1911 American Eagle Touring

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Hershey, Pennsylvania | October 11-12, 2018

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

There were a lot of car companies before 1920 that had the word “American” as part of their name. There was American, who was famous for their Underslung models, and then there were European marques like Austin, Fiat, and De Dion-Bouton, who all had American arms and thus named them separately.

What we have here is a one-off car built in 1911 by Martin Burzynski of Detroit, Michigan. He never wanted to produce cars and never even bothered setting up a company to do so. Instead, Burzynski had a patent on an aluminum-sidewalled tire with spring-loaded canvas and rubber treads. This car was built as a test vehicle for those tires.

Ultimately unsuccessful, this car only saw about 200 miles through the mid-1940s. It features a 60hp Wisconsin straight-six and a bunch of other off-the-shelf parts from other manufacturers. Perhaps the most interesting bit is that three of the original aluminum tires are included. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $242,000.