1934 Pierce-Arrow 1240A Twelve Silver Arrow Sedan

Pierce-Arrow was forced to enter the 'cylinder wars' as its competitors at Cadillac, Packard, Lincoln, Marmon, and others had done. The Buffalo, New York company joined the fray with a clean-sheet 452 cubic-inch, 150 horsepower Twelve design in 1932; 175 horsepower in 1933. The new model set no less than 79 new speed records with famed racer Ab Jenkins at the wheel. Competition was fierce among luxury marques with manufacturers fighting for a piece of a shrinking market. Roy Faulkner, Pierce Arrow's new sales manager, hired designer Phil Wright to come up with something 'new and dramatic.' That he did. Introduced at the New York and Chicago Auto Shows in 1933, the custom-made Silver Arrow show car was the star of the show. However, at $10,000 a copy, only five were built. The name remained, though, for 1934, as part of the regular-production line-up, which was available in both the Eight and Salon Twelve series.

This 1934 production Silver Arrow has benefitted from a comprehensive professional restoration and is equipped with a rare Pierce-Arrow radio, dual side-mount spares with metal covers, chrome wheel covers, and Trippe lights. The Pierce-Arrow hood ornament is considered one of the most iconic of the period and is named Tireur d'Arc, which in French means 'drawer of the bow,' the poetic variation of 'archer.' The first Pierce-Arrow archer was slender, partly clothed, and helmeted, but later versions show him to be more muscular, naked, and rid of the helmet. A fellow sweeping the floor of Pierce-Arrow factory agreed to be the model, using his broom for the bow when he posed.

Unfortunately, Pierce-Arrow was unable to stop the sales slide of the past few years and only 287 Silver Arrows were built.