1922 MERCER SERIE 5 RACEABOUT

[jsalgatti]

Saludos amigos:
Les aporto fotografías de este bello automóvil de la reconocida y extinta marca norteamericana, recientemente rematado por la casa RM Auctions/Sothebys. Lo interesante es que de acuerdo a la nota descriptiva e historia publicada en la página de esta firma, este carro estuvo en Venezuela, teniendo como primer dueño a un general de apellido Aguiar, en la época del presidente Juan Vicente Gómez. En 1968 fué exportado a los Estados Unidos. Vendrá más sobre su historia...

[jsalgatti]

Apartes de la nota descriptiva publicada en la página de RM Auctions:

"Information supplied to Wolff by the car’s seller, Juan Alvarez, indicates a fascinating history. Wolff recounted the following in a 1971 article in On the Beam with Gas and Steam:

The car sports only 14,510 miles, as it only had five years of service by the original owner, General Aguiar. Aguiar must have been one of the favorites of the former Venezuelan dictator, Juan Vincente Gomez, who ruled with an iron fist for 27 years…Apparently the General, still alive but senile at 96, had the only sports car in the country during the ’twenties, and he must have cut quite a figure among the senoritas with the flashy yellow, very open (no doors) Raceabout.

The car eventually wound up on the general’s ranch and was purchased by Alvarez, who began restoring the car without completing it. It was fixed up enough that, in 1967, it participated in a race in Caracas! Wolff acquired it from Alvarez in 1968, after a year of protracted negotiations; it spent 100 days in transportation to Milwaukee, after which the late M.T. “Joe” Kaufmann and Chuck Kalista spent three years restoring it back to its original condition."

"The car’s authenticity is vouched for by its original Venezuelan registration, a copy of which is on file, which refers to the car as a “Sports” with capacity for two passengers, as well as by the recollections of Wolff and Kaufmann, both of whom remember the Mercer as being very complete. Its engine and chassis numbers are properly stamped in the expected locations, with “RA136” appearing above the chassis number—perhaps an identification of a raceabout."

[fjdr86]

Buena historia!!