More on Hupmobile Skylark II

Tom_Parkinson wrote: The crankshaft-driven blower used in the supercharged Graham Hollywoods was an in-house design, ie, not a purchased outside market unit. Can you imagine the difficulty of finding essential parts for it today?
--Tom

True, except everybody that junked a Graham kept the supercharger so there is about 4 for every car in existence. There is one on eBay every week. They go for anywhere between 200 and 600 dollars depending on completeness.

The crankshaft-driven blower used in the supercharged Graham Hollywoods was an in-house design, ie, not a purchased outside market unit. Can you imagine the difficulty of finding essential parts for it today?

Supercharging certainly improved the performance of the Six. When I supercharged my Silver Hawk Studie, it turned into a screaming banshee, and it outran greased lightning on the highways. I'll bet the blown Hollywoods really were quick off the line!

Here's a photo of the Graham Hollywood supercharged engine:



Here's a photo I found showing the crankshaft drive of a Graham supercharger. This one is said to be a '37.



--Tom




--Tom

I'm a fan of the supercharged graham version and it's a very cost effective substitute for those that can't afford a Cord. I believe that the blown Hollywood was the fastest American car 0-60 in 1940.

My posting of the Hupmobile factory photos of the "Junior 6"--later "Skylark"--prototype generated a lot of interest, so I am posting the factory photos of the revised prototype. It is this re-designed prototype, with few more minor alterations, that became the production model. Hupp is believed to have hand-made 4 1939 Junior 6 or Skylark sedans and 1 1939 Corsair convertible, then line-assembled 30 1939 Skylark sedans before turning production over to Graham. I much prefer the original prototype, but then again, I prefer the Cord to begin with. <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt=":lol:" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

The commentary below is not my own: it was posted with the pics at the Hupmobile Skylark site.


This is a photograph of the original "Junior Six" prototype car with the John Tjaarda redesigned front end treatment. By now, the car had been renamed the "Skylark". Note the unusual hubcaps, the six-slot upper grille (pre-production and production cars had seven slot upper grilles), and the Cord style bumper guards. The photo is not extremely clear, but the emblem in between the 20 slot lower grilles is not the final form either.





An interesting low angle shot of the new front end treatment.





A little fuzzy, but this photo shows off the cleaner front end treatment in profile.