Graham Special Six 1935

Once Tintin was finished with his adventure in Congo, he found himself in Chicago, the city made famous by its windy streets and its gangsters. Immediately after getting of his train in Chigago, Tintin was kidnapped. The crafty little fellow that he is, he escaped and was able to capture his tormentors. But he was tricked again and taken away by gangsters posing as policemen in a green car. This green car was a 1935 model Graham Super Six.

Graham-Paige was a car company founded by three brothers, Joseph, Robert and Ray Grahams in 1927. This company was created when the Graham brothers bought Paige-Detroit Motor Company in 1927. They initially offered a series of six and eight cylinder engine cars under the brand name Graham-Paige and trucks under the brand name Paige. Their cars were fairly successful in racing and this boosted their sales. At the Indianapolis 500, a Graham-powered car qualified at 109 mph but was forced out of the actual race on the 61st lap with a broken crankshaft. Another Graham later entered the 1934 Indy 500 finished tenth at an average speed of 95.9 mph. Unlike other car companies of the day, they produced their own engines and bodies and supplied cars with bodies and not as chassis. initially the company could withstand the great depression. However, the sales fell as the decade proceeded and finally the company stopped production in 1940 and was acquired by Kaiser-Frazer in 1947.

The car under discussion had an eight cylinder engine. Models under the Blue Streak name were offered with eight cylinder engines also. From 1936 onwards, these engines were supercharged. The engines displaced 4021 cc (245.4 cu-inch) and produced 90 HP. They had new cam contours, dual valve springs, aluminum cylinder head, and resonant-type muffler. It had a three speed gear box with silent-second unit with free-wheeling.

These cars were available as:-

• Sedans.
• Three-window coupe, the car in which Tintin was tricked into coming with the gangsters.
• Convertible coupe.

These cars introduced a number of innovative ideas, but the most copied design feature was the enclosed fenders which covered all the dirt and grime accumulated by the car underneath, giving a clean look on top. To further de-clutter the design, the radiation cap was moved to beneath the bonnet. To allow for widening the body, the rear axle was placed through large openings on both sides of the frame, with arrangement to absorb any shock  by chance the car axle made contact. Rear springs were mounted on the outer sides of the chassis frame in order to lower the car. The shock absorbers could be adjusted from the driver’s seat. The cars had sharply raked single piece wind shields except in the convertible coupes. Graham-Paige was the first company to offer “Pearl Essence” paint jobs and colour coded fenders when black frames and fenders were the norm.

Stopping power was provided by  “Centrifuse” brake drums. These brake drums had molten cast iron spinning into the stamped-and-welded brake drum ring and backing plate. These brakes had longer life and were light weight.

A total of 4.2 million of these cars were produced.