Fatty Arbuckle's Torque Monster: Nethercutt's 1923 McFarlan Model 154 - Jay Leno's Garage

you know this thing has got a lot of power but I guess torque is what it has really because boy just a little bit of gas will pulls right away let's open the uh there's your exhaust cut out it's like Jake brakes yeah yeah what another episode of Jay Leno's Garage once again we're being visited by Automotive royalty from the nethercut museum right up the street here in Sylmar California this is a 1923 McFarland Knickerbocker Cabriolet 154. how rare is it I've I've never seen one before this is a car that was the most expensive cars well in the world back in the day the McFarland was a a small company they used to make carriages and horse-drawn coaches and all that type of things then they got into the automobile business very early and they decided they weren't going to build the Model T or any people's car they went the most expensive route this thing has an enormous engine for the period 120 horsepower 18 spark plugs four valves per cylinder but uh not overhead camera like that just a t-head but four valves for a cylinder see t-heads were popular because gas was not very good the octane was very low and with the T head means you'd have the piston in the middle and you have the valves on the side out here and the cars would run cooler because there's a lot more space for the water to go around and keep the valve school so consequently it didn't detonate so that's why t-heads were used because cars had 45 50 60 octane but let's bring in Cameron riches he's the vice president of the cut thanks for uh coming by this is about as rare as it gets I mean this is unbelievable this thing uh this was was owned by Fatty Arbuckle the famous uh comedian of the period and it's just decked out we'll show you the interior in a minute but it's just incredible that not many but I don't think this is the only one that's surviving isn't it of the Knickerbockers it's the only one that I've ever found anything on on the Internet or any archives at all so led to believe this is the only one left or maybe even built at all yeah this is built I believe in Connersville Indiana correct that's correct yeah because Indiana once rivaled Detroit that was going to be the other Detroit you know because yeah Duesenberg had cord we had orbit uh Alban rather just so many manufacturers and of course the Indianapolis 500 the fame associated with that what was the equivalent 15 000 10 12 15 000 something like that 1923 I think it was even more than that yeah they really uh went after the luxury car market which is interesting because McFarland's actually when they started getting in from carriages to Automotive they started in racing right but eventually led to these so they were referred to as the American Rolls-Royce right right however many and I remember I think McFarland's they finished the Indy 500 I think they came in like third fourth fifth something like that quite an honorable showing for the period because they weren't building race cars they're just building cars that they raced you know right because they had no real experience here they were making carriages and hey let's get in the car business you know and at the height of their production they never built more than one car a day it was like dude take it easy you know Steady As She Goes and all that and this is an enormous car it must weigh 5 000 pounds yeah 5200 pounds we waited years ago does that have brakes in the front it does and it definitely needs them yeah yeah yeah well some many cars are still two wheel breaks back in the period a Knickerbocker I don't know what that means is that just what they called it or that specific particular type of sound car not really sure on the name uh Knickerbocker Cabriolet it's always one of those like tongue twisters you know an interesting thing about these cars was the thing that made them different from most cars was they had to be bulletproof they had to run and start under every circumstance and this car has 18 18 spark plugs so the idea of just hoping one of those Sparks will kick off and get the thing running because you know you had the hand crank cars and then and to have a car with an enormous electric starter you press the button and the sending you send 18 Sparks out hopefully one will kick a boom and then the thing runs you know and they always ran pretty good and they ran pretty quiet too as I remember it's a three-speed or four speed it's a three-speed okay H pattern and it does actually have a crank on the front as well just in case all the spark plugs and the magnetos don't work well the crank is really there more for timing okay you know you want to cut top dead center pull it oh you'll miss it go around again pull you know so so that's they kept the crank in the same way that motorcycles kept the kickstarter long after the electric study became prevalent because in case it didn't start you want to have something you had to do right you know if you could crank this over by hand you're a better man than I was that's a big engine to crank oh it's 590 two cubic inches something that's 572 572 cubic okay so I mean that's a lot of yeah yeah it's a lot that's a lot of allowed to turn over uh but but it's just a beautiful car it was it's just amazing the quality just oozes out of this thing and this is what they