VETERAN CAR GUIDE
1327cc 8hp single-cylinder vertical engine with an unusual aluminium backbone frame that incorporated a three-speed gearbox at the front. It was launched in December 1904 before a more conventional 6hp model appeared the following year.
Salvesen H. A. Salvesen, a member of the family that owned the Christian Salvesen shipping company of Leith near Edinburgh, had built a steam vehicle with coal-fired boiler at the back powering a horizontal, two-cylinder, double-acting engine mounted on a steel chassis. It was steered from the front, with boiler-man at the rear and passengers on wooden benches in between.
Schaudel A Bordeaux gunsmith, Charles Schaudel, diversified into cycle manufacturing in the late 1900s, and built his first automobile in 1900. The design was unconventional, with a twin-cylinder engine mounted transversely in the chassis and an integral threespeed gearbox located in the sump. A version of this approach was adopted by Sir Alec Issigonis for his Mini motor car more than half a century later. At the time of its creation this unitary layout was referred to as‘ motorbloc’. The rest of the Schaudel vehicle was more conventional, with chain drive, trembler coil, atmospheric inlet valves, and a radiator mounted ahead of the‘ coal-scuttle’ bonnet. The initial Schaudel car with its four-seater rear-entrance tonneau body remained in production until 1904. Schaudel’ s brotherin-law, Emile Dombret, purchased the enterprise in 1902. He re-named the marque Motobloc when a series of new models was launched in 1904.
Siddeley John Davenport Siddeley offered Peugeot-type motor cars from his Siddeley Autocar Company Ltd located in Coventry. The 1902 vehicles had front-mounted vertical engines of two cylinders( 2300cc) or four cylinders( 3300cc). In 1903 there was also a 6hp single-cylinder option that was made by Vickers, which also made vehicles for its parent company, Wolseley.
Societe Manufacture d’ Armes Societe Manufacture d’ Armes was an armament maker in St Etienne, France. It also built bicycles and chassis for other makers before starting to make complete cars from 1904. There is only one known survivor, which is fitted with an Aster engine.
Stanley The Stanley Brothers made their fortunes in the photographic industry. They had built a steam car in 1897. It was lightweight and fast, and they entered it in the speed trials of New England’ s first automobile show, where Francis Stanley drove it to victory. By the end of 1899, they had made and sold about 200 cars. John Brisben Walker bought the business and renamed the cars Locomobile. The Stanleys had a year off from motor manufacture and then, in 1902, started the Stanley Motor Carriage Company. By 1904, it had four different models, and by mid-1905 the boiler was moved to the front of the car, where it was covered with a coffin-like bonnet and then the tiller was replaced with a wheel.
Star The Star Motor Company of Wolverhampton was owned by the Lisle family who had made a fortune in cycle manufacture, In the early years, Star relied upon designs of other cars for their production, starting with Benz in 1899. From 1902 there were two De Dion Bouton-engined cars and three Panhard-like cars with 8hp, 10hp, and 24hp four-cylinder engines. The 1904 Stars all had four-cylinder engines of 12hp, 18hp, and 24hp that were built on Mercedes lines with honeycomb radiators, mechanically operated inlet valves and pressed steel frames.
Stephens Richard Stephens built bicycles at Clevedon, near Bristol, England. He made a few vehicles over the 1898 to 1900 period with drive by belts to a countershaft and chains to the rear wheels.
1904 Star
Sunbeam John Marston founded his bicycle business in Wolverhampton, in 1887, and like many others he was interested in the new idea of motor cars. After some
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