About Puzzle #149 : 1952 Cunningham C3 Continental Coupe

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That was a nice beast isn't it? Very good and knowledgeable response to the last post-war puzzle of the year #149. 1952 Cunningham C3 Continental Coupe. Did we give too many hints? Perhaps, but the mere sight and outlines of the car are most characteristic. 

Good answers came in from Richard Lyons,  Jeffrey Vogel,  Larry A. Lewis, Fred Puhn, Hugo Modderman and Steve Kupferman.  Plus jury members Alan Spencer, Tobias Wenzel , Timo Laitinen,  Till Jauernig, Robbie Marenzie.

Best non-jury answer  was in our view by Steve Kupferman, to which we only can add nothing than that the car participated in the Hillclimb and Elegance at Hershey in June 2016 and that we spotted the car at night at a parking lot during the AACA Fall meet at Hershey this year. 

"This car is a 1952 Cunningham C3. The car was powered by a 331 cubic inch OHV Chrysler Hemi V8 with 4 Zenith single-barrel carburetors. The chassis were manufactured in the USA and coachwork was by Vignale in Italy. 

Briggs Cunningham, Jr. gentleman racer, race car builder, and sailor wanted to race in the 24 hours of Le Mans. His earlier models, the C1 and C2 were dedicated race cars. The C3 was his first and last effort at making a production car. New rules for 1953 called for all entered cars to have a production run of at least 25 cars. Briggs decided to construct production cars to support his racing efforts, and make some money. Problem was his production costs were rising to $15,000/car, but he advertised the car at $9,000. End result was that only 27 C3's were made, as reported by known experts.

The C3 chasses were manufactured between July, 1951 and January, 1953, and some were sold as late as 1954, but I believe this car is a 1952. Such is the case with hand-built custom cars.

The hood/bonnet scoop of the car in the photo is what gave it away for me to confirm that the car in the photo is a Cunningham C3."

 Congratulations Steve! Send your size and mailing address to [email protected] and you will get the coveted PostWarClassic T-shirt. 

Have a wonderful X-mas!  Our five day End of Year Quiz on both Post-War & PreWarCar will start as from Monday, 26 December!

(photos by editor JB)

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