Classic car with local history

This 1910 or 1911 Marathon roadster is one of only eight Marathon automobiles left in the world, said its new owner Barry Walker.
The car was manufactured at a Nashville company that traces its roots back to North Royal Street in Jackson. The Marathon was the only car to be completely made in the Southeast until Saturn moved into the state, Walker said.
Walker already owns a 1912, K-20 Marathon and a 1914 touring car. He hopes to purchase the few remaining automobiles bearing the Marathon name that are located in Argentina, Australia and New Zealand and the U.S.
Why?
"Because I own the Marathon building in Jackson," he said, "and I have the old plant in Nashville, too."
Walker bought the Jackson plant for $65,000 in 1999. He said the tornadoes and other weather-related problems have kept him from renovating the building. Walker said he has turned the former Nashville auto facility into a multi-use office space.
Walker finally bought his No. 3 car after 18 years of haggling and hassling - 14 of those years were with the car's last owner in Wichita, Kan.
"I started negotiating this in 1990," he said.
The car is 90 percent original equipment, Walker said.
Its wooden wheel spokes, which support a set of Firestone tires, are capable of twirling at a top speed of about 55 mph. The fastest Marathon would reach speeds of about 70 mph, Walker said.
Marathon Motor Works started in 1874 as Sherman Manufacturing Co., according to Nashville.about.com.
At the time, the future car company was manufacturing gasoline engines and boilers. It changed its name to Southern Engine and Boiler Works in 1884.
The company began manufacturing cars in 1906. The automobiles originally were called Southerns.
The No. 3 has a 25-horse, in-line, four cylinder motor that is divided into two separate jugs.
"They cast them in pairs for easier handling," Walker said.
The lower motor block and the transmission are 100 percent aluminium. The roadster originally sold for about $1,500, Walker said. When asked how much he paid for the No. 3, Walker said: "Let's just say I paid more than I wanted to."
By 1910, Southern had produced about 600 automobiles in the 13,000-square-foot Jackson plant. The company was purchased by a group of investors who moved it to Nashville's nearly 280,000 square-foot abandoned Phoenix Cotton Mill building. It was there the car's names were changed to Marathon.
The No. 3 roadster has two silver metal levers attached to its steering wheel: One is the throttle, the other the spark advance, Walker said.
"That controls how fast the engine turns for going up hills and how smooth it runs, " he said.
A Jackson native, Walker said he hasn't tried to start the venerable motor machine yet, but hopes to return the car to its glory days.
"It has been sitting in a warehouse," he said. "I want to restore it and run it in the Great Race."
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- Ned Hunter, 425-9641