To Be OFFERED AT AUCTION WITHOUT RESERVE at RM Sothebys' Hershey
event, 10 - 11 October 2019.
Estimate:
$20,000 - $30,000
- Unusual three-door club sedan
- Comprehensive 420-hour restoration
- Last of the four-cylinder Hupps
Robert Craig Hupp had worked at Olds, Ford, and Regal by the time
he completed his own experimental car in 1908. A light
two-passenger runabout, it was introduced as the Hupmobile Model 20
at the 1909 Detroit Automobile Show. Its success was immediate.
Larger cars followed by 1912, and in 1916 the seven-passenger Model
N graced a 134-inch wheelbase. At the end of World War I, however,
the Hupp Motor Car Company returned to its roots with the small,
light Series R, which would be its mainstay into the mid-1920s.
Nineteen twenty-five was the last year for Hupp's four, available
as Model R-14 or R-15. The two models were all but identical. Those
built between August 1924 and June 1925 were R-14s; the last 4,000
cars, through the end of July, were designated R-15. A
straight-eight E-1 was new that year, and 1926 would see an A-1
six.
This Series R-15 Hupmobile was acquired from the former Charlie
Sens Antique Auto Museum in Marion, Ohio. Its prior owners include
the late Robert Lloyd Taft of Jackson, Michigan. The recipient of a
400-hour restoration, it is finished in medium blue with black
fenders and grey striped cloth upholstery. It has a black grained
leatherette top with landau irons on the rear quarters, a chrome
ribbed luggage rack at the rear, cowl lights, and a winged radiator
cap with MotoMeter. The disc wheels are painted in body color and
are mounted with 34 � 4� blackwall Puma tires. It could also be
described as a three-door sedan, as there is no door to the back
seat on the left-hand side.
Interestingly, Hupmobile sold more cars than Cadillac in 1925, yet
today their survival rates are quite the reverse.
Please note that this car is titled by the identification no.
178794.
To view this car and others currently consigned to this auction,
please visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/hf19.
