Do you ever get sick of the common car-show fodder–hot rods, Mustangs, Corvettes and the like? Me, too. So, when an AACA Grand National was held right here in downtown Moline, I had to check it out. I just knew there would be some good stuff. What’s more (and thankfully), AACA events do not have the same old oldies blaring (there’s no music, in fact), and best of all–no hot rods! Yay!
Yep, I do get quite sick of hot rods: Take the cheap way out, and screw the period-correct badging and trim–in other words, the very things that made such prewar cars distinctive! Then drop in a 350–ooh, how frickin’ original!! But not here, bub; the AACA does not truck with such non-originality.
Take the lovely and elegant Pierce-Arrow, for instance. What a car! Along with Packard and Peerless, Pierce-Arrow, of Buffalo, NY, was one of the “Three Ps” in the luxury-car field. The cars were extremely luxurious, extremely well-made, and priced squarely within the confines of a mere fraction of the upper-end car market.
Pierces were powered by a six-cylinder engine for many years, but after the company’s 1928 purchase by Studebaker Corporation, the sixes were replaced by a series of L-head straight eights in three variants: a 340 cid version with 115 hp; a 366 with 125 hp; and a 385 with 132 hp. These engines were placed in the Model 43, Model 42 and Model 41 Pierce-Arrows, the Model 41 being the top of the heap.
While Pierce-Arrows initially weathered the Depression rather well (being added to Studebaker’s dealer network in 1928 helped a bit), Pierce-Arrow sales declined along with those of other luxury makes. But they still made a fine automobile. The Pierce eight-cylinder engine featured aluminum pistons, deep-forged connecting rods, and crankshafts supported by nine main bearings.
Nineteen thirty-one models like this example added a combined seasonally-adjustable carb silencer and cold-air intake (seen above), as well as ball-bearing spring shackles. Free-wheeling was also included, although in later years the idea of eliminating engine braking was not such a hot one from a safety standpoint!
While this seven-passenger sedan is “only” a Model 43, it is still quite an impressive and luxurious automobile. I was, however, a bit surprised at how close the front seat is to the steering wheel. Was that normal, or did the owner of this car move it all the way up to show the impressive space of the rear compartment?
This rear compartment…wow, what space! Looks like Thurston Howell’s grandkids could play jacks on the floor in there. Jump seats fold out from behind the front seat which, of course, gives this car its seven-passenger rating. The 137″ wheelbase plays a big part in this room. Being a luxury car (and that’s Luxury Car, buddy, not “near-luxury” or some other such marketing claptrap), what else would you expect?
A copy of the original sales order for this car was displayed, as was a shot of the car in “as-found” condition. You can click on the picture for easier reading, but in a nutshell, it was sold by Coliseum Motor Co., of Casper, Wyoming. And while this car appeared to be all black, it was originally finished in Viceroy Maroon over black. Actually, this car might have been in its original colors, but cover from a rapidly approaching storm made it look black to me. Options included “chrome-plated engine accessories to be fitted,” a trunk rack and natural-wood wheels. There was no trade-in, and the total price came to $3,307.
As you can see in the background, there were many other amazing prewar cars at that show. I need to write some more of them up, but since this Pierce was the first one I really latched on to, it gets to go first!
It looks like a serious rival to Rolls Royce,Packard & Cadillac.
Nothing built in a factory is a real luxury car Custom coach built cars get that mantle.
Mere factory built means its like all the others just stamped out painted and sold like toasters or Corollas
Obviously Kiwibryce knows nothing about the Pierce-Arrow production methods or the factory. These superb cars were hand crafted and tested to extremes.
In its day, the three most prestigious marques in America were Peerless, Packard and Pierce-Arrow. Cadillac was “the standard of the world” because it used standardized parts on an assembly line, not hand-built. This car was a level above Cadillac in price and exclusivity.
Don’t forget Duesenberg. But then, they were exclusive even by exclusive car standards.
The drivers of cars like this were paid the owner would ride in the back accomodations for the drivers were minimal,
My uncle rescued a car from his in laws where it was laying unused a 1926 Armstrong Siddeley the shock absorbers were wrapped in grease paper under the front seat supplied as an accessory but never fitted to the car they are on it now.
This one appears to be a sedan meant to be owner-driven. Chauffeured cars had a dividing window.
Artillery wheels and those faired-in headlights make these as recognizable as a Cord or a Graham. That price needs the perspective of a $500 Model A of the same year. My wheelhouse of car recognition is becoming more narrow as time passes. I know the difference between Fords all the way back to the T, but if a Fiesta and a Focus, or a Passat and a CC went by the other way, I’d be hard pressed to tell them apart. Same with most makes of the last 5 years. Can I blame a vitamin deficiency?
