Hope you like this one, our family sure does!

This last Saturday spent 2 hour giving rides at a family reunion, even had the neighbors coming out lining up for a toot around the block. I've just finished the cars first MAJOR engine rebuild, new babbitt bearings aluminium pistons and balancing the works. Other than that and a new top this is a 50 year old restoration from what had been a saw-mill rig! This 1912 Franklin has always been a Minnesota car, never being owned by anyone outside the St. Paul / Minneapolis area. Indeed, I live only 6 miles from where the first owner did. My wife and girls tour with the Horseless Carriage Club of America, and in about five years of owning have averaged about 850 miles per year. That's impressive considering the cars age! In Jan-Feb of 2002 we and the car were featured on the cover of the club magazine, of course my two little girls took the magazine to school for bragging rights! Top speed should be around 45 once she's properly broken in. Right now it's getting broken in at 30, having finished the 25 mph break-in period. Air cooled cars like this seem to be very touchy about these things! Franklin's were produced from 1903 to 1933 in Syracuse New York, USA. How many 1912's still exist is any ones guess, but I'm sure not very much more than a handful as they were always an expensive make. My advice, if you want to really have fun at old cars, try and find a Edwardian motor car such as this. You may not go fast, but isn't that really the whole point? See you on the road, somewhere out there!

Keith