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::
[ UNKNOWN
1910s BUGGY SPECIAL ] ::
Fascinating set of photos
received from Ken Kelly, Port Townsend, near Seattle (USA)
saying he has purchased a car that ....after OVER 100 hours of searching
the web....I cannot name. I even tried all of your pages of searches. At
first glance......Renault.....but...--
Definitely not Renault for many reasons. We have contacted some of our
veteran experts and all agree it does not seem of European origin;
probably American. Regret no identification; so
help from readers appreciated.
Enquiry detais :
I have purchased a car that ....after
OVER 100 hours of searching the web....I cannot name. I even tried all
of your pages of searches. At first glance......Renault.....but...the
hood is different and it is a double chain drive. And...considering it o
be an 1899 car...the fenders are wrong shaped and the running board is
totally different.......and the wheel bases do not match. Did Renault
make a double chain drive......I cannot find a reference that says that
they did. I also looked at Panhard.....the grill drives me away from
them.
What I know is: 1) Original owner "thought" around 1900. 2) A
lot of the wood was eaten away and was re-done years ago...some plywood
is there. 3) Engine has been replaced...so no help there 4) The lights
might be original but have been modernized 5) The back might have been a
turtle back or even a rear seat......... 6) There are 3 pedals that look
original and one that does not...think it is for the changed-out engine
7) I have put notes on the pictures with a few measurements "I
hope" will help 8) I believe that the windscreen and top might have
been "after-market" 9) I know that the bracket to hold the
spare tire...on the driver's side...interferes with the gear lever on
that side...might have been put in the wrong place. All in all.......it
is a total mystery to us. Attached pictures. Thank you. Ken Kelly,
Art Deco Lighting Museum
Please Click on the photo, and
enlarge if required, to see full size high definition
picture
Brief observation of the details of the photo
suggests this may have been a home made special, and that the car may have been assembled
from later parts. It was quite common practice in early days to update
original vehicles with more modern elements to disguise its old origins.
Here there is not much evidence of anything very ancient as a starting
point. This may have been an attempt to create an older looking vehicle
by using an amalgam of period bits, or possibly more likely perhaps an exercise of making
something usable from what bits may have been laying around the yard.
It has a Maxwell badge and Maxwell did have a twin
opposed engine in 1905 but this was water cooled with a radiator at
the front. The bonnet of the vehicle is half round and has a mesh front reminiscent
of some early steamers, - but more likely air-cooled cars like
Franklin and Chase. The bonnet however seems far too short to have
housed anything substantive. This probably suggests the engine may have
been amidships under/behind the floor/seat. It seems however to have a
'tunnel' in the middle of the cab suggesting something was there under
it? The steering wheel is on the right
suggesting a pre Model T period. The wheels are demountable
suggesting a later period. The convertible roof seems period and is
similar to many cars including a very close match to a REO of 1906.
This is a very interesting enigma which will be great fun unraveling and
probably more fun making operative. Good luck !
One
of our veteran Experts commented as follows::
The
suspected veteran is a strange vehicle. Definitely not European and
Renault is of course impossible if only because of the chains. No clue
to the location of engine (front or center?), strange chain wheels with
holes and a frame with front and rear elliptical springs, which is also
unusual. It looks most like a self-made thing: I couldn't find anything
that even looked a bit similar. But well, maybe I'm totally wrong and something
turns up after all.
Another of our
veteran Experts commented as follows:
Ken
is on the right lines with his thoughts that this in all probability it is
a heavily modified lash-up, most likely done long ago. Some parts do
appear to belong together - frame and axles and chain drive
arrangements. Absence of the engine a major disadvantage, and he is
likely correct that this too wasn't the original. Windscreen looks like
Model 'T' Ford to me. Body much reconstructed and who can say whether it
is a close copy of what might have been original, or otherwise. Double
chain drive of such substantial proportions is most unusual for what
seems to be a vehicle that appears to be little above the 'light car'
class'. Renault always had live axle drive, even the very early models. I'm
sure the vehicle is of US origin.
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