Car Guy Magazine Car Guy Magazine Issue 914 | Page 22

Instead of a steering wheel, the vehicle
features a steering tiller. Drivers of substantial girth would have likely found difficulty in
pulling the tiller all the way in toward them
in order to make a sharp right turn. Ohio
Electric’s advertising suggested that the tiller
would allow the vehicle to be piloted from
either the rear bench or the swivel seat directly in front.
Our feature car is owned by Dallas car
collector Chuck Murphy, who purchased it in
the early 1990s from another local collector.
“I like unusual cars,” Murphy says. “When
this came up for sale 30 miles away from me,
I couldn’t resist it.”
Murphy’s Model 40 Dresden Brougham
is entirely original with the exception of the
paint, some carpet and the tires, though it
is swathed in the original paint scheme, has
matched reproduction carpet and the factory
hard rubber tires – replaced by pneumatic

tires for ride comfort – hang in his garage.
Even details that one would have expected to have vanished from Murphy’s car
over the years are present. White rubber step
board pads are original, the women’s toilet
kit – equipped with a Sterling silver hat brush,
a note pad with a mechanical lead pencil, a
mirror, scented paper and cloth and a change
purse.
Murphy’s car collection – which includes
several vintage Buicks, a 1922 Brewster
Open-Front Town Car and even a 19th-century steam car – is full of drivers and the Ohio
Electric is no exception. He puts a few hundred miles on the car a year, which might not
seem like much, but with an average speed
of 18 miles per hour, that’s some serious time
behind the tiller.
Murphy helps organize a yearly drive for
owners of vintage electric cars and he also
helped our friend, James Cousens, fill his ex-

tensive collection. He’s tracked down all of
the known Ohio Electric Car Company vehicles, mos