initial report from Motorclassica, it was quickly spotted that there were more American cars in the show. In fact the range was quite astonishing, and in addition to gems like this 1960 Chrysler 300F I bet there are cars here most of you have never seen before (I hadn’t).
Hands up who has ever seen one of these, that JPC also noticed? It is a 1929 Marmon 78, with a straight eight engine. Marmon of course occupies a small but distinguished corner of auto history, having won the first Indy 500 and being one of four road cars ever made with a 16-cylinder engine – the others being the Cadillac, Bugatti Veyron and the handful of Cizeta Moroder that were built. This car sold for $37,000.
Believe it or not there was a second Marmon in the auction, a 1929 Roosevelt Collapsible Coupe. I’m not sure if calling a car ‘collapsible’ sounded better back then? I also wonder if they paid royalties to Theodore Roosevelt’s family for the use of his likeness on the radiator badge? This car was owned by the same collector, and was sold for $50,000
We are back in more familiar territory with the iconic 1947 Chrysler Town & Country. Apparently these were the last year the timber was structural and not just cosmetic, but it sure looked like there was metal underneath holding it all together to Don & I, such as the inner door structure. The 323ci straight eight and 127.5” wheelbase make for either heroic or cartoonesque proportions, depending on your point of view. Long hood, short deck anyone?
Another hugely rare car these days, not that it was ever too common with just 3650 built, is this 1906 Model K Cadillac. It was one of the smaller models offered, shorter in total length than a current Cadillac wheelbase (110” vs 116” Escalade EXT wheelbase), and only 1100lb. It has a single-cylinder engine of 98ci (5” bore and stroke) making 10hp, which would be dropped for 1909. Check out the 22’s though! It was pipped for oldest car at the show by a 1903 Renault.
This 1952 Ford Courier sedan delivery has had one of the most amazing restorations you will see, and it was a surprise to see it also in the auction. Just 6,250 of these were built with the US Postal Service being a large consumer. This one has the 239ci flathead V8 and Fordomatic. The colour scheme is original with some metallic added when it was restored in 2007. It has only done 1,500 miles since then (possibly has won more awards!) so perhaps the owner was just ready to move on to the next project. Unfortunately like the Chrysler, this also ended up being passed in.
The highlight of the American cars for me though were a trio of spectacular 1950’s convertibles, the first one I saw was this 1957 Lincoln Premiere. The dramatic styling is been tweaked by some custom touches and the paint scheme.
Next was a 1953 Buick Skylark convertible, one of the cars built specifically for GM to display their mastery of the automotive craft. It certainly works, with the lowered windscreen accentuating the elegant body lines, as well as featuring the debuting 322 Nailhead V8, and I would love to have one in my garage. As with many ‘halo’ models, apparently the last of the 1,690 built were hard to shift and this time it was no different, as the car did not sell.
The third was this 1956 Buick Roadmaster. I dare say when most people hear that name they think of a large whale-shaped station wagon, but isn’t this so much nicer? This car wasn’t part of the auction, but was surrounded by a 1936 Buick 40 sedan, 1970 GS Stage 1 hardtop and 1970 GS convertible.
One remarkable thing was that this 1969 Boss 429 Mustang was not the only one in the building, as there are/were only 859 of them. This was part of the 50th birthday tribute, the other one was actually for sale.
Another of the 10 Mustang display was this 1968, which has been built up by the famous Sleeping Beauties Restorations in Brisbane into a tribute of the Shelby EXP 500 prototype, aka the Green Hornet, that had electronic fuel injection and independent rear suspension, Thunderbird rear lights and special metallic paint. I can’t imagine it would be easy to replicate the IRS but the feature car is actually true to the original that apparently had the IRS removed before being sold once its usefulness was over.
Going back to much earlier Fords, this 1915 Model T Speedster is an unusual variant, and one that also sees regular use as I’ve seen this a few times before.
Something else that was a bit different is the windscreen treatment of this 1925 Packard, which is a style more likely to be seen on commercial vehicles but not unknown on cars when custom bodywork was still normal on upper class cars. The car was bought new by an Australian at the New York Auto Salon for US$6,500 and converted back at the factory to RHD before being shipped to Australia. In 1936 the car was converted into a tow truck (not unusual), before being restored in the 1960’s to its original state other than the beveled window glass etched with flowers, that was required to be replaced by safety glass.
