Life, 1907-07-04 · page 33 of 48
Life — July 4, 1907 — page 33: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a cartoon or satire page** — it's a straightforward automobile advertisement from an early 1900s *Life* magazine. The Elmore Manufacturing Company promotes their valveless, two-cycle engines by highlighting an endurance race held May 12 in Los Angeles under American Automobile Association rules. Their argument: a heavily-used demonstrator car competed against larger, more powerful four-cylinder competitors and won both a 50-mile and subsequent 5-mile race. The key marketing claim is consistency — the Elmore maintained such uniform performance that it never varied more than 3 seconds across any mile of the 50-mile course. They attribute this to their two-cycle engine design, which fires every revolution versus competitors' four-cycle engines. The prices listed ($2,500 and $1,750) situate this as premium merchandise. The ad targets buyers seeking proven reliability over raw horsepower — a significant value proposition in early automotive competition.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
Four-Cylinder Two-Cycle Elmore Price $2500.00 f. 0. b. factory Three-Cylinder Two-Cycle Elmore Price $1750.00 f. 0. b. factory With the valveless two-cycle Elmore the un- usual is usual—the extra-ordinary is ordinary. Look at the little picture. It shows a 4-cylinder Elmore car that has been used constantly as a demonstrator, and indicates what it was subjected to in an endurance run to San Francisco. Now, imagine this same car, after such terrific treatment, being pulled in off the road to compete in a 50-mile Derby with half a dozen higher-powered cars—-all of them tuned and trimmed to the minute! The contest occurred May 12, at Los Angeles. It was conducted under A. A. A. Rules. The entrants included several of the biggest and most powerful four-cycle cars in the country. This Same Car won the 50-mile and’ 5S-mile Contests The much-used, much-abused Elmore demonstrator not only won—but in twenty minutes after it had reeled off the fif- tieth mile(most of the others were hors du combat) went back on the track and captured the 5-mile cup; beating with ease its nearest competitor, a $4000, 50-60 H. P., four-cycle car. The true and the greatest significance of these perform- ances, however, is the fact that according to the judges the Elmore did not vary 3 seconds for any one mile of the entire 50 miles, a marvelously consistent performance. Thus, for the thousandth time, is verified the virtue of continuous power and Elmore reliability. The Elmore did not vary 3 seconds in 50 miles because the valveless two-cycle engine receives an impulse from each cylinder every time the fly-wheel turns. Evenness of performance impossible to the intermit- tent four-cycle—this is one of a score of the Elmore's valveless two-cycle advantages. Don’t you think you'd better get in touch with your Elmore agent and send for the booklet, “Our Daily Mail”? ELMORE MFG. CO., 2904 Amanda St., Clyde, O. Members A. L. A. M. comicbooks.com