VETERAN CAR GUIDE
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 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.
Martini Martini was a pioneer Swiss automobile manufacturer, in operation from 1897 to 1934. In 1897, businessman Adolf von Martini built an experimental rear-engined car. He followed this with V4 cars of 10hp and 16hp in 1902. Since Swiss cantons were unusually hostile to cars, the company had to rely more than most on exports, and demand from abroad proved sufficient to justify building a factory in Saint-Blaise in 1904.
Maxim The London General Automobile Company Limited gave the name Maxim to a car designed by Hiram Stevens Maxim, who invented the Maxim gun. It had a twin-cylinder, 16hp, T-head Fafnir engine, three-speed gearbox and a double chain drive. Early cars had an armoured wood chassis and gilled-tube radiator, but later had steel frames and honeycomb radiators.
Maxwell The Maxwell-Briscoe Motor Co. of Tarrytown, New York, USA commenced production in 1904, when 10 cars were built that year. The vehicle was a twoseater tourer with a wheelbase of 1.83m, equipped with a twin-cylinder horizontally opposed engine with mechanically operated inlet valves, thermosyphon cooling and two-speed planetary transmission.
1903 Maxim.
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