There are few American cars more closely associated with the taxi business than the Checker Marathon. Its boxy shape, enormous passenger compartment, and unmistakable styling made it a familiar sight on city streets for decades. This 1978 example still wears a checkerboard stripe, gray paint, and red wheels, and its rear jump seats remind us that these cars were designed to carry people first and worry about fashion later.
I remember riding in Checker cabs in New York City with my mom as a kid. I can still recall that distinctive smell: hot vinyl, rubber, old tobacco, and a little mechanical grease. Then there was the heavy thunk of the doors and the clack-whirrr of the driver starting the fare meter. You didn’t forget a ride in one of these cars.
This 1978 Checker Marathon is coming up for auction on Hemmings in Hampton Falls, New Hampshire, as part of a collection being offered by Paul McInnis LLC.
For kids, those jump seats were part of the fun. You could sit facing the rear bench, watch the city through those huge windows, and enjoy having room to move around. If you were sitting on the big, flat rear bench, a sharp turn could send you sliding from one side to the other. With seating for eight, a Checker felt more like a little living room on wheels than the back seat of an ordinary car.
There’s a 350-cubic-inch Chevy V8 under the hood, backed by an automatic transmission. The factory data plate ties this one to a Tonawanda-built small-block, and the door-jamb tag shows an October 1978 build date. That’s a proper big-American-sedan drivetrain for the late Seventies.
The auction is scheduled for October 22 at 10 a.m. Eastern. Would you take this old Checker for a ride? Tell us in the comments. Jack M. brought this memorable Checker to our attention, giving us a chance to revisit what made these old taxis so distinctive.
Again with the Checker. I think pretty much everything to be said, was said previously, except, “You talkin’ to me”? I have deduced the reason Checkers never made it big in the private sector, was like the red station wagon( fire chief),, people didn’t want to be pestered by folks, TAXI!!! I think the only other car to make it so long without a change, was the VW bug. I can honestly say, of all the junkyards I’ve been through, I never saw a Checker. Where did they all go?
Oh, one more thing, for us starved truck buffs, the trucks and machines in the background look interesting. The cabover is an early 60s IH VCO190, and the green one looks like a late 40s IH KB 10( with sacked out left front spring) and some dozers, a B model Mack and a late 40s E series Mack. Looks like someone “lining them up”, a farmers term for throwing in the towel.
Hey Howard, what about them trucks? From left to right is a real nice Sterling dump, ubiquitous B model Mack, ’58 DCO IH then the KB10, there’s also an S120 Travelall! Bring on the trucks! Who cares about some old taxi?
Howard, like you I would like to visit that show / facility where these pictures were taken.. BUT I have to disagree on a couple of the trucks. On that IH cabover, I do not see the chrome V under the IH emblem to make it a VCO or a exhaust stack to make it a diesel DCO. The roof line says 1958. Also that green dump truck behind the B model Mack is a Sterling. I would have to dig thru some past pictures to find a close up of one.
Howard,
I would think you could find them in NYC or NY junkyards, Chicago and L.A.
But if you still can’t find one, they have all been bought up and canibalized for parts to restore what’s left sitting in barns and collections.
Indeed, Checker continued to “remanufacture” cabs long after the final model rolled off their assembly line. They probably grabbed all the useful parts they could find.
I agree! As mentioned before, I dig the “4 door” Checker wagons and if I found one in reasonable cost and condition would love to hot rod one up with a 472/500 Caddy and late .model overdrive transmission. Find some nice wheel covers and install them on some wide black steel wheels. Just stock looking with nice paint. BUT, no Barden- truck style bumper/park benches for me. They are just plain ugly.
Great find, but I’d lose the bumpers pronto if I could find a set off an earlier Checker.
Like Howard A, I’m not sure where all the Checkers have gone. I know the actual taxis — especially the NYC cabs — led brutal lives, and probably were scrapped if they hadn’t rusted out. But I can remember seeing a fair number of them in civilian guise in earlier years, and it’s hard to believe so few survived.
Then PLEASE don’t buy it! If you lose the bumpers, you will destroy the history of the vehicle. Those bumpers make the car!!!!
Are those water bumpers? If I remember correctly, for a few years they had bumpers you filled with water.
It would be fun (almost) to get into a fender-bender with those.
You could use that front bumper as a park bench! Yee-ow!
