Ruxton

US, 1929 – 1931

New Era motors Inc, New York, N.Y.; Moon Motor Corp., St Louis, Mo.; Kissel Motor Car Co, Hartford, Wic.

The Ruxton car was a front-drive car which, like its rival, the Cord L-29, was built in limited numbers during roughly the same period. The Ruxton car was the idea of Archie M. Andrews, a promoter and financier who was also a director of the Hupp Motor Corporation. An experimental Ruxton car embodying the front-drive principle was built late in 1928 and named after William V.C. Ruxton, one of Andrew’s acquaitances who showed an interest in the production of this type of car. A long, low prototype Ruxton car was built in the spring of 1929. This Ruxton car was powered by a 4.4-litre Continental Straight eight engine which produced a maximum of about 100bhp at 3.400rpm. All Ruxton cars followed this initial pilot model both in engine and overall design.

Actual production of Ruxton cars began in June 1930 in both the Moon and Kissel factories; Ruxton cars of either origin had to struggle in an increasingly competitive market. Sedan bodies for the Ruxton car were built by Budd on dies and tooling used by some models of the English Wolseley. Open Ruxton car models were built by Raulang. The Ruxton cars were low, rakish, and craried no running boards. The price of the sedan Ruxton car, at $3.195, was approximately that of its rival, Cord. Because of the collapse of Moon and Kissel and a flagging Depression market, Ruxton car company failed late in 1930 or early 1931 after between 300 and 500 Ruxton cars had been built, some of which were not actually sold until 1932. Of these, two Ruxton cars were phaetons, one a town car and the remainder almost equally divided between roadsters and sedans.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; KM

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com