The HCM was singular—in every sense of the word. The only thing not unusual about the car was its name. Previously Ransom Eli Olds had used his initials for the Reo, Harry C. Stutz for the H.C.S. Unlike those antecedents, this car would not see production. But that was not for lack of trying by Howard Carpenter Marmon, who thought the HCM might save his company from the jaws of the Great Depression.

During the fall of 1930 Howard Marmon had asked Fred Moskovics to visit him at the Columbia Club where he resided when in Indianapolis. There the two friends talked about the car that, Fred remembered Howard saying, would "represent his masterpiece." They chatted about prevailing trends in European design and argued about just what might be "the last word in automobile engineering." Then Moskovics returned to New York and Howard Marmon returned to thinking. Marmon chief engineer George Freers was summoned, more ideas were exchanged and a car took shape.

The final sketch of the design was drawn on an 8-1/2 by 11 sheet of paper by Howard Marmon and handed by George Freers to an associate engineer named Joe Felts. The sketch was "exceptionally detailed," Joe said, and "radical."

Read more in the Back Issue - Volume 43 Number 4