VETERAN CAR GUIDE
drive by a single chain to the offside rear wheel . Later the focus switched to larger-engined cars , including a 3.6 litre four-cylinder model .
Mors The Paris-based Mors company initially manufactured petrol-engined railway inspection cars , and then produced a motor car based on the designs of Henri Brasier , an employee at the time . It used low tension coil and dynamo ignition . A later development included V-four engines with water-cooled heads and air-cooled barrels that were rear-mounted . By 1898 , production was growing rapidly , and the ‘ Petit Duc ’ was launched with a smaller , front-mounted 850cc flat twin cylinder engine and final drive by side chains . Full water cooling was adopted in 1902 , and from 1903 , vertical engines were standard . Models introduced in 1903 had four-cylinder T-head engines , Mercedes-like honeycomb radiators , chain drive and pressed steel chassis . The 1904 engine options included an 8.1 litre 40 / 25hp model .
Napier At the beginning of 1898 Selwyn Edge , manager of the Dunlop Pneumatic Tyre Company acquired the Panhard ‘ Old Number 8 ’, the second placed car in the 1896 Paris-Marseilles race . He enlisted the services of Montague Napier at David Napier & Son , to undertake various modifications and improvements to the car . These were caried out to Edge ’ s satisfaction and by 1900 Napier were building complete cars for competition and later for normal road use . The first Napier distinguished itself in the Thousand Mile Trial of 1900 , driven by Edge . Other racing cars were built , the most famous being a 30hp , four-cylinder car that won the Gordon Bennett Race for Great Britain in 1902 . In 1903 , Napier built 250 cars , and needed to expand from his Lambeth premises to Acton , London . In October , the company announced the 18 / 30hp sixcylinder range that became its trademark , and by 1906 Napier had an all six-cylinder product range .
1903 Napoleon .
Napoleon Mr Bernard Neave of London displayed a Napoleon at the Crystal Palace Motor Show in 1903 , that was manufactured by the Paris-based Lacoste et Battmann Co ., using a De Dion Bouton 6hp engine .
New Orleans This was a Belgian Vivinus voiturette built under licence in Orleans Road , Middlesex , by HG Burford and Dutchman Johannes Van Toll . The car had a front-mounted 3.5hp single cylinder engine with belt transmission to fast and loose pulleys on a countershaft and then by spur gears to the rear axle . A 6hp two-cylinder car was available at the end of 1900 , and in 1901 came a 7hp model with water cooling and three forward gears . Both tubular frames and flitch-plate chassis were used . For 1903 , there was a tubular-framed 9hp twin cylinder and a flitch plate 14hp four-cylinder range . It is possible that components were still sourced in Belgium from Vivinus .
Northern Northern was founded in Detroit , Michigan USA by two ex-employees of the Olds Company – Charles Brady King and Jonathan Dixon Maxwell . Maxwell designed the first Northern , a single-cylinder Runabout similar to a Curved Dash Olds , but without the curved dash . About 300 were sold in 1903 , and then Maxwell left to work with Benjamin Briscoe .
Oldsmobile The Curved Dash Oldsmobile came about after Ransom Eli Olds had experimented with gas , electric and steam buggies at the end of the 19th century . It was developed in 1900 , the factory caught fire in March 1901 and all the various models were destroyed , save for one runabout . This was the only model to resume production when the factory was rebuilt . There are 3 basic Curved Dash models : the Model R 5 HP which was produced until 1904 , the Model 6C 7 HP which appeared during 1904 and the less often seen Model B 7 HP which succeeded the 6C and was made until 1907 . These models evolved as suppliers were changed . They were made variously in Lansing or Detroit , Michigan and assembled in other countries .
Orient The Waltham manufacturing company was founded in the 1890s with Charles Metz as chief designer . Cycles , motor bikes and some motor buggies were produced . In 1903 , with the company under new management , the Orient Motor Buckboard was produced . It was a very lightweight machine with little suspension and only a single speed , body work consisted of just a twin seat bolted to a wooden chassis with Hickory perches
56 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run