VETERAN CAR GUIDE
L ’ Elégante L ’ Elégante cars were sold by JB Mercier from premises in the Rue St Ferdinand , Paris , France . The cars were made by Lacoste & Battmann , and featured the wording ‘ L ’ Elégante ’ on the gearbox . A surviving example has a De Dion Bouton 8hp engine .
1904 Lanchester .
Humber and Humberette Thomas Humber was a bicycle manufacturer in Coventry . He moved to Motor Mills , and in 1901 started to make Humber cars with a De Dion engine and a single-spoked steering wheel . In 1903 , the Humberette appeared , being built at both Coventry ( price £ 125 ) and Beeston ( a deluxe version priced at £ 147 ).
James & Browne James & Browne Ltd of Hammersmith , London , England was registered in January 1902 . It made an 18hp four-cylinder and a 9hp twin-cylinder , with the engine under the front seats .
Knox Knox started his company in 1900 to make internalcombustion air-cooled cars . At first these were threewheelers , but by 1902 four-wheelers were appearing , and from 1903 only four-wheelers were made . The air cooling was by two-inch steel rods instead of fins , gaining the name ‘ Old Porcupine ’.
Lambert Lambert & Cie offered 8hp De Dion Bouton-engined cars , or alternatively with 10hp and 12hp two-cylinder engines by Abeille or Aster . All had shaft drive , artillery wheels and two- or four-seater bodies .
Lanchester Frederick William Lanchester built cars in Birmingham . He was a very clever engineer and original thinker . One of eight children , his brothers George and Frank joined him , and four models of two-cylinder cars were offered in 1904 . By that time , customers were expecting four-cylinder cars , and the first appeared at the end of 1904 . The engine was front-mounted and vertical , and situated between the front seats , giving a bonnetless appearance .
Léon Bollée Popularly known for the production of a threewheeler that it named a voiturette . Amédée Bollée Senior was the major French pioneer steam vehicle maker from the 1870s . His sons , Léon and Amédée Junior , accompanied their father in the Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race in their 15-year-old steam carriage . The voiturette , which had a horizontal air-cooled single-cylinder engine , frame mounted and with hot tube ignition , was built by the sons . The engine was very noisy and the belt drive temperamental , the twin-engined model even more so . But they were very fast . The passenger was seated at the front and the driver at the rear . Several hundred voiturettes were made , with a range of bodies . In 1903 , a new factory produced fourwheeled cars with a conventional four-cylinder engine .
Locomobile and Locomobile steam Amzi Lorenzo Barber and John Brisbane Walker registered the Locomobile Company of America at Watertown , Massachusetts , USA , and the first Locomobiles were really Stanleys . Barber and Walker soon disagreed , and in 1900 Walker set up in Tarrytown , New York , to build Mobiles . Meanwhile , Barber consolidated Locomobile production in Bridgeport , Connecticut , making a lightweight steam Runabout . By 1902 , these were made sturdier , but the company soon went over to petrol-driven cars .
Lutzmann Lutzmann employed only about 20 workers in his factory in Dessau , much less than his competitors Daimler and Benz . The company itself did not trade until December 1898 , under the name Anhaltische Motorwagenfabrik . The Lutzmann motor vehicle was offered in at least 14 different variants .
MMC Harry J Lawson , entrepreneur and promoter of the first London to Brighton Run in 1896 , created The Great Horseless Carriage Company Ltd in Coventry , England in 1897 . By 1898 , this had become The Motor Manufacturing Company Ltd . This was based in part of The Motor Mills , which housed various motor manufacturers . George Iden joined the company , and in 1899 new designs were available with rearmounted horizontal-twin engines . By 1902 , the engines were front-mounted with one , two or four cylinders .
28 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run