Topic: Puzzle #1372 - Luverne or Balton Special Speed Roadster

[Otto Puzzell]

Know what it is?

Please, respond below and share your knowledge of the make and model of this car.   

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Thanks!

[Otto Puzzell]

Expertise, please.

[Otto Puzzell]

Pros?

[Paul Jaray]

Balton Special Speed Roadster from 1915, with Ed Leicher at the wheel with son Larry.

[Otto Puzzell]

That's not the name I have it filed under.

[Paul Jaray]

Have you got it under Luverne? This car is selfbuilt (even the engine) by Mr Balton.
Here's the story:
'The new car is to be built for speed and power,' the charles A. Balton Engineering Corporation of Buffalo said in late 1919. 'It will have four-cylinder motor of 187 horsepower, 3300 rpm, with a rated horsepower of 28.7. It will weight 3,100 pounds without body or accessoires and will develop in its sport model a speed of 100 miles an hour.' Charles Balton had design the car four years earlier, he planned to call it either the New Era or the Diana, and there is no evidence it ever happened. A prototype had been built, however, at Luverne in 1915 to Balton's design and called the Special Speed Roadster.

[Paul Jaray]

This picture cames from a book, and there's written:
Balton's cherry-red Special Speed Roadster
In early September 1915 the company (Luverne) started  work on an aluminium Special Speed Roadster for inventor Charles A. Balton, who designed the car and its 4-cylinder 110 horsepower engine....

[Otto Puzzell]

Here's the picture with the complete caption, and the story I found:

The Luverne Automobile Co. produced an American Automobile called the Luverne. The Luverne was named after a town in Minnesota by the same name and attracted buyers in all parts of the northwest. In 1893 F. A. and E. L Leieher, under the firm name of Leicher Brothers, established a wagon making business and then branched out to supply American Automobiles based on local demand.

The Leicher Brothers constructed their first automobiles in 1903. Their first cars were high wheelers, but by 1909 more advanced vehicles with six cylinder engines of Forty and Sixty horsepower were produced, priced at $2500.00. Their automobiles were uniform in color inside and out and were known as "The Big Brown Luverne".

Legend has it that this "Big Brown Luverne" Special Speed Roadster was built to race at the Indianapolis Speedway but various problems arose and the car never made the race. It was produced as seen above as a sports roadster.

[Otto Puzzell]

Either way, the point is yours. 

[Paul Jaray]

This car was built by Luverne for Balton, that's why is filed under Balton in a couple of books: