Topic: Solved - MJW #994 - Ruxton Type C Town Car by Baker-Raulang 1930

[woodinsight]

Make, model, coachbuilder and year required for one point.

[woodinsight]

Up to the next level

[fyreline]

1930 Ruxton Model C, with town car body by Baker-Raulang (frequently misspelled as Baker-Rauling). Quite a low, daring design for its day, and front-wheel-drive into the bargain! Many Ruxtons had multi-color striped paint jobs, and most seem to have had the narrow Woodlite headlamps. This town car has neither, and in my own opinion, looks the better for it.

[woodinsight]

1930 Ruxton Model C, with town car body by Baker-Raulang (frequently misspelled as Baker-Rauling). Quite a low, daring design for its day, and front-wheel-drive into the bargain! Many Ruxtons had multi-color striped paint jobs, and most seem to have had the narrow Woodlite headlamps. This town car has neither, and in my own opinion, looks the better for it.

That's all correct except that I have a different coachbuilder......
Locked for you to confirm that this is definitely by Baker-Raulang.

[fyreline]

Walter M. Murphy of Pasedena did some drawings of a very similar Ruxton town car. Whether that particular car was ever built or not, I don't know. Right now there are several Ruxton factory photographs available for sale on eBay from Walter Miller, from right here in Syracuse (Walt is one of the largest dealers of automotive literature in the world). I called them, and they stated that all of the photographs are identified on the back as to year and coachbuilder, and that the exact same photograph posted for the quiz is identified on the back of the factory photo as having been built by Baker-Raulang in Cleveland. Of course, I suppose that could be wrong - I guess anybody can write anything they want on the back of a photograph, after all. There were more than a few Ruxtons (and there weren't all that many to begin with!) bodied by Baker-Raulang or its predecessor, Rausch & Lang, but I can't seem to find any bodied by Murphy. Most Ruxtons were produced in St. Louis at the Moon facility and later in Hartford, Wisconsin at the Kissel Motor Company. Cleveland's Baker-Raulang seems to be a better fit than Murphy way out in California, for a company that never really had a lot of money to spend. I realize all of this is pretty circumstantial, and I will keep looking for definitive proof that this particular Ruxton town car is bodied by Baker-Raulang. I don't believe the car still exists (unless it has been rebodied, which is certainly possible), it hasn't shown up at any shows I can find in many years.

[bentleybob]

This one is similar but different or in a different era. Also by Baker-Raulang. Not really a tidy solution with the door handles at two different heights. I would have thought the Murphy Town Car is on the Cord L29, which, on a pic, is similar. But in reality it is much bigger..
Oops, I hope I am allowed to barge in like this -  I am not trying for points, but it is LOCKED Sorry..

[fyreline]

Yes, it's hard to say with absolute certainty whether or not this is the same car. I agree, the door handles being at different heights is somewhat clumsy, and the wide painted band around the rear side window is the same . . . as are the running lights atop the front fenders. The second car looks as though it may in fact have the dreaded Woodlites - tough to tell from this angle. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that this is, in fact, the same car as the one in the quiz . . . just "updated" a bit (the white sidewall tires and disc wheels were frequently used to "modernize" existing cars). In any case, going by the details mentioned, if the second car is a Baker-Raulang body, it makes a good case for the first one being so as well. And yes, I agree the Murphy town car on an L-29 chassis is completely different.

Of course, we don't know what coachbuilder woodinsight has listed in his source. I know that New York's Locke & Co. did some Ruxton bodies - could the quiz car be one of theirs?

[woodinsight]

Well I think you know more than I do regarding this car and you are probably correct.
I have this Ruxton as being bodied by Budd - can you prove/disprove that?
Locked for fyreline.....