used to call a Town Car you know the Shelf would be out there fighting the wind in the rain and you know the owners in the back barking orders through the little horn there and then you hear it right in the right here so yeah at least they had the decency to put these little tabs up here where you could actually add right a tarp for there was no side window there's a side window fitted no no windows no sideways just a little rubber tarp on the top that's all you get the rubber tarp on the let's open the engine let's show people what we're talking about it looks like a spark plug Factory look at that yeah nothing like working on this you hit that with your elbow hits you in the head oh yeah they built their own Motors I just look at all the spark but look at the ignition system on this thing it's pretty amazing I guess it's a Magneto with a battery and coil so you start it on battery and coil send Sparks to all 18 plugs one would catch any switch over Magneto magnetos are great when they're spinning fast the faster Magneto spins the bigger the spark that's why people like them back in the day but starting was always tough with the Magneto so you combined it with the battery and coil so it's sent a thick electrical spark Through the Wire fires it off then you switch over to Magneto and and you're and then you're you're out of the electrical system of the car now the Magneto is running it so even if your electrical system fails the Magneto will keep you going and you have an autovac rather than a fuel pump there's no electric maybe does this have an electric fuel pump aftermarket or is it uh not after market this just came back from Pebbles so everything right now is period correct okay as it was back in the day yeah and the the engine Bays I think they're beautiful yeah they kind of remind me a lot of the early Hispanic Suiza right minus the brass of course and I really get a kick out of the firing order that's engraved into the engine block with the big McFarland there's your horn right there okay here we can close that up I never quite understood what the McFarland logo is here as you can see it on the radiator cap it's a guy holding a ball over his head is that supposed to be the world I guess he's got the world on his shoulder yeah it's uh I'm having to pay for this thing yeah it's an interesting marketing tool I guess uh it's definitely unique and it does look like a Rolls-Royce radiator I'm surprised there wasn't any lawsuit infringement there right because it does look like a Rolls-Royce radiator but just the amount of chrome and nickel I guess that's nickel isn't it there really wasn't no Chrome that is nickel yes yeah and nickel looks much richer to me it does yeah but let's that's that's so let's show them this uh oh this is unbelievable I'm gonna I gotta sit in the back of this thing here we go and get it oh my God comfy oh this is great and if you have a button right here that you press to Signal the chauffeur and you got curtains right here and you got jump seats to pull out here but you got more than enough leg room oh my God yeah it's very spacious back there and beautiful little cigarette boxes here with yeah there's a little handheld mirror oh a little handheldman yeah yeah enough room for a Fatty Arbuckle yeah yeah I imagine he was probably all built to order these things I don't think they had any floor models but probably not back then just I think uh at their height they were only making 600 cars a year yeah that sounds about right and the good thing the interesting thing about McFarland was they got it right the first time you know they were building carriages then they built Automobiles and chose to build the most expensive powerful automobile of the day remember this precedes the Duesenberg J model j that's right it precedes even the Hispano Suiza Hispano Suiza was uh a six cylinder also but I don't believe it was as powerful as this how do you how do you gracefully get out of one of these I think you kind of I think you kind of do this and you get on one knee let me say I got a bad knee here so ergonomics ergonomic yeah here we go let me step out here that's not bad that's not bad and you got this here it keeps dirt and mud from if you're going down the road from throwing it on the the fender here and it gets on your clothes pretty impressive but this fabric I guess you guys had this made to match the original fabric eh that's right yeah yeah another interesting feature since this was Fatty Arbuckle's car and he was a movie star this Clips here to bring out I guess a cover or a tarp would you call it yeah it's like a canopy canopy looks just like a like a picnic table yeah I'll show you here's a picture of it when you have it set up and Fatty Arbuckle will sit back here in his director's chair and he'd have various liquid Refreshments in in the trunk there so yeah it's kind of cool it's really neat it's a hit at concourses and uh it's just very different and the interior is one thing not a lot of people expect that when you open the back doors and this is called a town car which meant it was a car where you had to go to events in town you know you would sit in the back in your show for a drive and you figured people probably went 40 miles an hour that's about the top speed if you're driving around to where you're leisurely taking your time you know and with 