Why The American Sports Car?
This series intends to bring to light the interesting sports cars, like the Argonne, 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.
Argonne
This firm, based out of Jersey City, New Jersey, survived only 2 years, 1919-1920. Named after the French battlefield, it is assumed, the plans were ambitious. Although Argonne had a full line of conventional cars, they also advertised a sports car having “power and speed, capable of 70 miles an hour.” The Argonne automobiles had an unusual four-speed gearbox which was typical of performance vehicles.
You will notice in the advertisement below that the radiator is an exact copy of the contemporary Austro-Daimler of which very few were seen in America at the time. Nevertheless, they were proud to be associated with “foreign design”.
The Argonne Four – Of foreign design with four forward speeds. Warranted to do 70 miles an hour – and 20 miles to the gallon of gasoline.
Argonne Sales Advertisement
