Roadside Attraction: Larz Anderson Auto Museum

Ages ago, before Google Maps, this writer got lost on the way to the Larz Anderson Auto Museum in Brookline, Massachusetts, having been stymied by Boston's spiderweb pattern of often one-way streets.  The museum staff kindly held the place open for 15 minutes past closing so an exhibit of French cars could be photographed. Those photos have long been misplaced in a dusty shoebox somewhere, but a frequent contributor* visited the Larz Anderson before the pandemic descended, and found proof that the Museum still appreciates French cars.  Above and below, we see a Delahaye* 135M roadster with body by Figoni & Falaschi*. This design, with teardrop fenders and skirts enclosing the wheels, first appeared in 1937, and only a handful were built.

Joseph Figoni, the designer for the Paris coachbuilding duo, liked to trace sine waves in the air while telling customers, "I like the streamline."  After the mid-1930s his custom coachwork appeared on bespoke chassis like Delage, Delahaye, and Talbot-Lago*.   Aside from a Bugatti Type 55 roadster, Figoni did little work on Bugattis, and none on the Type 57. The cabriolet below, with "standard" T57 specification (a 3.3 liter unsupercharged twin-cam straight 8, smaller but more powerful than the contemporary Delahaye's 3.5 liter six), was bodied by Gangloff in Alsace.

Another example of French industry, a 1924 Renault Torpedo shares the library with a motorcycle.  The Torpedo, a rear-wheel drive car powered by an inline four-cylinder engine, was happy at about 35 mph and weighed just under 1,900 pounds. The famous prow configuration results from the radiator placement behind the engine...

The Mercedes 170V roadster, built during the dark years of 1936-'42, was, like the Renault, a humble production car.  A 1.7 liter inline four made 38 hp, and with 75,000 built in all styles, the 170V was the most popular Mercedes Benz up to that time.  The "V" designation indicated the front engine, differentiating it from the rear-engined 170 H, which was a flop... 

Perhaps a greater artistic success, if not a commercial one, was this 1930 Cord L-29, which was the Auburn Cord Duesenberg combine's front-wheel drive pioneer when introduced in 1929, just in time for the economic downturn that became the Great Depression.  The first front-drive American production car, the Lycoming straight 8-powered L-29 continued through the 1932 model year.

In an even more stratospheric price class, the 1927 Rolls Royce Derby Phantom 1 featured an inline 6-cylinder engine just under 7.7 liters, with overhead valves in an aluminum head.  The Phantom 1 replaced the Silver Ghost in 1925, offering enhanced (but unstated) power and smoothness.  The Derby moniker differentiates this British-built Rolls from those built at the Springfield, Massachusetts factory Rolls Royce opened in 1921, and which built over 2,900 cars before closing in 1931. 

Aiming at a more modest clientele, World War I fighter ace Eddie Rickenbacker started a car-building firm in 1922, introducing 4-wheel brakes in '23 and adding an 8 cylinder to the 6 cylinder line in 1925.  The insignia on the radiator is the "hat in a ring" emblem from the 94th FIghter Squadron. Rickenbacker built around 35,000 cars before the end of production in 1927...

At the Italian concours on the Museum grounds, a mid-Fifties OSCA* MT4 gleams  in the sun. Built in 1,100cc and 1,500cc sizes, the MT4 represents the best efforts of the Maserati brothers after they sold their eponymous company to the Orsi family. A favorite of Briggs Cunningham and Stirling Moss, who won the '54 Sebring 12 Hours outright driving Cunningham's 1,500cc version, beating Ferraris, Maseratis and Jaguars with up to 3 times the power, the sweet-handling MT4 featured DOHC inline fours under alloy bodywork by Morelli or Frua.  Only around six dozen were sold, at prices of $9,000 to $10,000...

Alfisti were represented on the Museum lawn by a range of Milano's best...

Including the photographer's 2000 GTV from 1974.

Also including the relatively rare Montreal from the early Seventies.  Like the GTV, the Montreal was bodied by Bertone, but styled by Gandini instead of Giugiaro...

