Farms: 1907 Stoddard Dayton Runabout 1

The Dayton Motor Car Company is one of the less common names in Automobile History, yet it produced some of the most magnificent cars in it's short 8-years of business. DMC originally began as a manufacturer of early farm tractors in Dayton, Ohio just after the turn of the Century. John's son Charles contributed greatly due to his prior experiences with British and European motorcars. Just two years of DMC's birth as a tractor builder, the Stoddards followed their passion and focused research and development on upscale motorcars. DMC hired British engineer Henry J. Edwards to oversee the development of high power engines, and with his addition to the company, proceeded to build some of the swiftest cars of the decade. The Stoddard Dayton Model K was Dayton Motor Car's first offering. Assembly of the first models was painstaking, due to the Stoddard's uncompromising standards for quality and function. Everything had to work well and had to be built to last. For instance, each car was given no less than 18-25 coats of paint. This meant an extensive amount of hours spent on preparation and drying time. The end result was a carriage that was unmatched in fit in finish. The paint was like porcelain and the brass trim shined with the radiance of gold. The most exceptional feature of the Stoddard Dayton was the least visible to the casual onlooker. The innovative T-head 4-cylinder engine that powered the top of the line Model K's was one of the most powerful anywhere in 1907. It was capable of developing 35 horsepower, when Packard and Cadillac's best motors fell short at just 30 h.p. Before 1910, the Stoddard Dayton was capable of overtaking any conveyance on the road. This was proven in 1909, the site of the very first Indianapolis Speedway Race, which was just 5 miles at the time. In that short 5 mile run, the Stoddard Dayton averaged 57.4 miles an hour, meaning that the car must have been capable of top speeds in excess of 70 miles an hour. The Model K was the extravagant musclecar of it's day. Stoddard Dayton continued to dominate early publicity events such as the Glidden Tour. With all of these legendary accomplishments, the Stoddard Dayton would meet a premature demise when the company closed it's doors and gave the key to it's liquidation buyer, the Maxwell Motor Car Company, in 1913. Very few Stoddard Daytons survived.