History We ALL Love a DARE! PIX of TRULY Extinct Makes?

Ever seen a MacDonald?
I found this one near Portland,Or sitting at a military surplus store.

 

Wow! That looks like an "Old MacDonald" !

 

Here is a 1947 MacDonald C model Low-Body Motor Truck built by MacDonald Truck & Manufaturing Co. 757 Folsom St. San Francisco Calif. this truck is powerd by a Hercules WXLC_39 gas engine and IH 5speed trans with a MacDonald rearend. The deck is 23in. from ground and clearance under rearend is same as coventional truck rearend. - See more at: http://forums.justoldtrucks.com/Topic7350.aspx#sthash.ek18toO5.dpuf

 

BTTT

 

1952 Gregoire Socema gas turbine car, 1 of 1


1941 CGE only 200 made apparently 2 known survivors electric powered roughly 40 MPH and 155 miles autonomy

 

Robert C. Hupp produced a major hit in 1909 with the original Hupmobile Model 20, but he and his investors quickly grew at odds and he departed from the company. Among his next efforts were the 1911-1912 RCH gasoline auto and the 1912-1918 Hupp-Yeats Electric (1912 Electric Coach rendering shown here). Hupp then designed the Monarch automobile and served as an engineering and executive consultant to other Detroit automakers, including Chrysler.

 

Charles B. King was the original Motor City pioneer: In March of 1896, he was the first to build and operate an automobile on the streets of Detroit. He worked for and with a number of early Detroit automakers, including his own company from 1910 to 1924. Among the King’s advanced features were left-hand steering and in 1915, a V8 engine. The holder of scores of patents, including one for the pneumatic hammer that made him independently wealthy, King also wrote music and poetry. Shown here is a 1916 Model C.

 

The Northern Manufacturing Co. was founded in 1902 by William E. Metzger, the first auto dealer in the city of Detroit and the sales manager for the Cadillac Automobile Co. Technical minds behind the Northern (1905 Limousine shown here) included the aforementioned Charles B. King and Jonathan Maxwell. In 1908, Northern was absorbed into another Metzger enterprise, the E-M-F Co., where Metzger was partnered with Walter Flanders and Barney Everitt. These three men were players in countless Motor City automotive startups.


Here’s a view of a 1904 Northern chassis illustrating some interesting mechanical features, including the opposed two-cylinder engine, a Maxwell trademark, and the elaborate two-chamber exhaust muffler. One of the car’s marketing taglines was “the silent Northern.”

 

Though he was famous across the country as the winner of the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, Ray Harroun always regarded himself an engineer more than a racing driver. After serving as lead engineer at Marmon, Marion, and Maxwell, he lent his name to the Harroun Motor Sales Company, where he was vice president and product chief. Of the several thousand units produced between 1917 and 1922, only one example is thought to exist today. The former Harroun plant was later occupied by the Graham Bros. and Gar Wood Industries.

 

Emil A. Nelson, originally from Cleveland, was a journeyman Motor City auto man with experience at Olds, Packard, and Hupmobile when he launched his own firm, the E.A Nelson Co., in 1917. His Nelson automobile featured a fairly advanced four-cylinder engine of 2.5 liters with a single overhead cam and four-valve head. The Nelson plant at Bellevue and Kerchival Streets averaged as many as 10 cars per day before the company closed down in 1921.

 

Yet another car maker that featured Detroit in its name, the Detroit Auto Vehicle Co. marketed the Crown automobile in 1905 and 1906. Models included a two-passenger runabout and delivery vehicles in several styles, all propelled by a two-cylinder, two-stroke engine and friction-drive transmission. The enterprise apparently failed when the purchase of its factory building could not be negotiated.

 

The Falcon Motor Car Co., producer of the Falcon-Knight, had its headquarters in the ritzy Majestic Building in downtown Detroit, but was in fact a shadow company controlled by Willys-Overland of Toledo. A parts-bin special crafted from various Willys products, the Falcon-Knight combined the chassis of the Whippet 93-A with a small-bore, 46 hp version of the Willys-Knight sleeve-valve six.

