Reply To: Greetings from a new member

[Gregory Long]

Hello Robert, welcome to the PAS. Hang on, you will be getting a lot of info over the next few days.

When I first owned a Pierce and wanted to learn about the cars, what I found was that I needed to drive quite a few different model year cars to appreciate the differences, and from this experience, I learned why a very nice ’29 roadster can sell for ‘only’ $140K, but a ’32, V12 roadster [very rare, only a handful built] can bring $407K !

And how a ’33,’34, ’35 and later convertible coupe or convertible sedan can bring $300K and up.

Since you are familiar with the cars of the 50’s and 60’s, you might need to drive a car from the late ’20’s and early 30’s, in order to appreciate the major differences in driving an early car, compared to a later car from the ’50’s. . There was a rapid increase in sophistication of the cars from ’25 through ’36. The driving experience changed [improved] accordingly. A ’29 while it has an 8 cylinder engine, it still drives and shifts much like a mid ’20’s car. The cars improved until a ’33 is a very polished and sophisticated car, and a real pleasure to drive.

The steering system improved with different steering gear boxes, different steering geometry and different tires. Steering went from a two handed firm grip on the wheel to a comfortable one handed grip.

The transmissions changed from a pure ‘crash box’ with straight-cut gears, which means that all ratios had a whine or gear noise except for direct or top gear. Then transmissions had angle-cut and herringbone-cut gears, which made for at least one intermediate gear ratio being quiet, in addition to top gear.

Next came Free Wheeling, which allowed for silent shifting, but had no engine braking when freewheeling is in use. Then came synchromesh on 2nd and 3rd [top] gear. This made the transmission much like most transmissions from the ’50’s and later. They are much easier to drive for most people than an early transmission.

The engines became much more ‘automatic’, they needed much less driver interaction than the earlier engines.

Prior to ’29, the carburetors had mixture adjustment from the driver’s seat. These adjustments were not cut and dry. You had to know when, why and how much to change the fuel mixture.

From ’29 on, the carburetors had fixed jets, and had fairly sophisticated air-correction jetting, so any mixture changes were either automatic, or done by a mechanic for significant altitude changes.

The bodies and interiors got wider too, and some driver’s seat adjustment was available from ’33 on, to accommodate a tall driver. Roadsters became Convertible Coupes, with roll-up windows instead of side curtains.

Engines from ’33 had hydraulic valve lifters, which eliminated the need for periodic valve adjustments. Downdraft carburetors also started in ’33.

Brakes improved all through the years. The ’33-’35 brakes were Stewart Warner servo power brakes, probably the most powerful power-assisted manually actuated brakes ever.

Hope this information helps, and starts you on the path of educating yourself about the differences and nuances of the 8 and 12 cylinder Pierces.

Please note: there are quite a few of my opinions mixed in with the factual info above. So there certainly will be differing opinions from other PAS members.. What you can look forward to, is forming your own opinions !!

Greg Long