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Simplex Crane Model 5 - 4-seater runabout body - manufactured in 1916
The cars manufactured under the Simplex name in New York and New Jersey in the USA were amongst the most prestigious and expensive of the early 20th century, though production was limited and short lived. Between 1904 and 1919 the company changed hands several times but throughout its life-span it continued to offer only the best for the rich and famous. Its reputation was such that even now, close to a century after the last Simplex left the factory, a considerable portion of the cars bearing this name are still around and are valued highly.
It began in 1904 when car importers Smith and Mabley started production of a car that could challenge the best that came from Europe, most notably the Mercedes. Like Mercedes at the time, S & M added the name Simplex to their products to indicate that they were simple to operate. A number of powerful 4-cylinder models were made, including a 70 hp racer
that took part in the 1904 Vanderbilt Cup. By 1907 the money had run out however and Smith and Mabley chose to sell their factory to a former customer, textile importer Herman Broesel. He renamed the the make into Simplex and funded the introduction of the best selling model in the make's history, the Simplex Model 50. This was a sporting 4-cylinder car rated at 50 hp and offered with double chain drive to the rear wheels and 4-speed transmission. It was sold from 1909 till 1914 and was impressively successful in competition, though it was also available with luxurious touring and limousine bodies. But perhaps best known was the Model 50 toy tonneau: a very basic 4-seater sports car looking like an engine cover with two rows of bench seats placed almost directly on the chassis behind it.
The Model 50 was the car that made the Simplex name famous in the USA but Herman Broesel
wasn't given much time to expand on that; he died in 1912. Subsequently his sons sold the company but the new owners (amongst them sons of tire manufacturer B.F. Goodrich) retained the services of the Broesels and engineer Franquist. In 1914 a new version of the model 50 was introduced, now with a long stroke 4-cylinder engine, but more importantly the owners of Simplex acquired the company of Henry Crane. Crane was a renown engine designer most famous for his powerboat engines but he had also started to manufacture complete cars in 1910. By 1912 he introduced his Model 3, the first to be marketed commercially. It was an uncompromising 6-cylinder shaft drive car; big, powerful and elegant. And extremely expensive as a result. Soon an improved Model 4 followed but sales were very limited due to the astronomical price of the chassis. The owners of Simplex saw an opportunity: Simplex needed a 6-cylinder engine to remain in the market for top class cars and Henry Crane needed money. So he moved his factory to that of Simplex, was awarded the function of vice-president of the company and in 1915 an improved and longer wheelbase version of his car became the Simplex Crane Model 5. Crane was part of the model name rather than an addition to the brand name, which is often thought.
The outdated chain driven Model 50 was continued for a few years but the far more modern Model 5 became Simplex's main
model. At first an effort was made to make the Model 5 more affordable, in its first year it was sold for about the same as the Model 50, which was around 60% of the original Crane price. But in the following years its price rose dramatically, by 1917 a Simplex Crane chassis sold for the equivalent of around 20 Ford Model Ts. Not surprisingly the customers who bought the Simplex Crane were extremely rich and had the chassis fitted with custom designed bodywork by the best coach builders; the company itself offered coachwork by Brewster. The most famous and probably wealthiest Simplex Crane owner was John D. Rockefeller, who actually owned 5 of these cars. Another interesting fact was that the Simplex Crane may have been expensive but that it's owners got something in return: a lifelong guarantee on the chassis and engine, or rather for as long as the car remained the property of the original buyer. It all fitted in with what Simplex now regarded as its main competition: the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost, no less.
A rather sudden end came for the Simplex Crane when the USA got involved in the first World War
in 1917. A year before the company had changed hands again, and now it was owned by aircraft manufacturers Wright Martin. A switch of production followed, all resources were now allocated to the production of Hispano-Suiza aircraft engines. Cars continued to be offered during 1918 and 1919 though these were assembled from leftover stock. Wright Martin didn't restart car production after war production had ended. Instead the company was taken over by Emlen Hare together with other elite makes Locomobile and Mercer to form Hare's Motors, which folded spectacularly in 1920 before it got underway. And that was the end for the Crane Model 5, the American Silver Ghost. Henry Crane attempted to retrieve the Simplex assets after the demise of Hare's Motors and revive the make but failed and resigned to be a consulting engineer for General Motors.
Though sources vary it's generally assumed that in all 121 Simplex Crane Models 5 have been build. About 40 of the Crane Models 3 and 4 preceded these, making a total of only 161 made of these 6-cylinder cars. Total Simplex production amounted to about 500 cars with the Model 50 taking up the major part at around 250 produced. So the Simplex Crane is essentially a very rare car but it was so well build and coveted by its owners that some 40 of these are still around, most of them in the USA but the one shown here found its way to Europe. It's fitted with an unusual body, like a 4-seater racing car complete with drum fuel tank at the rear. It reminds of the classic Simplex Model 50 toy tonneau and runabout bodies. Perhaps it's a rebody, since most Simplex Crane Models 5 originally had opulent touring car or limousine bodies.
You may wonder why the Simplex Crane Model 5 was so frightfully expensive. In today's eyes it's a beautiful car but seems not so unique. Then think about
when it was made, 1916, at a time when the brass era in European car manufacture hadn't even fully ended. It took till the 1920s when cars of this quality and appearance were introduced in Europe; even the Silver Ghost was not as sophisticated. This was a car with a huge 9.2 liter (563.7 cubic inch) engine, its 6 cylinders cast in two blocks of 3 cylinders, which produced 110 hp @ 1800 and propelled the massive car to top speeds fit for today's highways in comfort and quiet. Look at the careful copper plumbing and the meticulous engineering of the engine in the car shown above and maybe you can imagine why it stood apart from its much cruder counterparts. This really was the best money could buy.
© André Ritzinger, Amsterdam, Holland
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