Paging RamblinRover and fintail....

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 09/19/2018 at 14:02 • Filed to: None

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Here’s another one for you. Maybe not obscure to you, but nothing that I’ve ever heard of. Of course, everybody else is welcome to play along.

Full size image

fintail > ttyymmnn 09/19/2018 at 14:19

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I believe this is a Franklin, 1930-31.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > ttyymmnn 09/19/2018 at 14:26

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That’s an odd one. Haven’t IDed yet. Dual cowl with side windows is highly unusual - most cars of that kind were dual cowl phaetons - and the formal/sedan style back end is also very unusual in that light. A phaeton usually has the back bucket edge canted back to give the roof more room.

ttyymmnn > fintail 09/19/2018 at 14:29

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Impressive. It’s a Franklin Series 147 ‘Pirate’ Touring Phaeton, photographed in 1930.

ttyymmnn > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/19/2018 at 14:29

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You got part of it, fintail got the rest. Do you want me to tell you?

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > fintail 09/19/2018 at 14:30

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Looks like it.

Specifically a Pirate Touring.

fintail > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/19/2018 at 14:36

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Nice, looks like the same model.  As these have to be rare, there’s an off chance it’s the same car.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > fintail 09/19/2018 at 14:42

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There appears to be a red one, a black one, a blue one, a green one (with modified grill), a light yellow one, another green one... Survivor rate as a percentage must be absolutely through the roof. There are ‘60s obscurities I haven’t seen survive in those numbers.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 09/19/2018 at 15:05

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The problem is that you either pick a car for those two to ID, or a car that the rest of us have a shot at (and they know instantly).

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 09/19/2018 at 15:07

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I’ve started digging through Shorpy in earnest. There are some remarkable photos there, many of them mundane, but still treasure chests of the era. I really had no idea there were so many different auto manufacturers back in the day. 

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 09/19/2018 at 15:12

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It’s crazy - random people all over the place were building cars back then. Many of them never built more than a handful.

I do okay with 50's cars and know 60's American cars quite well - but before that, forget it.

fintail > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/19/2018 at 15:16

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Interesting, people must have saved them. I can see why, it is an attractive car - but these must have been very passe by the 40s, a magnet for wartime scrap drives.

I am always amused at the survival rate of Edsels - even 60 Edsels aren’t impossible to find.  61 DeSotos seem to have been saved, too.

ttyymmnn > WilliamsSW 09/19/2018 at 15:16

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Hell, I’m not much good before the 80s, when I started to drive. I do a bit better with airplanes, though. But like cars, the WWI era and 20s  had so many one-offs, and they all looked so similar (as did the cars) that it can be nigh on impossible, unless you really make a serious study of it.

WilliamsSW > ttyymmnn 09/19/2018 at 15:23

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My perception is that airplanes are a little easier to research and definitively ID with a bit of Googling.  Cars *seem* to be a bit harder, because I suspect that there aren’t any definitive photos of many of them.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > fintail 09/19/2018 at 15:33

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Ruxton took an early tack on eliminating running boards, but Franklin apparently wasn’t far behind - even if they half-assed the removal (attractively). The swept fillet at the bottom of the body is just one of the odd things... like the relief line down the side which is the same shape as the roadster/”transcontinental sedan” body.

Multiple models that year, both two and four door, also did a weird short body/long frame thing:

They also had a “bucket” style reverse-back sedan, so why the Pirate Touring existed and no more normal Phaeton may remain a mystery. The Pursuit was also odd as a convertible in that way.

It’s a trunk-style back instead of a club sedan style, too.

fintail > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/19/2018 at 21:15

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The staggered design of the hood slats is what clued me in, I remember that trait.

I suspect the “Pirate” (what a name) was an expensive model, too.  Living in the heady days of 1928-29 was not a way to survive, and so it went.