1933 Marmon Sixteen Victoria Coupe by LeBaron 🇺🇸

Howard C. Marmon graduated from Stanford University in the mid-1890s and immediately went to work for his family's firm of Nordyke & Marmon in Indianapolis, Ind, a major manufacturer of flour milling equipment. Howard was a brilliant engineer and quickly became chief engineer of the firm. 

In 1902, Howard built his first prototype automobile strictly on his own, an extremely advanced engineered machine. In 1904, Howard’s second, more practical car, managed to find six buyers. He continued to turn out experimental prototypes and seek sales over the next few years. At the same time he convinced his brother, Walter, the businessman of the two of them, to add car manufacturing to the Nordyke & Marmon company. 

The Marmon name got a big boost in 1911 when a Marmon race car, dubbed the Marmon Wasp, won the inaugural Indianapolis 500. The company was focused on upper-mid priced and top-tier cars with advanced engineering and manufacturing features. Their production and sales were small until 1924 when George M. Williams, former President of the Wire Wheel Corporation, purchased a big block of stock in Nordyke in Marmon. Williams became company president and brought new life to the concern. He needed to diversify the products and introduce lower priced cars. In 1926 he sold the flour milling business to make room for more car production and renamed the firm Marmon Motor Car Company. 

He introduced a “little” Marmon in 1927 priced in the middle range and the Roosevelt in the lower-upper price range in 1929. The lower priced offerings increased sales dramatically starting in 1927 but no one saw the market crash of 1929 coming. From a peak of 22, 323 cars in 1929 the company would be out of business by the end of 1933. 

Before the company would disappear, they brought their ultimate masterpiece to market. As early as 1927, Howard Marmon began work on his idea for a V16 engine. His prototype, completed in 1928, predated the Cadillac V16 by a full year. In fact, former Marmon engineer Owen Nacker jumped to Cadillac and led the development of the new engine there. 

Cadillac debuted their new V16 months before Marmon was ready and probably stole some of their thunder. Either way, the Great Depression was about to crush both companies. Cadillac would weather the Depression because it was part of General Motors while Marmon wouldn’t survive.