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Puzzles, Games and Name That Car => The Brand-New 2025 Vehicle Identification Board => Topic started by: Ray B. on June 02, 2011, 09:40:14 AM

Title: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on June 02, 2011, 09:40:14 AM


Ever seen this ?

If you did, please respond below and, for two points, tell us what is this car and who built it.
I have no identification for this car myself.

Not really easy, but it's been done before at Autopuzzles, right?

Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: grobmotorix on June 03, 2011, 09:35:17 AM
Packard hubcaps?
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on June 03, 2011, 11:49:55 AM
Sure.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Paul Jaray on June 05, 2011, 02:28:36 PM
...and Cadillac fenders...I found the same pic but no more info.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on June 06, 2011, 05:14:07 AM
Not only the fenders I believe. The whole front looks totally 1939 Cadillac. The long hood reminds me of the Buck Jones Cadillac. It started with a one piece windshield, but later acquired a veed two-pieces one a bit like this car.
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=3982.0
But the angled door opening is completely different, while there the Buck Jones car reveals its 1931 origin.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Otto Puzzell on June 06, 2011, 05:42:49 AM
It resembles this 1934 LaSalle Speedster built by Frank Kurtis, around the same time he built the Tommy Lee special.

Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Oguerrerob on June 17, 2011, 04:15:42 PM
Auburn Speedster Bobtail by Michael Akins 1977
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on June 17, 2011, 05:03:14 PM
That's would be an interesting comparison, if the puzzle photo didn't obbviously date not from 1977 or later, but from the late thirties or early forties. Surely the body style and side exhausts try to mimick a boattail speedster and possibly an Auburn, but it's definitely based on a 1939 Cadillac, photographed soon after. See the ladies clothing and hairstyle.

By the way, this is a two points puzzle.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Otto Puzzell on June 23, 2011, 09:07:03 AM
Hood and fenders also resemble a Studebaker (1937 President ad, below)
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on June 23, 2011, 11:38:59 AM
Yes, but I could show you two things that differ. The Stude's front fenders aren't square at the rear, and they go down too low in the front.

But I think that we're obviously speaking of a kind of custom. Grilles and fenders can be changed or modified, but it seems to me that we should concentrate on the main body style, which looks like a boattail speedster with a very, very long hood.
I thought it might basically be an Auburn 851, the windshield seems OK, but they have shorter hoods. So, whynot a Duesenberg, model J or SJ ? The side pipes come out much higher in the puzzle car, but an engine swap could explain that.

Here are pictures (the Duesy being a replica).
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on August 13, 2011, 10:21:17 AM
Quote from: Ray B. on June 23, 2011, 11:38:59 AM

But I think that we're obviously speaking of a kind of custom. Grilles and fenders can be changed or modified, but it seems to me that we should concentrate on the main body style, which looks like a boattail speedster with a very, very long hood. What's under the hood is another story.


...and I found a picture which lends me to think that the base car is no Duesenberg, and no Auburn.  Much simpler than this
So, what is it? I'll post the picture if nobody does before me It's easily available.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Otto Puzzell on August 21, 2011, 07:12:37 AM
Quote from: Ray B. on August 13, 2011, 10:21:17 AM
Quote from: Ray B. on June 23, 2011, 11:38:59 AM

But I think that we're obviously speaking of a kind of custom. Grilles and fenders can be changed or modified, but it seems to me that we should concentrate on the main body style, which looks like a boattail speedster with a very, very long hood. What's under the hood is another story.


...and I found a picture which lends me to think that the base car is no Duesenberg, and no Auburn.  Much simpler than this
So, what is it? I'll post the picture if nobody does before me It's easily available.

So, a more ordinary make?
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on August 21, 2011, 01:28:23 PM
You can say that. There is a clue of what it probably is (remember: probably) in the picture.
And several details match the car I have found.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Otto Puzzell on August 22, 2011, 04:41:32 AM
Well, I guess I'm back to guessing it's a LaSalle. The exhausts (real?) line up with the location of the ventiports on a 1935 LaSalle (with the rearmost of the 5 blanked out, it seems). Or, it can be a rejiggered Cadillac of the same era.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on August 22, 2011, 05:24:21 AM
The car that I've found (in a modern photo) seems to be quite the same after the cowl, not before. It's not a Lasalle. Same windshield, same doors same rear.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Otto Puzzell on August 22, 2011, 05:36:30 AM
A '34 Packard 12?
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on August 23, 2011, 04:25:11 AM
I can't tell about model and year, but a Packard for sure, as suggested by the wheels: look at this one: the cowl area, whindshield and doors are the same (and probably the rear fenders (without their skirts).
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Otto Puzzell on August 23, 2011, 05:06:16 AM
I agree, but that's as far as I can get with this one.  :(
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on August 23, 2011, 08:14:39 AM
I found more about the last example that I posted. A Dutch Darrin design of a 1936 Packard. Could the mystery car be one of the 6 built, modified with Cadillac front and fenders?
By whom?
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Oguerrerob on April 17, 2012, 08:28:17 PM
I've found the same picture: Auburn speedster shown after a bit of remodeling or possibly the Auburn body has been placed on a different makers chassis? . It appears to have had a Cadillac grille, fenders and headlamps installed. Other visible changes are the side pipes, a set of Packard hubcaps and possibly wheels. The photo was taken somewhere in California.
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on April 20, 2012, 09:29:45 AM
About the Auburn, I have a serious doubt. the Auburn hood is much too short. I agree with the Cadillac grille, fenders and headlamps. But the windshield and the shape of the door opening don't match the Auburn, but look quite like the ones of the Darrin Packard that I show.

Where did you found that picture? Where I did too (along with several cars I  posted in this section of Autopuzzles) or elsewhere?
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Oguerrerob on April 20, 2012, 10:47:46 AM
Maybe is the same page, is a large one where are a few others, BTW there are a few active autopuzzles without names
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on April 21, 2012, 05:51:06 AM
Another (or maybe the same?) 1936 Packard V12
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: Ray B. on April 26, 2012, 10:36:34 AM
The abocve car as a longer hood than the black one, more in the style of the puzzle car.
There was a man whose specialty seems to have been to work on V-12 Packards in those years, and mix them with Auburns: Richard (or Dick) Saunders. We already have to cars by him in the solved puzzles, and more can be googled...
Title: Re: Whatsit? I don't know #535
Post by: gte4289 on February 23, 2025, 04:22:50 PM
Moved from Black Hole