Tag Archives: 1904

Napier Samson

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1904 Napier L48 Samson 15-Liter

Offered by Bonhams | Amelia Island, Florida | February 29, 2024

Photo – Bonhams

The roots of Napier could be traced back to a company founded in 1808. The original founder’s grandson took over the company in 1895 at age 25. Just a few years later they were building motor cars. And race cars.

The L48 was built for setting records. It’s powered by a massive 15.0-liter inline-six that makes an incredible 240 horsepower. At Ormond/Daytona Beach in 1905 the car hit 104 mph over the flying mile. That was a world record, and it was the first car to hit 100 mph in the U.S. and the first British car to break that barrier. In 1908 it broke 130 mph at Brooklands.

Napier later sold the car for scrap, which is pretty terrible in terms of keeping your history alive. The engine went into a boat and survived, later being discovered in Australia, where a replica of the original 1904 L48 was constructed around it.

Sure, this isn’t the exact car that set the speed records, but the wonderful one-off motor did. It’s still worth a lot: with an estimate of $900,000-$1,100,000. Click here for more info.

Brouhot D1

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1904 Brouhot D1 Roadster

Offered by Osenat | Lyon, France | November 12, 2023

Photo – Osenat

Many early car companies sprouted up out of existing mechanical business, and Charles Brouhot was in the agricultural business in the late 1800s, making threshing machines and station engines. He started building automobiles in 1898.

The company would continue in both sectors until 1911, when they returned to focusing on farm equipment. This D1 from 1904 is powered by an inline-twin. It has known history back to 1921.

By the 1960s this car was on the London-to-Brighton run and has been in its current collection since 2008. It has not really moved in the last five years, so it’s going to need some service. The estimate is now $21,000-$31,000. More info can be found here.

1904 Gladiator

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1904 Gladiator 14HP Demi-Limousine

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 3, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

The history of Gladiator is interwoven with some of the great early French names: Clement, Darracq, and all of the companies that they begat. Gladiator was founded by Alexandre Darracq and Paul Aucoq in 1891 as a bicycle company. Motorcars followed in 1901 after Gladiator was taken over by Clement (in 1896).

Beginning in 1903, they split the branding for their cars, with shaft-driven cars being sold as Clement-Gladiator and chain-driven cars being offered as Gladiators. This chain-driven car is powered by a 3.2-liter inline-four rated at 14 horsepower.

The car wears demi-limousine bodywork by Leon Molon. It was brought to the U.S. from Argentina in the 1970s and then went to the U.K. in 1982. It has participated in over 35 London-to-Brighton runs and now has an estimate of $360,000-$485,000. Click here for more info.

Curved-Dash Olds

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1904 Oldsmobile Model 6C Curved-Dash Runabout

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Hershey, Pennsylvania | October 4-5, 2023

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

The CDO, or Curved-Dash Oldsmobile, was the first “mass-produced automobile.” That means it was built on an assembly line with interchangeable parts instead of being hand-built, with each car being slightly different. It went on sale in 1901 and would remain available through 1906, at which time it was woefully out of date. Oldsmobile didn’t even really advertise it that year.

In 1904, the CDO was sold as the Model 6C, and 2,500 were built that year alone (in all, about 19,000 CDOs would be built). Power is provided by a 1.6-liter horizontal single that was rated at seven horsepower.

They all had tiller steering, as this one does. And it retains a folding soft top. It’s got known history back to during WWII. Now it has an estimate of $45,000-$50,000. Click here for more info.

Pope-Toledo Racer

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1904 Pope-Toledo Two-Seat Racer

Offered by Bonhams | Carmel, California | August 18, 2023

Photo – Bonhams

Colonel Pope founded five different car companies, four of which had his name attached to them. The Pope-Toledo was built in Toledo, Ohio, from 1903 to 1909. After it closed, the factory was sold to Overland.

A Pope-Toledo competed in the first Vanderbilt Cup in 1904. Not this car, though. This is an assembled car that uses a 24-horsepower Pope-Toledo frame, a post-1904 3.4-liter inline-four, and a reconstructed body imitating that used by the Vanderbilt Cup car, which was driven by Herb Lytle. Lytle previously owned this engine, which is larger than a stock Pope-Toledo unit.

The car’s low bodywork implies sport, and the fact that it has dual chain drive implies some kind of speed. This may not look the part, but for 1904, it was a performance car. Then again, the car as we see it is not from 1904 but from many decades later. It has an estimate of $200,000-$300,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

First-Year Pope-Hartford

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1904 Pope-Hartford Model B Rear-Entrance Tonneau

Offered by Gooding & Company | Lynchburg, Virginia | April 7, 2023

Photo – Gooding & Company

Pope-Hartford was one of several automobile manufacturers under the Pope Manufacturing Company umbrella. It was the longest lived, lasting from 1904 through 1914. The company’s first two products in 1904 were the Model A, a runabout, and the Model B, the tonneau as shown here.

