Tag Archives: 1909

1909 Pierce-Arrow Runabout

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1909 Pierce-Arrow Model 36-UU Runabout

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Coral Gables, Florida | February 2025

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

By 1909, Pierce-Arrow was at its zenith of automotive greatness. Few cars were better, among them, other models in the Pierce range. The Model 36 was their entry-level six-cylinder car that year (below it was their lone four).

The 5.9-liter inline-six was rated at 36 horsepower. Pierce-Arrow also sold 40-, 48-, and 60-horsepower sixes in 1909. This particular car is among approximately 10 survivors of the model, and it was rescued out of a Long Island junkyard in the 1940s.

The current recreation body was produced during a 2002 restoration. It is said to replicate the factory three-passenger Runabout, which was among seven styles offered on the model’s 119″ wheelbase. The estimate now is $200,000-$300,000, and more info can be found here.

1909 Bobrie

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1909 Bobrie Torpille

Offered by Artcurial | Paris, France | February 2024

Photo – Artcurial

Here’s a relative unknown. Leonce Bobrie was a mechanic who worked for Barre before building his “Torpille” between 1907 and 1909. The car is actually longer-looking than the photo above shows, and it has two left-side doors hinged in the middle. Seating is in tandem, and the car has one central headlight up front.

It’s a cyclecar in spirit, even if it predates the cyclecar craze. It’s thought that about a dozen were built prior to WWI, and this one has remained with the Bobrie family since new. Engines were sourced from Ballot and were four-cylinder units rated at either six or eight horsepower.

Even the Beaulieu encyclopedia doesn’t have an entry for this car. However, they do have an entry for Torpille, a French three-wheeled tandem-seater from 1920. This is the only Bobrie-built car left, and it has an estimate of $32,000-$54,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold ~$47,565.

Mass Torpedo

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1909 Mass Model B Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Gooding & Company | Online | December 2023

Photo – Gooding & Company

Automobiles Mass is a mostly unremembered French automaker that existed from 1907 until 1923. Based near Paris, the company was founded by a Mr. Masser-Horniman, who was apparently English. The chassis/engines were assembled at the French factory, but the cars were then bodied in England. Very economical.

This car is powered by a 3.3-liter inline-four rated at 30 horsepower. It has a three-speed gearbox and rear drum brakes. The body was constructed by Shaw Brothers in the U.K. It has known ownership back to the 1950s and spent years in a Colorado museum.

The catalog notes that it has received “improvements” over the last few years to get it into the condition it is today. This is not a well-known or common car (in fact, I can’t remember another one coming up for public sale in the last ~15 years). It has an estimate of $40,000-$55,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $33,000.

Lorraine-Dietrich Grand Prix

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1909 Lorraine-Dietrich 16.4-Liter Grand Prix

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

Well, there’s no replacement for displacement. Back in the early days of competition motoring, companies just put bigger and bigger engines on their relatively simple chassis and hoped for the best. The crazy part is they rarely ever added cylinders. They just made them bigger. Coffee cans that you can count rev.

But! This car is not from 1909. Maybe a few of the components are, but this car was assembled much more recently. It started as a rolling 1909 Lorraine-Dietrich chassis that was fitted with an actual chain-driven Lorraine-Dietrich gearbox and a custom-built giant motor.

It’s a 16.4-liter inline-four that develops 200 horsepower and a crazy 850 lb-ft of torque, the latter at 1,500 rpm. Here’s an old car that can easily keep up with modern traffic. It has a pre-sale estimate of $600,000-$800,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $1,270,000.

McIntyre Utility

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1909 McIntyre Model NN Utility

Offered by H&H Classics | Duxford, U.K. | October 19, 2022

Photo – H&H Auctions

McIntyre was based in Auburn, Indiana, and was surrounded by quite a few other local manufacturers. They produced cars out of the old Kiblinger factory, and like Kiblinger, also produced high-wheelers.

From 1909 through 1911, they exclusively produced high-wheelers. The company claimed they were the only high-wheeler manufacturer to offer a full line of automobiles. And in 1909, they sold four models across nine body styles and sub-models. So yeah, kinda.

This car is one of 264 Model NNs produced in 1909. It’s powered by an 18-horsepower twin and sold for $650 when new. It’s basically an early pickup. It’s offered at no reserve. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold ~$12,814.

