1933 Essex Terraplane Series KT Eight Convertible Coupe

This is one of the rarest Essex Terraplanes in history. What makes this Mauve Maroon in color Convertible Coupe so unusual is that it was specially ordered with 'Wheel Option C.' An extremely rare and expensive option at the time. At a whopping cost of $50.00, it gave the vehicle not one, but two spare wheels and tires, both mounted with special metal covers in the bottom of the front fenders of the car.

This example was delivered on October 14, 1933 to Potthoff Brothers Motor Company of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Renowned dealers of Hudson & Essex Motor Cars, it was sold to one Ernest Thesiger of St. Paul, Minnesota. Historical records confirm it was paid for on Halloween day of that year. The same dealership where legendary depression-era gangster John Dillinger purchased a new Terraplane 8 sedan in March 1934.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the car was part of the Harrah's Casino Auto Collection in Reno, Nevada. After Harrah died in 1978, the Holiday Inn Corporation bought the Harrah empire including the over 1,400 vintage automobile collection. The collection was dispersed throughout a series of 3 massive auctions. During one of these auctions, this dual side mount convertible was purchased by Cadillac dealer LaRue Thomas of Los Angeles, CA., in September 1978. It remained on display with some of the country's finest vintage Cadillacs for decades!

The Terraplane was fully restored in Torrance, Ca. in 1999 and in June 2007 was on the move yet again. Prominent classic car collector, A.R. Ginn of Houston, Texas, bought it and housed it in his basement showroom for several years. It eventually wound up in the Sacramento, CA. area in 2015, where it sat idle until it was acquired by its current caretakers in 2022. The car soon was subject to a $25,000 refresh to get it back to the exact standards it had when sold new in 1933.

Source - Vehicle owner