[fyreline]

There is a very definite Ruxton connection with Budd of Philadelphia . . . but it appears that while they built some Ruxton sedan bodies (in fact, they may have built most of them), the "custom" work was left to other firms with more expertise in those areas . . . full custom bodies were not Budd's stock-in-trade. In fact, I have never seen or heard of a town car built by Budd. While they built many thousands of bodies for automobile manufacturers both large (Ford, Chrysler, etc.) and small (such as Ruxton), they were not a "custom" body builder . . . it seems extremely unlikely that they would build such a labor-intensive body as a custom town car on such a unique chassis as the front-drive Ruxton. They would much rather sell standard bodies by the thousands to Ford or Chrysler. There is quite a lengthy article on Ruxton (and the Budd connection) available on the web site coachbuilt.com, but in the interest of brevity I will sum up what it says: "Budd ended up building a couple hundred sedan bodies for the car . . . . Cleveland’s Baker-Raulang built the Ruxton’s roadster body, Kissel built the phaeton and a handful of custom bodies were built by Raulang, Holbrook and Locke."

I guess you have to decide how "definitive" all of this is. It's pretty hard to "prove" that Budd didn't build the town car body on the quiz car, but I would name them among the least likely of candidates to have done so. Custom one-off bodies just weren't what Budd typically did. Your quiz, your call.

[woodinsight]

There is a very definite Ruxton connection with Budd of Philadelphia . . . but it appears that while they built some Ruxton sedan bodies (in fact, they may have built most of them), the "custom" work was left to other firms with more expertise in those areas . . . full custom bodies were not Budd's stock-in-trade. In fact, I have never seen or heard of a town car built by Budd. While they built many thousands of bodies for automobile manufacturers both large (Ford, Chrysler, etc.) and small (such as Ruxton), they were not a "custom" body builder . . . it seems extremely unlikely that they would build such a labor-intensive body as a custom town car on such a unique chassis as the front-drive Ruxton. They would much rather sell standard bodies by the thousands to Ford or Chrysler. There is quite a lengthy article on Ruxton (and the Budd connection) available on the web site coachbuilt.com, but in the interest of brevity I will sum up what it says: "Budd ended up building a couple hundred sedan bodies for the car . . . . Cleveland’s Baker-Raulang built the Ruxton’s roadster body, Kissel built the phaeton and a handful of custom bodies were built by Raulang, Holbrook and Locke."

I guess you have to decide how "definitive" all of this is. It's pretty hard to "prove" that Budd didn't build the town car body on the quiz car, but I would name them among the least likely of candidates to have done so. Custom one-off bodies just weren't what Budd typically did. Your quiz, your call.

Well I have to thank you for the very full explanation of the coachbuilders on the Ruxton.
I'm inclined to go with your observation that the body on the quiz car was built by Baker-Raulang.
I'll give you the point and leave it here - if anyone can prove this body wasn't built by Baker-Raulang, an additional point may be offered. In the meantime I'll put this one in the solved section.

[fyreline]

The Ruxton story is quite an interesting tale. Thanks for featuring one, and thank you for the point. I, too, would like to see a definitive source for the town car featured . . . And I'll keep looking myself. So far I have found this in the Summer 2011 issue of The Classic Car, the publication of the CCCA: ...."Raulang even made an appearance at the 1929 auto salons displaying a custom-bodied Ruxton town car".  Unfortunately no picture, but at least we know that Baker-Raulang (which was the name of the company,the body nameplates said "Raulang body by the Baker-Raulang Company") did build one. Further, G. N. Georgano's Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars states: "Ruxton failed late in 1930 or early 1931, after between 300 and 500 cars had been built.....of these, two were phaetons, one a town car, and the remainder almost equally divided between roadsters and sedans". The submission for Ruxton in the encyclopedia was by the late, great noted authority Keith Marvin. So, it appears we are actually pretty close to that "definitive proof" after all - if there was in fact only one Ruxton town car ever built, and we know that Baker-Raulang built one, then I guess the quiz car is it.

[João]

"Raulang even made an appearance at the 1929 auto salons displaying a custom-bodied Ruxton town car".  Unfortunately no picture

 

[woodinsight]

Thanks fyreline for that extra information. I think it now put any question mark over this one to rest now.
and thanks Joao for the photo.

[fyreline]

Yes, thank you João . . . the amount of knowledge and information available from the members of this forum never ceases to amaze me. The odds are, if the information is out there somewhere, one of our intrepid members will have it and post it.