A Little Blue: 1927 Marmon Little 8 Sedan
Marmon is another car company few remember. They started out in 1851 making millstones and worked their way up to 16 Cylinder luxury cars. Marmon cars were known for being well engineered and they pioneered several interesting innovations like the rear view mirror. A Marmon Wasp driven by Marmon engineer Ray Harroun won the first Indy 500 in 1911. He was the only solo driver and is said to have relied on his rear view mirror instead of a ride-along mechanic to watch traffic.The Little Marmon 8 was introduced in 1927 and was a great success. This Marmon is listed on eBay in Laconia, New Hampshire. The BIN is $7,100 with an opening bid of $6,000 and no bids yet. It’s also listed on autoquid for $6,000. That’s perhaps a bit high as running examples sell for as little as $6,000 and fully restored cars are listed for $20,000 or less. This one appears to have either been restored at some time or at least been a project.
The dash looks complete and the floor looks nice. I wonder what the rest of the interior looks like.
Here’s the OHV straight eight. Marmon did do things their own way. The engine doesn’t run but it does turn easily. Things under the hood look surprisingly nice. There’s been some recent work done here.
If the wood is in good shape, this might be a good project. It needs a top plus whatever it takes to get the engine running and brakes working. Parts will be a challenge though. If this Marmon is in as good a shape as it appears, it might be it might be worthwhile to at least restore it to driver status. It would be interesting to know more about the condition of the interior. Do you think there’s any hope for this little Marmon?
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Comments
Cars of this era are restoration projects for the Renaissance Man of all talents: One has to be comfortable with mechanics, metal casting (babbitting) woodworking, sewing, panel beating and lacquer work to bring one of these up from zero to presentable (this one is further along than that)–or be slaving all year over a hot checkbook. Too early for me to have any reminisces from my childhood, but something about the presence of this one (and there have been many of this era to grace this page) strikes a very responsive chord in me.
Any idea what that is in front of the steering shaft?
Water pump I believe.
Yes it’s the water pump driven off the rear of the generator (same as many older cars) but more interesting is that it is bolted down low on the block which would indicate the Marmon engine uses a full depth water jacket whereas other marques like my 32 Dodge doesn’t have the water jacket all the way down the block. This means more power could be developed hence the need to remove more heat. I think this is a nice car but I can’t see if it has four-wheel brakes.
Thanks guys!
Looks like a great project. All these era cars look the same to me, the dash, but under the hood on this, that’s quite an impressive motor for this car. I bet it moved right along. The Marmon name was revived in 1963 as a line of premium semi trucks, sometimes called the “Rolls-Royce” of trucks. IDK, I drove a Marmon semi and while it was a nice truck, I’ve driven nicer. Great find. I mean, these have got be getting scarce.
The blue thing on the top will hold water and rust the car is supposed to be protecting.