Beschreibung:

Pierce-Arrow had cemented its reputation for performance and reliability when the Pierce Great Arrow won all five of the famed Glidden Tours in 1905-1909 while achieving perfect scores in all but one of them. Both to retain its high standards and to facilitate its continuing innovation and refinement Pierce-Arrow closely controlled all aspects of construction including coachwork for which most other luxury marques relied upon outside coachbuilders. Instead, Pierce-Arrow worked with its Buffalo, New York neighbor Aluminum Company of America to perfect casting techniques which produced cast aluminum body panels as thin as 1/8”. The resulting Pierce-Arrow bodies were exceptionally strong and lightweight. Body design also was handled within Pierce-Arrow’s Art Department. Created long before GM recruited Harley Earl to create GM’s Art & Colour Department, Pierce-Arrow had Herbert Dawley designing bodies for Pierce-Arrow automobiles and working with Pierce’s demanding clientele to manage accessories, colors and materials. Pierce-Arrow actively sought the business of prominent figures including the White House where every President from William Howard Taft through Franklin Delano Roosevelt rode in the Buffalo Company’s automobiles. Movie stars like Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson and Tom Mix favored Pierce-Arrows. The publicity and recognition of product placement like this was supported by an imaginative advertising campaign. Pierce-Arrow’s success enabled the company in 1906 to construct a massive integrated factory in Buffalo that covered 1.5 million square feet on the site of the 1901 Pan-American Exposition. Unit production from Pierce-Arrow was never high (it took until 1912 before Pierce-Arrow built its 12,000th car) but in quality and materials there was none better and the elite at prices that made Packards and Peerlesses inexpensive by comparison enthusiastically snapped up Pierce-Arrows. In 1913 Dawley patented the feature that would come to be Pierce-Arrow’s trademark, the headlights faired into the tops of the front fenders. Most subsequent Pierce-Arrows came with the fender-mounted headlights (although to cater to its conservative clientele Pierce-Arrow also offered conventional headlights), which not only were instantly distinctive but also gave better illumination. The 1913 Pierce-Arrow Model 48B was powered by a 515 cubic inch inline T-head six-cylinder engine with 48.6 calculated ALAM horsepower. Pierce-Arrow’s production of the Model 48B was a remarkable 825 units, considering its cost of $4,850-$6,300 depending upon coachwork. The distribution of Pierce-Arrow’s client base was apparent from the 1913 production figures where the Model 48 (in its two versions, B and D, the latter equipped with a Disco acetylene self-starting system) exceeded the less expensive Model 38C by 209 units, nearly 30%. The 1913 Pierce-Arrow Model 48B Touring car offered here is finished in Burgundy with Black interior and top. The wheels are Light Yellow. Right-hand drive, as all Pierce-Arrows were until 1920, it abounds in the engineering innovations, which Pierce-Arrow incorporated in its cars as running changes such as hydraulic valve tappets. It also has Herbert Dawley’s patented and distinctive fender-mounted headlights making it instantly identifiable as a quality Pierce-Arrow. No collection of quality automobiles from the pre-Great War era is complete without a Pierce-Arrow, and all collectors owe it to themselves to experience driving one of these fine automobiles.