Puzzle #1051 - Solved! 1921 Dodge "Bradesh"

[Otto Puzzell]

The Dodge Bradesh
Photo Credit: http://www.swopemuseum.com/

Know what it is?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.

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Thanks!

[Otto Puzzell]

Moved

[Allan L]

That's a 25 h.p. Dodge touring car, I think, but what date I don't know as they changed so little.
But you didn't ask the date!

[Otto Puzzell]

Since this is now in the 'experts' section, I'm going to need a bit more than that. This is a car with a rather interesting history (more so than a car that, say, saw regular duty as the family car and then was then preserved, for instance).

[Allan L]

Could be this one:

Quote:
1922 Dodge Touring Car

SPECIFICATIONS: L head four cylinder engine. 25 hp pressurized vacuum tank fuel system. 12 volt Northeast electric starter/generator unit. 2 wheel brakes, 32X4 tires.

John and Horace Dodge were both machinists, when Henry Ford started the Ford Motor Company in 1903, the Dodge brothers machine shop built Ford's engines. As part of the deal Henry Ford gave the Dodge brothers a one-tenth share in the Ford Motor Company, which the Dodge brothers later sold for $27,000,000 cash, the original capital for the Dodge Brothers Motor Company.

This 1922 model, Serial # 731464, has been in ths Swope family since 1952. It is little changed from the original car produced by the Dodge brothers on November 14, 1914.

The Dodge Touring car got its first big test as a military vehicle in 1916 when General John J. Pershing took six Dodges on his punitive expedition into Mexico while pursuing the bandit chieftain, Pancho Villa. The success of the Dodge in the rugged wastelands of old Mexico soon was a matter of US Military History, and the Dodge became the US Army's first command car.
   
Design Credit

[Otto Puzzell]

Not that one, but you are tantalizing close to the source of the correct answer. This car has an even more storied history than the example you've identified.

I'll hold the point for you until Sunday, so that you can dig a bit more.

[Arunas]

Cleveland Model 40 Roadster

[Otto Puzzell]

Nope.

[Arunas]

But it is American, isn't it?

[Otto Puzzell]

But it is American, isn't it?

Yep, built in the USA.

[Allan L]

Not that one, but you are tantalizing close to the source of the correct answer. This car has an even more storied history than the example you've identified.

I'll hold the point for you until Sunday, so that you can dig a bit more.

I suppose it is one of the Dodge Touring cars used by Pershing in Mexico, and is in a museum somewhere that is devoted to either Pershing, Sherman or Pancho Villa.

My knowledge of history has a gap when it comes to North/Central America, so I'll give this one up.

You only asked "Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here" and I did that.

You are beginning to act like Arunas

[Otto Puzzell]

Not sure which one of us should take offense...

Yes, when this was posted as a Rookie puzzle, it could have easily been identified as a Dodge from the early '20's.

This car had nothing to so with Pershing. However, the museum that houses the Dodge you guessed first, also displays this one, I believe.

[Allan L]

For some reason I can't access that site now.

[Otto Puzzell]

A googling of your previous text will likely hone you in on the correct answer.

[Graber]

easy point then 

1921 Model Dodge Touring car (#573551) was specially built by the Dodge Brothers Motor Company for The Maharajah of Bradesh

joe

[Allan L]

For some reason I can't access that site now.

Having told me my computer was barred from accessing that site then, it now allows it to do so.

If you search the site by car, this one does not appear in the list, but if you search for "Dodge" it does. Aaarrrgh!

[el_monty]

It seems the purported history of this car (which I find somewhat dubious) was never posted in this thread, so here it goes:

Legend has it that this 1921 Model Dodge Touring car (#573551) was specially built by the Dodge Brothers Motor Company for The Maharajah of Bradesh, Maharish Vjain, ruler of the tiny kingdom of "Bradesh" in India (this sounds to me like a wonky translation, since the similar word "pradesh" means simply "country" or "state" in several laguages used in India).

Outfitted to be used as a hunting vehicle, The Dodge Bradesh, as it was called, was shipped to India via steamboat. The car arrived in Bombay on September 4, 1920 and was transferred to a rail car for the long journey to the kingdom of Bradesh.

The Maharajah eagerly awaited the arrival of his Dodge hunting vehicle from the United States. To his dismay, however, he never saw the car. A Keraubi (?) bandit tribe raided the train and stripped the Dodge of much of its special equipment, including a lookout chair, gun harnesses, and other hunting accessories.

When the bandits fled, the wounded train crew returned to Bombay. There the Dodge was unloaded and placed in storage, where it was all but forgotten. Years later, in 1947, when the last of the British were leaving India, the car was discovered in a government warehouse by Sir Reginold Beecham (again, no record of this name outside of this legend). Sir Reginold purchased the car and shipped it to the United States. It was to be a gift for his American wife-to-be. Unfortunately, she did not appreciate the gift; and when she left the United States for England, the car once again went into storage. There it remained unused and virtually untouched for another twenty-two years.

In 1969, the Dodge Bradesh was part of an estate liquidation in up-state New York. It was purchased by a vintage car collector and has remained in the hands of collectors to this day. Considering the car's limited use, it is fairly certain the 30,000 miles showing on the odometer is the correct mileage. Restoration of the Bradesh Dodge was completed in 2003 by Swope Auto Center technicians.

[Allan L]

Yes, el_monty, for some reason we left that one hanging.
Reading the claimed history with today's understanding makes me think it is rather more than dubious - I agree with all the reasons you suggest. 
I don't think much of "Maharish Vjain" as someone's name - Maharishi is more of a title than a name and not one a Maharaja would have. The name Reginold was unknown to me until I Googled it and found (e.g.) Reginold of Eichstätt who was Bishop of Eichstätt from 966 to 991.
The text was written by someone who felt it was necessary to describe the vessel the car was shipped in as a "steamboat" but who didn't think it worth explaining why, with all the special equipment, it was still left-hand drive.