VETERAN CAR GUIDE
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 with cross strips of Ash bolted on to form a platform. Front springs were single leaf quarter elliptic, there were no rear springs, and the vehicle was started by pulling a leather strap. In late 1903, a new model had full elliptic front springs, rear coil springs, a twospeed transmission, and crank starting. It apparently remained in production until 1907. More conventional cars were also produced from 1905.
Packard Packard was founded by James Ward Packard, his brother, William, and their partner, George Lewis Weiss, in Warren, Ohio. Between 1899 and 1904, the company made almost 600 vehicles, starting with the Model A that had a large, horizontal single-cylinder engine of 2337cc, two-speed epicyclic transmission, and single chain drive. The Model B of 1900 was similar but had an automatic spark advance that was unusual at the time, and for 1901 this option was supplemented with a 3012cc single cylinder variant that had a steering wheel instead of the previous tiller steering. For 1902 the same engine was used, but it was installed in the longer Model F chassis. For 1903, the chassis was extended even further to a wheelbase of 2.23m. An example of the Model F, named Old Pacific, achieved fame by being driven from San Francisco to New York in 61 days, beating by two days the record previously set by a Winton.
Panhard et Levassor René Panhard met Emile Levassor as a student, and by 1872 they were working together. The factory in Paris produced a batch of four identical cars in 1891, 15 in 1892, 37 in 1893 and 41 in 1894. This made Panhard et Levassor the world’ s first marque of car in continuous production. Following Levassor’ s early death in 1897, Arthur Constantin Krebs joined the company as technical director and set about developing a new range of vehicles with balanced four-cylinder engines, raked steering columns, front-mounted radiators, improved carburettors, and a coil and battery ignition system. In 1899 Panhard introduced the A1 / A2 models fitted with Phénix engine of 4hp( 1,201cc) or 6hp( 1,648 cc). Initially these cars had larger rear wheels but by 1901 equal-sized wheels were available. In 1902 the new Centaure engine of the same size was introduced and designated the Model A( still with the two sizes of engine). In 1903, the Centaure S-series, with 10hp, 15hp, 18hp, 24hp, and 35hp output options, was offered with Eisemann magneto ignition and T-head construction with mechanical inlet valves.
Peerless Located in Cleveland, Ohio, the company launched the Peerless Motorette in 1901 with a choice of 2.75hp or 3.5hp De Dion Bouton engines. It was ill-suited to the rough American roads, leading to the design of a 12 / 16hp vertical twin cylinder-powered car the following year. More power was available for 1903, when three four-cylinder options were available with power outputs of 24hp, 35hp and 60hp( known respectively as Types 8, 7 and 12). 1903 cars had channel-section steel frames dropped in the centre to give a lower centre of gravity.
1903 Oldsmobile.
56 The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run