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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow from 1933 - almost ten years ahead of its time

Name: Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow 1933
Brand: Pierce-Arrow

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Created on July 20, 2017

Text:

Bruno von Rotz

Photos:

Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM Sotheby's

Academy of Art University Automobile Museum

Paul Miller - Courtesy Stephen Miller / RM/Sotheby's

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

Darin Schnabel - Courtesy RM Sotheby's

Academy of Art University Automobile Museum

Paul Miller - Courtesy Stephen Miller / RM/Sotheby's

Bruno von Rotz

Archiv

Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - close to the pontoon shape - revolutionary for 1933

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - the car for 1940 in 1933

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - with hatchback

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - relatively small windows, typical for the time

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - integrated headlights, aerodynamic nose design

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - small rear windows

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Fittings arranged in the center

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - comfortable interior

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - speedometer up to 130 miles per hour, i.e. around 200 km/h

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Entrance to the rear seats

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - feudal space in the rear

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - beautiful wood paneling and two instruments in the rear

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - even the guests in the back have their speedometer

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Clock for the rear passengers

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - the V12 engine with 80-degree cylinder angle

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - flat twelve-cylinder engine with around 175 hp

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - longitudinally mounted twelve-cylinder engine

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - exciting front end

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - elegant front design

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Archer as radiator mascot

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Radiator mascot

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Round headlamp

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - integrated headlights

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - you can see its excellent aerodynamics

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - a spare wheel was housed under the bodywork on both sides

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Front wheel

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - beautiful wheel covers

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - two-piece windshield

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - flowing shapes at the rear

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - even the door handles were subjected to the dictates of slipstreaming

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - the strangely designed rear window

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - extensively labeled - 12 for twelve cylinders

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Awards

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - knightly badge

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicaco

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - Drawing

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The very rare and well-known Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) will be at the Arizona Concours 2015

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Pierce-Arrow 1242 Convertible Sedan Le Baron (1933) - at the Concorso d'Eleganza Villa d'Este 2015 in class A "flamboyance in motion"

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - offered as lot 214 at the RM/Sotheby's sale "Driven by Disruption" in New York on December 10, 2015

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Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow (1933) - offered as lot 214 at the RM/Sotheby's auction "Driven by Disruption" in New York on December 10, 2015

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Pierce-Arrow Eight Silver Arrow (1934) - as lot 139 at the RM/Sotheby's Motor City auction on July 30, 2016

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Summary

For visitors to the New York Auto Show in January 1933, the Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow must have looked almost like a spaceship from the future. The design of the four-door car pointed far into the future, but was still unable to save the luxury car manufacturer from decline. Today, the three surviving examples fetch millions at auction. This report tells the story of the elegant aerodynamic wonder and shows it in many pictures.

This article contains the following chapters

Long tradition
Success at the top
Difficult years
The sensation of 1933
Traditional technology under a show car body
Five vehicles built
At over 180 km/h in the rear
One of three survivors
Further information

Estimated reading time: 5min

Preview (beginning of the article)

For visitors to the New York Auto Show in January 1933, the Pierce-Arrow Silver Arrow must have looked almost like a spaceship from the future. Although the car had four wheels like the other vehicles on display, its lines were clearly different from the angular and less streamlined cars of the competition. Even when stationary, the car looked as if it was capable of over 100 miles per hour, but its powerful twelve-cylinder engine enabled it to reach an even higher top speed. Pierce-Arrow could already look back on a long automobile manufacturing tradition in 1933. As early as 1896, the G. N. Pierce Company Inc. was already producing bicycles, and around 1900 the first driving tests with automobiles were carried out to determine whether steam or gasoline engines were better suited for a car. The petrol engine won, but only because the axle of the steam car broke during the company owner's test drive. The first Pierce car was then built with a DeDion engine and bought by an engineer named David Fergusson, who was so enthusiastic about it that it went to Pierce as a designer. The Pierce Motorette built under his direction sold an impressive 102 units in 1902.

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