Non-Alfisti might be surprised to find that the Montreal above, with its 2.6 liter 4-cam V8 derived from Alfa's Type 33 road racer, shared its basic chassis design with the four cylinder Giulia 105 Series, and thus, with the comparitively simple Junior Z below, bodied in steel by Zagato from 1969 in 1,300cc engine size. Zagato introduced a 1600cc version in '72, with a slightly bigger trunk.

The Junior Z shared its shorter wheelbase with the Pininfarina-bodied Duetto spider, built from 1966 through 1969 and now known to fans as the Roundtail...

Alfa rival Lancia introduced its front-drive Flavia sedan in 1960 with 1.5 liter aluminum boxer four and four-wheel Dunlop disc brakes.  In 1962 Lancia introduced sport versions, and in typical Lancia (and Italian) style these had completely different body designs by Zagato (an odd scoop-tail fastback), Pininfarina (a clean-lined 2 +2 coupe) and Vignale (the convertible below). Engine size increased to 1.8 and then 2.0 liters before production ended in 1974. But Lancia decided that only the PF coupe deserved a restyle for the upgraded 2000 series; the Vignale and Zagato versions were gone by then...

If Alejandro De Tomaso's Deauville sedan was his knock-off of a Jaguar XJ6, this Longchamp coupe was his echo of the Mercedes 450 SL and SLC series. Styling was by Tom Tjaarda* of Ghia.  The car had a long production run, from 1972 to 1989, but only 409 were sold in that time. This may have been more because of timing  (introduction before the '73 fuel crisis) or pricing (high) than mechanical specification, which was derived from the longer Deauville. It included 4-wheel disc brakes (inboard at the rear), 4-wheel independent suspension by coil springs, and a Ford 351 Cleveland V8 channeling power through a ZF 5-speed gearbox or a Ford C8 automatic.  It would make an interesting car to take to your local Cars & Coffee (the Larz Anderson Museum launches their season on May 14 at 8:30 AM).  If you go, please remember to move the sign away from the car so we can admire it...

At the end of the Ferrari line a Dino 246GT reveals its midship mechanicals to the crowd, while a yellow replica 250GT California snoozes with hood shut. Despite the impressive rise in auction prices for the mid-engined V6 Dinos since the line began in 1967 with the 206GT, nobody has yet attempted to offer an accurate replica of the Pininfarina-designed car. This, despite the wide availability of modern V6 engines designed for transverse mounting, a result of the popularity of front-drive cars since the Eighties.  By the time Shelby AC Cobra prices reached today's Dino levels, there were way more Cobra replicas on the road than real ones...

It's a similar situation with replicas of Ferrari's 250GT California Spyder, of which 50 long wheelbase versions (102.4", from 1958-'60) preceded the 56 short wheelbase cars (94.5") which received front disc brakes and ended production in 1963.  So 106 cars, of which maybe 500 or even more remain today, but only if you count all the  fiberglass-bodied versions by Modena Motors and similar efforts with Ford V8 engines under the hood. Sort of like all those Cobra replicas, only with Pinin Farina styling...

*Footnote:  Delahaye roadsters bodied by Figoni & Falaschi are featured in "Rolling Sculpture" from January 1, 2017 and "Chasing the Streamline" from May 30, 2017. Other designs by Figoni & Falaschi are pictured in "The French Line Part 5: Figoni & Falaschi—Curving Forms for Winding Roads", posted June 7, 2020. Cars from Talbot-Lago, Delahaye's main rival from the Thirties into the Fifties, were profiled in "Talbot-Lago: Darracq by Another Name", posted on May 22, 2020.  The OSCA MT4 was profiled along with other OSCA models in "The Etceterini Files Part 7---  Almost Famous:  OSCA", posted April 20, 2016. And we gave American architect and industrial designer Tom Tjaarda a retrospective in "Architect-Designed Cars Part 4: Tom Tjaarda—Life Before and After the Pantera", posted April 30, 2020.

*Photo Credits:  All photos were generously provided by LCDR Jonathan D. Asbury, USN.