Pope-Toledo

Last updated
Pope Motor Car Company
Pope-Toledo
FormerlyInternational Motor Car Company
Industry Automotive
Founded1903;121 years ago (1903)
Defunct1909;115 years ago (1909)
FateBankruptcy, factory sold to Overland
Headquarters Toledo, Ohio,
Key people
Albert A. Pope
Products Automobiles
Pope-Toledo 1906 emblem Pope-toledo 1906 logo.jpg
Pope-Toledo 1906 emblem

The Pope-Toledo was the luxury marque of the Pope Motor Car Company founded by Colonel Albert A. Pope, and was a manufacturer of Brass Era automobiles in Toledo, Ohio between 1903 and 1909. The Pope-Toledo was the successor to the Toledo of the International Motor Car Company. [1]

Contents

History

The 1903 Pope-Toledo was a four-wheel, front-engined, two-seater open car. It was powered by a straight 3 cylinder 182 cubic inch (2983 cc) engine with the then unusual feature of a detachable cylinder head. Valve operation was mechanical and the engine speed was governed at 600 RPM. Drive was through a 3-speed gearbox with chains to each rear wheel. The chassis was mainly wood with a steel sub-frame carrying the main mechanical components. The car had a wheelbase of 7 feet 5 inches (2.26 m) and a track of 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m). [1] It was entered in the first Vanderbilt Cup (1904), but lost its steering and hit a tree. [2]

The 1904 model was a larger touring car. Equipped with a rear entrance tonneau body, it could seat 5 passengers and sold for $3,500, equivalent to $118,689in 2023. The vertically mounted water-cooled straight-4, situated at the front of the car, produced 24hp (17.9kW). A 3-speed sliding transmission was fitted. The channel steel-framed car weighed 2350lb (1066kg). This modern Système Panhard car had spark and throttle levers on steering wheel, a novelty at the time. [1]

In 1905, a Pope-Toledo owned by C. Edward Born was driven 828.5 miles before a crowd of 15,000 to win the world's first 24-hour endurance race in Columbus, Ohio. Piloted by brothers George and Charles Soules, the car was protested by runners up as being a special factory-owned "ringer". This protest was rejected by the Columbus Driving Park officials. [3] In 1908, Bobby Sheldon brought a 1906 Pope-Toledo down the Yukon to Fairbanks, the first car brought to Alaska. [4]

By 1907 the company models included limousines and seven seat cars. In 1909 the company was taken over by Richard D. Apperson of the American National Bank of Lynchburg, Virginia (and no relation to Apperson of Kokomo). The Apperson deal failed and the Pope Motor Car Company receivers sold the factory to Overland. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Overland Automobile</span> Former american car manufacturer

The Overland Automobile Company was an American automobile manufacturer in Toledo, Ohio. It was the founding company of Willys-Overland and one of the earliest mass producers of automobiles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brass Era car</span> American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing

The Brass Era is an American term for the early period of automotive manufacturing, named for the prominent brass fittings used during this time for such features as lights and radiators. It is generally considered to encompass 1896 through 1915, a time when cars were often referred to as horseless carriages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Acme (automobile)</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Acme was a make of American automobiles made in Reading, Pennsylvania from 1903 to 1911. They were the successor of the Reber which was made from 1902 to 1903 by Reber Manufacturing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apperson</span> Defunct US automobile manufacturer

The Apperson was a brand of American automobile manufactured from 1901 to 1926 in Kokomo, Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ateliers de Construction Mecanique l'Aster</span>

L'Aster, Aster, Ateliers de Construction Mecanique l'Aster, was a French manufacturer of automobiles and the leading supplier of engines to other manufacturers from the late 1890s until circa 1910/12. Although primarily known as an engine mass manufacturer the company also produced chassis for coach-works and a complete range of components.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mors (automobile)</span> Defunct French motor vehicle manufacturer

The Mors automobile factory was an early French car manufacturer. It was one of the first to take part in automobile racing, beginning in 1897, due to the belief of the company founder, Émile Mors, in racing's technical and promotional benefits. By the turn of the century, automobile racing had become largely a contest between Mors and Panhard et Levassor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Motor Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

Royal Motor Car Company was a Brass Era manufacturer of luxury automobiles in Cleveland, Ohio, in business from 1904 to 1911. It was the result of a reorganization of the Hoffman Automobile Company.

