The history of American automobiles is a landscape littered with dead automobile companies and discarded brands. One of the obscure automobiles in this history is the Ruxton, which was produced for only four months at the beginning of the Great Depression.
While the Great Depression meant the death of many automobile manufacturers and brands, it did not stop visionaries from dreaming about what the automobile should be like. William Muller, who had been educated at the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, was employed in the engineering department of Budd Body Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania when he came up with the visionary idea for a front wheel drive passenger automobile. He then convinced his employer to build the prototype. Budd could then sell the rights to the car to an automobile company which would contract to have Budd do the body work. Budd built both rail cars and automobile bodies.
Muller had first encountered a front wheel drive racecar—the Gila Monster—at a race in Texas. He liked the way it handled and dreamed of producing a front wheel drive passenger car. The passenger car, unlike the racecar, had to deal with potholes, hills, and the need to steer in more than one direction.
Using engines provided by Continental Motors, Muller designed the drive train for the innovative front wheel drive vehicle and Joseph Ledwinka designed the body for the car. In 1928, the prototype was completed.
The new car was to be powered by a 100 horsepower, straight eight Continental engine.
By eliminating the drive shaft from the engine to the rear wheels, the new car was significantly lower than other cars of this era: it was only 53 inches high as compared with an average of 60 inches for other cars. In the body design, Ledwinka eliminated running boards which emphasized the car’s lowness.
One of the members of the Budd Body Company’s board of directors, Archie Andrews, also sat on the board of directors for Hupmobile. Andrews, who is often described as a flamboyant pitchman and stock manipulator, saw great possibility in the new car and made it possible to present the concept to Hupmobile. Hupmobile, however, said “no” to the concept.
Andrews, in spite of Hupmobile’s refusal, felt that the concept was sound. Andrews and Muller then formed New Era Motors to market the car. To support the new company, Andrews hoped to recruit William V.C. Ruxton as an investor and so he named the new car the Ruxton. Ruxton, however, decided not to support the project, but the car continued to carry his name. Unhappy about the fact that the car carried his name, Ruxton sued Andrews for the purpose of stating that he had nothing to do with Andrews or the car.
Moon Motors of St. Louis agreed to build the Ruxton in November 1929. Moon, however, had reached its peak production in 1925 and by 1929 was nearly out of business. Moon was hampered by antiquated equipment and was unable to compete with other automobile manufacturers. In order to facilitate the production of the Ruxton, Andrews began buying up the company’s stock and eventually assumed control of the company. It was not a friendly takeover and Moon’s president, C. W. Burst, barricaded himself in the company headquarters in protest of the takeover. Andrews had to break in with the help of the police. There were lawsuits and counter lawsuits which were not finally settled until 1965.
With Moon failing, Andrews turned to Kissel Motors of Hartford, Wisconsin to produce the Ruxton. Kissel had already agreed to produce the car’s transmission and running gear. The Ruxton went into regular production in 1930.
The Ruxton had both strengths and weaknesses. One of the car’s shortcomings was the Woodlight headlights which looked much better than they performed. Ruxton owners with these headlights (not all came with them) quickly found that they had two choices: they could have the car retrofitted with normal headlights, or they could restrict their driving to the daylight hours.
Some of the Ruxton models featured broad bands of white intermixed with vivid colors which lengthened the appearance of the car. Joseph Urban, a noted state designer and architect, designed the paint scheme.
As with Moon Motors, Andrews grew impatient with Kissel and began buying up stock in preparation for another takeover. The Kissel brothers rebelled at the hostile takeover attempt and filed for receivership in November 1930. Production of the Ruxton was abruptly halted. Reports on the actual number of Ruxtons produced ranges from 96 to 400. Today, there are only 19 Ruxtons still known to be in existence.
Shown above is a Ruxton. source
Shown above is a 1930 Ruxton. Source