 | |
| Industry | Automobile |
|---|---|
| Fate | bankrupt |
| Founded | 1906 |
| Defunct | 1913 |
| Headquarters | Indianapolis, Indiana, United States |
Key people | Harry C. Stutz Fred L. Tone |
| Products | automobiles |
The American Motor Car Company was a short-lived company in the automotive industry founded in 1906, lasting until 1913. It was based in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States. The American Motor Car Company pioneered the "underslung" design.
Harry C. Stutz, who later formed a company bearing his name, designed the first car for the new enterprise. However, Stutz quickly left and Fred L. Tone took over as chief engineer in 1906. Tone re-designed the chassis (frame) below the axles and the semi-elliptic leaf spring suspension system mounted above.
This upside-down or reverse arrangement became known as the underslung design. It gave the vehicles a lower stance and was an industry first. Because of the lower chassis position, 40 in (1,000 mm) wheels gave the vehicle space between the frame and the ground. The company claimed that the vehicles were safe from rollovers and could be tilted up to 55 degrees.
The engine was a 6.4 L (390.6 cu in) engine rated at 40 horsepower (by the measurements at that time), but the car was underpowered. By 1908, the engine was enlarged to 7.8 L (476.0 cu in) producing 50 bhp (37 kW). The company entered a large engined roadster in the Savannah Challenge Cup Race held in Savannah, Georgia, but it finished last.
Facing financial problems during 1911, the name was changed to American Motor Company.
In 1912 all of its models featured the distinctive underslung chassis and the cars were officially named American Underslung. However, the new company was still over-extended and inefficient. The relatively small production of its numerous models was divided among three factories.
The company went into bankruptcy in November 1913.
Over an eight-year period, the American Motor Company had produced over 45,000 vehicles.
Like many other automakers during this era, ineffective assembly processes, questionable management practices, as well as a focus on high quality plagued it and expensive models when the market was moving to lower priced utilitarian cars.
The AC Cobra, sold in the United States as the Shelby Cobra and AC Shelby Cobra, is a British-American sports car with a Ford V8 engine, produced intermittently in both the UK and the US since 1962.
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The American Underslung was an American automobile, the brainchild of Harry Stutz and designer Fred Tone, manufactured in Indianapolis from 1905 to 1914 by American Motor Car Company.
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The Stutz Motor Car Company of America, Inc., was an American producer of high-end sports and luxury cars based in Indianapolis, Indiana, USA. Production began in 1911 and ended in 1935.
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Lorraine-Dietrich was a French automobile and aircraft engine manufacturer from 1896 until 1935, created when railway locomotive manufacturer Société Lorraine des Anciens Etablissements de Dietrich et Cie de Lunéville branched into the manufacture of automobiles. The Franco-Prussian War divided the company's manufacturing capacity, one plant in Niederbronn-les-Bains, Alsace, the other in Lunéville, Lorraine.
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Continental Motors Company was an American manufacturer of internal combustion engines. The company produced engines as a supplier to many independent manufacturers of automobiles, tractors, trucks, and stationary equipment from the 1900s through the 1960s. Continental Motors also produced automobiles in 1932–1933 under the name Continental Automobile Company. The Continental Aircraft Engine Company was formed in 1929 to develop and produce its aircraft engines, and would become the core business of Continental Motors, Inc.
A stressed member engine is a vehicle engine used as an active structural element of the chassis to transmit forces and torques, rather than being passively contained by the chassis with anti-vibration mounts. Automotive engineers use the method for weight reduction and mass centralization in vehicles. Applications are found in several vehicles where mass reduction is critical for performance reasons, usually after several iterations of conventional frame/chassis designs have been employed.
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Leo William Goossen was a draftsman, mechanical engineer and automobile designer. He is known for his work with Harry Miller and his long involvement in the design and ongoing development of the four-cylinder Offenhauser ("Offy") racing engine.
