1915 Grant Model TT

Description

Number 170 of only 374 made; believed to be the only example in Europe; ex-BJ Pollard Collection; current owner 40 years; interesting history; meticulously restored in the late 1980s/early 1990s and carefully maintained since

Hands up if you have ever heard of The Grant Motor Co. of Detroit? Not many, we expect, which is hardly surprising as we have unable to find any record of any type of Grant being sold before, nor to find out how many survive today. There are definitely a few still alive and well in America and perhaps a couple in Australia but, as far as we know, this is the only Grant in Europe.

Founded by brothers George and Charles Grant in 1913, the first few cars were made in Detroit, Michigan, but production soon moved to a larger factory in Findlay, Ohio. Billed as “The first high grade motor car to be sold under $500”, the initial Model M Roadster, a four-cylinder 12hp open two-seater, cost $495 and was a great success, selling as fast as Grant could make them. It was even popular in England where it was sold by Whiting Ltd of Euston Road, London as the Whiting-Grant and cost £140.

In 1914 it was followed by the six-cylinder Model T, again billed as the first quality six-cylinder car to sell for less than $1,000, which was equipped with electric starting and lighting as standard and all for only $795.

But the outbreak of The First World War meant the Model T could not be shipped abroad and when Henry Ford’s pioneering mass production techniques came on stream in 1915, he was able to slash his prices overnight and The Grant Motor Co, like so many other aspiring car makers, were simply unable to compete and were soon in grave financial difficulties.

Taken over by investors in 1916, the company soldiered on as The Grant Motor Car Corporation with various new models and some trucks for the war effort but the severe depression of 1921 brought things to a head and Grant finally closed its doors for good in 1922.   

Dating from 1915, this Grant Model TT has been in the current ownership for 40 years and has an interesting story behind it. For many years it was owned by Barney (BJ) Pollard of Detroit, a fascinating character who worked as an engineer in the Packard Experimental Department in the early 1900s, later running a highly profitable road and railtrack construction company.  

With plenty of money to play with, Barney began collecting vehicles that interested him, eventually amassing over 2,000 cars that were housed mainly outdoors at his sprawling scrapyard in Detroit, with the more valuable vehicles stored in barns. His collection grew dramatically in WW2 when many old cars were being scrapped by patriotic Americans keen to support the war effort, and Barney is widely credited for saving many exotic models from extinction.

To keep out prying eyes, he famously encircled the whole site in telegraph poles linked by sections of railway track from which dozens of cars were hung pointing skywards. He also stamped his initials into the chassis of every car and all his tools and equipment were stamped: 'Stolen from BJ Pollard'!

When a fire caused by sparks from a passing locomotive broke out at the scrapyard in the mid-1970s, many of the vehicles were lost but many more were sold at auction, this Grant being one of them. It was bought by a museum in Canada and when that collection was in turn dispersed in the early 1980s, it was acquired by a VCC member in Yorkshire from whom our vendor acquired it in c.1984.

A physicist by profession but also a proficient engineer with much experience of working on Veteran cars, our vendor commenced a meticulous restoration that ultimately took some eight years to complete, doing much of the work himself but enlisting professional help as required – the trimming and painting, for instance.

When he acquired the Grant, it was still in much the same condition as it had been when Barney Pollard owned it (his initials are still stamped into the front dumb iron). It even had a bullet hole in the upper part of the windscreen which had also buckled the screen frame where the driver sat. The horsehair stuffing of the front seat had rotted away where a pool of congealed blood had lain for decades and the front stub axle was bent so it had presumably run into a ditch after the driver had been shot, hence why it ended up in Barney’s yard in the first place.

A grisly memento of some Prohibition-era ambush by the Feds perhaps, lying in wait for the bootleggers using the Grant on some dark night to run moonshine across the State line – if only cars could talk…   

On a more cheery note, when the vendor stripped down the engine he found that it showed virtually no signs of wear, having been taken off the road in such dramatic fashion so early in its life. We are told that the whole car was remarkably solid, original and complete, as you can see in the historic photos shown. Even the hickory wheels are original and bore traces of the original red paint but our vendor elected to clean this off, soak the wheels in Cuprinol and protect them with clear varnish so that he could monitor them for cracks in the future.

Finally finished in 1992, the Grant sailed through an MOT and was issued a V5C with the registration number DS 9729. It has been MOT tested every year since, the vendor continuing to get a certificate from his local garage stating that it has been tested to MOT standard even after it became exempt in 2018, the reason being that he wanted to be able to prove to his insurers that it was in roadworthy condition should it ever be involved in an accident.  

The Stewart speedograph currently shows 6,164 miles, well over 4,000 of these covered by the owner who has used it on many VCC events, including long round-trips from his home on the Welsh borders to Norfolk, the Lake District and The Isle of Wight. He reports that it has always proved totally reliable and bowls along happily at 40-45mph with a top speed of 50mph.

Although there are no invoices to show the extent of all the work carried out, the results speak for themselves and the Grant is still in wonderful condition today, starting promptly and running nicely on site, as you can see in the video.

During his long ownership the vendor has carried out much research into The Grant Motor Co and has assembled an impressive number of manuals, parts catalogues, period road tests and sales brochures etc, many of these being kindly provided by James Grant, the grandson of George Grant himself, who maintains a keen interest in the few surviving cars built by his ancestor.

