Locomobile

US, 1899 – 1929

(1) Locomobile Company of America, Westboro, Mass., 1899 – 1900

(2) Locomobile Company of America, Bridgeport, Conn., 1900 – 1929

Locomobile cars was one of the two companies which resulted from the purchase of the Stanley brothers’ steam-car design rights in 1899 by A.L. Barber and J.B. Walker. Walker separated from Barber and formed the Mobile concern, while his former partner did good business with the little Locomobile steam runabout. This Locomobile car (or actually the Locomobile steamcar) consisted of a welded ‘bicycle’ framework, a carriage body, a twin-cylinder simple engine and a 14in boiler under the driver’s seat. The Locomobile steamcar was tiller-steered and chain-driven and at $600 it looked a better bargain than the Locomobile car was, suffering from the crudest of lubrication arrangements and an astronomical water consumption: the boiler of the Locomobile steamcar had to be refilled every 20 miles. In spite of this W.M. Letts managed to sell 400 Locomobile steamcars in England in 1900 and 1901, at which time the four-storey Locomobile car until 1903, with bigger boilers, culminating in a 10hp wheel-steered dos-à-dos which sold for $1.600.

Locomobile cars eventually sold their Locomobile steamcar rights back to the Stanleys, but in the meantime A.L. Riker had designed a petrol Locomobile car on Panhard lines, with a 4-cylinder engine, automatic inlet valves and pressed-steel frame. Radiators of this Locomobile car were of the Mercédès honeycomb type in 1905, in which year Joe Tracy competed in the last Gordon Bennett Cup Race with a very Mercédès-like T-headed chain-driven racer Locomobile car. More successful was Locomobile cars ioe ‘Old 16’, built in 1906. George Robretson drove this Locomobile car to victory in the 1908 Vanderbilt Cup, while another Locomobile car victory was first place in the touring-car category of the 1913 Glidden Tour, this achieved with a 1909 Locomobile car that had already covered 100.000 miles. In the meantime the Locomobile car company had settled down to a long line of expensive and beautifully-made T-headed touring cars, the early Locomobile cars being chain-driven fours. In 1907 $3.800 was asked for the 3¾-litre Locomobile Model E and $4.500 for the 5¾-litre Locomobile Model H. By 1909, the bigger four had grown up to 7.7-litres, and 1911 brought the debut of the famous T-headed Locomobile 48, originally with ‘square’ engine dimensions of 114x114mm, but later Locomobile cars growing up to 8½-litres. This Locomobile cars developed 90bhp, had dual magneto ignition (later coil) and was still being listed in 1929; the price for this Locomobile car was $4.800 in 1912, increased to $9.600 towards the end of its production run. Body styles were attractive, especially the open Locomobile Sportifs and Locomobile Gunboat Roadsters introduced during World War I. There was also a smaller Locomobile 38 to the same specifications.

Locomobile cars encountered financial difficulties in 1920, and after a short spell with Crane-Simplex and Mercer in the Hare’s Motors group, Locomobile cars was acquired by W.C. Durant’s last empire in 1922. Durant continued the Locomobile 48 and added another luxury Locomobile car, the Locomobile 90 with L-head Monobloc engine, but the Locomobile car factories were utilized for the production of the inexpensive Flint. In 1925 came the Locomobile Junior 8, a competitor for the Chrysler with a 3¼-litre ohv engine, selling at $1.785. In 1929, the last year of Locomobile car production, the 48 and 90 were still available, but the staple Locomobile car was a 4.9-litre Lycoming-engined straight-9 at $2.850, a sad end for a firm which had been advertising eleven years before that ‘no stock parts or ready-made units are permitted’.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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Du Pont

US, 1920 – 1932

(1) Du Pont Motors Inc, Wilmington, Del., 1920 – 1923

(2) Du Pont Motors Inc, Moore, Pa., 1923 – 1932

E. Paul du Pont’s company built quality cars in limited numbers, total production being 537 vehicles of all Du Pont types. First of the line was a Du Pont 4.1-litre sv four with their own engine, selling for $2.600, but this gave way to proprietary-engined sixes, initially powered by Herschell-Spillman. The 1925 Du Pont Model D had a 6-cylinder 5-litre Wisconsin engine with overhead valves that developed 75bhp, a constant-mesh gearbox, and Lockheed hydraulic brakes to all four wheels. Its successor, the Du Pont Model E, could be had with a supercharger, but the best-known, and best, Du Pont was the Du Pont Model G speedster introduced in 1928. With its narrow straight wings copied from the Amilcar, Woodlite headlamps and grille concealing the radiator, the last a pioneering feature, the Du Pont Model G was not a good-looking car, but it was a very effective one. Like all the DuPont speedsters it had four forward speeds. The 5.3-litre, sv straight-8 engine, by Continental, gave 114bhp at 3600rpm with catalogued modifications. With the latter, 100mph was guaranteed. In the 1929 Le Mans 24 Hours race the Du Pont Model G proved itself faster than the other American entries, Stutz and Chrysler. Touring bodywork was, of course, available on the Du Pont car, and in 1931 came the long wheelbase (12ft 2 in) Du Pont Model H, built in a Stearns Knight frame. The later Du Pont cars were assembled in the Indian motorcycle factory at Springfield, after E. Paul du Pont had acquired this concern.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com