Pope-Toledo

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Pope-Toledo
Pope-toledo 1906 logo.jpg
Overview
Production1904–19
Body and chassis
Body styleroadster, tourer
Powertrain
Enginegasoline

The Pope-Toledo was one of the makes of the Pope Motor Car Company founded by Colonel AA Pope, and was a manufacturer of Brass Era automobiles in Toledo, Ohio between 1903 and 1909. The Pope-Toledo was the most expensive of the Pope range and was the successor to the Toledo of the . In 1909 the company was taken over by Richard D. Apperson of the American National Bank of Lynchburg, Virginia (and no relation to Apperson of Kokomo).

History[]

Pope-Toledo Tonneau 1904
Pope C/60 V 1907
1907 Pope-Toledo Type XV Touring

The 1903 Pope-Toledo was a four-wheel, front-engined, two-seater open car. It was powered by a straight 3 cylinder 182 cubic inch (2983 cc) engine with the then unusual feature of a detachable cylinder head. Valve operation was mechanical and the engine speed was governed at 600RPM. Drive was through a 3-speed gearbox with chains to each rear wheel. The chassis was mainly wood with a steel sub-frame carrying the main mechanical components. The car had a wheelbase of 7 feet 5 inches (2.26 m) and a track of 4 feet 8 inches (1.42 m).

It was entered in the first Vanderbilt Cup (1904), but lost its steering and hit a tree.[1]

The 1904 model was a larger touring car. Equipped with a rear entrance tonneau body, it could seat 5 passengers and sold for US$3500. The vertically mounted water-cooled straight-4, situated at the front of the car, produced 24hp (17.9kW). A 3-speed sliding transmission was fitted. The channel steel-framed car weighed 2350lb (1066kg). This modern Système Panhard car had spark and throttle levers on steering wheel, a novelty at the time.

In 1905, a Pope-Toledo owned by C. Edward Born was driven 828.5 miles before a crowd of 15,000 to win the world's first 24-hour endurance race in Columbus, Ohio. Piloted by brothers George and Charles Soules, the car was protested by runners up as being a special factory-owned "ringer". This protest was rejected by the Columbus Driving Park officials.[2] In 1908, Bobby Sheldon brought a 1906 Pope-Toledo down the Yukon to Fairbanks, the first car brought to Alaska.[3]

By 1907 the company models included limousines and seven seat cars.

Advertisement and images of the Pope Motor Car Company in Toledo, Ohio, 1905

References[]

  1. ^ P. Roberts (1973). A Picture History of the Automobile, Ward Lock Ltd, London, UK. ISBN 0-7063-1301-1.
  2. ^ Knapp, Michael (1979). "The World's First 24-hour Automobile Race". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 2014-08-10.
  3. ^ Friedman, Sam (May 2017). "Willy Vinton". Alaska. Vol. 83, no. 4. p. 79. ISSN 0002-4562. Retrieved 2021-09-04.
  • Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (January, 1904)
  • Kimes, Beverly Rae and Clark Jr, Henry Austin. Standard Catalog of American Cars: 1805-1942. (Third Edition). Iola, WI: Krause Publications. 1996.
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