A pair of stately Pierce-Arrows

 

 

 

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Pierce-Arrow was one of America’s outstanding automobiles built in Buffalo New York. Beginning in 1901, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company built an expensive line of autos that stressed style, grace, quality and durability which appealed to the upper classes of society.

 

Pierce-Arrow owners included President William Howard Taft, his successor Woodrow Wilson; actors Charlie Chaplin, Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle, beer mogul Adolphus Busch, aviation pioneer Orville Wright, and baseball legend George Herman “Babe” Ruth as well as multiple members of the Rockefeller and Carnegie families.

 

 

Since 1914 the styling hallmark of Pierce-Arrow was the distinctive headlights molded in the front fenders which gave the car the appearance of a wider stance. Pierce patented this placement by designer Herbert M. Dawley with patent number 1096802, although the company also offered the customer the option of conventional headlamps. Another hallmark was Pierce-Arrow’s use of cast aluminum for the entire structure of their automobile bodies.

Pierce-Arrow’s factory at Elmwood and Great Arrow Avenues built in 1907 boasted nearly 1.5 million square feet of space on 34 acres, that employed almost 10,000 employees at its peak, began to slow during the nineteen twenties, as Pierce-Arrow stuck with their proven “dual valve” six-cylinder engine.

During its lifetime the company also built heavy trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, travel trailers, but finances became a crisis and in 1928 Pierce-Arrow merged with Studebaker through the Indiana company’s purchase of $5.7 million in Pierce-Arrow stock. This provided the needed funds to invest in research and new developments at the Buffalo factory, most notably a new straight-eight cylinder engine.

There is a popular misconception that Pierce-Arrow cars of this era were powered by modified Studebaker President engines probably because the new Pierce-Arrow engine blocks which used nine main bearings for the counterbalanced crankshaft were cast at Studebaker’s foundry in South Bend Indiana.  

 

The new Pierce-Arrow equipped with the largest 385-cubic inch engine fed with a single Stromberg UU-2 carburetor that developed 125 horsepower and fed through a three-speed transmission that could carry the car to 85 miles per hour attracted a lot of attention and Pierce-Arrow sales for 1929 doubled over the previous year.      

For 1930 Pierce introduced the A, B, and C models. The A was the largest and most expensive, while the C was the most economical of the three offering. Customers had multiple body styles and four wheelbases from which to select from that ranged from 132-, 134-, 139- and 144 inches. Three engine sizes were offered -the Model A used the 385 cubic-inch engine while the Model B was powered by a 365 cubic-inch while the Model C was equipped with a 340-cubic-inch 115-horsepower engine.  A pair of 1930 Pierce-Arrow automobiles displayed at the Blackhawk Museum in Danville California are beautiful examples of the automotive craftsmanship of Pierce-Arrow.

 

 

1930 Model A 7-passenger “torpedo” touring car on a 144-inch wheelbase chassis. Note the unusual orange color of the chassis.

1930 Model B 7- passenger sedan on a 139-inch wheelbase chassis.

While Pierce-Arrow’s financial prospects soared, despite the economic Depression, Studebaker’s did not and after the company filed for bankruptcy in 1933, the one-time Studebaker President and Pierce-Arrow chairman, Albert Russel Erskine, committed suicide. A group of Buffalo businessmen pooled their funding and purchased Pierce-Arrow’s assets from the bankruptcy court.

 

Unfortunately the new Pierce-Arrow Motor Corporation was on shaky financial footing from the start, and while over the next few years, the company produced some ground breaking vehicles (including a V-12 engine, vacuum boosted braking and the art deco Silver Arrow) the company became insolvent and closed in 1938 with most of the company’s remaining assets scrapped in 1942.

Surprisingly, remaining Pierce-Arrow automobiles are considerably more affordable for collectors than Duesenberg, Packard or Stutz cars of the same era.

 

Photos by the author

Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg history on display

At the downsized automobile display at the Blackhawk Museum which now only includes a single floor of classic automobiles, the author found two artifacts of the once-mighty Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg triumvirate.

Errett Loban (EL) Cord took over as the General Manager of the failing Auburn Automobile Company of Connersville Indiana and worked at no salary with the understanding that he could acquire controlling interest if he was successful. By lowering prices and re-painting the cars, Cord quickly turned around the company’s fortunes and used Auburn as the cornerstone of his Cord Corporation which by 1929 owned 150 companies that included Lycoming Engines, Checker Cab, Columbia Axle, Stinson aircraft, and Duesenberg.

 

 

The first item of interest on display at the Blackhawk Museum is this Duesenberg Straight Eight model J engine. This 420-cubic inch engine built by Lycoming in Williamsport Pennsylvania uses dual overhead camshafts to operate four valves per cylinder which developed a remarkable for its time 265 horsepower. Transmitting its power through a three-speed transmission, a Model J Duesenberg could hit 95 miles per hour (MPH) in second gear with a top speed of nearly 120 MPH.

This engine built in 1929 was originally fitted to chassis #2175 which has been lost through the years, although part of that short wheelbase chassis’ original disappearing top body built by the Walter Murphy Company of Pasadena California was used in rebuilding Duesenberg #2154.

 

 

 

The other fascinating Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg artifact at the Blackhawk Museum is this 1935 Auburn 851 supercharged “boat tail” Speedster. Powered by a 280-cubic inch Lycoming straight eight aluminum head engine fitted with Bohnalite aluminum pistons and a Schwitzer-Cummins centrifugal supercharger that turned at six times the crankshaft speed, the engine developed 150 horsepower.

 

 

That was enough power to allow David Abbott “Ab” Jenkins to set 77 worlds records at the Bonneville Salt Flats over a 24-hour period. The records witnessed by the Contest Board of the American Automobile Association included a mile at 67.0306 MPH from a standing start and 100.77 MPH for one mile with a flying start.

 

 

 

The latter run earned the Auburn Speedster the title of “the world’s fastest stock car” and every production 851 Speedster carried a dash plaque (Auburn part number is G5437) signed by Jenkins that certified that the Speedster had been driven over 100 MPH before shipment. It’s doubtful that Jenkins drove each car but there is no question that a supercharged Auburn Speedster could easily attain over 100 MPH.

This particular Speedster is equipped with a three-speed transmission single-plate clutch and two-speed Columbia rear end, which allowed the driver to switch between the in-city and open road axle ratio using a selector on the steering wheel hub.  

 

While this car designed by Gordon Buehrig was striking and with its “boat tail” design and chrome exhaust pipes was probably was the dream of many young men in 1935, the factory had to actually force some Auburn dealers to put a Speedster on display on their showroom floor.  The car had no virtually no room for luggage and with the top in place, getting in or out of the Speedster was all but impossible.  There were an estimated 500 Speedsters built in 1935 and 1936, but years later many Speedster replicas of varying build quality have been built.

Alas, the Cord Corporation itself collapsed in late 1937 - EL Cord sold out before the holding company entered bankruptcy and its various assets were sold off by the bankruptcy court.   Auburn renamed American Central fabricated parts for Jeeps and B-25 bombers during World War II and Lycoming remains in business today. 

After selling out, EL Cord moved to Beverly Hills where he had previously built Cordhaven, a ten-acre estate with a $2 million home that enclosed 32,000 square feet, had 62 rooms - 16 bedrooms and 22 bathrooms. EL made several more fortunes in radio, television and real estate before he died in 1974 but only after Cordhaven was demolished in 1963 and developed into twelve separate parcels.  His grandson Chris Cord was the 1987 IMSA (International Motor Sports Association) sports car champion.  

 

All color photos by the author