Falls-Eight

1920 Falls-Eight Race Car

Offered by Bring a Trailer Auctions | December 2020

Photo – Bring a Trailer Auctions

The Falls Machine Company of Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, was founded in 1901. They made milling machines, and in 1908 expanded into single-cylinder agricultural engines. Their engine program spread, and soon they were supplying engines for automobile manufacturers, like Dort and Elgin.

They built three of their own cars in 1921, and in 1923, they introduced an inline-eight engine. They only built eight of those engines, and three of them were destined for Elgin, who ended up going out of business before using them. Falls ended up building a single car using one of their eight-cylinder engines in 1924. It was thought to be a sedan or a touring car.

That car does not exist. But its engine does. In this car. So this car is said to be a 1920, but it is thought that the race car using the Falls engine was built sometime between 1924 and WWII. It sure has a 1920s race car look to it. It is claimed to have attempted to qualify for the 1923 Indy 500, though no record seems to exist.

The interesting part is that this car was gifted to a young Bruce Mohs in 1944. And from here the story is more well known. Mohs was a big personality, so who knows how much of the story that pre-dates his ownership is actually true or just his story. At any rate, this car has been known for quite some time and was even once owned by Phil Hill.

The engine is a 5.0-liter inline-eight. The whole package sure looks to be the real deal, there just isn’t much of anything known about it between 1924-ish and 1944. Oh well, it’s still cool and eligible for many historic events. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold, high bid of $39,013.

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