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Pierce-Arrow was a Buffalo-based maker of automobiles. The company was known for its quality and craftsmanship.
The cars were favored by tycoons and Hollywood stars, as well as most of the royalty of the world. They were also used by fire departments for transporting large amounts of equipment or personnel.
Engines
The Pierce Arrow cars were a top luxury car brand. They were produced in Buffalo, New York from 1901 to 1938. They were made to the highest standards of engineering and workmanship, which made them a popular choice for wealthy Americans.
One of the most impressive aspects of these automobiles was the quality of their engines. Unlike most manufacturers, who used other brands for their engine components, the engines in Pierce Arrows were designed by the company itself and made to the high standards that their cars had come to be known for.
In addition, they were built with the best materials available to them at that time, including aluminum and bronze. This allowed them to be very light, yet also strong and durable, ensuring that their cars could stand up to the harshest driving conditions.
This made them one of the most dependable and quiet cars on the market at the time. Their low-revving engines, coupled with a thorough and meticulous manufacturing process, ensured that their owners had a car that ran without issue.
Another important aspect of these cars was the body. While most companies relied on outside coachbuilders to design their bodies, Pierce-Arrow had their own body designers in house, who consulted closely with their demanding clientele about what accessories and colors were appropriate for them.
The company’s head designer was Herbert M. Dawley, who had a background in theater and Broadway. He designed most of the models that were produced by Pierce-Arrow until 1938.
Many of these models were a step above the rest, with features that had not been available on other cars of the same price. For example, they had a unique styling feature that moved the headlights from the radiator’s sides to flared housings molded into the front fenders. This patented design feature gave these vehicles a unique look and became an enduring part of their overall appeal.
Another important feature of these cars was the V-12 engine, which was a highly advanced powerplant. It was developed during the 1920s and featured 4 cylinders per head, an unusual design for its time. It also included a double spark-head with twin distributors, which both improved fuel burn in the cylinders and increased reliability.
Transmissions
The name Pierce-Arrow is synonymous with luxury cars, but it’s not just the name of a brand. It is also a symbol of American automotive excellence.
The company started out as a manufacturer of birdcages, bathtubs and bicycles but by 1903 it had built a small single-cylinder car powered by a DeDion engine. George Pierce, who began his career in 1878, experimented with steam power but a Scottish engineer named David Fergusson eventually helped develop a successful internal combustion engine.
By 1909 Pierce had a successful line of automobiles and was able to sell them at a reasonable price. They were a status symbol, owned by Hollywood stars and tycoons. President William Howard Taft ordered two models for use in the White House, the first official cars to be used by a U.S. president for state occasions, and these cars were the most popular among the monarchs and millionaires who were the customers.
Although Pierce Arrow cars were not known for their luxurious features, they were extremely well-built. They were often described as being the best made cars in America, and that is no small feat when you consider the amount of labor and precision needed to build each vehicle.
Despite the company’s excellent reputation, it was facing serious financial problems during the Great Depression. A group of Buffalo-based investors were able to save it from folding. This restructure gave it new life and allowed them to continue to produce quality vehicles in 1933, even though they were no longer producing the high-end models they had once been.
As the 1930s wore on, Pierce-Arrow produced more stylish, yet more streamlined models. They started to take the styling of their cars more seriously and in particular redesigned their headlamps. These headlamps featured a curved design that was inspired by the lines of the front fenders.
Another innovative Pierce-Arrow feature was the introduction of hydraulic tappets. They had previously failed in the past, but Voorhies patented a self-adjusting system that worked great on the Model 33 sedans. In addition, Stuart-Warner mechanical brakes were introduced in 1933 and became standard on all Pierce-Arrow models. Other standard features included tinted safety glass, cross-beam headlights and automatic choke.
Body
In the 1930s America produced some of the world’s finest luxury automobiles. Over a dozen companies offered upscale vehicles with powerful engines, custom-built bodies and well-appointed interiors. Pierce-Arrow, based in New York, was among these companies.
It was known for its engineering and for being one of the first automobile manufacturers to offer conventional body designs. It was also known for using aluminum to save weight.
As with many other car manufacturers, Pierce-Arrow had a number of different models to choose from, each with a different chassis and body style. This was to ensure that customers were satisfied with the body they chose for their vehicle, and this continued to be the case throughout the company’s history.
Pierce-Arrow was a leader in aluminum body work, and almost every component on its cars were made from the light-weight metal. This allowed the company to keep its prices low, but it also meant that their cars were often lighter than other cars in their class.
While other luxury car makers relied on outside coachbuilders to build their cars, Pierce-Arrow maintained complete control over their body design and construction. They worked closely with their Buffalo, New York neighbor, the Aluminum Company of America to develop cast aluminum body panels that were thinner than most and which allowed the company’s cars to be strong and rigid but also remarkably light.
The design of the body was handled within Pierce-Arrow’s Art Department headed by Herbert Dawley, who worked closely with their demanding clientele to ensure that the vehicle they bought would look just as they wanted it to. The Art Department was also in charge of the colors and accessories that were incorporated into the bodies, including the trim, mirrors and window frames.
After the body was designed and fabricated, it had to be put through a series of tests. It was then installed in the chassis and run on a chassis dynamometer to be sure it could operate correctly. After a period of time, it was road tested on a variety of ordinary roads to verify that the body was comfortable and didn’t make noise.
Electrical
The Pierce Arrow brand was synonymous with quality, reliability and prestige. The cars were a favorite of presidents, monarchs, millionaires and movie stars alike.
In 1901, George Pierce opened a factory in Buffalo to produce birdcages, ice chests, tricycles and bikes, but eventually moved into automobiles. By 1906, he was building an impressive 1.5-million-square-foot facility on the site of the former Pan-American Exposition.
After a brief stint as part of Studebaker, he re-established his own company in 1909 and changed the name to Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company. He refocused the line, dropping the Stanhope and focusing on high-priced, upscale models.
As with most American manufacturers, Pierce-Arrow’s success depended on an aggressive marketing strategy and a constant stream of new innovations. One of the most significant was a new front-mounted two-cylinder engine that offered 20 to 25 horsepower, the best power to weight ratio for that time period.
The new engine also had a new cylinder-head design, which made it lighter and easier to keep clean. Another big innovation was a unique headlamp arrangement, which essentially replaced the conventional bracket-mounted lamps with metal pods sprouting from the front fenders.
This allowed for better nighttime visibility than the conventional design. The new lighting technology also gave Pierce-Arrow a distinct identity, which was very important in those days, when many states outlawed conventional lights.
When President Taft ordered two cars for the White House in 1909, Pierce-Arrow became a status symbol. It was a tradition that lasted until Franklin Roosevelt’s White House ordered two 1935 models for official use.
In 1925, sales soared with the introduction of the Series 80. The model, which was powered by a modern 70-hp L-head inline-six, was offered at prices as low as $2,895 for a snazzy Touring car.
But sales fell off in the midst of the Great Depression, and by 1930, Pierce-Arrow was in trouble. They had sold almost 6,800 vehicles, but in 1931 their numbers were down to 4,522 units.
As you can see, a lot happened at the company in that decade, but what was most important was that the new management recognized the importance of building the very best automobiles possible. With the help of Colonel Clifton and his team, Pierce-Arrow would become the premier luxury car manufacturer in America.