Lot 142

Hershey 2015

1929 Chrysler Series 75 Roadster "Blossom"

The Richard Roy Estate

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$25,300 USD | Sold

United States | Hershey, Pennsylvania

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Chassis No.
CY 282 E
  • Offered from the Richard Roy Estate
  • Mr. Roy’s first car, continuously owned since 1949
  • Still carrying its 1949 Lehigh University plates
  • A wonderful throwback to a bygone enthusiast era
  • Eligible for the Le Mans Classic and the Mille Miglia

75 bhp, 248.9 cu. in. L-head inline six-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission, solid front and live rear axles with semi-elliptical leaf-spring suspension, and Lockheed four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Wheelbase: 121 in.

In 1949, 17-year-old Richard Roy passed by the front window of Condit’s, the local used automobile dealership near his home in Newton, New Jersey. There in the window was a 20-year-old Chrysler Series 75 Roadster, formerly the property of one Dr. Buringer, of nearby Montague, who had used it, rather inelegantly, to haul rocks out of his garden.

For Mr. Roy, it was love at first sight, and that evening, he bought the car for $25. In the spirit of so many young men of his era, he got it running himself, put sealed-beam headlights on it (required at the time to pass New Jersey state inspection), and painted it metallic green, and he was soon on the road. As a young man, he drove the car everywhere, with photographs in the file showing him behind the wheel with his parents and sister Peg in the 1950s. However, after looking out the window one winter day at Lehigh and seeing “Blossom” covered with snow, he refused to ever take or leave her out in inclement conditions, and he kept that promise for more than 60 years.

Stories are rife of collectors who traveled the world to buy back their first car, the one that they sold and had regretted ever since. Richard Roy had no such regrets. He never sold “Blossom,” which, after 66 years in his collection, is offered here for the first time since 1949. It still wears its 1950s paint and red vinyl interior, its original wooden wheels, and those sealed-beam headlights, and it carries a sporty single rear-mounted spare. Most poignantly, it still has Mr. Roy’s Lehigh University parking tag on the front bumper. The original Fedco serial number tag is no longer legible, but the number from it appears on older registrations and is listed here.

“Blossom” has not been operated or shown publically in many years, and while it may be tempting as the perfect basis for a solid restoration project, it would be more in the character of the late Mr. Roy to simply get it running and drive it as-is. It is a wonderful throwback to the “enthusiast age” that also happens to be, as a 1929 Series 75, both Mille Miglia and Le Mans Classic eligible.