1913 Cadillac Roadster
By 1913, automotive advancements solidified the automobile’s place in the future. Gone were the barbershop debates about the automobile being a flash-in-the-pan and how the horse would eventually win the day. It would be hard to imagine that only a year earlier, electric lights and electric self-starters weren’t available on most new cars. Advancements in technology were only one of the elements that came together to make the automobile as common as death and taxes (1913 was also the first year an income tax was levied at a rate of 1%…those were the days). In 1913, Henry Ford implemented the moving assembly line for his Model T and the Lincoln Highway allowed people to cross the United States on the first fully paved road. A decade earlier it took Horatio Jackson 63 days to cross the country; with this new highway, an intrepid motorist could cross the country in less than a fortnight, to use the common vernacular of the day. In short, the automobile was no longer a noisy, smelly, complicated mechanical contraption; it was becoming civilized and there was no turning back.
Cadillac was formed by Henry Leland, in 1902, on the foundation of Henry Ford’s second company: The Henry Ford Company. Under Leland’s direction, Cadillac became known for its quality. Leland was the first to start manufacturing cars using standard fitting parts so that a single part could be used on multiple cars rather than machining parts as the car was being created. This part “interchangeability” would eventually become standard, but in the early part of the 20th century Cadillac was alone.
Cadillac automobiles were always a cut above most other cars and on par with companies like Packard, Peerless and Pierce-Arrow, but the Model 30, which made its debut in 1908, was a game changer for Cadillac. While the other high end manufacturers were making bigger, more powerful and more expensive cars, Cadillac decided to trump the high-end market by creating a quality, luxury car without the high price. For $1,600 a buyer could be driving a Cadillac. With only four cylinders and only 30 horsepower, the Model 30 didn’t have the magnitude of the Packards, Peerless or Pierce-Arrows, but their reliability and quality more than made up for the two-cylinder deficit. The buying market agreed; Cadillac’s production grew by well over 300 percent between 1908 and 1909.
Cadillac produced almost 67,000 examples of the Model 30, from 1909 through 1914, starting with a 255.3-cubic-inch displacement engine and 28.9 horsepower and ending with a 365.8-cubic-inch displacement engine and 48.7 horsepower. Due to the mid-series horsepower increase, they dropped the Model 30 designator in the last three years of production, therefore; only the 1909 through 1911 model years are technical Model 30s. Regardless, historians still refer to this series of Cadillacs as Model 30s.
As with most automobile companies at the turn of the 20th century, cash was always a problem. Automotive history is strewn with bankrupt companies with more than enough orders to survive if they could only get enough cash or credit to make the ordered cars. Cadillac was close to this position prior to the introduction of the Model 30, but the company was able to balance costs with receivables and solidified their financial position. The Model 30 was so successful for Cadillac that during the six-month negotiations with GM to buy Cadillac, the value of Cadillac increased by $1.5 million.
The Model 30 had many production “firsts,” but the one it will be remembered for most was the fact that it was the first production car to utilize the electric self starter created by Charles Kettering. In 1912, Cadillac had the exclusive market on self-starting internal combustion engine cars, but by 1913 the self-starter invention was being installed by other high-end auto manufacturers.
These early Cadillac engines are probably some of the most beautiful of the brass era because the engine’s individual cylinders were “copper jacketed.” Manufacturing and casting technologies hadn’t yet been perfected to allow effective oil and water distribution through a car’s cast engine block. Early on, Cadillac provided additional engine cooling by completely encasing the cylinders in a copper sleeve and filled this sleeve with circulating water. In this way, the copper surrounding the cylinders, along with the radiator, dissipated the heat created by the 30-horsepower engine. In the day, most owners probably never polished these copper cylinders but since most of these cars from this era are now shown on manicured lawns at concours events, everything that can be polished to a brilliant shine is lovingly and time-consumingly rubbed until sunglasses are required for appropriate viewing.
By 1913, cars had advanced past the “early-adopter” phase of a new product category’s life cycle: they were now perceived as more utilitarian. This status would explain why most of the cars made at this time were built to carry more than one passenger along with the driver. Roadsters, like the example pictured on these pages, were quite rare because they lacked serious practicality and as such, of the 15,000 cars made by Cadillac in 1913, it is believed that less than 200 were roadsters. Most likely, a wealthy young businessman or a doctor was the original owner of this sporty but impractical conveyance.
