Vehicle on Left is a 1939 REO Speed Wagon Truck.
The REO heritage reaches back to the very beginnings of the American automotive industry. The acronym is formed from the initials of its founder, Ransom Eli Olds, a rarity among industry figures in that separate, competing firms, both named for him, were doing business at the same time.
Olds's mission was to design and build reliable high-quality cars for the masses. The two fiscal backers of his original curved-dash Oldsmobile, lumber magnate Samuel L. Smith and his sons, Frederick and Angus, had other ideas, and wanted Olds to build higher-profit luxury cars. Infuriated, Olds left the firm in January 1904, his severance package including a stipulation that the Smiths owned the rights to the Oldsmobile brand. That didn't faze Olds: Later that year, he founded his own company in Lansing, Michigan-where Oldsmobile production also began-under the REO badge. By 1907, only Ford and Buick outpaced it in sales.
The following year, REO began manufacturing trucks. Olds was indifferent to trucks, at best, viewing them only as an additional revenue stream, but ultimately, they would be REO's most durable presence in the marketplace. The car line was capped with the 1931 introduction of the handsomely styled Royale line, but the Depression's chokehold squeezed the life out of auto sales in REO's mid-priced market. With REO's finances battered, the company's directors ended auto production in 1936. Olds resigned as REO chairman shortly thereafter.
Trucks continued to bear the REO name even as Olds's former firm changed hands, with REO sold first to Bohn Aluminum of Detroit in 1954. In 1957, the White Motor Company bought REO, and the following year, bought Diamond T as well, consolidating production of both trucks at REO's Lansing plant. In the ensuing years, both lines' specifications essentially merged and they were combined into a single Diamond-Reo line in 1967, but the firm went into receivership in 1975. The brand was resurrected in 1977 by Osterlund Inc. of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with only a few of the handbuilt trucks assembled through the 1980s before company founder Loyal Osterlund died.
The Speed Wagon truck debuted in the REO lineup in 1915 and continued through 1939, its name a single word in the last years. For 1929, they were made in three ranges including the heavy-duty GA Speed Wagon that Dennis's example represents. His truck rides on a 163-inch wheelbase, the shortest offered; wheelbases up to 179 inches were available. The handcrafted stake body has a 14-foot bed.
REO was virtually alone among early truck manufacturers in adapting lightly modified versions of its passenger-car engines for commercial use. Their advertising of the day opined that, for long-term viability, trucks had to get faster, hence their choice of the Speed Wagon branding. The 1929 GA's engine was dubbed Gold Crown, an L-head, 268-cu.in. inline six borrowed from the REO Flying Cloud car line. With an advanced chrome nickel-alloy block, it produced 67hp at 2,800 rpm. Modifications for truck use included a heavier flywheel, larger fan and water pump, and cast cooling fins on the oil pan.
"They were trying to lead the way to high-speed trucking; their position was, 'Our trucks go, they don't creep,'" said Jim Neal, past president of the REO Club of America and chairman of the forthcoming REO Centennial, set for July 15-17, 2004, and sponsored by the city of Lansing.
The four-speed transmission turns 6.22:1 rear-end gears through a Hotchkiss driveline. Both straight axles are suspended by semi-elliptic leaf springs. Massive-looking eight-spoke cast-iron wheels with detachable rims mount the tires, with duals at the rear.
Vehicle on Right is a 1937 Delahaye
The founder left the factory in 1901, one year after a second factory was opened in Paris. From 1908 Delahaye made more interesting cars with four cylinders like the 9 hp of 1460cc and the 12 hp of 2l20cc, which were continued until the war together with a V6 of 2565cc. Delahayes were exported, but also made under license in Germany and America.
After the war Delahaye was mainly involved in making lorries, motor ploughs and fire engines. Now little interested in cars, they nevertheless made some reliable models like the four-cylinder 1847cc and 2950cc and six-cylinder 4426cc. In 1934, Delahaye presented two new cars the four-cylinder 12 cv (2150cc) and the six-cylinder 18 cv (3200cc).
In 1935 came the most famous Delahayes, the six-cylinder ohv 3.2 Coupe des Alpes and the 3557cc `135'. In the same year Delahaye bought Delage perpetuating that marque on cars built with Delahaye components. Delahaye was successful in racing, and the touring cars sold very well. Famous coachbuilders such as Figoni, Chapron and Letourneur et Marchand made lovely bodies for these cars. Delahaye was also involved in making lorries and armoured vehicles.
After the war the 135 was resumed and the 175 of 4.5 litres was presented in l948. In 1951 came the last new Delahayes: the Jeep-Delahaye, a very advanced vehicle, and the 235 of 3.5 litres.
Hotchkiss took over Delahaye. in 1954 and only built lorries. These were given the name of Hotchkiss-Delahaye for a few months, and were then known as Hotchkiss.