Lot 527: c.1914 Overland Roadster

Claude M Cox�s original Overland car was developed in the early 1900s by the Standard Wheel Company, of Terre Haut, Indiana, and the fledgling firm had already changed hands once before John North Willys, a New York auto dealer and major Overland customer, arrived to rescue it from oblivion in 1907. Willys had ordered 500 Overlands and paid a deposit of $10,000. When the cars were not forthcoming he travelled to Indiana, only to find Overland on the point of closure. Willys secured credit, re-organised the company and by the summer of 1908 was in a position to build a new factory, a facility that was sorely needed, as Willys had been forced to carry out Overland assembly in a circus tent! Building four-cylinder cars only from 1910, the revitalised company went from strength to strength, production increasing steadily until by the start of WWI only Ford could claim a higher output. Sliding-gear transmissions had replaced the previous epicyclic type in 1909, co-incidentally the same year that Ford introduced the Model T that would use the latter form of transmission for the next 17 years!
This four-cylinder Overland Raceabout has right-hand drive, as did all Overlands built before 1915 when the factory switched to left-hand drive, although its precise year of manufacture has yet to be determined. During 1914 the Toledo manufacturer offered two four-cylinder, 35hp cars - the Model 79 (introduced in August 1913) and the Model 80 (introduced in August 1914) - together with a 30hp four - the Model 81 � and a 50hp six, both of which were introduced in October 1914. A bolster-tanked, two-seat roadster is known to have been available at around this time.
This particular Overland was built up in its present form by the Sharpe family incorporating period Edwardian running gear. With an engine capacity of around 4.0 litres and relatively little weight to propel, this car promises an exciting drive and the prospect of perhaps going racing in the VSCC�s Edwardian class. Offered without documents.