VETERAN CAR GUIDE engine which drove the rear wheels by belt , and had rack and pinion steering , and the option of a two- or three-speed gearbox . It was priced at £ 165 .
James & Browne James & Browne Ltd of Hammersmith , London , England was registered in January 1902 . The earliest motor car had a 9hp twin cylinder engine with a transverse crankshaft and the flywheel was positioned between the cylinders , there was a four-speed gearbox and chain final drive . This car and a 18hp four-cylinder model had conventional bonnets , but the engine was placed under the front seat . Later the company installed four-cylinder vertical engines at the front of the chassis .
Knox The Knox Automobile Co . of Springfield , Massachusetts began production in 1900 with a 3-wheel car , the model A , which was powered by a 1562cc , 5hp , horizontal air-cooled single cylinder engine that drove the rear axle by a single chain . The engine used cooling rods rather than fins , leading to the nickname ‘ Old Porcupine ’. In 1902 the 4-wheel model B was introduced , and then the model C , all single cylinder cars . The Type D , launched in 1904 , had a two-cylinder engine of 16 / 18hp .
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 . These vehicles were all procured from Lacoste et Battmann .
Lanchester Frederick William Lanchester built cars in Birmingham and was considered one of the finest engineering minds of his time . His cars owed nothing to the
1902 James & Browne . prevailing influence of Benz and Panhard . His first prototype vehicle was powered by a 1306cc single cylinder horizontal engine which had two overhanging balanced cranks , each with its own flywheel and connecting rod . The cranks revolved in opposite directions giving a smooth-running unit . One of eight children , his brothers George and Frank joined him . Six cars were completed during 1900 , and production began in earnest in 1901 when the model was equipped with a mid-mounted , horizontally opposed two-cylinder engine driving through a three-speed epicyclic gearbox and worm final drive . Investment funds were short , and the company liquidated in 1904 , but was revived later the same year by the receiver who facilitated the development of the first fourcylinder model powered by a 2470cc 20hp engine .
L ’ Elegante L ’ Elegante cars were sold by JB Mercier from premises in the Rue St Ferdinand , Paris , France . The cars were made by Lacoste et Battmann and featured the wording ‘ L ’ Elegante ’ on the gearbox . A surviving example has a De Dion Bouton 8hp engine .
Léon Bollée The Bollée family of Le Mans were bell founders , but members of the family produced steam carriages and motor vehicles from the early days . 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 1895 Paris-Bordeaux-Paris race in their 15-year-old steam carriage . The three-wheeled voiturette , which had a horizontal air-cooled single-cylinder engine , frame mounted and with hot tube ignition , was designed by the sons . Various engine sizes , from 640cc- 822cc were used , they were very noisy , the belt drive temperamental , but with their modest weight , 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 four-wheeled cars with a conventional four-cylinder engine with chain drive .
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 .
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