1905 Cadillac Model E

The Cadillac marque was birthed from the remnants of the Henry Ford Company and championed by Henry M. Leland who would later found the Lincoln Motor Company. Henry Ford had left the company bearing his namesake following a dispute with his investors, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen. Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company was tasked with appraising the equipment and plant in preparation for liquidation. His recommendation was to continue production using Leland's single-cylinder engine which had been built for Ransom E. Old's Olds Motor Vehicle Company, later to be known as Oldsmobile. The directors agreed and the company was renamed Cadillac after French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had founded Detroit in 1701.

The first Cadillac automobiles were completed in October 1902. These two-seat motor carriages were powered by a single-cylinder engine delivering 10 horsepower. A few months later in January of 1903, the Cadillac was on display at the New York Auto Show where it received over 2,000 orders.

Henry Leland was a firm believer in precision manufacturing, and this was evident in the Cadillac automobiles and, later, the Lincoln marque that he founded in the late-1910s. In 1905, Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing merged with the Cadillac Automobile Company, forming the Cadillac Motor Company.

The Cadillac Model E was introduced in January 1905. Its small, 74-inch wheelbase placed it between the Model C and the Model B and F. The one-cylinder engine produced just under 10 horsepower, which was adequate to carry the 1100 lb Runabout vehicle at a comfortable speed. The Model E came in different body styles, with seating for two or four.

The 1.6-liter engine was the same that could be found in Cadillac's other vehicles of the era. The cylinder was horizontal, pointing rearward, and cast from iron. It had a bore and stroke that measured 5 inches. It utilized a patented variable-lift intake valve licensed from Alanson P. Brush.

by Daniel Vaughan | Jul 2007