4 replies to this topic

[bsatriple]

James Cunningham and Son of Rochester NY manufactured very high end cars from 1907 to 1933. Their major competition was Packard. Packard hired Ralph De Palma to drive one of their modified cars in a LSR run at Daytona in January 1919. To counter this Cunningham hired DePalma to do the same thing with a stock car. The event ran at Sheepshead Bay on 11-17-1919. To capitalize on this event Cunningham made 7 replicas and sold them as "DePalma Speedsters" in the 20's. We woulld like to find out what happened to these 8 cars.

D. Cameron Peck found one and I believe restored it-it became the Briggs Cunningham/Collier car. If any one knows any details about this car or what Peck did to it please let me know.

The Millard car is now being restored. These are the only two we know about.

Any information on the Peck car or the what happened to the original car that ran the record run will be most especially appreciated.
We are also very interested in what happened to the others.
Thank you-BsaTriple

[Doug Nye]

The James Cunningham & Son Company produced very high-quality cars for the carriage trade starting about 1907.

The Collier Collection has a “DePalma Speedster” that Briggs Cunningham purchased from D. Cameron Peck in 1952/53.

Peck purchased it sometime around Feb/March 1941 from a general purpose garage in Wilmette Ill. The Library in Wilmette provided some information about the garage. Collier's have also contacted the historical society there but they have not responded yet. A search within Peck's donation to the Detroit Public library of his collection of material about the cars he owned and historic archive material in general yielded mixed results. The researcher found only a few pictures but no more.

The Collection car is thought to be the LSR car that the Cunningham Company used to counter the LSR that Packard hired De Palma to run in 2-8-1919 with a V-12 Streamliner. De Palma set a LSR of 149.8MPH. An intense advertising campaign followed (actually prepared before hand) aimed at all the high-end car manufacturers, basically saying the event was as smooth as silk and those qualities were to be found in the production car.

In the attempt to counter this coup, Cunningham hired De Palma for an LSR attempt with one of the V8s that the company built. They ran theirs at Sheepshead Bay, NY, on November 17, 1919.The two events are not directly comparable because the Packard effort was a special while the Cunningham was stock except for extra large tires and wheels to get a few more MPH.
Cunningham did indeed set a record and to capitalize on it produced 7 more “De Palma Speedsters” made in 1920.

The above supplied to me by Librarian Paul Kierstein at the Collier Collection, Naples, FL.

DCN

[bsatriple]

The James Cunningham & Son Company produced very high-quality cars for the carriage trade starting about 1907.

The Collier Collection has a “DePalma Speedster” that Briggs Cunningham purchased from D. Cameron Peck in 1952/53.

Peck purchased it sometime around Feb/March 1941 from a general purpose garage in Wilmette Ill. The Library in Wilmette provided some information about the garage. Collier's have also contacted the historical society there but they have not responded yet. A search within Peck's donation to the Detroit Public library of his collection of material about the cars he owned and historic archive material in general yielded mixed results. The researcher found only a few pictures but no more.

The Collection car is thought to be the LSR car that the Cunningham Company used to counter the LSR that Packard hired De Palma to run in 2-8-1919 with a V-12 Streamliner. De Palma set a LSR of 149.8MPH. An intense advertising campaign followed (actually prepared before hand) aimed at all the high-end car manufacturers, basically saying the event was as smooth as silk and those qualities were to be found in the production car.

In the attempt to counter this coup, Cunningham hired De Palma for an LSR attempt with one of the V8s that the company built. They ran theirs at Sheepshead Bay, NY, on November 17, 1919.The two events are not directly comparable because the Packard effort was a special while the Cunningham was stock except for extra large tires and wheels to get a few more MPH.
Cunningham did indeed set a record and to capitalize on it produced 7 more “De Palma Speedsters” made in 1920.

The above supplied to me by Librarian Paul Kierstein at the Collier Collection, Naples, FL.

DCN

[bsatriple]

The James Cunningham & Son Company produced very high-quality cars for the carriage trade starting about 1907.

The Collier Collection has a “DePalma Speedster” that Briggs Cunningham purchased from D. Cameron Peck in 1952/53.

Peck purchased it sometime around Feb/March 1941 from a general purpose garage in Wilmette Ill. The Library in Wilmette provided some information about the garage. Collier's have also contacted the historical society there but they have not responded yet. A search within Peck's donation to the Detroit Public library of his collection of material about the cars he owned and historic archive material in general yielded mixed results. The researcher found only a few pictures but no more.

The Collection car is thought to be the LSR car that the Cunningham Company used to counter the LSR that Packard hired De Palma to run in 2-8-1919 with a V-12 Streamliner. De Palma set a LSR of 149.8MPH. An intense advertising campaign followed (actually prepared before hand) aimed at all the high-end car manufacturers, basically saying the event was as smooth as silk and those qualities were to be found in the production car.

In the attempt to counter this coup, Cunningham hired De Palma for an LSR attempt with one of the V8s that the company built. They ran theirs at Sheepshead Bay, NY, on November 17, 1919.The two events are not directly comparable because the Packard effort was a special while the Cunningham was stock except for extra large tires and wheels to get a few more MPH.
Cunningham did indeed set a record and to capitalize on it produced 7 more “De Palma Speedsters” made in 1920.

The above supplied to me by Librarian Paul Kierstein at the Collier Collection, Naples, FL.

DCN

[bsatriple]

The James Cunningham & Son Company produced very high-quality cars for the carriage trade starting about 1907.

The Collier Collection has a “DePalma Speedster” that Briggs Cunningham purchased from D. Cameron Peck in 1952/53.

Peck purchased it sometime around Feb/March 1941 from a general purpose garage in Wilmette Ill. The Library in Wilmette provided some information about the garage. Collier's have also contacted the historical society there but they have not responded yet. A search within Peck's donation to the Detroit Public library of his collection of material about the cars he owned and historic archive material in general yielded mixed results. The researcher found only a few pictures but no more.

The Collection car is thought to be the LSR car that the Cunningham Company used to counter the LSR that Packard hired De Palma to run in 2-8-1919 with a V-12 Streamliner. De Palma set a LSR of 149.8MPH. An intense advertising campaign followed (actually prepared before hand) aimed at all the high-end car manufacturers, basically saying the event was as smooth as silk and those qualities were to be found in the production car.

In the attempt to counter this coup, Cunningham hired De Palma for an LSR attempt with one of the V8s that the company built. They ran theirs at Sheepshead Bay, NY, on November 17, 1919.The two events are not directly comparable because the Packard effort was a special while the Cunningham was stock except for extra large tires and wheels to get a few more MPH.
Cunningham did indeed set a record and to capitalize on it produced 7 more “De Palma Speedsters” made in 1920.

The above supplied to me by Librarian Paul Kierstein at the Collier Collection, Naples, FL.

DCN

Doug-thank you for the information-BSAtriple