Into the next decade, it is worth noting this 1936 De Soto SG Airflow. Any time you see an early Airflow, before too many backward steps were applied, it is fascinating to compare them to other cars of the time.
Another decade forward and this 1948 Mercury convertible reminded me of the car from Grease, although that was a Ford. The 46-48 Fords and Mercuries were a popular car here, but I think only the 4-doors were built locally. LHD indicates it is a more recent arrival.
I’ll finish for now with this 1956 Chrysler Newport coupe, another car that didn’t reach its reserve at the auction but one of the more attainable cars in the field. There were some more in the outdoor display, but they will have to wait for another time.
Nice selection. I’m invariably drawn to early Airflows; I’ve always really wanted to have one. The most advanced American car of the times, despite the solid front axle. 🙂
Ive seen a AF coupe done up as a streetrod and nicely pulled off. Its different, and works very well.
Me too. I’ve had to settle for a little postcard of this Oldenberg. Love how it seems to be made from bottle glass. The real painting is almost as big as a car.
Aussie didnt get many V8 Ford coup’es either most that do live there were stolen from NZ where they were quite popular, a friend told me recently of a trip around our south island in a restored single banger Cadillac quite a vibrationary experience from what he says and certainly not fast, Nice 52 panelvan none of those in NZ new either though we did get twodoor Ranchwagons, quite a good selection it woulda been a good show to attend.
I now understand the front end styling of the modern Dodge Charger.
The more you know!
Interesting to see a Mustang restored by Sleeping Beauties. Just about all the cars they do are Mercedes. This one looks like a good job too and that outfit is highly regarded for quality work. Some years back I saw a 300 SL Gullwing when it arrived from California at Sleeping Beauties. It was complete, but everything needed an overhaul. About a year later I saw it again and it was superb! As soon as it was finished it was shipped off to the new owner in China or Hong Kong from memory.
Someone I know had a 220 SE convertable restored there about 10 years ago. The job was fantastic. During the resto period bills would come in monthly and he was told not to complain about the costs!!
I love the 300F and the ’56 Newport. I’m positive that I’ve seen at least one Marmon in person, given the auto museums I’ve visited. The Swigart Museum has two, and the Gilmore must have at least one.
Ditto on the two Chryslers
Count me as a fan,I prefer the 56 to the flashy 57
Gem, glad I’m not the only one!
Thinking about it more, I’ve seen a Marmon V16 at the Cussler Museum in Denver. Quite a bit different from these cars.
Attaching the file would help!
Love the Chryslers too. Think the 1956 signage is wrong. Back then “Newport” was like “Riviera” or “Holiday”, i.e., a two door hardtop.
I guess it was really a Windsor Newport. The New Yorker Newport was larger and fancier.
All of the signage & auction documentation only says Newport, not Windsor or New Yorker. The “Nassau” is the car’s custom registration plate, similar to the Abe-57 on the Lincoln.
Definitely a Windsor, not a New Yorker or a 300B. The Newport signifies the hardtop body style. I believe that there were two styles of Newport, the Nassau and the St. Regis. I think it was a trim level or two-tone paint style difference. So, this would be a Chrysler Windsor Newport Nassau.
+1 on that ’56 Newport. I usually hate most ’50s cars. bloated, over wrought chrome laded boulevard barges…all bling and fluff with little in the way of real style or performance. But the ’56 NP and Imperial are very tasteful and stylish. Just a bit of chrome, small fins, nice clean style. They still have the overall 50s aesthetic but these are how it SHOULD have been. And the design of the tutone on that one not only melds good colors, but the layout actually makes sense, rather than some of the more random patches of colors in this era. Shame these aren’t more popular or well known.
Fascinating to be reminded that, in its first decade, Cadillac was not a high end luxury car. Just another single cylinder runabout – well, what would you expect from a re-badged Ford? (Yeah, not exactly correct, but close.)
Cadillac didn’t start into the near luxury field until around 1910, and even then spent the next three decades as second-level luxury, behind the Three P’s (Packard, Peerless and Pierce-Arrow). The reason for the V-12’s and V-16’s was to finally push them equal with the big boys.
