The story of Charles Nash and his namesake company is an important part of the history of the American automobile, but not too many people know just how important. Charles Nash and Walter Chrysler helped shape the car industry in the early 1900s and their legacy lives on today even if the “Nash Motor Company” is no longer. While most of you are probably familiar with the Nash Metropolitan, their early cars are fairly rare and have amazing styling. This great 1930 Nash coupe is no exception and looks like a fun driver or project. It can be found here on ClassicCarsArena.com with an asking price of $10,500. Located in De Winton, SW Calgary, Alberta, Canada, the car is said to be an original British Columbia car and probably spent its whole life in Canada. Let’s check out more of this outstanding car!
The interior looks fairly original. You can tell the wood floorboards have probably been replaced. There are aftermarket gauges under the dash, but the dash itself looks original. Not bad for a driver and a good start for a restoration.
The engine is certainly a bit of a unique design with the spark plugs on the same side and distributor in the middle. you can see the coil looks newer and some of the wiring is new. Unfortunately, this isn’t the engine that the car was built with. The ad does say the original engine is seized, but it comes with the car along with the original transmission. The ad also says the gas tank needs to be addressed, but doesn’t say if it is currently running off of that tank or off of an auxiliary source.
Based on the interior and engine compartment photos, I’m guessing the car has been painted at some point. You can see faded red/orange paint in areas besides the exterior and the door jambs. Even if it has been repainted, it still shows great patina and could easily be driven as-is. What do you think about the wagon-wheel wheels? These cars look so great as hot rods, it would be hard to not go in that direction with this project. What would you do with it? And if you’d like to read more about the history of this car, there’s a cool article on it here on Driving.ca.
Great write up Montana, but they’re called artillery wheels. Hope to read more from you.
Love this one.
Super cool, really clean, this car should be restored to original condition just because of what it is!!!
I’d fix the tank and roll in it, as-is.
It Would be my new commuter car, from Home to the train station.
This ’30 Nash is already a mild hot rod equipped with a 234 cu in 112 hp six from a circa 1948 ambassador. That’s an 87% increase in horses over the original 201.3 cu in six with 60hp.
The larger 1930 Twin Ignition six had a 240 cu in OHV engine with plugs on both sides (1 dizzy and 12 plug wires) with an advertised 74.5hp. Twin Ignition cars had a 118” wheelbase vs the 114 1/4” wheelbase of the base 400. They are easy to identify. The front fender of the base 400 ends at the door opening on the coupe whereas the Twin Igs’ fender ends 4” in front of the door opening. In addition the base 400 has rounded corner rectangles embossed in the sheet metal covering the frame from the body to the running board. The Twin Ig’s has a smooth panel between the body and the running board.
I think this car is unlikely to be restored, but may be finished as a mild hot rod. A nice looking car to drive whenever wherever the mood strikes.
I’ll follow with 2 posts. One with a link to a 48 Nash restoration page with good photos of the Ambassador engine in and out of the car and a second post with the 1930 Nash brochure for the 400 series – Twin Ignition Six and Single Six models.
Do you feel the three-on-the-tree is OEM equipment?
No They were floor shift.
Photos of a 1948 Nash Ambassador four door sedan from 2011 restoration. Compare the engine photos at the bottom of the page with the engine pics of this 1930 Nash 400 Single Six:
https://precisioncarrestoration.com/1948-nash-ambassador/
1930 Nash brochure with beautiful color illustrations of the 400 Twin Ignition Six and the 400 Single Six models. You can see the differences in fender length and body to running board panels of the Twin Ignition Six vs Single Six. Great looking paint schemes:
https://classiccarcatalogue.com/NASH%201930.html
Looks like someone got tired of the floor shift and moved it to the column. No doubt that came from a later model Nash as did the engine.
I’m smitten! I would fix the few items it needs and drive it. Down the road a new owner can restore/refurbish/modify it.
This is a cool ride and yes I was fortunate to take a drive in recently. It is worth a look and the price is right for this bit of history.
I’m going to pretend I did not read the words “hot rod”.
Repaint in same color, do the mechanical servicing, and drive it. Slick old car.
I read awhile back. It was pretty hard to bring a car fr4om Canada into the U.S. Anyone do it lately? Really nice old car.Hope whoeve gets it. Keeps it original. It be fun to work on and bring it back original. If part were not hard to get.Joining a club might help.