Moon

US, 1905 – 1930

Moon Motor Car Co, St. Louis, Mo.

Like so many American car manufacturers, Moon started life making buggies; buggies were to the American industry what bicycles were to Europe. The first Moon cars were designed by Louis P. Mooers, who had been responsible for the Peerless. The Model A Moon car of 1906 was a conventional, expensive 30/35hp 4-cylinder with a Rutenber engine and shaft drive. In 1912, 5.2- and 5.8-litre four Moon cars with dual ignition were sold. A six was introduced in 1913, and three years later the four had vanished, in favour of 3.6- and 5-litre Continental-powered Moon cars. The 1919 Moon car was a good-looking, well-made, though assembled, machine powered by a 3.6-litre engine by Continental. The radiator of the Moon car was by now a copy of that of the Rolls-Royce, showing the class of market at which the Moon car was aimed. There was an ohv engine in the Moon car of 1921, and a smaller, side-valve unit, also by Continental, was listed as well. Moon cars refinements included four main bearings (a rarity in American 6-cylinder engines of the time), demountable rims on detachable wheels and, from 1924, Lockheed hydraulic 4-wheel brakes were fitted to Moon cars. Two years later there arrived the Moon Diana (named after the moon goddess) which had an sv straight-8 engine of 4-litres, and this Moon car imitated the radiator shape of the luxurious Minerva from Belgium; the 1927 2.8-litre Moon Six also appeared with this radiator. The first Moon car to use an 8-cylinder engine was the Moon Aerotype of 1928, a 4.4-litre side-valve machine. A new six-cylinder Moon car, the Moon 6-72, accompanied it and was continued into 1929. That year brought one of the best-looking of the Moon car company’s products, the Moon Prince of Windsor, named after the Prince of Wales. The specification of this Moon car was a 4.4-litre straight-8 engine and a 4-speed gearbox – an unusual refinement, this – in a dropped frame with hydraulic brakes and automatic chassis lubrication. Unfortunately, this attempt by the Moon car company to produce a European-type high-quality car ended after Moon cars acquired control of New Era Motors Inc., the firm which brought out the front-wheel-drive Ruxton. The new venture promptly collapsed, killing two famous names, Moon and Kissel.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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