Why The American Sports Car?
This series intends to bring to light the interesting sports cars, like the Amplex, that American manufacturers proposed in their sales literature, in a failing attempt to interest American buyers. Nevertheless, these stillborn vehicles were of interesting design and their memory should be revived. Fortunately, our library has an extensive collection of sales literature which, besides illustrating the cars and their features, hawk a sporting motoring experience.
Amplex
Not much is known about the Amplex Motor Car Company of New York City except they built a line of impressive “valveless”, “self cranking” cars to the end of the first decade of the 20th century. They catalogued a handsome line and their advertising listed several impressive captains of industry who owned their product. The 50 hp motor, “patented self cranker”, and meticulous hand construction were advertised through the valveless construction and self cranking mechanism are not explained. Nevertheless, their handsome roadster was “designed particularly to combine ease and comfort and riding qualities together with speed and the capacity for covering long distances without thought of refilling gasoline or oil”.
