What Is It? 2016/12/12 1327

[Dosmo]

All responses appreciated.

[Grandpa]

Pictured (in 1908), leaving the car, is the mayor of New York City George B. McClellan, Jr.  Mayor McClellan is the son of the American Civil War General.

 

The car does have the unusual design feature of the front wheel tie rod in front of the axle.

[keiser31]

Seems to me that this car was identified a while back, but I cannot remember what the findings were.

[nzcarnerd]

Keiser I was thinking the same.  I have an idea it may have been an early Simplex. Having the steering tie rod in front of the axle was common in that era (circa 1905).

[oldford]

Per "Shorpy" -  Mercedes Simplex

[Grandpa]

The bottom of the radiator shell on the unknown auto does not match the Mercedes Simplex.  Also, the Mercedes Simplex images that I found have the tie rod behind the front axle.

[nzcarnerd]

I searched 'PDNY auto 1908' and found the link to the previous discussion on this car   -  

and I think we agreed it was an S & M Simplex circa 1906.

Edited December 13, 2016 by nzcarnerd (see edit history)

[nzcarnerd]

21 hours ago, oldford said:

Per "Shorpy" -  Mercedes Simplex

It is not a Mercedes.  I am not registered for Shorpy.  Someone needs to post the correct answer. 

[Dosmo]

13 hours ago, nzcarnerd said:

I searched 'PDNY auto 1908' and found the link to the previous discussion on this car   -  

and I think we agreed it was an S & M Simplex circa 1906.

 

52 minutes ago, nzcarnerd said:

It is not a Mercedes.  I am not registered for Shorpy.  Someone needs to post the correct answer. 

After reading some of the above comments, do I understand, then, that the S&M (Smith & Mabley) Simplex, was a European car imported into the USA?  And, though, not a Mercedes, was built largely from imported Mercedes parts?  

 

I'll confess that this info was gleaned from the occasionally unreliable resource of Wikipedia.  Here is the link.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crane-Simplex