Why The American Sports Car?
This series intends to bring to light the interesting sports cars, like those from the Daniels Motor Company, 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.
Daniels Motor Company
The Daniels Motor Company of Reading, Pennsylvania made quality automobiles from 1916 through 1924 and were known as automotive pioneers in the Brass Era. Although most were luxury cars, and only a few hundred were made each year, they were generally “staid” and rather expensive.
For just one year, 1921, they made the “Submarine Speedster” a two passenger car distinct from the 3 passenger submarine below.
This ambitious attempt to produce a high quality sports car apparently failed and that model was quickly given up. The company also gave up altogether in 1924, in the midst of battling between the management and the financier. The image below shows the striking speedster, with a 404 cu.in., 90 hp engine which must have created quite a fuss, but not enough to sell sports cars in America.