At one point, C.H. Wills of Wills Sainte Claire in Marysville made a pitch to produce the Falcon-Knight for W-O, but that deal never came to pass. Instead, engines were manufactured by the Willys-owned Wilson Foundry in Pontiac, Michigan, while the cars were assembled at W-O’s Garford truck plant in Elyria, Ohio. Produced in two models, the Model 10 (above and lead photo) of 1927 and the Model 12 of 1928, the Falcon-Knight was discontinued in ’28, replaced by a very similar product with Willys badging, the Willys-Knight 56 Standard Six.

 

Thomas-Detroit is a little-known make today, but it played a critical role in the creation of several major Detroit automakers. Launched in 1907 by E.R. Thomas, who was also responsible for the Thomas brand of Buffalo, Thomas-Detroit became Chalmers-Detroit when Hugh Chalmers took ownership. Chalmers eventually became the nucleus of the Chrysler Corporation. A group within Chalmers-Detroit formed a division to to build mid-priced cars, which then splintered off as the Hudson Motor Car Co. Shown here is a smart 1908 Thomas-Detroit runabout.

 

The Anhut Motor Car Co. operated from 1909-1910 as the creation of John N. Anhut, a Michigan state senator. When the politician’s name became more of a liability than an asset, the make continued on briefly as Barnes. Anhut would later receive a prison sentence for attempting to bribe the physicians of Harry Thaw, who had killed his wife’s lover, Stanford White, in a sensational society murder of the era.

 

The Krit Motor Co. (1909-1916, also spelled K-R-I-T) took its name from investor and designer Kenneth Crittenden. Home was the former Owen auto factory on East Grand Boulevard, on the west side of the Michigan Central tracks across from the Packard plant. The brand is remembered today for its logo, a swastika, which would be permanently stigmatized years later by the Nazis.

 

After leaving the Sheridan organization, in 1922 WWI flying ace Eddie Rickenbacker founded his own Rickenbacker brand with backing from pioneering Detroit auto moguls William Metzger, Barney Everitt, and Walter Flanders. These three were key players in countless Motor City auto startups. That’s Captain Eddie in the straw hat above with a 1924 coupe.

Among the Rickenbacker’s distinctive features were sporty European styling, four-wheel brakes, and flywheels on both ends of the engine. The automaker folded in 1927, but the former factory is still standing on Cabot Street near Michigan Avenue. Rickenbacker’s next ventures included the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Eastern Airlines. By the way, that’s also a Rickebacker with the bathing beauty in the lead photo of this story.

 

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The Columbia name is usually associated with the Hartford, Connecticut automaker maker that operated from 1897 to 1913, but there was a second, unrelated manufacturer based in Detroit from 1916 to 1924. A mid-priced assembled car powered by a Continental six, the Columbia had at least one novel feature, a thermostatic shutter system in the radiator shell as shown above.

For a time, the Columbia assembly complex included the former Aerocar/Hudson plant (featured here at Mac’s Motor City Garage) and the Ford Mack Avenue plant across the street. In 1923, the company combined with Liberty, another marginal Detroit car maker, then went out of business the following year.

 

The Aerocar of 1906-1907 was an attempt by Alexander Malcomsen, Detroit coal dealer and key investor in the Ford Motor Co., to launch his own car company. But when Henry Ford got wind of the plan, he promptly forced Malcomsen out, citing conflict of interest. Early Aerocar models used a four-cylinder Reeves air-cooled engine (hence the Aerocar name) while the 1907 Model F, above, was powered a conventional water-cooled four with 40 hp. Aerocar went bust in 1907, but the original factory building on Mack Ave. exists to this day. Read the Mac’s Motor City Garage feature here: Still standing: the Aerocar/Hudson plant

 

Often regarded as the most advanced steam automobile ever built, Doble was founded in Waltham, Mass. in 1914, but called the Motor City home from 1916 to 1918 and was briefly marketed as the Doble-Detroit. The Doble brothers then moved their steam-powered dreams to Emeryville, California, but the company folded in 1931 with only a few dozen cars produced. Shown here is a 1917 Doble-Detroit Touring.