He has established that his car is actually a Model TT which featured improvements including increasing the cylinder bore of the six-cylinder OHV engine from 2 7/8-inch to 3-inch while keeping the 4 ¼-inch stroke unchanged. The combustion chambers also had flat tops in place of the earlier hemi-spherical tops, the capacity being approximately 2.9-litres. The Mayer carburettor was replaced by a more sophisticated Rayfield together with a heated air intake to ensure rapid vapourisation of the fuel.

Serial numbers for the Model TT ran from 6680 to 7053 when it was replaced by a new design for 1916 - the Model V - which had a similar specification but different body styling and a longer wheelbase. Thus the particular example offered here, which left the production line in July 1915 with serial number 6850, is the 170th Model TT of only 374 built.

The vendor has provided some very detailed information about this car and the Model T in general, some of which is reproduced here - although he is a physicist so it does get rather technical in places!:

"I have only ever used premium BP Ultimate petrol so the carburettor is very clean inside. The car was built long before leaded petrol was introduced so it is quite happy with unleaded but I never leave it standing with petrol in the tank, even for only a few days. I also drain the cooling system if it is not going to be used for a more extended period.

One of the good points about the engine is that once it is warmed up, it is hardly necessary to change gear unless you have a particularly steep hill to climb. The slow-revving and heavy flywheel keep it rolling effortlessly along. The hand throttle acts rather like cruise control so on a dual carriageway, for instance, you can just set it at a comfortable speed, take your foot of the pedals and just steer.  

The car is very original - even including the original carbon brushes in the Allis-Chalmers starter-dynamo which still has its original coils. I did get the ignition coil rewound many years ago to be on the safe side. but the contact points are 110 years old and still as good as new.

The only significant change from original is the voltage regulator. The original one had completely disintegrated but I still have it as found and it is included with the car together with other bits and pieces, spare spark plugs etc. The replacement is a Lucas 6v constant voltage regulator-cut-out which has never let me down. 

In the interests of safety, I have fitted LED brake lights inside the original rear light housings, with flashing indicators also discreetly fitted, the front ones being held in place by magnets so that no holes were required for bolts to secure them.  

The Model T was advertised as 33-36hp but the SAE rating was a more modest 20hp. The engine cylinders and upper crankcase formed a single casting with an integral water jacket and a detachable cylinder head.

The transmission was via a conventional cone clutch in an exposed flywheel to a three-speed plus reverse gearbox bolted to the rear of the engine by means of a massive yoke embracing the flywheel. Final drive was by shaft in an enclosed torque tube to a fully floating rear axle. Semi-elliptic springs at the front and long cantilever springs at the rear provided an easy riding suspension. No spring dampers were fitted. The wheelbase was 106-inches with a track of 56-inches.

Ignition was provided by a 6v battery and coil using the Atwater-Kent system which could generate strong sparks at very low engine speeds making the starting process more certain even when hand-cranking. Petrol consumption using a Mayer carburettor was claimed to be 30mpg. For the Model TT the Mayer carburettor was replaced by a more sophisticated Rayfield together with a heated air intake to ensure rapid vapourisation of the fuel.

A particular novelty was the introduction of a reversing switch in the primary circuit of the ignition system. This meant that each time the ignition was switched on, the current went round the circuit in the opposite direction to the previous time, thus neutralising the transfer of metal across the contact points. The tungsten points were thereby meant to last indefinitely since in theory at least, any metal transferred across the points during one running period was transferred back during the next.

The ignition system itself is of interesting design in that instead of the contact points being separated by a rotating cam in the conventional way, they are very briefly brought together by a trigger action giving such a rapid make-and-break that the movement of the parts cannot be detected by the naked eye. The hardened steel trigger actually engages with slots machined into the rotating distributor shaft, one for each cylinder, and is held there by means of a light spring. As the shaft rotates the trigger flicks out of each slot in turn and strikes a pivoted metal anvil which then knocks the points briefly into contact with each other, the gap between the points being a mere ten thousandths of an inch.

One advantage of this arrangement is that, unlike the conventional system where the points are closed until opened by a cam, they remain open until momentarily closed by the trigger. This means that if the ignition system is inadvertently left switched on with the engine stopped, no current passes through the system thus avoiding discharging the battery if the car is unattended.

Lack of spares has never been a problem since the car has needed very few in all the time I have owned it. When I was restoring the car, I found that things like oil seals, bearings etc. were readily obtainable because those from Ferguson tractors were exactly right for it. Tyres too are not difficult to obtain.    

Although it will be a terrible wrench to part with it after some 40 years, I have reluctantly had to concede that, at 91, I am unlikely to continue to be able to drive it for much longer. I last took it out for a short drive to the local classic car show last August after which it was laid up, only being started up again to drive it onto the trailer which delivered it to Brightwells.”

As you can probably tell by now, this Grant is a much-loved machine in wonderful condition and only needs an enthusiastic new custodian to preserve it for future generations to enjoy. You will probably never see another for sale again so if a Grant has ever been on your wish list, this may well be your one and only chance to bag one.

Just stay away from the moonshine and watch out for those trigger-happy Federal Agents...

Consigned by James Dennison – 07970 309907 – james.dennison@brightwells.com