Kaiser-Frazer. Not a name familiar to everyone, at least on this side of the Atlantic, though for a short period, the company was a serious motor manufacturer in the US, offering a genuine alternative to Ford, GM and Chrysler. A potted history would read along the following lines…
The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation was created in 1945 as the result of a partnership between automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer and industrialist Henry J. Kaiser, and in 1947 the business acquired the automotive assets of Graham Paige, a motor manufacturer based in Evansville, Indiana, from 1927 to 1940.
The first cars sold under the Kaiser-Frazer name – built at their Willow Run, Michigan factory – were initially branded either Kaisers or Frazers, and between them found 300,000 buyers by the summer of 1948. In 1950, the Frazer brand was dropped, and the Kaiser Henry J was launched. It was classed as a compact car and came with four-and-six cylinder engines at a time when the Big Three were more about V8’s, as were increasing numbers of American car buyers as the country recovered after WW2.
Through the late 1940’s and early 1950’s Kaiser produced a full range of saloons and coupés, with evocative names like Dragon, Manhattan, Carolina and best of all, Vagabond.
1953 saw the introduction of the Kaiser Darrin sports car, and it was seeing one of these at the Maine Auto Museum that was my introduction to the name. It was America’s first fibreglass-bodied car – a month ahead of the Corvette – and included very innovative sliding doors that retracted into the front wings of the car.
Unfortunately, the company never sold quite enough cars to be able to develop their range to keep up with the Detroit giants, their V8 engine development programme came to nothing, and they had managed to tie themselves into paying the highest wages in the US motor industry, but this didn’t translate to increased productivity. By 1955 the company’s days were numbered, and it was incorporated into the Willys-Overland Corporation, makers of Willys and Jeep vehicles.
In total, the Kaiser-Frazer company made over 760,000 cars in it’s time, but few remain and the company is now little more than a footnote in US motoring history, and the brand is practically unknown here – I don’t think I’ve ever seen one in the UK, and none are showing on howmanyleft.com, though this isn’t conclusive.
It was therefore quite a surprise to see a Kaiser among the lots going under the gavel at Historics’ next auction, taking place at Mercedes-Benz World in Weybridge on November 27th. The car on offer is a 1951 Kaiser Deluxe Custom Coupé, and is a rare beast even by the standards of the defunct marque – it is apparently one of only 18 remaining worldwide, and is almost certainly the only one in the UK; in fact, it’s quite possibly the only Kaiser of any kind in the UK.
According to the auctioneers, the car “runs and drives very well”, is finished in its original colour of Cape Verde Green, and the two big doors open wide to give easy access to the very comfortable looking green and cream interior that is said to “present beautifully”. It sits on wire whitewalls that have just under 100,000 miles under them, and I have to say it looks really smart.
The Kaiser Frazer is a big car by European standards – 17ft 6in/5.34m long and over six feet wide at 74 inches or 1.88m, so with just 115bhp pushed out by the 3.8-litre V6 it’s not surprising that performance is sedate rather than sporty. Top speed is just 83mph/134kmh, with 100kmh being reached 16.4 seconds after leaving the start line, but then this is a car for leisurely cruising, especially as a classic.
It’s expected to achieve between £16,000 to £22,000 – I can find just two other Kaisers for sale in Europe, one in Greece, one in The Netherlands, neither of which is a Custom Coupé, but asking prices for both are within the same range. Whoever bids successfully for it – though unusual American cars don’t always do well at auction – is going to attract attention wherever they go and they will almost certainly not see another in their travels.
We’ve borrowed some photographs from the auctioneers’ website and you can see the full lot entry here. As always, we recommend arranging prior inspection before you bid, if possible. It will be interesting to see how much interest this exceptionally unusual car generates, or whether its very unfamiliarity will result in no interest at all.
With our Saturday instalment of Prime Find of the Week, we’re offering our services to the classic car community, by passing on our favourite classic car for sale from the week that passed. This top-tip might help a first-time-buyer to own his first classic, or it could even be the perfect motivation for a multiple-classic-car-owner to expand his garage with something different. We’ll let us be inspired by anything from a cheap project to a stunning concours exotic, and hope that you will do the same.
Just remember – Any Classic is Better than No Classic! We obviously invite our readers to help prospective buyers with your views and maybe even experiences of any given model we feature. Further to that, if you stumble across a classic which you feel we ought to feature as Prime Find of the Week, then please send us a link to primefindoftheweek@viaretro.co.uk