Smith & Mabley was an American veteran era importer of European automobiles and produced the American C. G. V. automobile in 1902, and the S & M Simplex automobile from 1904 to 1907, in New York City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">St. Louis Motor Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

St. Louis Motor Carriage Company was a manufacturer of automobiles at 1211–13 North Vandeventer Avenue in St. Louis, Missouri, founded by George Preston Dorris and John L. French in 1898, with French taking charge of marketing and Dorris heading engineering and production. St. Louis Motor Carriage was the first of many St. Louis automakers and produced automobiles from 1899 to 1907.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Premier Motor Manufacturing Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Premier Motor Manufacturing Company built the brass era and vintage Premier luxury automobile in Indianapolis, Indiana, from 1903 to 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cadillac Runabout and Tonneau</span>

The first Cadillac automobiles were the 1903 Model built in the last quarter of 1902. These were 2-seater "horseless carriages" powered by a reliable and sturdy 10 hp (7 kW) single-cylinder engine developed by Alanson Partridge Brush and built by Leland and Faulconer Manufacturing Company of Detroit, of which Henry Leland was founder, vice-president and general manager.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Columbia (automobile brand)</span> American automobile manufacturer

Columbia was an American brand of automobiles produced by a group of companies in the United States. They included the Pope Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, the Electric Vehicle Company, and an entity of brief existence in 1899, the Columbia Automobile Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stearns-Knight</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

F. B. Stearns and Company, later known as F. B. Stearns Company was an American manufacturer of luxury cars in Cleveland, Ohio marketed under the brand names Stearns from 1900 to 1911 then Stearns-Knight from 1911 until 1929.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brew-Hatcher</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Brew-Hatcher or B & H was an American automobile introduced in January 1904 at the Chicago Automobile Show and manufactured from 1904 until 1905.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ford Model A (1903–04)</span> Motor vehicle

The original Ford Model A is the first car produced by the Ford Motor Company, beginning production in 1903. Ernest Pfennig, a Chicago dentist, became the first owner of a Model A on July 23, 1903; 1,750 cars were made in 1903 and 1904 at the Ford Mack Avenue Plant, a modest rented wood-frame building on Detroit's East Side, and Ford's first facility. The Model A was replaced by the Ford Model C during 1904 with some sales overlap.

Standard Motor Construction Company (1904-1905) was the successor to the U. S. Long Distance Automobile Company (1900-1903) of Jersey City, New Jersey. The American Veteran Era Long Distance automobile was developed into the Standard automobile in 1904.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haynes Automobile Company</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Haynes Automobile Company also known by its badge as “Americas First Car” was an early American automobile manufacturing company that produced automobiles in Kokomo, Indiana, from 1905 to 1924. The company was formerly known as the Haynes-Apperson company, and produced automobiles under that name from 1894 to 1905. Co-founder Elwood Haynes changed the name of the company to the Haynes Automobile Co after fellow co-founders Elmer and Edgar Apperson left to form the Apperson Brothers Automobile Company in 1901. The Haynes company was declared bankrupt in 1924 and went out of business in 1925.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Union (automobile)</span> Motor vehicle

The Union automobile was a vehicle manufactured by the Union Automobile Company from 1902 until 1905. It was designed by John William Lambert, who had developed the three-wheel Buckeye gasoline buggy in 1891. Over the next decade, Lambert substantially refined the vehicle, with modifications including an additional wheel, a more powerful engine, and a new transmission system. The Union Automobile Company was formed as a subsidiary of Lambert's Buckeye Manufacturing Company solely to manufacture the Union, which took its name from Union City, Indiana, the city where it was built and which endorsed its production. In total, the company built over three hundred Union automobiles, before development shifted to the Lambert automobile, the Union's successor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glide (automobile)</span> Defunct American motor vehicle manufacturer

The Glide automobile was an American automobile manufactured by the Bartholomew Company in Peoria Heights, Illinois beginning in 1902. Founded by John B. Bartholomew, the company continued to produce automobiles until 1920, when the company began manufacturing trucks for the Avery Company, of which Bartholomew was also president.

The Welch Motor Company was an American automobile company headquartered in Chelsea, Michigan. It began in 1901 and continued production of luxury vehicles until 1911 when it merged with General Motors.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Kimes, Beverly Rae; Clark Jr., Henry Austin (1996). Standard Catalog of American Cars 1805-1942 (3rd ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN   978-0-87341-428-9.
  2. P. Roberts (1973). A Picture History of the Automobile, Ward Lock Ltd, London, UK. ISBN   0-7063-1301-1.
  3. Knapp, Michael (1979). "The World's First 24-hour Automobile Race". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  4. Friedman, Sam (May 2017). "Willy Vinton". Alaska. Vol. 83, no. 4. p. 79. ISSN   0002-4562. ProQuest   1896347167 . Retrieved 2021-09-04.