SOLVED: WTH # 162 - 1911 FWD Battleship named Nancy Hank

[sixtee5cuda]

For one point, specify the year, manufacturer, model, and nick-name of this old car

[sixtee5cuda]

Up!

[sixtee5cuda]

Up again!

Pro's?

[RayTheRat]

RHD...is it from the UK?

[sixtee5cuda]

Not from the UK

[RayTheRat]

US Cadillacs were RHD until 1916.  Could this be a Caddy chassis, circa 1910?

[sixtee5cuda]

No Cadillac involvement.  You are one year off.

(Early American car puzzles can be difficult.  There were a Lot of car companies in business at that time, and Normal Standards were not widely agreed upon.)

[RayTheRat]

No Cadillac involvement.  You are one year off.

(Early American car puzzles can be difficult.  There were a Lot of car companies in business at that time, and Normal Standards were not widely agreed upon.)

I agree about the early auto industry in general.  It's a curse and a thing of wonder at the same time.  No standards meant a whole lot of creativity and a whole lotta people with creative ideas could build a car and see if it was the "better mousetrap" that would bring people pounding a path to his door.  A few did, most didn't. 

So before I ride off in all directions looking for this critter, is the year I'm looking for 1911?

[Allan L]

I'd say that, whatever it's based on, we have a modern special! That seat and its legs in particular have nothing pre-Great War about it, nor has the jury-rigged fuel tank.
Perhaps most of it was once a 1909 Packard?

[sixtee5cuda]

1911 is the correct year.

This is not a modern special, and has nothing to do with Packard

[RayTheRat]

Is this representative of the way a chassis was delivered to a coachbuilder for them to work their magic on?

[sixtee5cuda]

The best way I can answer Ray's question:

This car was originally used as a factory demonstrator.  From the information I have, coachbuilders were not involved.

[Craig Gillingham]

The front axle is the key to solving this one, it's a 1911 FWD Battleship, and this particular car is known as Nancy Hank.

[sixtee5cuda]

And the point goes to Craig G for the correct answer.

What front axle?  The angle of the image almost completely hides the 4wd mechanism. 

[Craig Gillingham]

I spent a lot of time looking at this puzzle, and couldn't figure out what it was. In the end I just Googled "1911 factory demonstrator", and it appeared on the first page. Now I know it's a 4wd, I can kind of see a slight bit of the front axle, but I didn't notice it before. And, surprisingly, it looks basically the same as it did in 1911. This was a very good puzzle car.