VETERAN CAR GUIDE quality motoring products available that was regularly compared with the acknowledged quality makes such as Locomobile and the Pierce-Arrow.
Thornycroft John I. Thornycroft & Co. started life as shipbuilders on the Thames at Chiswick. In 1896, it made its first commercial steam vehicle. In 1898, it moved vehicle production to Basingstoke, Hampshire, adding high quality petrol-driven passenger cars from 1903. Two models were made, a 10hp twin cylinder and a 20hp four-cylinder, both with automatic inlet valves, gilled tube radiators and shaft drive.
Tony Huber Tony Huber was an engineer who built engines under his own name. In 1902, he registered Automobiles Tony Huber, Billancourt, Seine, France and launched a range of cars with both two( 8hp and 11hp) and four-cylinders( 14hp, 16 / 18hp, and 20 / 25hp). In 1905, he formed a company with Armand Peugeot to make engines, motorboats and electrical equipment.
Vallée Henri Vallée initially worked with the Bollée family before setting up a company to make bicycles in 1890. In 1895 he built a tubular chassis motor car with chain final drive and coil ignition, powered by a twin cylinder horizontal engine of his own design that was exhibited at the Paris Salon that year. The following year he launched two new vehicles: a four-seater vis-à-vis and a four-seat Victoria. In 1897 he was manufacturing vehicles with an assortment of 4hp, 5hp, and 7hp engines, which continued until 1902, when he began to produce motorcycles. In 1899 he built an extraordinary racing car which was nicknamed‘ La Pantoufle’( the Slipper). It had a 7598cc horizontal four-cylinder engine developing 16hp, and gears were considered unnecessary.
Vauxhall The London-based company made marine engines from 1857 and began to experiment with petrol engines for river launches in 1897. It was this design that ultimately led to the creation of a front-mounted 978cc horizontal single-cylinder unit that was fitted to the company’ s first motor car in 1903. There was coil ignition, a two-speed epicyclic gearbox( without reverse), and single chain drive. The armoured wood frame was suspended on coil springs at each corner, and steering was by tiller. About 70 of these were sold, and an improved version with wheel steering, reverse gear, and a 6hp engine was available in 1904. Some 105 of these were made, and they were not available after 1904. In 1905, the company moved to Luton.
Warwick The Warwick Cycle and Automobile Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, USA, made bicycles before producing a vehicle that resembled a traditional light steam runabout that was powered by a De Dion Bouton petrol engine, vertically mounted, of either 3.5 or 6hp plus two-speed transmission, tubular frame and tiller steering. In 1903, Warwick made its own engine and extended the wheelbase. The 1904 models were considerably larger with front-mounted engines of 14hp( two-cylinder) or 18hp( three-cylinder) with side entrance tonneau bodies.
Waverley / Pope-Waverley The Pope Manufacturing Company was founded by Albert Augustus Pope and around 1876. In 1878 they began making bicycles in Hartford, Connecticut and introduced motorcycles to their range in 1902. In 1898 Pope Manufacturing began producing electric cars, and had made more than 500 by 1899, when the automobile division was bought by the Electric Vehicle Company. Pope went on to buy several small manufacturers, including the International Motor Car Company, which it acquired in 1904. This became known as the Waverley Department of Pope Motor Company. All models were electric. The Waverley was originally a small two-seater runabout but by 1902 a four-seater model was introduced. Variants included the Pope-Waverley Chelsea, a two-seater with single electric motor and 30 batteries and the five-seater Pope-Waverley Tonneau, with twin electric motors each producing 3hp, an armoured wood frame and 40 batteries.
Westfield C. J. Moore built a steam car before he started the C. J. Moore Manufacturing Company in Westfield, Massachusetts, USA. In 1903 he turned to building petrol cars, using proprietary engines to customer specification.
1902 Westfield.
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