June 2011 – CARS-YDSE.com

1929 Franklin 135

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According to the rules of my site, I don’t photograph cars at car shows or even casual car club meetings. It’s all about “seeing the cars in the wild”, meaning on the street. I saw this car in the parking lot of a garage in Layton New Jersey as we drove by. The garage is even pictured on Google Maps. Look up 118 County Road 560, Layton, NJ. Wow, a 1929 car out in the country.

The Franklin Automobile Company was founded around 1902 in Syracuse New York. It was headed by Herbert H. Franklin who had founded the Franklin Manufacturing Company in 1883, also in Syracuse. The company was very innovative and manufactured cars until 1934, when the company declared bankruptcy. Here’s a story I picked up from the Web.

A big fan of Franklins was famous airplane pilot Charles Lindbergh. With the banks now in control of the company and calling it quits in 1934, legend has it that Herbert Franklin got up from his desk, grabbed his hat off of the coat hook, and walked out.

This came from a car sales site called Valenti Classics, here is a link to a Franklin they sold. Click Here for for a link to the site

This car, a 1929 was one of about 14,000 cars manufactured that year. That was about 5,000 more cars than Franklin had ever sold in one year.

The Franklin cars were different. They were quite fast for the day and stressed fuel efficiency. In fact, the 1929 model shown here could get up 28 miles per gallon, a great deal better than its competitors. This was due, in large part to the engineering that went into the air cooled engine and the chassis design.

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The left hand picture shows what looks like a radiator grill, but the car was air cooled. This is explained in an article on Wkipedia.

Franklin’s were often rather odd-looking cars, although some were distinctly handsome with Renault-style hoods. Starting in 1925, at the demand of dealers, Franklin’s were redesigned to look like conventional cars sporting a massive nickel-plated “dummy radiator” which served as an air intake and was called a “hoodfront”. This design by J. Frank DeCausse enabled the Franklin to employ classic styling.

Click Here for more information from Wikipeadia

1954 Studebaker Commander

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At the risk of getting too much of a good thing, I am posting yet another Studebaker, this time a 1954 Commander. To me this car is a fantastic example of Studebaker styling leadership. The car was first released in 1953 when most of the US car companies were selling bathtub shaped vehicles that were at least 1.5 times as big. Unfortunately, this was not rewarded by growing sales. The notable exception to this was Chevrolet’s release of the Corvette in 1954, the same model year this car was released.

I don’t think these exhaust pipe extenders are original.

I found this information on the net.

The sleek European styling of the 1953-1954 Studebaker Commander Regal Starlight/Starliner was matched by equally nice interiors trimmed mainly in vinyl or (for 1954 only) cloth, both color-keyed. There was also a slightly less posh DeLuxe-trim version of the fixed pillar Starlight offered in both years.

Click Here for more information on this Post War Car

NOTE – Some of you who look at my site often may also recognize the street setting this car was photographed in. It is the same place I photographed this 1957 Golden Hawk last year. In fact, I have a suspicion that the owner of both of these cars is the same; just a guess. Click on the picture for a link to the related post.

Click on pictures for LINK to the Golden Hawk post.

~1979 Mini Clubman Estate

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This is a very small car. After looking at the “modern” Minis, its amazing to see one of the original cars, especially an Estate Wagon, it seems tiny. This Mini belongs to a San Francisco resident who purchased the car in the Guernsey Islands just off of the northwest coast of France. Somehow, the UK seems to own the island, but I digress. I spoke to the owner briefly but did not ask her the year of the car. I’m estimating it to be a 1979, based on what I can see from the Web.

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That’s my niece standing next to the car. She loved the car too. The picture on the right shows the rounded cornered rectangular grill. This was a major change for the Clubman variety of Mini. The interior is also supposed to be different but I did not photograph that part of the car (darn it).

To me, one of the things that places this car near 1980 is the Mini Cooper logo at the back. Maybe someone reading this can better determine the actual year of the car.

I found this bit of trivia on the net as well:

The station wagon, without wooden frames, called Traveler hours. For the deluxe version of the British Leyland decided to focus on a substantial restyling inside and outside. It was thus launched, again in 1969, the Mini Clubman. Compared to the classic version Clubman differed only in the frontal (elongated and squared) and indoors (with redesigned dashboard and seats).

Click Here for a site that has more information on this model

1967 Pontiac GTO Convertible – The Great One

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I returned home from college in Texas to find one of my good friend’s younger brother had just purchased a brand new 1967 GTO convertible. Robert, who was working and also attending culinary school loved that car and would crash and total it less than a year later. Robert was not seriously hurt, except in the checkbook. He did go on to have a great career in Restaurant Consulting, but I bet he still remembers buying this car more than most other things in life.

I got this picture in Saucoilito a few weeks ago at a local marina parking lot. I met the owner who told me he purchased the car from a guy in Chicago in the late 1980s. He had the car trucked back to California and has loved the car ever since.

This car, also known as “The Great One” had a 400 cubic inch V8 and many other spoty options. It is one of the 60s most famous cars.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tjhEqjXu3A]