Graham, along with several of its peers, limped into the latter years of the Great Depression with slender earnings and a tattered balance sheet. Financial distress encouraged creative maneuvers – all in the name of staying alive. Competitors became cooperators, rivals became partners. Graham, lacking the resources to retool to update its styling, decided to buy Flying Cloud bodies from another distressed auto company, Reo. With light alterations to the front end, Graham launched several models for 1936. But the Graham’s secret sauce wasn’t its body styling – it was its supercharger, with an alloy impeller belt driven off the crankshaft of, by this time, a six-cylinder engine. Boost was not extreme, but it was enough to bring output from 85 hp to 115 hp. Here on facebook Marketplace is one of these rare cars, located in Florence, Kentucky, and priced at $5000 or best offer. Zappenduster sent along this tip – thanks!
This car doesn’t run, but it does retain its engine parts, including the all-important supercharger. The seven-main bearing mill utilized an aluminum head – foisting head gasket issues upon owners. But Graham made more supercharged cars than any other maker by the time the company sold its assets to Kaiser-Frazer in 1947, a record not surpassed until Buick in the 1990s. The only transmission offered was a floor-shift three-speed manual, sometimes augmented with overdrive. Graham’s 1937 models were differentiated largely by their wheelbases – either 116″ or 120″ – with the supercharger offered as an option.
Inside, the Graham provided an upscale experience with mohair upholstery and a unique, plastic center dash section. One large multi-pupose gauge and an equally large clock flank the steering wheel. The seller identifies a rusted-through spot on the cabin’s floor as the only serious corrosion. The car’s badging depicts three knights in semi-profile, homage to the three Graham brothers.
The car’s styling featured horns mounted on the front fenders under the headlamps, at a time when most designers had tucked those beneath sheet metal. The front portholes are non-functional; the longer wheelbase version displayed its spare mounted outside, above the front passenger’s fender. The “bustle back” external trunk doesn’t do the lines of the car any good, but that attribute was still in vogue. Researching the value of these cars uncovered some examples hanging around on the market for not months, but years. Values have stagnated in the high teens for nice original cars, even when the supercharger is present. On the one hand, it would be a shame if this car became part of the expanding extinction statistics that apply to 1930s cars, but on the other hand, recommissioning this rare car will be challenging, to say the least. What would you do with this Graham Supercharged?
Don’t know much about Grahams, until now, and looking at it, it doesn’t look much different than most other 30s cars. I read, it was the supercharging that got them through the depression. These cars were competitively priced, about $1095, to $1200 for the supercharged models. The word “supercharger” conveys images of fire breathing dragsters, or Detroit blowers, but for a passenger car application, it was rather useless. Since a turbocharger, initially called a “turbosupercharger”, was years away, superchargers were the most advanced way of forced induction and did add HP. However, a supercharger is most efficient at higher engine speeds, typically when a flathead runs out of steam. Besides, in the ci at slow speeds,, it was pretty useless, and fell out of favor.
2 ways to go here, restore it original WITH the supercharger, as it was its main gee-gaw, or put your LS motor and drivetrain in, but whatever you do, don’t hack up a nice car like this.
I think I’ve learned more about Graham Paige here than ever. My only experience is that my Dads Grandfather had a 1930 Graham Paige. It was quite a car, and theres a couple photos of him dressed in his “Sundays Best” in it burried somewhere. They were fortunate during the depression because he was an Ice Man. And back then, you always paid the ice man. He worked hard, theres even a picture of him sweating standing by his ice truck he buggy lugged ice up and down flights of stairs in NYC. My Dad has his Ice Tongs. Thanks Michelle for sheding more light on this company and I’m hoping this gets restored to stock. Its a good looking car.
Great original car . . and a true barn find, unlike a lot of the stuff here.
Why would anyone cannibalize this rarity?
How many of these can there be?
Restore it or drive it ”as is”.