Most of the larger New York City cab companies would run these Checkers 24 hours a day. All of the body panels could be easily removed and replacement panels bolted on. Nothing went to waste. Everything that could be harvested off of a dead car would be harvested. The big bumpers helped it survive on the streets. Easy to touch up with a new coat of paint.
Still weird going to NYC and seeing all the Toyota taxis instead of the entire parade of yellow Checkers.
The front bumper seats 3 in a pinch.
Just imagine the major damage that front bumper would cause to your car if it hit you. I know it’s another comment, but you’ve got to admit it extends just a tad too much. Which by 1978 the government mandated like they did for every car.
At last, battering-ram 1970s bumpers even more protruding than Ford’s! I’ll bet they get the job done – heaven help the Honda that thing bumps into.
Ford’s fed bumpers were the worst. Aside from the Matador 4 door 74-78, AMC did a far more elegant job than Ford ever did. Yet people whine and moan about the Matador coupe whose bumpers were elegantly done and without cheap plastic vanity panels.
The 78-79 Concord was the same. Then they “facelifted” and not for the better.
Yes, surprisingly AMC did pretty well in dealing with the bumper mandate aside of course for the embarrassing “Jimmy Durante” nose on the later Matador sedans and wagons. (The 1974 Ambassador on the other hand didn’t look nearly as bad. They probably should have gone with a decontented version of that setup for the Matador. But I digress.)
This Checker on the other hand proudly wears its battering rams front and rear, proclaiming “You want a piece of me? Come and get it!” I can just imagine the Toyotas and Hondas scattering out of the way in terror if a Checker like this one were to come careening at them in a traffic circle.
Those bumpers are just what you
need to knock some road raging A hole into the nearest ditch when he or she cuts you off. Add
a grille guard and headlight protection, and you’d have the Smash And Crash Road Rage Kit
by Ronco! That would sure come in handy here in Melbourne where
most of the drivers drive like fools. You name it, they do it. This car would look really sinister
painted black or dark blue with those steel rims and dog dish hub caps. Then add a 472 or 500
Cadillac mill with either a beefed up T 400 tranny or an M-22 rock crusher 4-speed and let the fun begin! Just think of how many people you’ll scare when you pull up behind them in traffic! Why the traffic would part like the Red
Sea just to get away from you! This car is far too nice to mess with in that manner. For this car,
I’d more than likely beef up the 350 with factory go fast innards
from a ’70 Corvette and beef up
the tranny to deal with the extra
twist that the hopped up 350 would put out. the Dana 44 rear axle should be fine when it comes to that mouse motor roar.
And the go fast goodies I mentioned would be 4 bolt mains,
high output cylinder heads, high
output intake manifold and at least a
750 CFM 4-barrel carb, and a high lift cam with solid lifters, and a good set of low restriction headers and mufflers. All that should net you 1 HP per cubic inch if I remember correctly. More than enough to scare the 💩 out of anyone that might wanna race you someday. I can just see Angel 😇 rumbling around town in this car AFTER I
soup up the engine. I think she’d
have a blast! I know I would!
The trick would be to come up with 1 horsepower per pound of car! (lol) But you NEED big torque to get this monster rolling.
Do where have all the Checkers gone? I need a good carcass to build me a Checkillac! And if I ever can do it, THIS is what it would look like!
I did see a guy in the San Francisco bay area that was selling Checker parts. I don’t remember if it was on Craigslist or Marketplace. There has to be someone doing that as there were too many built and still around.
An yes, I remember the water filled bumpers. They were just as ugly as the Barden style truck bumpers.
And Ken, I agree with the Checkallac engine transplant idea.
The Checker was a perfectly designed taxi and family car. Not longer lower wider or aerodynamic. It was a continuing version of the 1950s car with upright styling that allowed ease of entry and plenty of headroom coupled with an unobstructedvuew for the driver.. It used Chevrolet and domestic engines and transmissions so could be easily serviced anywhere. Nice to see one on Barn Finds.
One? 🤣 this is the third one this week! There was a ’66 station wagon and a ’69 civilian Marathon.
I like these cars. It seems like there have been quite a few on here recently, I just wish one was in my price range. I really like how spacious the back seat looks.
My automotive spirit animal…. these and the Studebaker Scotsman. Built for purpose, no nonsense.
