Beg, borrow, or steal a copy of the new May/June issue of the AACA newsletter, or join. The oldest known Cadillac is unveiled on the cover. And it has a steering wheel, not a tiller like most early cars, AND nickle plating. A HAMBer had something to do with the research. Hopefully he will tell the story here.
And I bet it looks just like an '03 Ford. Henry designed the car while employed by the Henry Ford Co. He was fired and replaced by Henry Leland who designed (or installed) a new engine and the car became the Cadillac. Henry found new backers and started the Ford Motor Co. The first car was the one he had designed at his old job except for the engine. The new Ford had the engine he had developed previously.
Dale, it seems everyone worked with everyone else back then, they were all connected.The one I'm most familiar with is the Dodge Brothers making parts for the curved dash Olds, then switching and making parts for Henry for quite a few years before building a car of their own in 1915.
interesting note on what early automobiles did for people. in 1902 most people never travelled more than 25 miles from thier home in thier entire lives back then. read that in a Model T / Henry Ford book.
I quess I am the HAMBer you are referring to. I have one of the very first Cadillacs myself and started researching the early cars years ago to see what I could dig up. I recently wrote an article on the formation of the company and the earliest cars (prototypes and show cars for 1903) that was published in the Horseless Carriage Gazette(July/August 2007). Much of what I wrote in the article was 180 degrees opposite from what had been written to date, and so when I spoke with Cadillac "experts" over the years they thought I was a little off in my research. I stand by my research until someone comes up with something "new". There has always been some confusion in the prototype or early Cadillacs, whether there were three or four (I believe four) and whether they had 14 spoke wheels, solid rubber tires, leather fenders etc. Some of the mysteries will never be solved and these early cars do not come with unquestionable documentation but the Cad you speak of in the AACA publication is an extremely high quality restoration by Tim Ohlendorf from Illinois. Steve Moskowitz with the AACA was very instrumental in acquiring this car for GM and helpful as well in the restoration. I have followed this car since the early eighties and I did what little I could to assist Tim and General Motors in any way I could, which in point of fact was not a great deal. My Cadillac which I believe to be #2 has all of the original parts except for the radiator which I had Pat Herman from Utah recreate. My car has the original Wilson body so I made body patterns and Tim came out to my shop and took photos and looked at and photographed my car in its unrestored state. I also loaned Tim a few of the parts so he could recreate them. I was recently rewarded when Dick Balsey with the GM Collection (Heritage+) called me up and had my wife and I come out to take a look at the finished Cadillac. He also took us on a private tour not only of the Heritage Center but also their warehouses with hundreds of other collector cars and one of their restoration facilities. All I can say is amazing. There has been talk over the years that this Cadillac is the #1 car which it may very well be but these cars often do not come with all of the documentation to support that claim without question. There have been some naysayers in the past as to whether this is the #1 car but as I told Tim Ohlendorf and Dick Balsey let these "experts" show us their research that will support anything to the contrary. I would love to look at their research. In any event this car is as representative of the first Cadillac as possible. The tires are actually grey and the radiator is nickel. Also the steering wheel is a fatman wheel which the first Cadillac had; it folds up to allow those with a larger stomach get in and out of the seat more easily. There are no accessories such as lights which was correct for the early cars. There are other things about the car that are somewhat distinctive with the early cars but I will refrain from going on and on. A great car and a great restoration and I am glad GM has the car to show all what the first Cadillac looks like. I am sure it will be out and about on occasion. I am including a pic of the car as it sits at GM now although my picture is quite poor. With all of the black it washed out a bit. I do have a very nice pic from GM, a promotional pic I believe and I would rather not publish that pic until I see it published by GM first. Looking forward to the article myself-Jim
Thanks Jim, for adding that information. You are certainly the HAMBer I was refering to. Feel free to go on and on about the details. The article says the car will be at Hershey this year with more GM Heritage cars. For anyone that's never been to Hershey, this is the year to come. GM and Ford will both have Corp. booths, as well as many other manufacturers of antique car products. Kind of a mini SEMA for antiques.
