Vehicle Description
While Dodge has long been associated with the low-cost car market
and looking back at its history, it has long been a leading
innovator in the industry. Before Horace and John Dodge ever built
a car bearing a Dodge Brothers emblem, the two men amassed a
substantial fortune in the automobile industry as a parts supplier
to other manufacturers. Their Detroit-based machine shop and
foundry produced engines and gearboxes for Ransom E. Olds, and
later, axles and other driveline components for Henry Ford's
rapidly expanding operation. But as Henry marched toward
self-sufficiency, the brothers recognized they would need to
divorce themselves from Ford if they wanted to continue their
success. In 1914, the Dodge Brothers announced their first complete
automobile. It was a top-notch effort that was high on value, with
standard fittings including a folding top, leather upholstery,
electric lighting, windshield, speedometer, and an electric
self-starter. Starting at $785, it offered all that equipment for
only slightly more than a $750 Model T Tourer. Dodge continued to
be an innovator, and by 1923, the company introduced the industry's
first mass-produced all-steel body. Powered by a 212 cubic-inch
L-head inline-four, the car was mechanically rather conventional
but well-built and robust. After the brothers' deaths, their widows
sold the company for $146M to investment bankers in 1925. By 1928,
Dodge was under the auspices of Walter P. Chrysler, who worked to
carry on the Dodge Brothers legacy of quality and value.
Representing the Dodge Brothers marque in the Kleptz Collection is
this delightful 1923 Standard A Tourer. Offered with a marvelous
patina and outfitted in the style of a depression-era dust bowl
car, this Dodge is a wonderful display piece. Little is known of
the car's early history, though it appears to be a mostly original
and unrestored example with an authentic patina. Frank acquired the
Dodge from Sam Braen of New Jersey, who owned Braen Stone, a quarry
and construction company that supplied many major infrastructure
projects around the greater New York area. The car was displayed
as-is in the Kleptz museum and remains virtually untouched since he
acquired it. It is loaded with hundreds of antique and reproduction
bits - from canteens to a shotgun, to a chicken coop - evoking the
images of farm families fleeing the dust bowl in the early-mid 30s.
The Dodge has been a static display piece for many years and has
not run, so it will need considerable attention if the next keeper
chooses to use it as intended. As it sits, it is a charming piece
that gives us a fascinating look back at an extraordinary period in
American history, when more than a quarter-million people packed up
their lives and fled the plains for the promised land of
California. Offers welcome and trades considered For additional
details please view this listing directly on our website
https://hymanltd.com/vehicles/6863-1923-dodge-standard-a-tourer/