1911 Oldsmobile Limited Seven-Passenger Touring Car
A rare 1911 Oldsmobile Limited Model 27 Seven-Passenger Tourer arriving at and leaving Clearman's restaurants during the 2024 Holiday Motor Excursion presented by the Horseless Carriage Club (HCCA) of Southern California. Built from 1910 to 1912, the Limited was the most expensive car offered by General Motors at the time with a price of around $5,000. In 1911, it was the largest American production car and features a 138-inch wheelbase, 43-inch tires, two-step running boards on each side, and a 706-cubic-inch T-head six-cylinder engine producing 60 horsepower. This example, chassis no. 75017, was formerly owned by opera singer James Melton and is believed to be the only Limited still equipped with its original starting system. In August 2000, it was sold for $644,000 at the Christie's "Exceptional Motor Cars from the Estate of Matt and Barbara Browning" auction. The car won the Ansel Adams Award at the 2006 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and was again displayed at the event in 2023.
A quick look at this car is all it takes to understand why Oldsmobile ultimately met its demise. Over a century ago, this car showed the world you were somebody important and successful. It was made for those who wanted the ultimate expression of luxury and had no problem paying the price for it. And it was unbelievably huge. None of my pictures and videos can accurately capture the experience of seeing this car in the flesh, but compare it to the cars around it and you'll get an idea of how big it is. Those 43-inch (!!) tires were in its day less of a status symbol than it was a helpful means of traveling over dirt roads like its horse-drawn predecessors. But in today's world where people constantly boast about flashy twenty-something-inch rims, it certainly makes quite a statement. Riding in this car elevates you well above even large modern SUVs, and the double running boards make an occasion out of every entry and exit. Of the dozens of antique luxury cars at this event, this was certainly one of the most spectacular. This was - and, to me, still is - a dream car. You can't say that about anything that rolled out of an Olds dealership the decade before the company surrendered its title as the oldest surviving American carmaker. Perhaps if Oldsmobile built more cars like this that people aspired to own, General Motors may have deemed it worthy of a different fate.
Do you think the Oldsmobile brand could have survived if it built more premium luxury cars like this? Leave a comment on YouTube and let me know!