1919 Scripps Booth
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 3:32 am
I wanted to create a real post about my Scripps-Booth instead of sandwiching it into posts on some of my other cars...
My car was bought by my grandfather in 1976 and he restored it, but it didn't pass to me. The car left the family when he died in 1992; my grandmother was rather jealous of anything that my grandfather enjoyed, so she wouldn't let a family member buy it. Ironically, that's good for me (except financially since I had to spend my own money for it) because I probably would not have the car if a relative had bought or inherited it. I starting doing research and found the car around 10 years ago, saw it in 2007, and then finally bought it in 2011/2012. I had some information in my other posts, but no coherent story.
The real background is that in 1919 my great grandfather bought a new (not this car) Scripps-Booth, back then this car would have cost $1,500...but an average car was $826, a house: $5,626, an average income: $1,125... My great grandfather would also let his 9 year old son (my grandfather) drive it to school... Apparently that left an impression on my grandfather because he searched for 60 years to find another one just like it, buying it at one of the Barney Pollard auctions. Barney Pollard was one of the few people that kept many cars from the scrap heap, without him a lot of the cars from the 1920s or before would not exist today.
From there my grandfather restored the car, he even wrote a letter to CBS asking them why don't they do a segment on real car guys, not just the ones that buy expensive ones...and CBS did a segment for 60 minutes, interviewing my grandfather with the incomplete SB. He even took Harry Reasoner for a ride in the car, which had no body and gas tank consisting of a 1.5 gallon turpentine tank in the engine bay....
Today it is mostly in the condition he left it when he died in 1992. The buyer at the estate sale was a fan of Scripps-Booth, owning 5% of the remain SB (3-4 out of 50-100 remaining cars, when 20,000+ were originally made). But he let it sit for 20 years in the garage in the Carolinas until I bought it in 2011/2012.
From when my grandfather bought the car from Barney Pollard, 70 (or possibly 7) miles have been put on it. Some issues remain, the steering is not right and the original gas tank was never connected; hence the turpentine can he set as a gravity fed gas tank...
In its day, Scripps-Booth actually had a lot of first:
1. First V8 made in Detroit - in the Bi-Autogo
2. First horn button on the steering wheel
3. First car to come with a spare tire
4. First car to come with electric door locks.
And Scripps-Booth was a car well liked by celebrities; Winston Churchill, the King of Spain, and celebrities owned various models. Despite that, SB was mostly an assembled car, where they would buy major parts (engines and such) from other companies. Their main calling card was their slightly more rounded bodies and German Vee style radiator. I'm not sure they ever made their own engine besides the V8 in the Bi-Autogo.
Earlier cars were more pure, before GM took over and ruined the brand (like GM usually does). My SB is a Six-39, made during the GM years, it is essentially an Oakland 34-B. When mine was made they were phasing out the last of the SB qualities. My car has the German Vee style radiator, but in 1920 they moved to a flat front radiator and the last bit that looked like SB was gone. Kind of sad that after making 20-50,000 cars there are only 50-100 left, interestingly a lot of them are in Australia.
Early SB ads were rather interesting, the one for my car is rather staid.
The engine on my car:
Northway ohv I-6
2900cc/177cid
2-13/16" bore
4-3/4" stroke
Bore to Stroke Ratio = 0.59:1 - take that long stroke British cars...
40hp/18.98 SAE hp - not sure how they measured that...
Marvel-V carburetor
Remy 6 volt starter - Remy was 1/2 of what later became Delco Remy
More to come later.
- AIMG_2655.jpg (428.04 KiB) Viewed 22545 times
The real background is that in 1919 my great grandfather bought a new (not this car) Scripps-Booth, back then this car would have cost $1,500...but an average car was $826, a house: $5,626, an average income: $1,125... My great grandfather would also let his 9 year old son (my grandfather) drive it to school... Apparently that left an impression on my grandfather because he searched for 60 years to find another one just like it, buying it at one of the Barney Pollard auctions. Barney Pollard was one of the few people that kept many cars from the scrap heap, without him a lot of the cars from the 1920s or before would not exist today.
- old_world_car_collector_0A.jpg (331.32 KiB) Viewed 22545 times
Today it is mostly in the condition he left it when he died in 1992. The buyer at the estate sale was a fan of Scripps-Booth, owning 5% of the remain SB (3-4 out of 50-100 remaining cars, when 20,000+ were originally made). But he let it sit for 20 years in the garage in the Carolinas until I bought it in 2011/2012.
From when my grandfather bought the car from Barney Pollard, 70 (or possibly 7) miles have been put on it. Some issues remain, the steering is not right and the original gas tank was never connected; hence the turpentine can he set as a gravity fed gas tank...
In its day, Scripps-Booth actually had a lot of first:
1. First V8 made in Detroit - in the Bi-Autogo
2. First horn button on the steering wheel
3. First car to come with a spare tire
4. First car to come with electric door locks.
And Scripps-Booth was a car well liked by celebrities; Winston Churchill, the King of Spain, and celebrities owned various models. Despite that, SB was mostly an assembled car, where they would buy major parts (engines and such) from other companies. Their main calling card was their slightly more rounded bodies and German Vee style radiator. I'm not sure they ever made their own engine besides the V8 in the Bi-Autogo.
Earlier cars were more pure, before GM took over and ruined the brand (like GM usually does). My SB is a Six-39, made during the GM years, it is essentially an Oakland 34-B. When mine was made they were phasing out the last of the SB qualities. My car has the German Vee style radiator, but in 1920 they moved to a flat front radiator and the last bit that looked like SB was gone. Kind of sad that after making 20-50,000 cars there are only 50-100 left, interestingly a lot of them are in Australia.
Early SB ads were rather interesting, the one for my car is rather staid.
- 7274791944_34308024f1_oA.jpg (390.89 KiB) Viewed 22545 times
The engine on my car:
Northway ohv I-6
2900cc/177cid
2-13/16" bore
4-3/4" stroke
Bore to Stroke Ratio = 0.59:1 - take that long stroke British cars...
40hp/18.98 SAE hp - not sure how they measured that...
Marvel-V carburetor
Remy 6 volt starter - Remy was 1/2 of what later became Delco Remy
- The Engine.jpg (90.77 KiB) Viewed 22544 times
- AIMG_2907.jpg (564.89 KiB) Viewed 22544 times
More to come later.
