Car of the Week: 1923 Kissel Gold Bug

It turns out the car was a Kissel “Gold Bug” Speedster, another small town Wisconsin native — Hartford, to be exact — and eventually it landed on Hausmann’s lifetime bucket list of things he’d like to experience.

“I saw one when I was a kid, but you hardly ever saw them, even in Wisconsin, because you could buy one Gold Bug or about 12 Model Ts … They didn’t build many,” Hausmann says. “But anyway, we moved to Michigan about 50 years ago, and when my kids grew up and got out of college, it was like, ‘you’ve got some money,’ so we started thinking about Kissels.”

Ron and his wife Esther did a lot more than think about Kissels, they started collecting them in bulk! “Now I have 10 complete Kissels and the remnants of 12 parts cars,” he chuckles. “But I’m starting to sell them off.”

The first Kissel Ron bought will always be one of his favorites, and probably his hardest to part with. It’s a gorgeous and rare 1923 specimen with a particularly interesting and slightly checkered past. Fortunately, Hausmann has been able to document the Bug’s history all the way back to its earliest days.

“This was Andrew Kissel’s Kissel — no relationship [not related to the company]. He was like the fourth owner. This has always been a museum or a collector car, so it never got a lot of miles. But Andrew Kissel was a New York criminal who was murdered and the feds seized his assets… 

“It was originally sold in Hollywood. We know that, because it’s got the Hollywood option package of bar bumpers, spotlights, and those E&J headlights. But we don’t know who the original owner was. We know in the late 1930s and ’40s it was in a museum in Massachusetts; we have the records and a couple of pictures. Then it went to Autorama in Harrisburg, Pa., owned by a guy named Gene Zimmerman. It was there for about 20 years, ’60s, ’70s. When Autorama went out of business, then it went to William Ruger, of Ruger firearms — the guy who founded it. He was already old at the time, but he had a huge car collection. And he bought it out of Autorama, and he fully restored it; he had a whole crew of mechanics. He was a rich guy. He only drove it once. They used a cherry picker to put him in it and that’s it. He didn’t drive it. They only put on 300 miles in, what, 20 years of his ownership, but he had it completely redone. He had it restored; it was finished in 1985. This is an ’85 restoration. I have not restored it since then… Then, when he died, his son sold half his car collection, and it went to a guy named Andrew Kissel, a New York developer, criminal, who got murdered, and the feds seized his assets. In 2007, I bought it out of an auction through a federal lawyer.”

Kissel Automobile built cars and trucks in Hartford in southeastern, Wis., from 1907 to 1931. The Kissel family had been successful in farming, lumber mills, real estate and a number of other ventures and kicked off its car-building endeavors in 1906-’07 with a vehicle that featured a four-cylinder engine on a 96-in.-wheelbase chassis. Prominent Chicago dealer W.A. McDuffee admired the vehicle’s quality and placed an order for 100 cars for his dealership.

By 1909, Kissel expanded its lineup with three different engine and chassis variations with prices ranging from $1,350 all the way up to $3,000 — a lofty figure for the time. By 1915 Kissel was ready to launch its long-stroke six-cylinder L-head engine, which became synonymous with the company and lasted with minimal changes until 1928.

The sporty speedster body was designed by Kissel’s New York distributor, Conover T. Silver. Part of the innovative design was the two drawer-like outrigger seats that slid in and out of the side of the body. These Model 6-45 Gold Bug Speedsters soon became the rock stars of the Kissel lineup. Somewhere between 100 and 150 of them were built between 1920 and 1927 and only 37 intact specimens are believed to still exist. Their name came from the bright-yellow paint jobs they wore. 

But the cars were noteworthy for more than just flashy paint. They were lauded for their quality workmanship and stellar performance — with a top speed of 70 mph — of their own six-cylinder engines. The low-slung body with cycle fenders and lack of running boards made them some of the raciest machines on the road at the time. They attracted their share of attention in Hollywood and celebrity circles, too, with Amelia Earhart, Fatty Arbuckle, Ralph DePalma, Greta Garbo and Al Jolson among the names on the Gold Bug owners list. Perhaps to attract the movie star crowd, the Gold Bug Speedsters offered an optional “Hollywood Package” that included E&J headlamps, an exhaust cutout and nickled bar bumpers. 

With 10 running Kissels still in his collection, Hausmann has to spread his affection around to make sure all his fleet members get the attention and time they deserve. He doesn’t show his ’23 Bug as much as he used to, but the car earned plenty of awards when it did make it to big events, including the Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance, Milwaukee Masterpiece and other big shows. It has also been decorated at AACA events.

“Today, if you own a Lamborghini or Ferrari, that’s what this is comparable to,” Hausmann notes. “Now, when people see this, it’s, ‘What is it?

I never heard of it.’ People have heard the name Duesenberg and Stutz. America had about 30 high-end manufacturers in the ’20s that just did not make that many cars, and Kissel was one of them. But this will run with the Stutzes and Duesenbergs of any day. I beat Duesenbergs at shows with this car.” 

Hausmann insists he’s had to do very little to keep his ’23 happy and on the road in the 41 years he’s owned it. It’s been a very reliable car, but he jokes that driving it never gets easier. 

“It’s a chore. My wife is afraid to ride in them, because they are hard to drive, no power steering, all the controls that you have to operate, and that’s why, primarily, you didn’t see as many women drivers back then,” he notes. “It’s hard to drive. It takes a while to turn the steering wheel, everything like that. They’re very, very durable. Amelia Earhart owned a Kissel Gold Bug.  She drove hers from Boston, Mass., to San Francisco. This is the same model and year car she drove. And those were gravel roads. 

“Kissel also used a lot of aluminum body panels, a sort of aluminum. It’s not steel. And that’s why not many survived World War II, because they needed aluminum for the planes. It’s got a three-speed manual on the floor. You could get them in an unlimited set of options: wire wheels, wood wheels, step plates, running boards, different bumpers, you name it. They optioned them to death.”

In all the years he’s owned his Gold Bug, Hausmann says there is one thing that hasn’t changed: he has no desire to ever take a ride in one of the outrigger seats. As long as he owns the car, he’s not going for a spin sitting outside the cockpit, and no passengers will, either — no matter how many times they ask.

“They’ll do 65 or 70 miles an hour,” he says. “Can you imagine when the roads were 95 percent gravel, and you’re sitting outside? No way! You’d need a big mud flap to keep your front teeth inside.”

SHOW US YOUR WHEELS!

If you’ve got an old car you love, we want to hear about it. Email us at oldcars@aimmedia.com

If you like stories like these and other classic car features, check out Old Cars magazine. CLICK HERE to subscribe.

Want a taste of Old Cars magazine first? Sign up for our weekly e-newsletter and get a FREE complimentary digital issue download of our print magazine.

We know you love old cars, but do you collect anything else? Ever wonder about the baseball cards in a box in the basement or Grandma’s old coins in a jar?  Do you love history or spin vinyl? Head on over to Collect.com and see what you are missing. Collect.com is the who, what, when and where of the collecting world! https://www.collect.com/