SYRACUSE MUSCLE; 1933 Franklin 18A Olympic.(opinions of David Phillips )(Viewpoint essay)

Byline: ERIC TEGLER

When David Phillips announced plans to trailer his newly acquired 1933 Franklin Olympic from the 2005 Franklin Club meet in Cazenovia, New York, to his home in Linthicum, Maryland, his fellow Franklin owners were aghast. "Why not just drive it home?'' they urged.

"`Because it's 72 years old,' I said,'' David remembers. Exas-perated, they replied, "It's got 26,000 miles on it, Dave. It's new!'' Phillips decided to drive it as far as Binghamton, New York, and trailer it from there.

But as the exit came up, he just kept going. Thirteen hours and 370 miles later, he'd crossed the mountains of Pennsylvania and pulled into his driveway.

The Franklin faithful collectively uttered, "I told you so.'' They know how robustly engineered these machines from Syracuse are.

The Franklin story began with engineer John Wilkinson, who designed a motor car backed and produced by New York industrialist H.H. Franklin under the Franklin Manufac-turing Co. name in 1902.

The lightweight car featured a transversely mounted, air-cooled four-cylinder. Air cooling would remain a Franklin trademark until the company's Depression-era demise. In 1905, Franklin produced America's first six-cylinder car. Other innovations, such as full elliptic springs, electric choke, automatic spark and extensive use of aluminum, kept Franklins at the leading edge through the 1920s. They were aspirational vehicles with prices to match.