Quiz Archive

About Quiz # 198 : 1935 Graham 8 Supercharged (UPDATE Update II: no Supercharged?)

We had expected more response on this one, but people may have felt shy about the fact that the bodywork is not familiar. In the end we had 7 competitors with the right year....: Michael C. Wauhop, Don Risen, Frans Vrijaldenhoven, Marc Fellman, Gerard Lansink, John Barringer and John Grant. Which exact type it is gave lots of different answers: Special Six, Special Eight 67 or 69, Model 73 Convertible Victoria. Now you could have won this quiz very simple. Since mid 1930 (thanks Kit!) Graham Paige was marketing their cars under the name Graham, not Graham Paige... Aside the fact that this week's winner knew a lot about this car including that it is a Convertible made by Alexis Kellner, he basically won without all these extra's because he was the only one who had the make of car correct: Graham. Congratulations Frans Vrijaldehoven!!! Frans is leading expert in Dutch car history and remembered having seen the car in the collection of Ivan Mahy in Belgium. Still there is a lot we still don't know about this car, when you read the next page, you'll understand. (photos courtesy Mahy Collection; history support Kit Foster)
UPDATE by editor: due to technicalities a part of this article was not published. See next page... The full answer of Frans Vrijaldehoven was:"That particular Quiz-car I know: it is on display in the big museum of Iwan Mahy (Belgium) The chassis has been built by Graham-Paige which products came on the market under the name GRAHAM. In 1935 the body-manufacturer KELLNER-Freres, carrossier, Paris and the type of the GRAHAM is: Model 73 Convertible Victoria. made this two-door convertible. In those years N.V. Gebroeders Nefkens Automobielmaatschappij have been the Dutch import-firm. Only a short time in the Thirties the import was in the hands of Louwman & Parqui, the Hague. Additional remarks form Kit Foster regarding this car and what we asked about the possibility of it being a Model 73: "There was a 1935 Graham Model 73. A 73 cannot be an eight. But the hood on the mystery car looks too long for a six. An eight should be a Model 75 (supercharged) or 72 (normally aspirated). It was called the "Special Six" and rode on a 116-inch wheelbase. It was part of the "second series 1935" line, introduced in January of that year (the "first series" started in June 1934). It was not supercharged; the only "blown" cars were the Model 75 "Supercharged Eights" (123-inch wheelbase). Michael Keller's excellent two-part work The Graham Legacy describes all this (somehow the Model 73 escaped the Standard Catalog). Indeed, Kellner Fr?res built a convertible victoria on the Model 73 chassis; Henri Labourdette did a similar car, but with less pronounced "boot" but with dual sidemounts. Keller illustrates the Labourdette car, but not the Kellner. It looks like it survives in someone's collection. After the Graham Brothers bought the Paige-Detroit Motor Car Company in 1927 they formed Graham-Paige Motors Corporation. The cars they built were badged Graham-Paige until mid-1930, when the "Paige" was dropped. It remained in the company name, however, long after automobile manufacture ceased."

Friday, 16 March 2007