Tag Archives: 1926

Frazer Nash Fast Tourer

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1926 Frazer Nash Fast Tourer

Offered by H&H Classics | Chateau Impney, U.K. | July 11, 2015

Photo - H&H Classics

Photo – H&H Classics

We’ve featured quite a few Frazer Nash cars recently, but they’re so rare we can’t help it. The Fast Tourer is actually the first model sold by Archibald Frazer-Nash’s company. It pre-dates the Frazer Nash-BMW cars of the 1930s.

It is powered by a 1.5-liter straight-four and is actually chain-driven. There were two concurrent models sold by Frazer Nash at this point. The Fast Tourer was the long wheelbase version while the Super Sports was the short wheelbase version.

This car has known ownership history since 1933 and it was restored in the late 1980s. It’s in great shape today and would make for a fun driver. These were built between 1925 and 1930 with only 165 built, split between the two different wheelbases. This one should sell for between $125,000-$155,000. Click here for more info and here for more from this sale.

Update: Not sold.

Rickenbacker Super Sport

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1926 Rickenbacker Eight Super Sport

Offered by RM Auctions | Monterey, California | August 15-16, 2014

Photo - RM Auctions

Photo – RM Auctions

I’m not sure who the modern-day Eddie Rickenbacker is. We really don’t have one – there are not jack-of-all-trades celebrities any more, in fact, most celebrities don’t have a single talent about them. Eddie raced Duesenbergs at Indy (hell, at one point, he owned the speedway!). He was America’s #1 flying ace in WWI. He was a celebrity when the war was over. And in 1922, he attached his name to an automobile built by the men behind E-M-F.

The first Rickenbacker automobiles weren’t anything super exciting (although they were among the first cars with four-wheel brakes). The company lasted from 1922-1927, and in 1926, they introduced the best thing they ever made: the Super Sport. It uses a 107 horsepower 4.4-liter straight-eight. The bodies were essentially the passenger compartment of an airplane (seriously, go to RM’s site and check out the pictures – what a design).

This particular Super Sport was shown on the stand at the 1926 New York Auto Show. Someone in Michigan bought it off the stand. The copper wire wheels, bumpers and trim are outstanding – as is the flying airplane hood ornament. This car is a stunner. The original owner willed the car to his grandson, who sold it to Bill Harrah after one of Harrah’s guys tracked this, the only surviving Super Sport, down.

Only 14-17 Super Sports were ever completed – and this is the one complete one in the world. It really is incredible. It should sell for between $600,000-$800,000. Click here for more info and here for more from RM.

Update: Sold $946,000.

AC Royal

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1926 AC Royal Tourer

Offered by Bonhams | Hendon, U.K. | April 29, 2013

1926 AC Royal Tourer

I hope you would agree that the car above looks pretty good – considering it was built in 1926 and has not been restored! That’s right, this is an all-original car. I suppose it’s possible that it has not been repainted, but it certainly looks so. The seller describes the body and interior as having a nice “patina” – which is seller code for “imperfections.”

But on an almost-90-year-old car, imperfections are character. Auto Carriers Ltd. began work on a new six-cylinder engine immediately following the First World War, but it wasn’t quite ready for production and AC still had to pay the bills. Enter the entry-level four-cylinder Royal you see here. It uses a 1.5-liter straight-four rated at 12 horsepower.

This car has had six owners from new and has been in the same family since 1954. The four-cylinder AC went out of production in 1928 once the six-cylinder really took off. This car is expected to bring between $20,000-$26,000. Click here for more and here for the rest of this sale.

Update: Sold $26,900.

1926 Arab Super Sports

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1926 Arab Super Sports Low-Chassis Tourer

Offered by H&H Auctions | Duxford, England | April 19, 2012

Arab was a very short-lived marque of automobile manufactured in Letchworth, England between 1926 and 1928. It was born out of a surplus of 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines built by Leyland Motors for use in “speedy delivery vans” that were never built. Enter Leyland engineers J.G. Parry-Thomas, Reid Railton (whose name would later appear on Railton automobiles) and Henry Spurrier, who put the engines to good use in low-slung sports cars. Only six or seven cars were built. This is one of two that survive – and the lone surviving Arab that is road-worthy.

Two models were available. This is the Low-Chassis model, capable of 90 mph (the High-Chassis model was not as quick). The bodywork is attractive and evocative of a Lagonda of similar vintage.

This is an excellent opportunity to acquire a very rare car in very good shape. The pre-sale estimate is $160,000-$190,000. To read the entire lot description, click here. And to see the other cars offered by H&H at The Imperial War Museum, click here.

Update: Sold, $144,000.