{"id":2676,"date":"2006-02-22T03:03:00","date_gmt":"2006-02-22T08:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/02\/coming-up-for-air\/"},"modified":"2010-12-30T12:02:04","modified_gmt":"2010-12-30T17:02:04","slug":"coming-up-for-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/2006\/02\/coming-up-for-air\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Up for Air"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"1933<\/a><\/p>\n

I come from a Franklin family. Not descended from Ben, the Foster household had several Franklin cars during the 1920s. The last one, a 1928 sedan, was
\nowned<\/a> by my
\ngrandmother<\/a> into the mid-1930s (interestingly, she never drove, nor did my grandfather; they had a chauffeur and in later years their children took over the driving duties.)<\/p>\n

The H.H. Franklin company, of Syracuse, New York, built air-cooled cars from 1902 to 1934, the first being
\nlight runabouts<\/a> with transversely-mounted four-cylinder engines. Though the drive train soon took on a conventional north-south orientation, Franklins retained distinctive looks until the mid-twenties. Because a radiator was not required, the frontal appearance was entirely functional, to 1910 a “barrel front<\/a>,” through 1920 as the “coal scuttle<\/a>,” later the “horse collar<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

In order to look more “mainstream,” a
\nfalse radiator<\/a> was adopted for 1925.
\nCharles Lindberg<\/a> christened the new Airman model for 1928, the first Franklin with four-wheel hydraulic brakes. Amelia Earhart had one, too, and by accounts she liked it better than her
\nTerraplane<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pictures of “our” Franklins have not come to light. My late father<\/a> remembered that the first one was a “horse collar,” the
\n1928 sedan<\/a> much like
\nLindberg’s<\/a>, which survives at The Henry Ford<\/a> museum. When Franklin adopted a mascot in the 1920s, it was a
\nrearing lion<\/a>, although in the “Lindberg era” some cars had a
\nSpirit of St. Louis<\/a> ornament. Franklin engines were distinctive, too, all with overhead valves and
\ncooling ducts<\/a> reminiscent of Briggs and Stratton.
\nFull-elliptic springs<\/a> were used almost until the end.
\nThis chassis<\/a> dates from 1929, the first year of the steel frame – earlier chassis were made of wood.<\/p>\n

By
\n1930<\/a>, Franklins were aping the competition, and with the
\nOlympic model<\/a> of 1933 used bodies and chassis from Reo. Times were tough, but Franklin didn’t wince, introducing a
\nhuge<\/a> 144-inch wheelbase
\nV12 model<\/a>. It didn’t help, and after 360 cars in 1934 Mr. Franklin simply gave up.<\/p>\n

If I were shopping for an interesting 1920s car, I’d look carefully at this
\n1929<\/a> Franklin
\nrumble seat<\/a>
\ncoupe<\/a> owned by Pamela Kane. It’s an older restoration, but very
\npresentable<\/a> and practical. Located in Connecticut, it’s currently for sale. Contact Pamela and Greg Kane<\/a> for further particulars, or the H.H. Franklin Club<\/a> to learn more about Franklin cars.<\/p>\n

The Fosters haven’t given up on air cooling. What’s not to like about a car that never overheats and needs no antifreeze? My daughter Harriet, namesake of her Franklin-owning forebear, has
\nher own fresh-air car<\/a>, inherited from her grandmother<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I come from a Franklin family. Not descended from Ben, the Foster household had several Franklin cars during the 1920s. The last one, a 1928 sedan, was owned by my grandmother into the mid-1930s (interestingly, she never drove, nor did my grandfather; they had a chauffeur and in later years their children took over the….<\/span>
Read full article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2676"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3398,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2676\/revisions\/3398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.kitfoster.com\/carport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}