Stoddard-Dayton

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Stoddard-Dayton

Stoddard-Dayton was a brand of automobiles from Dayton , Ohio .

description

John W. Stoddard and his son Charles G. Stoddard operated the Stoddard Manufacturing Company . In 1904 the production of passenger cars began . That same year the Dayton Motor Car Company became . The US Motor Company, Stoddard-Dayton Division, followed in 1910 . Production ended in 1913.

In 1904, John Stoddard decided to leave the agricultural equipment industry in which he had made his fortune and instead build high quality automobiles for the emerging market in the United States. He sent his son Charles to Europe to visit automobile manufacturers there. Charles came back convinced that steam and electric propulsion for automobiles were already obsolete. The first automobiles had engines from Rutenber (“Let your steed be worthy of your chariot”), four-cylinder with 4605 cm³ displacement. The first six-cylinder engines appeared in 1907. The last series consisted of three four-cylinder models and one six-cylinder model with a Knight engine .

The company always built cars of the highest quality with powerful engines. Henry J. Edwards (born approx. 1872 in England) was the company's designer and chief engineer. The simpler models were painted in 15–18 layers, each layer being sanded by hand. The Pullman sedans had 27-28 layers, which were created in the same way. After completion, every single car was run in for 240–640 km on public roads, then the engine was dismantled, the cylinders honed, the valves re-ground, everything reassembled and tested again on the road.

The first cars were delivered as 1906 models in late 1905. A 1906 promotional leaflet proclaimed: “The new Stoddard-Dayton Model D Touring has SPEED and SYMMETRY in every axis ... You can throw your troubles far away and disperse them miles behind the seat of a real automobile. Are you getting your daily ozone? .... The Stoddard-Dayton for US $ 2,250.00 represents real economic value between two extremes: (1) a four-cylinder automobile of high notional value and (2) a four-cylinder engine with a low, even impossible, valuation - the most expensive type of economy. It's the RIGHT car for you and it comes with the right WARRANTY to give you satisfaction and protection. Immediately available. "

The Stoddard has built a reputation as a winner in auto racing, sprint races, hill climbs and rallies throughout the American Midwest. Since these cars were all out of production, Dayton Motor Car immediately announced these victories to the auto-interested public. In 1909, a Stoddard-Dayton won the first race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway with an average speed of 92.2 km / h. The world's first safety car was a Stoddard-Dayton with Carl Graham Fisher at the wheel, which started the Indianapolis 500 in 1911 .

In 1906 there were three models:

  • a runabout for US $ 1250, equipped with an alternating 15 bhp (11 kW) motor
  • a touring car for $ 2,250
  • a Pullman sedan for US $ 3,200, with a 35 bhp (26 kW) engine (and 28 coats of paint).

In 1909 Stoddard-Dayton founded the Courier Car Co. in Dayton to manufacture a smaller, lighter and cheaper version of the Stoddard-Dayton. The new car was called Courier .

In 1911, Stoddard-Dayton offered twenty different models with four different engines: Pullman sedans, landaulets , coupes , touring cars, torpedoes, roadsters, trucks, taxis and vans. Here are some examples:

  • Savoy , $ 1,350 with 28 bhp (21 kW) engine
  • Stratford with 38 bhp (28 kW) engine
  • Saybrook with 48 bhp (35 kW) engine
  • Special with 58 bhp (43 kW) engine
  • Stoddard-Dayton-Knight Pullman sedan , $ 6,250, with a 70 bhp (51 kW) six-cylinder engine

In 1912 about 25,000 automobiles in 26 models were manufactured. In June 1912 Stoddard-Dayton became part of the United States Motor Company , which touted the Stoddard-Dayton brand with the simple statement: "Nobody drives further, nobody drives faster". The new company bought a large amount of engines from the Atlas Engine Works in Indianapolis and made a commitment to purchase 30,000 chassis. This led to financial problems. In February 1912 Charles Stoddard resigned from his post as Vice President of the United States Motor Company and Henry Edwards, the chief engineer, also resigned and started his own company under the name Edwards Motor Company . Stoddard remained director of the United States Motor Company and kept his money in the company. At the end of 1912 the company had to file for bankruptcy and was dissolved in 1913. With that the Stoddard-Dayton went under.

The remnants of the Dayton Motor Car Company were taken over by the reorganized Maxwell Motor Company . Parts for assembly were manufactured there in New Castle (Indiana) and later in Detroit (Michigan) . In 1913 Maxwell again offered the Stoddard-Dayton models 30, 38 and 48 (Savoy, Stratford and Saybrook). Possibly these were copies left over from the previous year. The 1913 Model 48 had a starter and electrical lighting that cost US $ 200 more. Maxwell later became part of Chrysler itself and the Dayton factory became Chrysler AirTemp .

Stoddard-Dayton was slow to respond to the demands of the mass market and adhered to a strategy of the highest quality, even after automobiles were no longer just status symbols for the rich. The company built the best cars possible, while Ford and General Motors built the cheapest possible. Stoddard-Dayton extended its model range to all price ranges, but never changed the basic production methods. The classic example of this was the 11-part radiator cap for the Pullman sedan: two pins, seal, seal holder, screws and opener. It was firmly attached to the radiator so that it could not be lost or stolen and could be opened with just one turn of the opener, even when the engine was hot. At the same time in Detroit, a Ford press was churning out radiator caps and tapping them. Yes, sometimes the thread jammed and the cap couldn't be opened when the radiator was hot, but the Model T was only $ 399.

literature

  • More Firms Join US Motor Co. , New York Times, June 16, 1910, p. 11
  • Edwards Motor Car Co. Organized , New York Times, February 11, 1912, p. C14.
  • Declaration of Policy of the Maxwell Manufacturing Company (Incorporated) , Advertisement, New York Times, Feb. 2, 1913, p. X15
  • Moscowitz, Raymond: Stoddard-Dayton Was Just Too Classy to Last , Dayton Journal-Herald, April 6, 1969
  • Self, Michael: Made in Dayton! , Dayton Journal-Herald, January 13, 1975
  • Fisk, Fred C .: The Stoddard Manufacturing Company , The Wheelmen, Issue 31, November 1987

Web links

Commons : Stoddard-Dayton  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 3: P-Z . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1517 (English).
  2. ↑ Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 1403-1406 (English).