The thing that distinguished early Cadillacs almost from the beginning was the precision tolerances that Henry Leland insisted upon, which were much tighter than elsewhere in the industry. He carried this obsession over to Lincoln when he started that company in the early 20s. Other makers put their money into the showy stuff, but Leland, the conservative old New Englander, put his money into the machinery.
The 300F is beautiful. I once saw a similar-looking 300K convertible on the highway several years back. Absolutely stunning!
That color on the 300 sure looks a lot like Turbine Bronze. Did that color already exist before the Turbine Car and they just renamed it?
It definitely wasn’t Bronze, more a pink-ish shade. I think colours look a bit off because of the timber floors and the paint scheme.
The 1960 Chrysler hardtop is in my top five favorite Chryslers with the 300F being the best of the line. It was arguably the best execution of the tailfin and a shame they had to tack on that toilet seat on the trunk lid. It was gone the next year but then they ruined the front end with the canted headlights.
I’ll definitely cast my vote for the 300F. It brings back old memories of the day when I chased a fellow 300 Club member’s metallic brown one down a back road in my 300L on the way to a club meeting. Also I owned a 1960 New Yorker 2-door hardtop that had been that same reddish metallic color when it was new.
Not a single car here that I would kick out of my garage, the Mustangs come closest, but only to sell and finance more old Chryslers and Studebakers. 🙂
The Marmon and the Roosevelt were made during what was probably Marmon’s only “ordinary” era. Howard Marmon was not active in the company at that time, and management was chasing some volume. Of course, they were not badly built or cheap cars.
Not sure what else to ooogle over first. My father’s first car was a 47 Mercury convertible, so I find this one interesting just for that reason. I also echo PN’s love for the Airflow. I have always found it interesting how they tried to “normalize” the styling after sales bombed at first.
The 10 Mustangs celebrating the 50th anniversary were:
1964½ Mustang coupe
1966 Shelby GT350H
1967 Eleanor replica
1968 GT500 KR convertible
1968 Shelby EXP 500 replica
1969 Boss 429
1970 Boss 302
1970 Mach 1 (Texas Motor Speedway pace car)
1971 Boss 351
2012 GT500 Super Snake
There was also a 2007 GT500 “Fender special”, complete with guitar on display but I didn’t get a photo of that. Surprisingly I don’t think the Mustang club was in the outdoor display, but they have had a couple of big events through the year.
1929 Marmon ad with both “Roosevelt” and the “78”:
I believe that the Roosevelt was supposed to be a companion car (like Viking, Marquette, LaSalle at GM) to the senior Marmon line. Unfortunately, the timing was horrible for all the companion brands except for LaSalle.
What a lot of eye candy! I concur the ’56 Chrysler was likely a Windsor, as Newport was the hardtop, not a model line– yet. When I was a youngster, my stepdad worked at a newspaper where the publisher owned a Town and Country. He took us for a Sunday drive one time in it. Classy. Dibs on the Airflow as well!
37k and 50k for the two Marmom’s seems to be incredibly low priced. I never can understand why cars of this era are so cheap compared to the 60’s/70’s muscle car prices. There were some great cars in this auction. The way the 300F paint was changed by the wood floor looks great in the photo.
Both Marmons sold for around 2/3 their lower estimates. Apart from the Bentley mentioned last week, the big money went for the 1936 Cord 810 convertible ($230k), 1947 BMW 327 convertible ($170k), 1956 BMW 503 convertible ($195), plus $135k for a 1968 Holden Monaro GTS 327. Over half the cars remained unsold.
Whats with that right hand steering wheel set up on the `56 Buick Roadmaster? Is it for an export market or something?
Phil it is in an export market. It must have either been here long enough ago that it was required to be converted to RHD (it is only relatively recently this has been relaxed for 25+ year old cars), or perhaps the owner doesn’t want to deal with steering from the wrong side. I didn’t take note of the cars’ history to know.
A shot of the interior, note the 60/40 seat split appears to be in LHD configuration.
Great shots John. My US fave was the Pontiac van out the front with the Frigidaire badge.
Regarding the Packard having been converted for use as a tow truck (including lengthening the chassis, that has since been reversed) I thought I would post this photo of another Packard that has been kept as a tow truck, from the National Motor Museum in Birdwood.