A car magazine printed in October 1957 is ancient in today’s world, but it had an article about the very early days of the automobile.
The dawn of the automobile was already a bygone era for the car magazine, even 69 years ago, but the cars in question are positively prehistoric by today’s standards.
Jim Sutherland
The early days of the automobile have been compared to the Wild West because they were a perilous new frontier for the entrepreneurs who took a giant risk when they invested in horseless carriage production. There were too many car builders at the time, and most of them did not survive battles with better car builders like the legendary Henry Ford.
Nevertheless, the earliest car maker era produced some very interesting rigs, a fact not lost on the writer who covered a vintage vehicle event called the Carriage Cavalcade in 1957.
For example, the oldest vehicle in the Carriage Cavalcade fleet was a 1903 Crestmobile, a car that could easily be categorized as a horseless carriage because it was one of the early pioneers in the “no-pony movement”.
The Crestmobile was well ahead of its time because the early car had a gear shifter mounted on an adjustable steering column, along with an automatic clutch to make life easier for its driver.
However, the Crestmobile was an early casualty in the automotive turf wars and died in 1904 after a brief three-year production run that started in 1901.
The Rumpler Drop Car was a very unique car built between 1918 and 1921. The car’s oddball design was sleek enough to rival modern production cars in cheating the wind, but it was an early taxicab and could carry passengers in relative comfort because it had a flat floor and tall roof, along with a rear-mounted engine without a transmission hump to get in the way.
The bad news is the Rumpler Drop Car could not be built in massive numbers and had a big price tag, so it became extinct in a hurry.
Perhaps one of the most interesting rides built at the turn of the 20th century was the Baker Electric manufactured between 1899 and 1916.
The Baker was mainly sold to affluent city-dwellers who liked its 50-plus mile range and 25 mph top speed but eventually it succumbed to gasoline engines and their higher efficiency. It was a harsh business lesson learned early about an electric car built long before our current green grifter movement made yet another weak case for them.
A 1925 Rickenbacker was included in the 1957 automotive magazine article and showcased a car built in Detroit between 1921 and 1927. Its famous co-founder was a WWI flying ace named Eddie Rickenbacker who was a legend in the US because of his heroics. A 1925 Rickenbacker was an early pioneer in the 4-wheel brake movement, but unfortunately the car company crashed and burned into bankruptcy by 1927.
The fifth and final addition to our look at the early days of the automobile via the 1957 car magazine article is the 1913 Stutz Bearcat. Believe it or not, a 1913 Stutz Bearcat could hit 80 mph during an era when 20-25 mph scared the liver out of most drivers, so it was an insanely fast car at the time.
Driving at top speed in a Stutz Bearcat required nerves of steel or unchecked insanity in 1913, but these ancient road rockets command crazy money in 2026 because of their rarity.
These days it’s the kind of big money one would have to pay some lunatic to hit 80 mph in a 113-year-old car.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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