This Locomobile Model 48 is one of the few survivors with open two-passenger roadster coachwork, an ideal choice to maximize the great performance beneath. Acquired by Harrah’s Automobile Collection in 1963 from H.H. Soper of Twin Falls, Idaho, it is noted in the Harrah’s research file as having been “converted from a touring as evidenced by door jambs for rear doors still visible inside rear deck...the cowl indicates the original body to have been a 4-passenger ‘Sportif.’” Indeed, the Sportif’s original body number remains stamped under the right-hand seat cushion.

There were plans to restore the car with a new Gunboat Roadster body, but the Model 48 was instead sold by Harrah’s, much as it had been acquired, to longtime collector Merrill Maxfield of Utah in 1973. A bill of sale in the file indicates that the car was later sold by a dealer in Huntington, Indiana, to John Dupps, Jr. of Germantown, Ohio, in 1995. Mr. Mitosinka added the car to his collection in June of 2010. During Mr. Mitosinka’s ownership the Locomobile was shown at the Palos Verdes Concours d’Elegance, the magneto was rebuilt, the fuel tank and radiator were cleaned, and a new battery was installed.

An older, apparently cosmetic restoration, still retaining some original finishes to the engine compartment and with considerable patina, the car is equipped with Locomobile-badged headlamps with Smith lenses and a complete complement of Warner and Waltham gauges. LeBaron badges, not apparently associated with the original Sportif coachwork, were added to the modified body at some point in time. The Locomobile is offered with a small selection of spare parts as well as a wheel tool, side curtains, and boot for the dual rear-mounted spares, and a partial Harrah’s research file. The car is fitted 20-inch wire wheels and dual rear-mounted 20-inch wire wheel spare tires.

Few surviving Model 48s have this car’s style and drama, an appropriate counterpoint to the robust engineering that made this one of the great American automobiles of the Jazz Age.