I wish taxi versions of modern cars were available today: N/A engines, heavy duty transmissions, suspensions, cooling systems, rubber flooring, analog gauges, ease of service, built for long life or 25 years of service.
No, I don’t want a truck. Besides they only want to sell the Titanium King Ranch Brougham 500 LTD Platinum Premiere Ghia High Country Limited versions with a 96 month contract and 23% interest rate
Where have all the checkers gone long time passing long time ago
Where have all the Checkers gone? Gone to scrapyards, every one. Oh, when will they ever learn? Oh, when will they ever learn?
My parents had two Checker Marathons. A 1967 which did end up in the scrap yard because my mother rolled it and totaled it.
The other was a 1970. I would love to track that down but don’t have the serial number to it.
Funny that this is in Hampton Falls. Back in the late ’80s and early ’90s, I was doing a work study programme with the Exeter, N.H., police department, which is the next town over from Hampton Falls. Exeter at the time was running Checkers as cruisers. They had two or three of them if I recall. I was a student at UNH and did some dispatch work and also rode with some of the cops in those Checkers. The cops weren’t entirely sold on the idea of the Checker as the ideal cruiser….many of the cops with whom I rode would rather have had a Plymouth or a Ford. I do remember that they rode well, but cornering was not their strong suit. They were also not the best pursuit vehicles, even with the SBC under the hood….that engine was pulling a lot of car behind it.
Paul McInnis is a presence in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire……if it’s up for auction, McInnis is probably handling it……..
You’ll have to excuse our new friend here Angel 😇, as he’s a bit
late to the Checker party this week. And Lance is right. The Checker was a continuation of ’50s car styling that placed practicality over all the over styled excess there was back then. They have, and still do, a blatant form of substance that
we’ll never see again. Bodies that
can take a direct hit and still protect the folks inside and could
be prepared quickly. I’ve read articles that there are companies
now reproducing new bodies for
the 64.5 Mustang and ’70 Chevelle LS 6. So why not the Checker? And if there were, I’d be
the first guy on my block to build a Checkillac with one and not feel
guilty about cutting up a genuine
Kalamazoo car. That would be quite a project for the folks at Factory 5 to tackle. And when they do, I’ll be the first to buy a kit
and start building.
Ten years ago I lived in Clearwater and there was a cab company (NYC cab) that had easily 30 of these on their lot in all conditions. They had Marathons, Cabs and Airporters! So that’s where at least that many ended up!
That front bumper looks like it was made out of a guardrail.
One more of these russian designed american icons –
Checker, the US equivalent of the British Austin cab. Both ugly, iconic, easy rear seat access and built to be used for many, many years. I remember being in New York ,City in the summer of 1972. Yellow Checker Cabs everywhere! But one of the things that actually scared me was when a pack of cabs were racing down 42nd street trying to catch the green light at the next corner the ball joints rattling over the bumps just waiting to pop and come carreening into the sidewalk population. That and my buddies getting beat up and robbed is what I remember most about New York City.
Those bumpers might be useful in the traffic hell of NYC then and now, but they are so ugly they make my eyes water. They look like they were made out of six-foot sections of highway guard rail.
Wayne, I did start a Checkillac print just for grins and giggles. Just haven’t had time to dress it out and finish it. I started on it after seeing one on BF earlier this
year. It was the one where Angel
said she thought my blindness made me screwy. I use that reference because I can’t remember the title of the post. And Angel 😇, I know you really
didn’t mean it and I took no offense to it. But at least I got her to chuckle and smile at the
Smash And Crash Road Rage Bumper Kit by Ronco though. She’s a nice lady that needs a good laugh now and then. Sometimes, I’ll even shock my kids by being able to poke fun at
myself when the situation warrants it. My favorite thing to say is “Not bad for a fat old blind
man”. As I said, the Checkillac
print has been started and eventually will be finished once the painters get done painting our
building. Had to pack up my art
stuff to get ready for them. I heard from a friend of mine that they won’t be done til next week!
WTF! No place to read BF?!! No
place to draw?!! And no place to
sit in peace and smoke a cigar?!!
That 🐂 💩 is just downright un
American!!!
Holy smokes you can build chicken coup on the front bumper :D
Contact the Checker Car Club of America if
you’re interested in cars, parts or advice.
Don’t you just love that each jumpseat has
its own ashtray?