Miles, thanks for that link. I find this automotive history around the turn of the century fascinating. Check out
Wikipedia’s list of all the vehicles which used Continental engines. They overlooked Republic in their list of trucks. The website linked at the bottom of this entry says, “Continental Motors dominated the automobile engine market through the 1910's and 20's, supplying motors to over 120 manufacturers in Detroit and around the country.” Lycoming engines were also used in automobiles. As early as 1910 they powered Velie cars. (Velie later manufactured the Monocoupe). Lycoming engines were used in luxury cars of the ‘20’s — Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg. Franklin manufactured their own brand of car between 1902 and 1934 using an air-cooled engine.
The National Automobile Museum in Reno has a great collection of Franklin’s — well worth a visit. Tucker tried using Franklin engines (by then known as Aircooled Motors after Franklin’s bankruptcy) with water-cooling jackets around the cylinders.
1900-1920 apparently was a time of incredible transition from horse and buggy to the “horseless carriage”. Check out
these pages of companies that tried and failed to compete in this new market.
- Click to Enlarge
Fascinating too is the number of “electric” car companies listed; apparently the internal combustion engine (ICE) as the engine of the future — or at least until 2030
— was not a foregone conclusion back then. “Continental's first major order for 100 engines came from Studebaker in 1906.” Studebaker had been making wagons and carriages for fifty years but their first try at an automobile was not with an ICE but an electric car!
This website gives an interesting history of the Continental plant in Detroit. Click on the photo there to see remnants of their engine test cells. It appears that the last remnant of the factory was bulldozed last year. … If those walls could talk.
- Continental Factory in Detroit
Click to Enlarge