Lot Ended
Description
From a deceased estate; fascinating history; from long-term ownership;
ex-musem car that starred in Chariots of Fire; only 8,000 miles on rebuilt
engine; original RHD; wonderful patina; exceedingly rare and exceedingly
spacious; what a beauty!
From a standing
start in 1901 when Oldsmobile produced the first mass-produced car, American
manufacturers became so good at making popular cars at affordable prices that,
by the end of 1923, one-in-nine of the adult population of the USA owned a car.
In Britain that figure was only
one-in-a-hundred, so it was no surprise that the US quickly targeted the UK
market, becoming by far the largest foreign producer of cars for the
transport-starved Brits. Some of the bigger firms even built factories here to
assemble the cars on British soil.
Although they
are barely remembered today, some of the best mid-market cars were made by The
Hupp Motor Car Company of Detroit which were sold in the UK via the Hupp Motors
showroom in London SW3. Founded by Robert ‘Bobby’ Hupp in 1909, who had learned
his craft working for Henry Ford, Hupmobile initially only
made four-cylinder cars but in 1925 they switched to eight-cylinders.
This was a bold move which paid off to begin with, but ultimately doomed
the firm when the Great Depression hit home in the early-1930s, leading to a
catastrophic drop in sales of these unnecessarily lavish and powerful machines.
Unable to sell enough of them, Hupmobile made their last car in 1937.
The magnificent Straight Eight Series E you see
here was one such machine, typifying Hupmobile’s aim to "build a car better than
it needs to be" and capture the fast-dwindling market for luxuriously appointed
leviathans.
Under the enormous bonnet, it packs a
65hp 4,044cc L-head straight-eight with a massively heavy crank, driving through
a 3-speed gearbox to provide the smooth, effortless torque that buyers expected.
The capacious all-steel American coachwork was conservatively styled but
beautifully proportioned with all the build quality of a railway carriage -
indicative of the mechanical robustness for which the cars were renowned.
In the UK, the Series E was sold as the
Hupmobile 27/65 (reflecting the 27hp RAC rating) and all the UK market cars had
solid disc wheels in place of the wooden artillery wheels of the American cars.
It had braking to all four wheels and an electric starter motor, still quite a
novelty at the time.
As an interesting aside, a
1977 letter on file from a fellow Hupmobile owner, Mr W Oldham, recalls how he
was introduced to the Series E when his mother bought one in 1926. She was great
friends with Alan Chorlton, chief engineer at Beardmore, who had designed the
Tornado eight-cylinder diesel engines that powered the locomotives on the
Canadian Pacific Railroad and were later fitted to the ill-fated R101 airship.
Chorlton had been so impressed with the Series E
he was loaned while working in America, that he bought one for himself
when he returned to England to replace his comparatively weedy Belsize. Hearing
that Mrs Oldham was on the brink of trading her Austin 20 Ranelagh Coupe in for
a Bentley 3-Litre, he advised her to think again and took her for a spin
down to Plymouth in his Straight-Eight Hup: “She thought it fantastic, it
was so smooth and silent, had such wonderful acceleration and would creep in top
gear, that she forgot all about the Bentley”.
She wasn’t so keen on the American sedan coachwork, so she ordered
hers from the Hupp Motors showroom on the Brompton Road with English
‘owner-driver’ saloon coachwork by Victor Broom, a popular choice among
upper-class Hup owners who were generally pretty sniffy about most things
American.
This particular Hup is identical to
Chorlton's car (even the paint is the same Larchmont Blue) and comes with a
large and fascinating history file which will take the next owner many happy
hours to digest. Supplied new by Economical Cars of Birmingham in September 1925
(their brass plaque is still on the dash), it was in regular use until war broke
out in 1939 at which point it was put into storage with just 18,000 miles on the
clock.
The trail then goes cold until the car
turned up at Fred Plant & Sons scrapyard in Dudley in 1959 where
it was spotted by the current owner’s father who immediately fell in love with
it and managed to buy it for the princely sum of £15 (about £500 in today’s
money).
Despite being in a scrapyard, the Hup was basically in good
condition and the current owner, who was 12 at the time, helped his father to
restore the car to running order. It was then in light regular use around the
Bewdley area until the father finally sold it at auction in 1974 for £1,000,
much to the regret of the son.
He never forgot
about YL 4271 and in 1987, by a wild stroke of luck, he just happened
to be in a friend's living room when the Hup suddenly popped up on the telly,
being used in a Granada TV sitcom called Watching.
He managed to contact Granada and they told him that the car had been
supplied for the programme by Lark Lane Motor Museum in Liverpool.
He rang the museum to explain his interest in the car and was
cordially invited by the owner, Jim Baxter, to come and see the Hup
and take it for a drive for old time's sake.
It
transpired that Mr Baxter had bought the Hupmobile in 1978 from a
Mr Eric Biddle who ran the Squirrel Hotel in Anderton. At this
point the car was still in good condition but had been living outdoors as Mr
Biddle didn't have a garage large enough to store it in. As Mr Baxter used
the museum cars for film and wedding work, he needed to ensure that it was
in tip-top running order so he had the engine rebuilt, the braking
system fully overhauled and a new set of tyres fitted. In 1980/81 it was
used during the filming of Chariots of Fire and it also appeared in
another major film and various TV shows.
Two
small notebooks in the history file record every journey made in the Hup from
August 1984 to the summer of 1987 during which time the mileage rose from 5,054
to 8,150 miles. Many of these trips were for wedding duties in
the Lancs/Merseyside area, the flower-filled silver vases up front and the
cocktail cabinet in the rear being much appreciated by assorted blushing brides.
From the notes it seems that the Hup averaged around 15mpg and cruised
happily at 50mph with another 20mph on hand if you were feeling brave
enough...
Mr Baxter was in the process of winding down the Lark Lane museum so
in 1988 he was persuaded to sell the Hupmobile to the current owner
who continued to use it regularly, just as his father had done, adding
another 4,000 miles to the odometer over the next 20 years (as shown by 17 old
MOTs from 1986 to 2008) and scooping numerous awards at local
shows.
Soon after this the owner fell ill and the
Hup was parked up in a nice dry barn in Shropshire where it was to remain for
the next half-dozen years. In early 2014 it was sent to those good chaps at
Fisher Restorations of Rushock with instructions to recommission the car for
sale (invoice on file). However, once it was back running again, the owner
couldn’t bear to part with it so it went back into the barn where it remained
until he sadly passed away in 2023.
Delivered to
Brightwells on a trailer, we are told that the car was in good running order
when parked up so, with any luck, it should need little more than some fresh
fuel and a new battery to get it roadworthy again (it has only done 8,000 miles
since the engine was rebuilt by Mr Baxter). We will endeavour to get it
running in time for the viewing days.
On
offer here from a deceased estate, this magnificent Straight-Eight is an
extremely rare car with what seems an insultingly low guide price. It is
thought that only a tiny handful still survive today, with just one other
Series E known to exist in the UK back in the late-1970s, according to
correspondence from the Hupmobile Register. We can find no record of any being
offered at auction in the last 20 years or so, which means it could be a
very long time before you see another one for sale.
As you can tell from the photos, this is a hugely
impressive machine with bags of character and tons of history. All it needs now
is a sympathetic new guardian who can continue to preserve it and add
their own chapter to its fascinating 101-year-life to date.
We
love this gentle giant and have fallen completely under its
spell. Just sit inside for a few moments, soak in the atmosphere of
the soft velvet, the warm woodwork, the gleaming nickel and silver
trim, and the world immediately feels like a better
place...
Consigned by James Dennison – 07970 309907 – james.dennison@brightwells.com