Old Lee agrees with you. If you want to know the difference in any of the models in the “used bar of soap” school of design, just ask your grandkids. This thing looks like it just rolled out of a time machine. Wish I had been walking around there with you Tom. Good job.
Splendid car. Most really old cars have a rather challenging position in the driver’s seat, with the big wheel mighty close. That may in part be due to the better leverage one’s arms have in dealing with the heavy steering at slow speed. I’m tall, but I find a lot of the classics pretty constricting to sit in front. Yes, the back seat was the way to go…
It’s possible that the owner is simply a short guy….
That thought did occur to me 🙂
Wow. Considering it’s style, engineering, and space, $50,942.81 adjusted for inflation…that’s a Luxury Car steal.
On the subject of close steering wheels: have you ever noticed the driving position in NASCAR race cars? I have always had a soft spot for the cars from the late 20’s and early 30’s. Maybe I spent too much time watching the Untouchables.
Hank beat me to it, but this is not huge money for a wealthy person and there were plenty of them during the Depression. Heck, during the Depression the plutocrats who caused it were even better off as their cash appreciated during the massive deflation of the era. By 1931 the CPI had already dropped 20%. Many the new customers that made Packard and Cadillac big money in the 1920’s had lost everything in 1929, drastically affecting their sales.
These cars were chauffeur driven and owned by very wealthy people. The owner wouldn’t dream of driving this car. Think bank president.
Fascinating find of a make/model I know little about Tom! I loved those period ads you posted, they made interesting reading too – and I see there’s a button on the gear lever to cancel the free-wheeling and allow engine braking. Clever!
Wow, a Pierce-Arrow and a Marmon 16 all in the same year. This from the year my parents were born.
I wish I still had my Tad Burness’ “Auto Album” from when I was a child…he
had sketches of both of these cars (done in the 1960’s when I guess these
cars were more possibly viewed than now)…it was my education for older cars.
I gave it to my Nephew and I’m sure I’ll never see it again.
The wheels really catch your eye…I noticed the hexagon in the hub, thinking
that for years a scarlet hexagon was the providence of a Packard . I expanded
the photo and there I plainly saw the “Pierce” Arrow….what a treat!
I guess if you were the Chauffeur you were expected to be given your very small space to give your patron the large amount. Supposedly this was true in the Imperial Ghia Limo, where the front seat was not adjustable (and pretty much only suitable for short persons) I guess since often this space was partitioned off. But at least the Ghia had power steering, I can imagine the job requirement for Chauffeur on this one, must be short and strong of arm (and pretty thin too since the steering wheel seems to give little space for your chest) with the manual steering, and I’ll bet these weighed something like a truck. I guess appearance was the big deal here, kind of the opposite of a “driver’s” car.
Two thoughts on this submission:
1. Tom, you and I are kindred souls when it comes to a loathing of hot rods in antique car shows. I don’t dislike the rods, I just want them kept in their own shows, where research, accuracy and an attitude of ‘buildling it right’ don’t exist.
2. Thank God for the AACA – which seems to be the bulwark against vintage car shows disappearing and replaced totally buy cruise-ins.
And, oh my God, that Pierce-Arrow is to die for. I’d love to see The Count, or the guys at Gas Monkey, etc. try to build one of these. They obviously wouldn’t have a clue where to start. Nor could they get it done within the time constraints of the sponsoring cable channel’s production schedule.
Which is why there are no “Counting Cars” type shows for antique restorations.
Actually there is a car resto show that may be of interest to you, if you can get it. It’s called “Legendary Motorcars” and is put on by a high-end resto shop in Milton, Ontario by the same name.
This is not a “hot rod” shop; they specialize in concours level restorations. They do a lot of muscle cars and (real) AC Cobras and such because there’s lots of money in it, but they restore Classics as well. I toured their facilities two years ago and they are impressive.
In Ontario the show plays on Business News Network (BNN). They probably stream the episodes online too.
Of course we don’t get it. Dammit!
I found videos from the show here:
http://www.bnn.ca/shows/legendary-motorcar.aspx
In 1929, my Grandfather got married to my Grandmother. He was old for a first marriage, 35. He was pretty well-fixed, and was running a family-owned manufacturer of safety valves in Philadelphia. As a wedding present to my grandmother (a beautiful and adventurous woman), he presented a new baby blue Pierce Arrow. I do not have any pictures, but remembered my grandmother tell of it. It was either a roadster or a convertible coupe. It must have been a stunning car. I never asked if the choice had anything to do with the fact that Pierce was his middle name.