I do not want to go too far OT but many of the HAMBers base their traditional cars on the works of Henry Ford. It is not a new or startling fact that Ford and Cadillac had some similarities in the early days. The letter here I found to be quite interesting because according to the dictates in the letter the board members of the Henry Ford Company did get together at the offices of William Murphy (the real driving force of the Henry Ford Company) and they had a name change to Cadillac. If there was any particular reason for one Henry (Ford) being shown the door and another Henry (Leland) being welcomed on board, it was probably Ford's short lived obsession with building racecars. The car in the stationary was his first racer called "Sweepstakes" which he used to vault himself into the limelight with victory over Alexander Winton. This was a 2 cylinder opposed horizontal 7" x 7" designed by Oliver Barthel The other photo is Henry Ford behind the wheel, the only racer he ever drove at speed. Murphy overlooked some of Ford's obsession with this car and probably enjoyed some of the ink this car brought their fledgling business. Murphy had hired Oliver Barthel to assist Ford and hopefully get him back on track to building cars for the public but when Ford wanted Barthel to assist him in building a bigger 4 cylinder racer (the 999) then Ford was allowed to take his plans for his racer and they parted ways. Ford went on to finish the 999 and had a new bicycle racer Barney Oldfield take the controls and the rest was history. Had to include a pic of Henry besides Oldfield in his bigger racer. Just for the record Ford named his 999 and the sister car the Arrow after famous east coast locomotives. In March 1903 Ford formed his new Ford Motor Company, his racecar obsession was parked and he got serious on building cars for the masses. The 1903 Fords and 1903 Cadillacs looked the same due to the fact that when the Detroit Automobile Company which became the Henry Ford Company which became Cadillac had leased space to help pay the bills to the Wilson Body Works. Wilson built the early bodies for Cadillac and ended up getting the contract for many of the Ford bodies in 1903. Cadillac had over 2000 orders to fill and had to find a couple of body builders to help them fill all of the orders. Although the cars were remarkably similar, the Cadillac had a one cylinder and the Ford a 2 cylinder horizontal. The side shot is a picture of the #1 Cadillac car in the shop in 1902, prior to the introduction of the new Cadillac at the New YOrk Auto show in 1903. It was now sporting a Wilson body (the early body had been a Hussey body). This was the only Cadillac to have 14 spoke wheels as the rest to follow had 12 spoke wheels. It has been reported that the prototypes had solid rubber tires although I have never been able to confirm that. I would hope someone would be able to fill in the history on that which would put me on another quest. Also am including the beautiful pic of the Cadillac as it looks today. Better get back to work-Jim
I am fascinated with the early automotive history. I have studied Ford and have come to the conclusion that he was just in the right place at the right time and succeeded in spite of himself. Many times he was in the position that he could procrastinate and still come out smelling like a rose. Detroit is so rich in history and now is a crumbling facade of what used to be. The GM Heritage center is a treasure and if you ever have the chance to visit there you will love it.
The picture Jim posted of the Cadillac in the shop with Mr. Moustache looking over is the one used for the cover. Great history lesson, thank you Jim.
This is why I love the HAMB! There are more car history nuts here than on any other Forum! Thanks Doug & Jim! There is an unrestored vehicle that is on the market locally claiming to be an early Cadillac prototype. I've seen photos, it has solid rubber tires, was part of the collection that was sold in Pennsylvania last year just before Hershey.
Ok, im back inside searching for parts again... and here I am on the hamb again... Anyone heard of a Godfrey? I stumbled upon some amazing blueprints for a touring car called the Godfrey. Date is 1921. Apprently this Godfrey guy also worked with the Wright brothers designing there motor, I found some info on him...but not much. The skamatics are very large, bout 12 ft. They are made od linen and covered in wax... This a great post, thanks.
Dirtiest Devil, the Standard Catelog of American Cars doesn't list a Godfrey, but you have my attention. Could it have gone by another name? Things were settleing down by '21, most of the oneoffs had disappeared. We need more info. '37, this car supposedly had Fisk Pneumatics from new. Can't wait to put a finger print on it!
Would love to see what this car is and would love to delve deeper into the whole solid rubber scenario. My car has solid rubber Swinehart clinchers that are well worn. Can't document whether any had solid rubber. Some have told me that someone could have put on the solid rubber when the pneumatics wore out. Sounds plausible to some but I drove an early Schacht with solid rubber and they will rattle your fillings unless you are on a smooth surface. No one in their right mind would switch to solid after riding on air-sorry. This car in this thread had Firestone solid rubber but they were in very good shape and may not have been original to the car. Solid rubber was often the first question asked in regards to the prototypes but I cannot find any reference that is credible that they had them. It is possible that one or more of the study cars (pre-prototype possibly) built by Barthel (and Ford?) had them in early spring of 1902. At present though my assumption is not much better than dart throwing. Still I would like to look at this possible prototype and see what markings are on the engine and what the bodywork looks like. I heard from Greg Wallace at GM a couple of years ago that another prototype may have surfaced in Sweden I believe. Coming out of the woodwork which only serves to fuel the naysayers. Still would like to take a peek and hope I do. If you can dig up any photos or info 37 I would appreciate it. Back in the eighties another Pa collector (Zimmerman) sold an early Cadillac at auction in Fla claiming to be the #1 car although he could not get many to agree with him, including myself. Claims of Cadillac prototypes is nothing new. A number of Cadillac people are somewhat skeptical and I cannot blame them. The other side of the coin is that when these cars are found they are not accompanied by a marching band claiming their provenance-wish they did as it may make it easier-Jim
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