120 horsepower that was huge back in the day yeah more than enough for there and I'm sure it was plenty turkey you have lights all over the place on this thing you know in 1923 most people didn't have electricity in our home so to have electric lights on your car was a huge deal you know and because back in these days headlights weren't used to light up the road they're used to tell people on the road that a car was coming because you can't get probably more than seven feet in the front of that car with those beams so the idea was just oh something's coming at us let's get out of the roadway you know yeah the lights are very big however they're not very no not full like myself big but not bright well and it's is it hydraulic brakes or a mechanical you know believe mechanical okay that one I'm not sure on after I'm guessing mechanical with a a vacuum booster which is what Packard I don't know if that was around us in uh 23 that seems a little early she stops great yeah I like this Carriage light here this that comes from the Old Carriage days you know to help people get in and out and as we said before I know nothing here for the driver except maybe on a rainy day they put a tarp over the thing there they're kind of left out in the elements but yeah and I guess this works as your uh oh I see all I thought that was a tinted piece of glass but it's not it's just just a cover I guess isn't it to keep yeah the sun shade a sun shade yeah yeah I don't know what you're really shading because you're sitting on it not really shading a whole lot there but all right cool and what size tires are those but 27 something like that a little Overkill I'd say but it complements the rest of the body well it kind of reminds me of like a phantom 2. it does it's very rolls-royce-like and that was its top competitor right I mean Rolls Royce was great in 1911 to about 1914. then it was a kind of a case of workmanship over over what's the word I went science you know they stayed with that design a long long time right everybody else had moved on to overhead valves like a spaniel sways and everybody else so Rolls-Royce kept building the same thing until they got to the Phantom one two and the you know in the 12 cylinder but this thing's just a big powerful t-head car and t-heads were very very powerful a lot of bottom and torque well why don't you go for a drive I'll drive you you'll be the chauffeur guy man look I don't know who that guy is we've got Jay Leno driving so that's pretty good it must be important yeah sounds good to me let's see how this thing goes all right boy there is no room they got little tiny chauffeurs back in the day well this one is not as bad as some that's not too bad but you'd think there'd be more room there there we go do you have one of the uh one of the primer cups is open hear the engine the hissing yeah another yeah one of your primer cups is open I think oh okay check and see open the hood hang on let's fix this good how do you close that take a hand hear it because normally you have a on the side do you think it turns in the inside this or do you think you tighten it with it yeah I tried to twist it you can shut it off just take it on completely you want a rag to put her on that truck you always don't have any teeth there we go is that your wallet sir yeah how much how much uh for labor oh you're all set all right that should do it let's see cool yeah we just have to tighten that down and that's see and cold weather you used to put a little gas in there trying to put a little gas right in the assemble to shut it and then start it and that would help in cold weather sometimes that screw backs off a little bit all right let's let's put the hood down we'll get ready to go all righty oh you know this thing has got a lot of power well I guess torque is what it has really because boy just a little bit of gas and it pulls right away remember this is 19th 1923. this is pretty old man getting driven around by Jay Leno I could get used to this let's try and keep it under a hundred J I love that microphone it's great having the emboss anywhere every second of the day that drive your nuts in this thing but boy what a torque monster you can you can slow ride down to five six miles an hour in Top Gear and then just pull it with no snatch at all I'm the second comedian to drive this car up to find the Arbuckle how's the ride back there Cameron well it's great not every day that uh you can realize that you peaked in life yeah brakes are very good how's the sun feeling up there yeah you sound like that guy in Video Killed the Radio Star well I haven't put this right up there with a silver ghost this is smooth a lot of torque a lot of power very comfortable steering is a little hard but I got a broken collarbone so that might have something to do with it but it feels oh my God I mean I read about McFarland and seen the name but this is the first time I ever drove one actually I think it might be the first episode one in person so it's always amazing how something at the turn of the last century was one of the most famous cars in America and now nobody even knows what I'm talking about how you doing my friend you know these t-heads were the most reliable engines of the period Pierce Arrow had them in the 66 when all the Pierce arrows because they're slow moving I think 1800s probably end of