Mystery circa 1912 touring car from HAMB

[nzcarnerd]

Due to it having front doors and inside gear change I reckon the date is 1912. Just don't know the make. Note the tyres - Pennsylvania Vacuum Cup.

 

[oldford]

I'm tempted to say 1912 Hudson, but not sure. 10 spoke front wheels, headlights on stands... The hubcaps don't look right...

 

Frank

[1912Staver]

There's those Adlake (Adams and Westlake) sidelights again that were discussed a month or two ago on the forum. Possibly a Stearns-Knight four-cylinder. from 1913? I don't see the white line around the radiator core but that part of the car is in shadow.

 

Greg in Canada

[nzcarnerd]

Could be Stearns as you say. The radiator cap looks about right. I was thinking that was some sort of holddown clip on it but maybe actually something to do with the license plate?

[Leif Holmberg]

Very much looks like a 1912 Stearns-Knight.

 

Leif in Sweden.

 

 

 

[nzcarnerd]

Is that possibly a small light mounted over the license plate? Not something I have seen before.

[1912Staver]

I suppose it could be, but it just looks like one of the popular accessory  licence plate brackets to me. Quite a few company's made them especially in the days before front bumpers were common.

 

Greg

[nzcarnerd]

15 hours ago, Leif Holmberg said:

 

Notice the car in this picture - which comes from imcdb - has one of those spring type self starters.

[W MacDonald]

Ran across this old thread today by accident.  For the record, the maroon car shown in the attached is a 1912 Stearns-Knight Four touring. It has its EverReady spring starter and is believed to be the same car as the one shown in the previous photo from the 1928 silent movie "Show People". There are a few differences between this one (#5786) and the one in the lead photo.  That one is missing its starter (added as standard equipment sometime late in 1912), missing a spare tire, and does not have the flat portion at the back of the rear fenders.  The fenders do however match those used on the toy tonneau. The second photo shows these fenders on the example in the AACA Museum. Note that the toy tonneau body is considerably narrower, and the hand brake and shift levers are on the outside of the body. There are two known remaining 1912 touring cars and two known remaining 1912 toy tonneaus.  

 

More importantly, however, is the shape of the cowl in the lead photo. As far as I know, all 1912 cars had a flat wood dash with no metal cowling. The following year, the bodies were modernized and streamlined with a metal cowl.  Shown in the third photo is 1913 advertising for the touring. Note that the 1913 models are the first to use the Knight radiator mascot. In the lead photo, yes, that is an aftermarket license plate holder attached to the radiator neck. I tried one on my car and it looked just as awful as the one in the photo. And, I could be convinced that what is visible on the radiator cap are the base and two broken off legs of the knight mascot. They were die cast (I believe), and fragile even when new.

 

Stearns never produced cars in large volume, and they made changes as they saw fit without worrying too much about model year changeovers. So, there may be examples not shown in any literature.