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Rising from the Ashes; 1904 OLDS CURVED DASH RUNABOUT.(NEWS)
Byline: BOB TOMAINE
IF NOT FOR A FIRE, outside investors and one prototype, the Olds Curved Dash Runabout might have been just an interesting vehicle rather than a step in the mass production of affordable cars.
Olds Motor Vehicle Works was established in 1897 after Ransom Eli Olds experimented with steam- and gasoline-engine models, but it produced few cars over the next year. Olds persuaded Samuel Smith to invest $200,000 and incorporated Olds Motor Works in 1899. After a dozen more experimentals, sales were to start in 1901, but fire destroyed the Olds factory in Detroit.
Olds had been advertising, so with plans and a salvaged gasoline Curved Dash, the firm tried to fill orders in the surviving foundry shop. When that didn't work, it bought components from suppliers and built a factory in Lansing. Assembly-line production offered a competitive advantage, and Olds pronounced that his car would be driven to the New York auto show. It made the trip.
The Curved Dash was built through 1907, and with its 1906-07 Straight Dash variation, production totaled 10,826 cars. Despite a delicate appearance, it wasn't flimsy; survivors helped launch the antique-car hobby. Vince Altieri's 1904 Model 6C is a perfect example.
"This car was restored in 1939 and 1940 by the original owner's ...
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- Magazine article from: AutoWeek Woodyard, Adele April 25, 2005 700+ words
...left with one model, the 4-hp Curved Dash Runabout. The 1902 version became America...517, is thriving. The 1901 Curved Dash Runabout and the 2004 Alero displayed in...For $650 you could buy your own Curved Dash Oldsmobile.
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- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times Amadio, Jill March 7, 1997 700+ words
...produced car in the United States, called the Curved Dash Runabout. The price tag was the same as its weight: $650...market and advertise cars, first to have a vehicle (Curved Dash Runabout) used by the U.S. Postal Service as a mail truck...
- General Motors Makes Its Last Oldsmobile.
- Newspaper article from: Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News April 29, 2004 700+ words
...who owns a 1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout. "It has a 4 1/2-horsepower...Lansing, where it joined 65 other Curved Dash models to celebrate Oldsmobile's 100th anniversary. "The Curved Dash model saved Oldsmobile when...
- Oldsmobile picks dozen models to mark centennial of carmaking.(Auto Weekend)
- Newspaper article from: The Washington Times August 15, 1997 700+ words
...riverfront. It was in this plant that the Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout became the first car to be built on a progressive...the last hundred years as milestone cars: * 1904 Curved Dash: was the first mass-produced vehicle in America...
- Museum celebrates a century of autos
- Newspaper article from: The Boston Globe John R. White, Globe Staff February 19, 1994 700+ words
...produced gas car is also represented, the 1903 Olds Curved Dash runabout. It was not the car that Ransom E. Olds had envisioned...all that was left after a disastrous fire, so the Curved Dash got built in, for the time, huge numbers -- almost...
- IN THE AUTO INDUSTRY'S 100 YEARS, SOME MODELS MADE BIG IMPACTS.(CAPITAL REGION)
- Newspaper article from: Albany Times Union (Albany, NY) August 1, 1996 700+ words
...a four-horsepower, one-cylinder engine. 1901 CURVED DASH OLDS -- The Duryeas take credit for the first car...its plant destroyed all but one gasoline-powered Curved Dash runabout, powered by a seven-horsepower, one-cylinder...
- Legends & those in the making.(WIP)
- Magazine article from: Automotive Design & Production January 1, 2005 700+ words
...should secure posthaste, as it is quite simply a marvelous celebration of stunning autos, from the 1901 Olds Curved Dash Runabout (arguably not the most propitious opening; the 1907 Rolls London-Edinburgh Silver Ghost should have been the...
- OLDS IS FIRST U.S. AUTOMAKER TO REACH 100.(News)
- Newspaper article from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (Seattle, WA) August 15, 1997 700+ words
...market that customers want to buy.'' In its early days, Oldsmobile pioneered the assembly line to build its Curved Dash Runabout and developed the first network of outside suppliers, buying transmissions from John and Horace Dodge, bodies...
