Franklin Series 11 History

By the mid-1920s Franklin's distinctive sloped, radiator-less hood — a visible badge of its air-cooled engine — had become a sales liability, as dealers complained buyers wanted cars that looked like everyone else's. For 1925 the company introduced the Series 11, restyled by designer J. Frank de Causse with a massive nickel-plated 'dummy radiator' hoodfront that hid the air intake behind conventional looks.

The change was bitterly opposed inside the company: chief engineer and air-cooling pioneer John Wilkinson, who had designed Franklins since 1902, objected to disguising the car's defining feature and left the firm in 1924 as the conventional styling took hold. The Series 11 nonetheless carried Franklin through its strongest commercial years before the Airman line replaced it.