Call It Irresistible.(Escape Roads)

Byline: BOB TOMAINE

When Marmon introduced its Model 34 for 1916, the car was so well designed and executed that its direct descendents would be in production a decade later.

Nordyke & Marmon entered the auto industry in a small way in 1902. By 1909 testing, prototypes and limited production had led to the four-cylinder Model 32. The Model 34 that came seven years later was a car way ahead of its time.

The car's mostly aluminum overhead-valve six displaces 340 cubic inches, and while it seems that could be the reason for the Marmon's designation, there's more to it than that. "They called it a Model 34 because you got 34 hp according to the established formula at that time,'' said Ron Barnett, editor of the Marmon Club's Marmon News.

Like its competitors, the aluminum-bodied Model 34 was available as anything from a roadster to a limousine, all on a wheelbase of 136 inches. That makes the wheelbase on this speedster, owned by Clay Thomas, six inches longer than that of a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban.

Thomas says the speedster's lower body makes it unique. "The cowl is 4.5 inches lower and obviously the radiator is lower,'' he said. "It's shorter and fatter.''

With that low profile emphasizing its length, the car was hard to miss at the 25th Mighty Marmon Muster in New York's Finger Lakes region in July (see page 28), but it wasn't the first Marmon to catch Thomas' eye. That one, a 1921 roadster, was a bootlegger's car and still had the holster near the kick plate on the side. It made such an impression on Thomas when he saw it in 1976 that when the speedster came up for sale 12 years later, he didn't hesitate. "I couldn't believe it was available,'' Thomas said. "You don't find many.''