Stanhope body
Stanhope is an archaic car body style characterized by its single bench seat mounted at the center, folding cloth top, and a dashboard at the front. All Stanhopes featured tiller steering, either in the center or at the side. Features of the car included a foot button to signal a bell (early version of a horn), hard rubber tires, wood trim, and eight forward speeds, three backs and a top speed of about 50 miles. The body style disappeared by the vintage vehicle era. It could be considered a specific type of runabout.
There have been further productions of the Stanhope automobile including 3-wheeled versions with fully enclosed body work and a 4-wheeled version with front-wheel drive using chains, which also allowed front-wheel steering. It was mentioned many years later as being 20 years ahead of its time.
Examples
- 1899-1916 Woods electric car
- 1899 Winton (largest manufacturer of gas-powered automobiles in the United States at the time)
- 1900-1901 Porter Motor Company (manufacturer of steam-powered automobiles)
- 1900-1910 White Steamcar (largest manufacturer of steam-powered automobiles ever)
- 1901-1907 Oldsmobile Curved Dash
- 1904-1906 Twyford Stanhope