This is a gorgeous car. Pierce-Arrows are so seldom seen today. I love these pre-war cars, especially the expensive ones. They are so different from what we see today.
I have been waiting for someone to mention how Studebaker was involved in the death of 2 of the 3 Ps – Pierce and later Packard. Somehow, Peerless died on its own, with no assistance from South Bend.
It doesn’t usually come up because, from my understanding of what I read, this joining of Pierce-Arrow and Studebaker wasn’t the usual takeover deal like Packard-Studebaker, or even (in more modern terms) General Motors-Saab or Ford-Jaguar/Aston Martin/Volvo. Working from memory, Studebaker moved in in 1928 and broke the arrangement off in 1933. Pierce-Arrow finally called it quits in 1938 still an independent automaker.
It seemed to be more of an alignment, possibly in terms of Hyundai-Kia. While Pierce-Arrows were available thru Studebaker dealership for a few years, I believe the arrangement still allowed Pierce-Arrow an almost independent level of freedom, not acting as a high priced line in the Studebaker Corporation. Why, once again I’m cloudy, but Studebaker did go thru bankruptcy in 1933, so it probably had a great deal to do with it.
I believe that Studebaker sold Pierce-Arrow to a group of Buffalo business leaders, who tried to revive the company.
Studebaker actually helped Pierce-Arrow, giving the company more dealers and resources to update its model line-up. By the mid-1920s, Pierce-Arrows were mechanically outdated.
Pierce-Arrow was killed by the Great Depression and the shift away from cars of this type, even by buyers who could well afford one.
There was a well-known restorer of Pierce-Arrows named Bert Lobberegt who lived east of Lake Sammamish (just east of the greater Seattle area). He restored a 1908 Great Arrow touring car and drove it to the national Pierce-Arrow meet in New York that summer. Our local WPC Club chapter visited his place one summer day. The car I liked best was his 1924 Pierce-Arrow touring car, painted light olive green. The entire body including fenders was built up of pieces of cast aluminum carefully fitted together and welded. You could look on the insides of the front fenders and see where the weld seams had been smoothed – just not quite to the standard of making them completely invisible that applied to the outer surfaces of the body. One of the guys asked Bert if the engine had been rebuilt, and he replied that since the car had only 150,000 miles on it it certainly wasn’t ready for that yet.
This is the only time in history the US attempted to be a world class car maker. We made some neat cars for a season.
What if today we had cars advertised for their engineering advances as in days past today? In that most of today’s cars seem to deliver ever more complicated and sometimes obtuse interfaces reliant on software engineers I guess that It would escape most of us. Oh for the day were you could sit down with a friend or neighbor and talk about, and perhaps brag about, having a nine bearing straight eight.
I really can’t add much more to this other than to say this was a fabulous write up on an incredible car!
Greetings everyone! I happen to be the owner of this car and discovered this wonderfully written article during an internet search. I am flattered that the author took to time to find the old advertising and literature images and crafted such a nice article. Thank you for all the nice comments about the car and Pierce-Arrows.
The front seat is adjustable on tracks, but it is shown in its rear most position. I am 5′-10″ and it is a challenge to get your legs under the wheel. Remember, folks back in the day tended to be a little shorter. The steering wheel tilt can be adjusted to get a little more clearance. The wheel is large to give you leverage for parallel parking. That cast iron straight 8 on the front axles is heavy! However, if the car is moving, the steering is easy. Braking is another matter!
Incidentally, Pierce-Arrows were used at the White House for many years. Presidents Taft, Coolidge, Wilson and Roosevelt all used Pierce-Arrows.
This car is a 137″ wheelbase. The larger Model 41 car in 1931 had a 147″ wheelbase and had more interior room yet and could be purchased with custom bodies. This car is painted in its original colors. The maroon is very dark and appears to be black on a cloudy/rainy day like we had in Moline on that day. In the sun, tones of burgundy and brown come to life in just the right light. There were about 2100 of these built in 1931, unfortunately, the war time was not kind to these cars. As was mentioned earlier, Pierce went out of business in 1938, the cars were out of style in the 40’s, and many were “recycled” for the war effort. Only about 2% survive today. This car is 1 of about 50 known to still exist, but that’s what makes them special. She won her AACA Grand National award that day. Thanks for your interest.
Happy Motoring!
Glad you found us here Chris – and your car’s an absolute beauty!
When was the last time that a car company offered a matching rear seat cushion in one if its models?