In 1905, David Fergusson, the chief engineer of the fabled Buffalo, New York, automaker Pierce-Arrow, toured Europe, visiting all the major manufacturers and looking at design trends and engineering. They noted the move to larger cars with six-cylinder engines, which shortly set the pattern for Pierce-Arrow cars for the next fifteen years. Several iterations of the six-cylinder Pierce-Arrow would be made, among them the 36-horsepower Model 36-UU of 1909, a potent T-head machine of considerable brio for its “small” size.

The Model 36-UU offered here has a wonderful heritage, having been discovered by the pioneering American enthusiast Warren Kraft in the 1940s in Mike Caruso’s Long Island junkyard, a fount of “finds” in the early years of the hobby. Kraft rescued the car and sold it to Winford Smith; it was fitted with homemade bodywork and used on several early hobby events, and later passed into the ownership of their contemporary, US Steel chairman James Bragg. It eventually came into the hands of enthusiast Bob Robinson of Schwenksville, Pennsylvania, who in 2002 undertook the present restoration, with the body reproduced as an excellent recreation of the 1909 Model 36-UU runabout, with its distinctive third “mother-in-law” seat.

In 2004 the car was sold by Mr. Robinson to the respected New England collector and enthusiast, the late George Grew. Mr. Grew maintained the Pierce well for the rest of his life, enjoying taking it for drives and occasionally exhibiting it, most prominently at the 2009 Newport Concours d’Elegance, where it received the award as the best American sports car.

The Pierce-Arrow was sold from the Grew estate in 2012 to the present owner, himself an avid enthusiast of Brass Era automobiles, who has continued to maintain it well and to actually use it on local roads, with the aid of 12-volt ignition and an alternator. Its restoration remains highly attractive, in deep green with gold striping on the chassis, and highlights of copper plating to the headlamps, hood, and steering column. The brass radiator with its Pierce-Arrow script, brass Rushmore headlights and Solar side lamps, and flying eagle radiator mascot are all splendid touches, as well.

This is a Pierce-Arrow of abundant charm!