Autumn reflections: the last of the Marmons

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Autumn has reached these shores in its full and colourful splendour, and what better pictures could we possibly show to celebrate the season? These shots are 10 years old and date back to the day this particularly interesting car was sold at Amelia Island. It's a Marmon, and the one-off two-door prototype with its unique V12 engine on top of that.

The Marmon Motor Car Company of Indianapolis, USA, had made a name for innovative motors, and they are said to have been pioneers in several fields: notably the use of aluminium in engines, bodies and chassis, the V16 engine layout, the monoposto construction layout and… the rear-view mirror. The Great Depression didn’t do the company much good though, and this V12 can be designated as the last newly developed car from the company before fading out in the 1930s.

The prototype became known as the HCM, although we do not know what that could have stood for. But its unique 368 cu in engine (just over six litres) came in aluminium and with overhead valves, and suspension was independent all round. The body was rather spectacular also and can be attributed to Walter Teague Junior, son of the great industrial designer.

The cost to build it was calculated at $160,000 in 1933, but once finished in the autumn of that year, the company was in receivership. The HCM was taken to several motor manufacturers to see if someone else might be interested in building it, but none of them were. A disillusioned Howard Marmon is said to have taken the car home next and wrapped it in cellophane, where it remained until his death in 1943. It ended up in the collection of designer Brooks Stevens, who may well have been influenced by it for some of his own car creations. After Stevens’ death, the car was restored and reunited with Teague Junior at Pebble Beach in 2014, only to be offered for sale the next year, when it sold for $429,000. Where is it now?

Words: Jeroen Booij, Pictures: RM Sotheby’s

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