 

Byron F. “Barney” Everitt was a pioneer of the Detroit auto industry with many successful enterprises to his credit, but the car marketed under his own name was not one of them. The 1909-12 Everitt was produced in both four and six-cylinder models and offered an early self-starting system, but never sold in significant numbers. Pictured here is a 1911 Everitt runabout. In 1912 the Everitt was rebranded as the Flanders, then acquired by the doomed United States Motor combine. Everitt’s more lucrative endeavors included E-M-F and the B.F. Everitt Co.

 

The Essex, produced from 1918 to 1932, was the low-priced companion brand to the well-regarded but deluxe-priced Hudson. With its angular but sporty lines and spunky four-cylinder F-head engine, the Essex (1922 Coach shown here) provided stiff competition for Chevrolet and Willys-Overland, pushing Detroit-based Hudson into the top 10 in sales. Later models, such as the 1930 Convertible Coupe in the lead photo, boasted four-wheel brakes and six-cylinder power, and in 1933 the Hudson junior line was rebranded as the Terraplane (read about it here).

 

One of many unrelated makes to use the Detroit name, the Detroit Air-Cooled of 1922-23 was also marketed as the D.A.C. Its most novel feature was the engine, a fan-cooled aluminum V6 with a narrow 30-degree bank angle and pullrod-actuated overhead valves. Sources estimate that around 100 vehicles were produced at the company’s Wayne, Michigan plant.

 

Forgotten today, the Divco delivery car was once ubiquitous in American neighborhoods, delivering milk, bread, and other goods. The venerable Model U, shown here, was introduced in 1938 with a signature rounded nose and a step-down frame that permitted a stand-and-drive operating position. Divco vehicles were manufactured in various locations around the Motor City, including the Continental plant on Jefferson Avenue and a dedicated facility on Hoover Road.

 

A large and expensive assembled car powered by a big 48 hp Continental six, the Benham was a successor brand to the S&M (Strobel & Martin) auto, also of Detroit. The circa 1913-14 operation might be best remembered today for its chief engineer, Owen Skelton, who later found fame as a member of Chrysler’s renowned engineering team, the Three Musketeers: Skelton, Carl Breer, and Fred Zeder. Production was only in the dozens, evidently, but one Benham car in unrestored condition resides at the Canton Classic Car Museum in Canton, Ohio.

 

The short-lived Owen automobile of 1910 featured a 120-inch wheelbase, tall 42-inch wheels, a factory on East Grand Boulevard next door to the Packard plant, and Detroit Tiger Ty Cobb (shown here) as celebrity endorser. The effort failed to thrive, but the Owen brothers emerged a few years later as the producers of the Owen Magnetic, the pioneer hybrid auto that employed the Entz electric transmission.

 

Norm was my father in law.

he loved the Hup/Cord/hollywood grahams...

Hincz did a great job on the restore... money no object.
Norm was SO happy the car went to someone who appreciated it and gave it the attention it needed. I have pictures of the restore somewhere.... Need to find them.
RIP Norm.

 

All Australia built Ford Falcons and GM (Holden Commodore or your Chevrolet SS) are now almost extinct animals

 

You still sometimes see the South African versions, Chevrolet Kommando and Constantia. For some reason the ute versions survive in remarkable numbers. They all seem a bit dog-eared, though. The normal ute was badged El Camino, as you might expect, but we also had the utilitarian El Toro, with non-unit folded-sheetmetal bed and pressed-steel grille insert. Was there an Australian version of that?

 

A few Kommandos (Monaros) over here and El Caminos (Utes) with SBC or 250 I6s. Only 6s we got were 202ci (3.3l) and NOT the big US version. Plus a few Ford Fairmont GTs (Falcon GTs) with SBF. An El Toro is a new one to me