the Rev range on this thing it's probably as low as 13 to 14. but it's so smooth and so powerful they run cool because they're not revving so they don't make a lot of heat yeah pretty amazing you know considering this car is 100 years old it rides great seats back then were just so much more cushioned just like a typical couch of the era I was never a big fan of the Town Car type of situation because they're always chauffeur driven they're kind of like this you want to drive yourself but it's so tight up here so people are a lot smaller in 1923 than they are now I think chauffeurs were such a important thing back then because most people are used to being in the back of a horse and carriage which actually McFarland started off as before they started building automobiles now these are white wall tires oh my God anybody behind me Cameron yeah just one Splendid driving Jay thank you yeah hop in the front all good yeah very good it is actually like oh real smooth back there thanks for the ride oh yeah this is pretty cool comfortable back there yeah it's sweet you gotta you gotta hop in the back boy this is a nice driving car smooth powerful I mean you barely feel it's like effortless torque back there I know I know it's amazing and it's 23 it's pretty early 100 years old yeah I guess that's right it's now 100 years old I mean I couldn't imagine this is a two-seater Roadster you know oh yeah with all kinds of room let's open the uh there's your exhaust cut out it's like Jake brakes yeah yeah these cut windscreens are so great too I know those really help don't they stylish and they work nice well when you go around the corner you see how heavy his car is this thing just needs to get out and run once in a while yeah she's a little gunked up over the years hasn't been on a tour but you know as you see it's almost got 40 000 miles on her she's yeah she's been around quite a bit over the years JB drove this car a lot oh yeah yeah well it's great really ahead of its time this is one of the cars we refer to as a stunt puller though in the museum yeah and it doesn't even have a temperature gauge of any kind does it no 50 about as fast you want to go on this probably but in 1923 I think the speed limit was like 25 miles an hour maybe 30. and this is doing in the lap of luxury this thing yeah well you were still sharing roads with model T's that could barely go like we have a really old car it's uh it's actually a camera in 1904 Cameron experimental yeah the speedometer goes to eight miles an hour it's crazy that Indiana was really the PowerHouse in the early days of the automobiles oh yeah yeah like I said rival Detroit yeah I wouldn't be surprised if this is the only one hey if you got a McFarland let us know in the notes Here underneath uh curious to know about it I kind of wonder if the company's still in business they really were killing it back in the day going from carriages and hops yeah right into Automobiles and did a really good job with it but I mean they went bankrupt and then Auburn bought them out right right well I think the depressions but killed them nobody spent well if you bought something like this during the Freshman people threw rocks at you yeah I'm not sure where most of these resided when they were bought Assuming New York yeah probably in and around Chicago yeah the headlights on this thing are built in Chicago uh pretty much an all-around American vehicle but this one spent a lot of its early life in the Hollywood Studios it's kind of the theme that the museum for us is old Hollywood and yeah and this one obviously was being fatty Arbuckles but it also was used in other movies without him have you ever seen a movie with this in it can't find him because uh you know with the with the Scandal and stuff most of his movies were removed yeah we have a we have a list of all the movies that they've been in just gotta buy some film and a projector I guess wonderfully it's a try from the back seat yeah there's some cars that are still chauffeur based like the Phantoms or maybe the my bike but they don't really do it like they used to wow obviously having a TV screen in the back's nice but this is plush I think if he were to go to a car so this is something that Santa Claus would drive I know it's funny engine sounds quieter even now Furs like a kitten let's open that exhaust cut out yeah let's oh it does sound like a fire truck oh that's awesome Cameron thanks for bringing us over this is a treat it's one of these guys I've heard about and read about but never really saw up close and just to look at the build quality and see how nice that it runs and and so expertly restored you know a lot of times you get these cars and they overheat in the first 10 minutes and all that kind of stuff but this thing man just runs so nice always a pleasure Jay thanks for having me thanks for having us you try to check out the nether cuff Museum right up the road in Sylmar California Cameron thank you my friend thank you sir thank you

Channel: Jay Leno's Garage

Views: 522,979

Keywords: Jay Leno, Jay Leno's Garage, car reviews, classic cars, vintage cars, sports cars, super cars, cars, car gear, jay leno garage, jay lenos garage, Nethercutt Collection, Nethercutt, 1923 McFarlan, Pebble Beach

Id: 93UA_9CkixE

Length: 24min 27sec (1467 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 24 2023