Those who are into the history of the automobile might mistake this car for a 1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash, thought to the very first horseless carriage. But it’s not, it’s a replica called the Surrey which was built by a company called EW Bliss in Canton, Ohio. This car is one of 500 built, runs and drives, and is as cool as all get out! From a dealer who specializes in antiques, this unusual automobile is in Redmond, Oregon, and available here on craigslist for $7,500. Another one-of-a-kind tip from Pat L.!
The gasoline-powered Oldsmobile Model R, also known as the Curved Dash, is credited as being the first mass-produced automobile. That means it was built on an assembly line using interchangeable parts. Oldsmobile built about 19,000 of them between 1901 and 1903. Fast forward more than 55 years and Dyer Products would commission EW Bliss Company to build replicas of the historic autos. Two trim versions were offered, the “standard” and the “deluxe” with the main difference being the size of the air-cooled, single-cylinder engine provided by Cushman (244-cc vs. 320-cc, four hp vs. eight).
This Surrey is the Deluxe version with the bigger engine and is said to run and drive great. You can fire it up with a kick or electric starter and run it through its three speeds, including reverse. The license plate suggests the car was last registered for highway use in 1995. As best as the seller can tell, this Surrey is original and needs little, if any, work. This is one of those cars that you simply won’t see another one of on the road, although we don’t know how fast it will go, so we assume city driving?
Because the seller is in the resale business, trades will be considered. That may be how this car was acquired or the cool mid-1950s Packard that’s in the same showroom (can you say museum?). It would be cool if you could access the history of this replica, i.e., what has it been doing for the past 63 years? I suppose parts for the Cushman engine would not be hard to come by, but what about the rest of the machine?
Your writer could do with some education as he says that the Curved Dash Oldsmobile is thought to be the first horeseless carriage. Is he not aware of the 1886 Benz Patentwagen or the myriad others of about that same time??
Two separate online sources credit the Oldsmobile as being the first horseless carriage as a production vehicle that saw 19,000 copies.
Ok, this is what I found on Olds: “At right below (shows picture in book), is the second horseless carriage built by R.E. Olds in 1890. It was a steam car and was shipped to Bombay, India, in 1893. This vehicle with the fringe on the top ran 15 miles on the filling of water and 40 miles on the gasoline that fired the boiler.” Also: “In 1899 the Olds Motor Works was organized in Detroit, and 12 cars were built. In 1901, 386 cars were made, although production was delayed because of a fire in the Detroit factory. By 1902, Oldsmobiles were produced in Lansing and in the rebuilt Detroit factory, and production ran to 2,500 cars. Gas Edwards wrote the famous song “In My Merry Oldsmobile” in 1905, and in that year 612 cars came out from Oldsmobile factories.” Those Wonderful Old Automobiles, Copyright, 1953, by Floyd Clymer
With today’s gas prices this could become more practical!
No, I think carriages with horses will be more practical!
In case you feel like staging a production of Oklahoma!, here’s your very own “Surrey With the Fringe on Top.”
I believe they or someone like them also made circa-1902 Ford and Rambler replicas. Maybe Cadillac too. It was probably not coincidental they were modeled after the initial models from (then) still-existing makes, since dealers were one of the markets they had in mind.