It has been reported that at one time, Mr. Pollard had more than 1,000 cars in his collection. The term “collection” might be inaccurate since most of his cars were not running and in many cases, the cars were hung vertically from telephone poles or warehouse rafters to save space. A “stockpile” of cars is probably a better description. From the mid ’30s into the ’70s, Mr. Pollard would scour the Midwest and Eastern states for cars destined for scrap. There are many one-of-a-kind classics in museums around the world that can be traced to Mr. Pollard’s ownership. To add additional flavor to this specific car, this was one of 100 or so cars that were “destroyed” by fire in the mid-’70s, while part of his stockpile of cars was being readied for auction.
At the auction, the burned out hulk of this Cadillac was sold to a buyer who then spent the next 15 years collecting parts with the intent of restoring the car. As is often the case with major restoration projects, the car was sold before the intended restoration was ever started. Luckily, the car was sold to noted restoration specialist and collector Robin Onsoien. While most would have thought it impossible to restore this rusted, burned out, dented, warped and bent hulk of metal believed to have been a 1913 Cadillac, Mr. Onsoien adopted the healthy adage that “the impossible only takes longer.” In this case, longer was another 15 years.
Early cars, like this 1913 Cadillac, might look like they were completely made of metal, but they were manufactured with a considerable amount of wood under the metal body and paint. The heat from the flames of the fire destroyed most of the wood and warped most of the metal both in the body and the frame. But with perseverance, Mr. Onsoien straightened the frame and actually reused almost all of the car’s original metal skin after replacing the underlying wood. Only the fenders and a few small metal pieces were authentically recreated from scratch.
The restoration of major mechanical aspects of this car was fairly straightforward, as the fire did not destroy most of the major metal components. With the wheels being of the wooden-spoked variety, they needed to be completely replaced. Obviously, the tires are new, but the fire didn’t destroy the original tires. While in Mr. Pollard’s care the tires on this Cadillac—and for that matter all of the cars in his stockpile—were removed in his effort to appease the U.S. government’s war scrap drive.
These early Cadillacs have a unique built-in accessory that would probably not be used today but was an absolute requirement 100 years ago, back when roads were tough and tires were not and the automobile club wasn’t a mobile phone call away. All 1913 Cadillacs came equipped with an integrated air pump to fill up tires while on the road. This small air pump was powered by the car’s engine by engaging a simple set of gears. In looking at the lack of safety afforded the gear mechanism, if personal injury lawyers were as prevalent when this car was made as they are now, Cadillac would probably not be in business today.
Driving a brass era car on modern, paved roads won’t compare to the 1913 experience, but it’s no less thrilling. Even with a self-starter as a standard feature, starting a 1913 Cadillac isn’t a get-in-and-go proposition; you still have to turn on the fuel, “tickle” the carburetor float with a little lever on the floor at the base of the steering column, turn the key, retard the timing using the lever on the steering wheel, select battery and then push the starter button. Luckily, most of these actions can be done in the comfort of the well-upholstered driver’s seat. The present universally understood pedal configuration of clutch to the left, accelerator to the right and brake in the center had yet to be realized in 1913. With the accelerator “spoon” in the center and not in line with the brake and clutch, driving this car is slightly akin to playing the foot pedals on a pipe organ.
As most of the roads in the early part of the last century were not paved, a car’s windshield was more used to deflect dust than the wind produced while driving at 45 or 50 miles per hour. Early drivers must have enjoyed the wind-in-your-hair experience of windshield-less driving, since with the simple rotation of two knobs attached to the nickel-plated windshield frame, the windshield could be folded down and all wind protection was removed. There are few experiences more thrilling and terrifying as driving an early automobile with the top and windshield down at 50 or 60 miles per hour on modern paved roads. If you’ve never experienced it, make sure you add it to your “bucket list.”
If 100 years of neglect, rust, scrap drives, wars and fire cannot destroy this car, it’s fair to say that nothing will. The automotive industry has come a long way in 127 years, and it’s hard to imagine what advancements will come during the next century, but it is because of people like Barney Pollard and Robin Onsoien that we can see and feel what it must have been like before ABS brakes, air bags, cruise control and power windows. Enjoy what we drive today, imagine what we’ll drive in the future and because this wonderful car is still around, appreciate what was state of the art 104 years ago.
