Cadillac Model A

Key facts

Year

1903
Country

United States
Capacity

1,609cc
Cylinders

1
Valves

Overhead valve
Output

6.5hp
Performance

30mph/48.28kph
Price new

£200
Loaned by

Private Owner
Manufacturer

Cadillac Automobile Company, Detroit

This Model A was the first Cadillac to be brought to Britain. Frederick Stanley Bennett imported it and drove it in the 1903 Thousand Miles Trial. Bennett subsequently became the official UK importer and was behind the standardisation tests of 1908 in which three identical Cadillacs were dismantled and then rebuilt from a mixed-up pile of parts, proving the inter-changeability of the components.

Created in 1902 by Henry Leland, Cadillac was built upon the remains of the original Henry Ford Company. From the beginning, Leland insisted on the highest standards of precision engineering in order to build a quality mass-produced vehicle; demanding that “We must make every piston so exact, and every cylinder so exact that every piston will fit into every cylinder”. Despite these high production standards over 2,000 Cadillacs were produced in 1903.