1906 Pope-Toledo
The American Colonel Albert Pope ran a complex business empire but, of all the marques under his control. the finest was the Pope-Toledo, with its distinctive peaked radiator, of the 1903-1909 period, The 1906 Type 12 Pope-Toledo had a four-cylinder 35/40hp engine with ‘planetic’ cooling, could seat seven and sold for $ 3700 fully equipped and painted to the customer’s specification.
1906 Rover
The first production model from the Rover company was a little 8hp single-cylinder model. designed by E.W. Lewis. which appeared in 1904. In its original form. the 8hp Rover used a backbone chassis in which engine. clutch. gearbox. prop-shaft housing and rear axle formed a single unit. the rear of the body being sprung to the chassis. Later models used a more conventional chassis (bottom) and were built until 1912.
1906 Delahaye
According to one writer, the Type 32 Delahaye was ‘absolutely unbreakable’. Certainly, its 1944cc engine was called on to cope with quite massive coachwork, like the limousine de voyage shown here, which it did with silence and smoothness. In 1910, the young Parry Thomas, to achieve fame in the 1920s as a racing driver as well as an engineer, used a Type 32 Delahaye as a test bed for his ingenious electric transmission.
1906 Ford Model K
In 1906. at the insistence of his backers. Henry Ford built his first luxury car, the Model K Ford. It was fast but fragile. the two-speed epicyclic transmission being inadequate to deal with the torque of a 6-litre, six-cylinder engine. It did not sell well. and was soon dropped. leaving Ford to pursue his vision of ‘building a car for the multitudes’ .
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