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Air Cooled 30’s Built Hot Rod: Cheap 1929 Franklin Speedster Project
This old speedster is described as a 30’s build utilizing a shortened Franklin frame, and most interestingly, its air-cooled six-cylinder as well. Franklin built high-quality, excellently engineered cars, and apart from a long tradition of innovation, were also quite involved in period motorsports. The donor parts used to build this car come from an unspecified 1929 model, likely a 135. The Great Depression economy would see the massive, long-running company shut its doors four years later. Find the car here on eBay in Forked River, New Jersey for $3,500 OBO. Special thanks to BaT reader Richard G. for this submission.
The entirety of the ad reads: “Air-cooled 1929 Franklin Speedster. 1930’s hot rod, body removed, frame shortened, fire truck seat and gas tank, hydraulic brakes and wood wheels. Very, very cool project.” We agree, it is very cool, but even if there’s little to it, the car is going to take a lot of effort to restore. Some backstory would be fascinating, but unfortunately we’re all left to fill in the blanks ourselves.
Here’s what makes the car so special–Franklin’s traditional air-cooled six, in this case likely a 274ci, 60 HP unit pulled from a model 135. There’s no word on whether it turns freely, but it still looks magnificent. and largely complete as well. Note the crank-driven squirrel cage fan and forced-air ducting.
Check out this interesting video, where Jay Leno interviews the owner of an all-original 1911 Franklin racer. Hopefully someone mad enough to take this one on sees the ad and jumps before it’s sent to the scrapyard.
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