Daimler BT22

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1909 Daimler Model BT22 Drophead

Offered by Bonhams | Beaulieu, U.K. | September 10, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

The Daimler Motor Company Limited was founded in 1896 to build German Daimler products under license in the U.K. As a marque, it outlasted its German namesake by about 100 years and is now owned by Tata along with Jaguar.

This car was bodied by Hewers Car Bodies Ltd of Coventry and is the oldest known Daimler powered by a Knight sleeve-valve engine, which in this car is an inline four that made about 23 horsepower.

The car was parked from the late 1920s until it was purchased around 1953 and recommissioned. It spent decades in a museum and hasn’t seen regular use in quite some time. Bonhams describes it as a restoration project. It’s a rarely-seen model and looks relatively complete. The estimate is $23,000-$35,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $46,943.

1909 Cooper

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1909 Cooper 22.5HP Torpedo Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 5, 2021

Photo – Bonhams

If your tiny car company built six cars over 110 years ago, you’d think the chances of any of them surviving would be essentially nil. But don’t tell that to the long-deceased Thomas Cooper of the Cooper Steam Digger Company Ltd of Norfolk, England. His company typically built steam traction engines and farm equipment. But in 1909 he designed a two-stroke 3.3-liter inline-four that he debuted in a motorcar at that year’s Olympia Motor Show.

It had a three-speed gearbox and a two-speed rear axle. Only six cars were built, each of them different. This is the only survivor. It was parked in 1921 and re-discovered in 1951, where its history trail picks up.

It was later restored and acquired by its current owner in 1994. Museum duty followed, with the car last driven in 2014. It now carries a pre-sale estimate of $55,000-$83,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $44,735.

1909 Stanley Mountain Wagon

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1909 Stanley Model Z Mountain Wagon

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Hershey, Pennsylvania | October 7, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The Mountain Wagon is a popular Stanley body style. We’ve featured one before – a real one. This one is a re-creation, as most of these were essentially commercial vehicles. And as we often lament here, commercial vehicles have terrible survival rates.

It was built by a well-known steam car restorer in 1987. The story is that he would build Stanleys using remnants of existing chassis. The 30-horsepower Model Z was only built in 1909. And only as a mountain wagon. So if this is a re-creation mountain wagon, it’s also not a real Model Z. But, apparently, there are some real Stanley bits in there somewhere.

It’s pretty convincing, and unless you knew the story, you’d probably never be able to tell. This nine-passenger mountain wagon is expected to sell for between $100,000-$150,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $132,000.

1909 Peerless

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1909 Peerless Model 19 Touring

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Hershey, Pennsylvania | October 8, 2021

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

By 1909 Peerless was pretty much just that – without peers. They built some of the highest-quality cars money could buy in America before WWI. The company’s 1909 range consisted of the four-cylinder Model 19 and the six-cylinder Model 25.

This is one of two 1909 Model 19s known to exist and is powered by a 30-(or 40?)-horsepower, T-head inline-four. An array of body styles were offered by the factory, but you really couldn’t go wrong with a seven-passenger touring car like this one. A then-astronomical $4,300 was required to take one home in 1909.

This car has known ownership history back to the 1950s, and it was restored for the first time around 1960. It was refinished again in 1991 and is an accomplished historic tourer. The catalog estimate is $100,000-$150,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $286,000.

1909 Packard Runabout

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1909 Packard Model 18 Runabout

Offered by Worldwide Auctioneers | Auburn, Indiana | September 3-4, 2021

Photo – Worldwide Auctioneers

Packard’s Model 18 went on sale for 1909 and would remain in production through 1912. Launch-year body styles included a limousine, landaulet, touring, and demi limousine, in addition to the runabout. While Packard was known mostly as a luxury car manufacturer, this one has a twinge of sportiness.

It’s powered by a 5.3-liter inline-four rated at 18 horsepower. The two-seat body is finished in white, with a matching fuel tank, trunk, wheels, and tires. It’s a lot of white. I can’t imagine it was ever this clean back in the day.

Only 802 Packards were produced for 1909, and this is said to be one of a dozen Model 18s known to exist across all model years and body styles. It would’ve cost $3,200 when new and will sell at no reserve for much more next month. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Sold $102,150.