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Help identify early car... photo


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1913 was the only year that many makers had the electric cowl lights mounted in the front of the cowl as this one does. The mystery car still has gas lights even though many cars had gone to electric by 1913. For 1914 most cars had the hood flowing into the cowl - torpedo style. There are exceptions to every rule of course.

On the mystery car the moulding around the top of the body is something that very few makers featured and those that did were usually at the upper end of the market eg ALCO. I wonder if this car has a custom body.

Other distinctive features of the car here are; no hood louvres and those high-mounted lights.

Edited by nzcarnerd (see edit history)
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The mystery has been solved, to help out the photo was run on The Old Motor this morning and reader Ariejan Bos has identified it as a 1912 or 1913 Briggs-Detroiter.

His research turned up the fact that not all of the cars had the lights on the front face of the cowl. We found the photo of a touring car below in the March 1912 Auto Topics Magazine.

The Advertisement is from the July 1912 Auto Topics Magazine.

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Edited by T-Head (see edit history)
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Note the pic of the touring car has its cowl lights mounted higher. Apart from the lights this one looks almost identical to the one (with electric headlights) in my copy of Floyd Clymer's Catalog of 1914 Cars. The Standard Catalog reckons they are more correctly called Detroiter (as per the ad) and 1913 was the first year a roadster was listed. I wonder if there are any survivors. There was a touring car restored here in NZ many years ago but I think it went to the US.

Edited by nzcarnerd (see edit history)
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Guest reising62

Thank you all for your assistance in identifying the car my Grandfather (Leo F Reising, b1893 - d1961) is sitting in. This photo is likely taken in Metamora, IL. Maybe around 1916 when he was married. Once again Appreciate your assistance! In addition, do these things ever come up for sale and if so how expensive are they? V/R Douglas Reising

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