Auction me this

By Matt Brogan | October 25th, 2007

Take a look at the car below, and set a figure in your mind as to what you’d pay for it at auction as you read on.

The vehicle pictured is a rare, 1911 Oldsmobile ‘Limited’ and was, in it’s time, the pinnacle of American motoring. The original production run was 159 units and it is believed only three remain. Of those three, this one (found in a barn in 1959 and left there til last week) is the only example to retain ALL of its original equipment, even the tyres.

A few specs here. The wheelbase of this vehicle is 5280mm – stand back Hummer, and the engine is an 11,600cc (yes, that’s 11.6 litre – not a typo) in-line six cylinder, producing 65bhp and capable of 60mp/h, and those rims it’s sitting on are 42″ (yes, that’s 42 inches) in diametre, more than double the largest available on the current market.

Now I know what you’re thinking, sure it’s not that far removed from the typical car of it’s day, and it’s probably fit for the tip, but get this, at an RM Motor Auction in the States last week this vehicle sold for $1.6M (USD).

Perhaps a weekend peeking through barns is in order!

Bavarian Missile

A GM engine 11.6 litres and sold at a Ford price!!!!hehehe

Seriously how did they only extract 65 bhp out of 11 litres?????

I bet there is still a lot of collectable cars in barns in the Country,Farmers seem never to throw anything away they just park it and leave in the shed or open!

Recently a XYGT was found in need of a resto in W.A…….sold as is for over $100.000 needs another $100.000 spending on it if you saw it!!!!!

There still out there…….so the next time you go to the country check out whats in the sheds and paddocks!!!!!
Tom

lol 65 bhp, thats 48kW. A smart fortwo with a 0.7L turbo triple has the same power. Glad to see we’ve come a long way with combustion engine technology in the last century.
Toyota Paul

Lol. But honestly I dont see what the issue is, I can understand that pricetag, that is a piece of history…96 years old!… I cant understand the million dollar price tag for that Ford in Aus.
Reckless1

For 1.6 million, it’s a bargain.

For a talented restorer, it would cost probably only $100,000 to get it back to concourse, and then it would be worth $3 million plus…

It might not have much bhp, but I bet it’s got bags of torque like a ship engine.
http://www.caradvice.com.au Matt

I’m gonna keep an eye on the ‘Concours D’Elegnace’ entrants over the coming years, see if it turns up!
Toyota Paul

I think it would have a decent amount of torque… But I bet it weighs like 4 tonnes
The Axe

Why people compare a car that dates back to 1911, and say it “only produced 65bhp” and compare it to todays cars is a joke! I wonder what a 0.7l engine would have produced back then. It wouldn’t even move!
Tom

axe we’re not being serious when we compare them. Its a joke, and a happy reminder of the progress we’ve made over the last century. I appreciate that designing an engine that worked at all in the days of slide rulers and hand carved cylinder blocks, and getting 65 bhp out of it is awesome.
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

That vetrin is in great condition to restore, but 1,000,000 is a bit much.
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

Well said The Axe! This is a car more than 90 years old, they can’t blame it for anything.
Toyota Paul

Umm no-one is blaming anything… it was a joke. But hey Ford while your here, but I suppose that Ford going for $1mil is not abit much lol? Now thats a rip off!
http://www.caradvice.com.au Matt

Yeah it’s pretty awesome for 1911, I wonder what you’d compare it to (if you could), against a modern car. Big engine, long wheel base, open roof, leather trim … nothing springs to mind really. Imagine perhaps a Caprice convertible – might come close?
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

PAUL, I never said anything about the $1m Ford, That exact car had a history to it, but 1m bit too much.
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

…HOLY (BLEEP), I just went up to see the 1924 Nash! It’s a very simlar shape to this and everything and has big wheels like this. I saw ’42 here, so I went too see the Nash and it’s wheels are only ’25!

Now that’s a big tourer!
Grumps

I peeped through a barn door looking for an old clunker and saw a farmer doing something questionable with his cow.

I bet I could get $1 mil out of the farmer for keeping my mouth shut
Toyota Paul

Lol geeeeeeeeez
BOB

1.6mil i would think that the only production version of the gtho phase 4 would easily beat that. But know one knows where it is apparently some guy has it locked up some where
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

Because it’s been locked-up for most of it’s life, it’s too good for the new owner with how easly it is to restore and thanks to ANTIQ TYRE SUPPLIES (what ever they have in the US) They should pick-up a new set if tyres to fit a “42 rim.

That style of car is called a ‘Tourer’ and as you can see it’s got 3 rows of seats and called seven-seater tourer.

Firstly I thought they made an error with the yeat model, like 1921 insted, but I noticed it has no cowel between the engine bay and cabbin. It just has a sheet metal firewall, that’s how you tell if it’s a 20s vintage or ’10 veterin car.
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

It has a bumpper at the front. In those days bumpper bars were only a luxury extra. My 1924 Nash Tourer has the rare spring steal bumpers on it, so I would hate to run into it (even though theres no seatbelts in them) because of how strong they are.
http://www.importjap.com/blog ImportJap

This 1911 vintage car, just three left in existence, nearing 100 years old, and in restorable condition. Definitely worth the price. There aren’t that many cars from 1911 around, period.

As for the power, for the time this would have been a fast, powerful car, with a top speed of 60mph (96km! A 100 year old car!).

Don’t forget, there’s no electronics here, no ECU, no EFI, ultra primitive combustion technology, no robotic precision at all. These parts would have been hand made from materials of a far lesser quality than what we have today, everything would be huge because human hands would have made them. The wheels are literally wagon wheels.

Compared to the limited self-propelled and powered cars of 10-15 years earlier, this would have been a quantum leap forward, where cars were 5-10HP, and did not exceed 25km/h.
http://www.importjap.com/blog ImportJap

Going Ford, I think it’s actually a “1912 Oldsmobile Limited Touring”…
Astro Boy

its got massive rims! low profile tyres, 11 litres of displacement and goes so fast the windscreen has to be reinforced.

I think old McDonald was doing some burnouts in his younger years, judging by those tyres.
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

ImportJap, it said at the top of the page, “1911″. My 1924 Nash Looks the same size as this and everything and this is “42 and the Nash is “25, but the tyre it self is more than “40.
http://www.importjap.com/blo ImportJap

Going Ford, was the 1911 model exactly the same? Sorry I’m just looking at pictures of the 1912 – looks exactly the same (??)
Sexythang

hey, that car is older than me!
Going Ford, Is The Going Thing

It’s very easy to get year models wrong with veterin/vintage cars. I thought they made a typo with 1911 thinking more like 1921, but I thought wrong there.

This is a very big car for the early 1910s, its more the size of a ’20s vintage tourer, but as you can see it has no coweling between the engine and the cabbin, so that means it’s older.