1933 Marmon Sixteen Convertible Sedan

1933 MARMON SIXTEEN CONVERTIBLE SEDAN
COACHWORK BY LEBARON
CHASSIS NO. 16 145 947
ENGINE NO. 16860

491ci OHV V16 Engine
Single Stromberg DDR-3 Carburetor
200bhp at 3,400rpm
3-Speed Manual Transmission
4-Wheel Semi-Elliptic Leaf Springs
4-Wheel Drum Brakes

*Subject of a nearly $700,000 restoration
*One of only 390 Marmon V16s built and 11 surviving Convertible Sedans
*Documented in Dyke Ridgley’s Marmon Sixteen Roster

THE MARMON SIXTEEN

“The Marmon Sixteen looks like no other car. It borrows little from the past. It will lend much to the future. It is the one example of unhampered co-ordination of effort by artist and engineer.” – Marmon advertising, 1931.

The Marmon car was built in Indianapolis, by Nordyke & Marmon. The firm had produced flour-milling machinery for more than half a century before automobiles came along. Family scion Howard Marmon built their first car in 1902. This brilliant, highly regarded engineer would lead the Marmon Company to worldwide fame and acceptance.

In 1911, the first Indianapolis 500 race was won by a Marmon “Wasp” racer. By the ‘teens and ’20s, a sporty Marmon was quite the proper car for any occasion. When the depression started to bite in the late 1920s, Marmon dug in and reached for the top, bringing the V16 engined automobile that they’d begun designing in 1927 to fruition. The model debuted in 1931. Extensive use of aluminum in the construction of the power unit meant that even with its sixteen cylinders, and capacity of over 8 liters, the engine’s comparatively modest 422kg weight for its era provided an extremely good power to weight ratio. The power output at 200bhp made it the second most powerful engine available, ahead of Cadillac’s V16, but shy of Duesenberg’s extra 65 horses.

Designated a Full Classic™ by the CCCA, today the Marmon Sixteen continues to be marveled at for its engineering prowess, and to earn its justifiable position in history, reflecting its importance they are understandably coveted and reside in some of the great collections across this country and around the world.

Built in the twilight of Marmon’s operational existence in the last year of production, this Sixteen is one of only 56 produced in 1933 before the factory closed. While the pre-WWII ownership history of this Sixteen is not documented, according to the Dyke W. Ridgely’s records from the Marmon Sixteen Roster, chassis 16 145 947 was delivered new as featuring a LeBaron built Convertible Sedan body designed by the great Walter Dorwin Teague Sr.

This Marmon was Originally finished in light yellow over brown saddle leather, it is first recorded as being in the garage of a Mr. Wilder of Willets, California in 1953, when it was sold by him to a mechanic in Los Angeles who owned two other Sixteens. Two years hence, the car moved east to Theodore “Ted” Greuner of Chardin, Ohio. Greuner kept the car for 11 years, but by the end of his ownership tenure, it appears to have mostly sat. The next owner, Joseph B. Virostek of Maple Heights, Ohio kept the car from 1966 through 1974, again doing little with it before selling it to Marshall B. Belden of Canton, Ohio in October of ’74. In Belden’s ownership, restoration was begun in the late 1970s. The work proceeded slowly though, and by 1990 the car was in the collection of the Canton Classic Car Museum in Canton, Ohio—still in a state of restoration. Remaining partially restored for a subsequent 22 years, it was only when it entered the collection of the current owner that a proper effort to complete the restoration was undertaken.

Beginning in the summer of 2012 and taking over three years, the Marmon was stripped down and restored to a Concours level by Old Iron Works of Montgomery, Texas. Documented in a massive file of over 850 pages of receipts, notes, and letters, invoices total over $691,000 for the work completed.

Finished in Navy Blue with Black fenders and top over caramel brown leather interior, the restoration was finished in September of 2015. With only about 60 surviving Sixteens in existence—a mere 11 of which are Convertible Sedans—this is a rare opportunity to acquire a not-often-seen legend from the Classic Era. A CCCA Full Classic™, it is both eligible and welcome to many tour events in addition to being a likely showstopper at any number of Concours events.