Friday, August 30, 2013

The Company That Competed With Ford and Chevy

In 1908 Robert Craig Hupp had an idea. As a former employee of both Chrysler and Ford, Hupp felt he knew a thing or two about cars. Along with his brother Louis, he formed the Hupp Motor Company. Within a year the first car, the Model 20, rolled off the line. By 1910 production had increased to over 5000 cars.

Disagreements with his financial backers led Hupp to leave the company. By 1912 he was off on a new venture with an all electric car. A few years later he was one of two companies in the world using all steel bodies.

Hupp Motor Company continued to grow and thrive after its founder left. By 1924 Hupp was directly competing against companies like Ford and Chevy. By 1928 Hupp was turning out 65,000 cars per year. This increase in sales and production caused Hupp to buy up another company, Chandler-Cleveland Motors. The purchase was mostly for the larger factory facilities. But with larger facilities came larger bills and more debt.

The Depression began taking its toll on sales in 1930. Add this to the fact that while Hupp had established its brand with affordable small and mid-sized cars, they had, since 1925, begun making larger more expensive cars. In this way they were alienating the very people who had been buying their cars. To offset this they began making a wide variety of models instead of just focusing on one small, manageable segment.

Even buying up the dies for the by now defunct Cord automobiles and planning to put out a luxury model didn't help. By 1940 the company had shuttered its factory.

The Hupmobile shown here is a 1931 Model 114 Series S. It is a four door sedan with a 228 cubic inch flathead six engine. Its 70 horse power could move the car down the road at 70 miles per hour. Unfortunately that wasn't fast enough for the Hupp Motor Company to outrun an economic downturn and poor management decisions.



Thursday, August 29, 2013

Rollin'....Rollin'....Rollin' On the River


For us this summer has held some very strange weather. For that reason a lot of shows have been rained out or only a couple of cars have shown up. That's made me change the way I've been posting my pictures and articles. Usually I will do one week of a cars from a show and then post shots from the next show. Since quite often there hasn't been a next show I've been posting lots and lots of pictures from the few shows to which I've been. These are all the pictures that I usually end up saving and posting throughout the winter when there are no shows. The past several weeks, beginning with the Keenland Concours d'Elegance, we've had good weather and now I have a stockpile of shows backed up in the cue. For that reason I'm only doing one week from this show and then moving on. But trust me, I'll be back to Rollin' on the River and all the great cars that showed up.







Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Still Rollin' On the River

At the 24th Annual Rollin' On the River car show, the featured marque was Corvette. With this being the 50th anniversary of this classic American sports car it's little wonder. In fact, large open car shows all over the country are featuring the Vette. Here are a few classic Vettes mixed in with some other great rides. Believe me, many more Vettes from this show will be posted later on.







Tuesday, August 27, 2013

More From Rollin' On the River

The past couple of years at Rollin' On the River saw bad weather. Last year in particular was practically a wash out. With the rainy summer we've been having no one would have been surprised if the same thing happened to this year's event. Fortunately, the skies were clear and the weather was pretty nice for the 24th Annual Rollin' On the River car show. Yes it got a little hot and humid as the day went on but what do you expect on a summer day in the Ohio River Valley.







Monday, August 26, 2013

Rolling On the River

As the name implies, the Rollin' On the River car show takes place in a beautiful park on the banks of the Ohio River, just west of Cincinnati in the community of Delhi. Recently the 24th installment, sponsored by the Delhi Kiwanis and Fernbank Park, took place in perfect summer weather.
Rollin' On the River is an open show and people from all over the Midwest take that to heart as all types of vehicles show up. I heard an estimate of nearly 500 cars pulled in for this year's event and as I walked around among row after row of timeless classic, I believe that number was pretty close.






Friday, August 23, 2013

The Last From the Ice Cream Social

Here are the last of the cars that showed up on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon to take part in the Annual Bethel Murdoch Church Show and Shine Ice Cream Social.






Thursday, August 22, 2013

More From the Ice Cream Social

Here are more of the great cars that were on hand for the Annual Bethel Murdoch Church Show and Shine Ice Cream Social.