The Marr Auto-Car was an

automobile A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport people instead of goods. The year 1886 is regarded ...

built in

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook and Kane counties in the northern part of the U.S. state of Illinois. Elgin is located northwest of Chicago, along the Fox River. As of the 2020 Census, the city had a population of 114,797, the seventh-larg ...

by the Marr Auto-Car Company from 1902 to 1904.

History

The car was designed by early automobile pioneer Walter L. Marr who had worked as an engine designer for

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

in 1901 and went on to be Chief Engineer there from 1904 to 1918. The Marr was a two-seat runabout with a single-cylinder 1.7L engine that was mounted under the seat. The engine is one of the first known to have featured an

overhead camshaft An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...

(OHC). The vehicle had the first tilt steering wheel, changeable speed gears on a planetary transmission and a revolutionary new

carburetor A carburetor (also spelled carburettor) is a device used by an internal combustion engine to control and mix air and fuel entering the engine. The primary method of adding fuel to the intake air is through the venturi tube in the main meteri ...

. Factory price was $600, (). The plant burned to the ground in August 1904 with 14 cars inside. Only one Marr Auto-Car is extant.

References

External Links

Marr Auto Car

1903 Marr Auto-Car at ConceptCarz
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marr (Automobile) Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United States Motor vehicle manufacturers based in Illinois Veteran vehicles 1900s cars Cars introduced in 1902 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1902 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1904