HEINE-VELOX

Heine-Velox Engineering Co. (1921-1923)

San Francisco, California

This is a Heine-Velox radiator emblem (1921-1923)     mjs
Size: 120mm wide 20mm high      MM: Unknown (posssibly none)

Gustav Heine was a piano maker with an interest in automobiles. He had started to build his Heine-Velox car in 1905 but, after building a few cars, his factory and his business were destroyed by the San Francisco earthquake in 1906.

In 1921 Gustav Heine introduced another car. The new Heine-Velox was the most expensive automobile in America at the time and was offered in a variety of body styles at $17,000 with custom-built versions costing up to $25,000. The car had a V-12 engine and a long wheelbase with a Fiat style radiator and head lights mounted on top of the front fenders. Only five cars were built, a sporting victoria, three sedans and an unfinished limousine, none of which were sold. It was all over for the Heine-Velox in 1923.

Emblem

The Heine-Velox radiator had a gold plated, cast metal radiator emblem screw fixed to a special radiator emblem mount, which was integral with the radiator filler neck, see restored example shown below:

Heine-Velox radiator emblem screwed to the emblem mount   ms

The Heine-Velox radiator emblem shown above at the top of this post is original and is ultra rare. It has been used and was reportedly removed from a Heine-Velox car found in an auto wreckers yard near Concord, California. The emblem still shows some of the original gold plating.

Beware, there are reproductions of this emblem, including some excellent quality reproductions, some of which have a false maker's mark on the back. They were made several years ago, possibly for a Heine-Velox which was being restored about that time. The Heine-Velox emblem shown above at the top of this post was used to obtain an accurate rubbing for the reproduction emblems.