VETERAN CAR GUIDE
Pierce George Norman Pierce was a successful businessman in Buffalo, New York, USA, who made a range of domestic goods and bicycles. Towards the end of 1901, he produced a batch of 25 Pierce Motorettes( called the Knockabout) with 2.75 single-cylinder De Dion Bouton engines. The design was by an Englishman named David Fergusson who also created the Runabout in 1902, equipped with a 3.5hp De Dion Bouton engine. This was followed by a 5hp model whose engine was locally made in Detroit. Engines of 6.5hp and 8hp output quickly followed, and production continued until 1906.
1903 Rambler
drive, tubular steel frames and tiller steering. By 1895, Peugeot had completed his testing and he decided to make his own engines. Tiring of the inertia of the family firm, he started SA des Automobiles Peugeot at Audincourt in 1897, then moved to Paris in 1900, hiring Louis Delage to run his drawing office in 1902. In the same year, Peugeot adopted front-mounted engines for all models but there was still a mixture of chain and shaft drive. The most popular Peugeot was the 652cc 5hp Type 54, and the biggest machine was the 18hp 3635cc Type 42.
Phoenix There are several marques known as Phoenix. The most well-known made a tricycle called Pheonix Trimo, powered by a Minerva engine.
Pieper Henri Pieper of Liege, Belgium, built early petrolelectric hybrid as well as conventional motor cars, and eventually transitioned his historic manufacturing operations into what would become the well-known Imperia Automobiles factory. Pieper was an early innovator and was responsible for constructing electric quadricycles and petrol-electric two-seaters using De Dion Bouton engines. In his 3.5hp voiturette, the small petrol engine was mated to an electric motor under the seat. When the car was travelling at its cruising speed, the electric motor was a generator, recharging the batteries. When the car was climbing a gradient, the electric motor, mounted co-axially with the petrol engine, gave it a boost. By 1901-02, the firm had shifted focus largely towards multi-cylinder petrol vehicles using many innovative designs.
Pope-Toledo One of Colonel Pope’ s enterprises was the International Bicycle Company in Toledo, Ohio, USA. It made two models of petrol-driven cars in 1904, a 14hp twin-cylinder and a 24hp four-cylinder. The latter vehicle won many races on the west coast of America, winning for itself the accolade‘ The Mile a Minute Car’. A Pope Toledo finished third in the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup; the country’ s most important race at the time.
Pope-Tribune The Pope-Tribune company was part of the Pope empire founded by Colonel Albert Pope. The subsidiary was run by his son, Harold E. Pope, at the former bicycle factory in Hagerstown, Maryland. The marque offered smaller and cheaper vehicles than others in the Pope range. For a small car it was unusual in having very advanced and high-quality features, such as modern shaft drive and sliding gear transmission at a time when even large cars had chain drive and planetary transmission. Over the four years following its introduction in 1904, the Pope Tribune grew steadily larger and more powerful, until it had priced and sized itself out of its original market.
Premier The Premier Motor Car Company of Indiana, USA, produced technically advanced motor cars from the outset in 1903. Its first engine, with output of 16hp, had overhead valves and four cylinders, was initially aircooled, and there was sliding gear transmission. The company’ s adverts promised a speed of 5-40mph, and a range of 182 miles on 10 gallons of fuel and boasted that there was‘ more horsepower per hundred pounds than any car built in America.’ Given that the car weighed 1,021kg, and could carry six passengers this was a significant performance.
Rambler Thomas B. Jeffery and R. Philip Gormully made bicycles in Chicago in the 1890s. They also had
www. veterancarrun. com F / veterancarrun. I @ veterancarrun 61