Odd Ball

[Lefturns75]

OK all you guys that were around a lot of coupes and sedans tell me what you see.  Look close at the 52 car and tell me if you think this car was built with the frame rails flipped upside down.  Anybody ever see this done before?    I kinda see some benefits of this but it is an odd way to go about it.   Might have to give this one a shot.

[TarheelRick]

Definitely looks different.  It is possibly a hand-built chassis.  Whichever, it appears both suspensions are on top of the frame rails.

[Olderndirt]

Back in the day, there were a couple of auto manufacturers that actually built cars like this. The most famous was American Underslung. They used a flipped frame, and hung the suspension on top of the frame. They actually were quite popular because they had very tall wheel, which spanned potholes better creating a smoother ride. They also had electric starters, and electric lights. Their downfall was that they were very expensive for the day. The basic runabout called they Scout, was about fifteen hundred dollars in about 1912. One of the principals in the America Underslung company, was Harry Stutz, who went on to produce the Stutz Bearcat.

  Olderndirt

[Lefturns75]

If you follow the frame rail it pretty well matches a 32ish rail flipped over.  Buddy CAGLE was a pretty good sized guy so the small guy thing is out.  During this time lots of those guys were using the rear suspension out of a Austin Sprite or some other small car, my memory just wont allow me to pull up which one.  Most of the #52 cars were in some way connected to John Zink so there is no telling who built this rig and just about anyone I could ask is gone.  Bill Sanders is still around and if I can run him down maybe he can remember something about it.  It is kinda ugly but a very interesting car and you can tell in the photo Buddy's car is almost a foot lower than Bill's chevy coupe.  I gotta find out more.