Topic: Whatsit? I don't know #535

[Ray B.]

Ever seen this ?

If you did, please respond below and, for two points, tell us what is this car and who built it.
I have no identification for this car myself.

Not really easy, but it's been done before at Autopuzzles, right?

[grobmotorix]

Packard hubcaps?

[Ray B.]

Sure.

[Paul Jaray]

...and Cadillac fenders...I found the same pic but no more info.

[Ray B.]

Not only the fenders I believe. The whole front looks totally 1939 Cadillac. The long hood reminds me of the Buck Jones Cadillac. It started with a one piece windshield, but later acquired a veed two-pieces one a bit like this car.
http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=3982.0
But the angled door opening is completely different, while there the Buck Jones car reveals its 1931 origin.

[Otto Puzzell]

It resembles this 1934 LaSalle Speedster built by Frank Kurtis, around the same time he built the Tommy Lee special.

[Oguerrerob]

Auburn Speedster Bobtail by Michael Akins 1977

[Ray B.]

That's would be an interesting comparison, if the puzzle photo didn't obbviously date not from 1977 or later, but from the late thirties or early forties. Surely the body style and side exhausts try to mimick a boattail speedster and possibly an Auburn, but it's definitely based on a 1939 Cadillac, photographed soon after. See the ladies clothing and hairstyle.

By the way, this is a two points puzzle.

[Otto Puzzell]

Hood and fenders also resemble a Studebaker (1937 President ad, below)

[Ray B.]

Yes, but I could show you two things that differ. The Stude's front fenders aren't square at the rear, and they go down too low in the front.

But I think that we're obviously speaking of a kind of custom. Grilles and fenders can be changed or modified, but it seems to me that we should concentrate on the main body style, which looks like a boattail speedster with a very, very long hood.
I thought it might basically be an Auburn 851, the windshield seems OK, but they have shorter hoods. So, whynot a Duesenberg, model J or SJ ? The side pipes come out much higher in the puzzle car, but an engine swap could explain that.

Here are pictures (the Duesy being a replica).

[Ray B.]

But I think that we're obviously speaking of a kind of custom. Grilles and fenders can be changed or modified, but it seems to me that we should concentrate on the main body style, which looks like a boattail speedster with a very, very long hood. What's under the hood is another story.

...and I found a picture which lends me to think that the base car is no Duesenberg, and no Auburn.  Much simpler than this
So, what is it? I'll post the picture if nobody does before me It's easily available.

[Otto Puzzell]

But I think that we're obviously speaking of a kind of custom. Grilles and fenders can be changed or modified, but it seems to me that we should concentrate on the main body style, which looks like a boattail speedster with a very, very long hood. What's under the hood is another story.

...and I found a picture which lends me to think that the base car is no Duesenberg, and no Auburn.  Much simpler than this
So, what is it? I'll post the picture if nobody does before me It's easily available.

So, a more ordinary make?

[Ray B.]

You can say that. There is a clue of what it probably is (remember: probably) in the picture.
And several details match the car I have found.

[Otto Puzzell]

Well, I guess I'm back to guessing it's a LaSalle. The exhausts (real?) line up with the location of the ventiports on a 1935 LaSalle (with the rearmost of the 5 blanked out, it seems). Or, it can be a rejiggered Cadillac of the same era.

[Ray B.]

The car that I've found (in a modern photo) seems to be quite the same after the cowl, not before. It's not a Lasalle. Same windshield, same doors same rear.

[Otto Puzzell]

A '34 Packard 12?

[Ray B.]

I can't tell about model and year, but a Packard for sure, as suggested by the wheels: look at this one: the cowl area, whindshield and doors are the same (and probably the rear fenders (without their skirts).

[Otto Puzzell]

I agree, but that's as far as I can get with this one. 

[Ray B.]

I found more about the last example that I posted. A Dutch Darrin design of a 1936 Packard. Could the mystery car be one of the 6 built, modified with Cadillac front and fenders?
By whom?

[Oguerrerob]

I've found the same picture: Auburn speedster shown after a bit of remodeling or possibly the Auburn body has been placed on a different makers chassis? . It appears to have had a Cadillac grille, fenders and headlamps installed. Other visible changes are the side pipes, a set of Packard hubcaps and possibly wheels. The photo was taken somewhere in California.

[Ray B.]

About the Auburn, I have a serious doubt. the Auburn hood is much too short. I agree with the Cadillac grille, fenders and headlamps. But the windshield and the shape of the door opening don't match the Auburn, but look quite like the ones of the Darrin Packard that I show.

Where did you found that picture? Where I did too (along with several cars I  posted in this section of Autopuzzles) or elsewhere?

[Oguerrerob]

Maybe is the same page, is a large one where are a few others, BTW there are a few active autopuzzles without names

[Ray B.]

Another (or maybe the same?) 1936 Packard V12

[Ray B.]

The abocve car as a longer hood than the black one, more in the style of the puzzle car.
There was a man whose specialty seems to have been to work on V-12 Packards in those years, and mix them with Auburns: Richard (or Dick) Saunders. We already have to cars by him in the solved puzzles, and more can be googled...