The Model B actually carried over into 1905 as well. It’s powered by a 2.1-liter single that was rated at 10 horsepower at a leisurely 900 rpm. It cost $1,000 when new. The catalog states it was, perhaps, sold new to McKinley/Roosevelt’s Secretary of State.

It’s been under current ownership since 2019, four years after it won a preservation class award at Pebble Beach. It now has an estimate of $75,000-$100,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $103,600.

An Early Lagonda

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1904 Lagonda 10HP Tricar

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 4, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

There’s nothing scarier on Halloween than being the front passenger in a tricar. You are the bumper and crumple zone.

Wilbur Gunn was actually born in the United States. He was an opera singer that became a British citizen in the 1890s and got his start in the automotive realm by building motorcycles in his backyard around 1904. He named them Lagonda, after a place in Ohio. Naturally.

The first four-wheeled cars arrived in 1907, meaning this tricar predates Lagonda “cars.” It’s thought to be the oldest known example of the marque and is powered by a 1.2-liter V-twin that was rated at 10 or 12 horsepower, depending on which rating system you subscribed to.

A Lagonda tricar was victorious in its class in a London-Edinburgh trial in 1906. This car is considered a prototype of its kind and is the only Lagonda eligible for the London-to-Brighton run. It was restored in 1936 and again in the 1990s (and in the ’90s it was Lagonda that did the work). It’s been under current ownership since 2004. The estimate is $85,000-$90,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

1904 Siddeley

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1904 Siddeley 12hp Twin-Cylinder Rear-Entrance Tonneau

Offered by Bonhams | London, U.K. | November 4, 2022

Photo – Bonhams

Siddeley is a fairly well-known name in the historical British car world. However, most of the time it is connected to other names, like Deasy, Wolseley, or, most famously, Armstrong. But the first Siddeleys were built by John Davenport Siddeley’s Siddeley Autocar Company, which was founded in 1902. The cars were actually built by Vickers and were based on Peugeots.

In 1905, J.D. Siddeley became the manager of Wolseley and then added his name to that brand. In 1909, he left Wolseley (and so did his name) and took over Deasy, again appending his name to that marque’s as well. In 1919, Siddeley-Deasy was bought by Armstrong Whitworth. Armstrong-Siddeley cars remained in production until 1960. The Siddeley name stuck around on various aircraft companies through a few mergers, eventually winding up as part of BAE Systems.

So that’s the history. Here’s this car. It is said that 31 examples of the 12hp model were built, with this being the only survivor. It’s powered by a vertical twin that can push the car to 28 mph, never exceeding 1,800 rpm (and dropping as low as 80 rpm!). The rear-entrance tonneau body was fabricated in the ’90s to replace a replacement two-seater (previously added in lieu of the original tonneau body).

A former London-to-Brighton participant, this car should sell in the $125,000-$155,000 range. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $170,857.

Nine-Passenger C.G.V.

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1904 C.G.V. Type 75 Nine-Passenger Tourer

Offered by RM Sotheby’s | Hershey, Pennsylvania | October 5-6, 2022

Photo Courtesy of RM Sotheby’s

Two days ago we featured a car called an S.G.V., which was built in Pennsylvania. Well this completely unrelated C.G.V. was built in France. The company was named for its founders, Fernand Charron, Leonce Girardot, and Emile Voigt, the three of which were racing drivers or racing cyclists.

The company built cars between 1901 and 1906, at which time Girardot and Voigt left the firm. Automobiles Charron continued on through 1930. This is a very large car for 1904, and it’s believed to be the only Type 75 that survives.

The auction catalog does not mention what this car would’ve been powered by when new (C.G.V. offered 9.8-liter and later 12.9-liter engines beginning in 1905), but it does say it was fitted with a 75-horsepower Seagrave fire truck engine circa 2000. It was refurbished in the late 2000s and can hit 70 mph in third gear. It has four gears.

C.G.V.s were borderline obscenely expensive when new, but no pre-sale estimate is available for this one. Click here for more info.

Update: Not sold.

Rover 8HP

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1904 Rover Eight

Offered by Brightwells | Leominster, U.K. | June 18, 2022

Photo – Brightwells

Rover was one of the U.K.’s longest-running automotive marques. The Rover Company Limited got its start as so many others did, with bicycles. They were founded in 1878, and motorcycles followed in 1902. The first Rover car was 1904’s Eight, an example of which we have here.

The first Eights were powered by a 1.3-liter single cylinder that made eight horsepower. A 1.0-liter sleeve-valve single was offered for the model’s final two years of production in 1911 and 1912. The car had a backbone frame that was essentially just the running gear, and this evolved into an ash chassis by 1907.

This first-year Rover is said to be the oldest surviving Rover in private hands and one of the earliest Rovers built. It has known history back to 1921 and is a former London-to-Brighton participant. It has a pre-sale estimate of $85,000-$90,000. Click here for more info.

Update: Sold $122,595.