Life — January 4, 1912 — page 80: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

My Farewell Car Reo the Fifth—the car I now bring out—is considered by me as pretty close to fnalit So close that [ call it “ My Farewell Car. shall let it stand as my topmost achievement. mbodied here are the final results of my 25 years of experience. T have spent 18 months on Reo the Fifth. For three months I stopped the whole Reo production to devote all of our efforts to this one car. The future is bound to bring some minor changes—folderols and fashions. But in all the essentials this car strikes my limit. Better workmanship is impossible, better materials unthinkable. More of simplicity, silence, durability and economy can hardly be conceived. I consider this car about as close to perfec- tion as engineers ever will get. My 24th Model This is the twenty-fourth model which I have created. My first was a steam car, built in 1887—25 years ago. My first gasoline car was built in 1895—17 years ago. My whole life has been spent in building gasoline engines—the Olds Gas Engines, famous half the world over. My engine- building successes gave first prestige to my cars. For the motor, of course, is the very heart of a car. So it came about that tens of thousands of motorists have used cars of my designing. They have run from one to six cylinders, from 6 to 60 horsepower. They have ranged from little to big, from the primitive to the modern luxurious cars. I have run the whole gamut of auton. bile experience. In the process of sifting I have settled down to the 30 to 35 horsepower, 4-cylinder car. That is, and will doubtless remain, the stand- ard type of car. 112 Inches Wheele— 34 Inches Demountable Ri Speed— 45 Miles per Hour Made with 2, 4 and 5 Pas- senger Bodies Top and windshield not included in price. windshield, gas tank and speedometer—all {for $100 extra. by R. E. Olds, Designer Greater power is unnecessary; its operation expensive. Weight, size and power not needed bring excessive cost of upkeep. Most men who know best, and who can own_good cars, are coming to this standard type. So we make for the future just this one type of car. And in this new car—called Reo the Fifth— I have embodied all I’ know which can add one iota to the real worth of a car. My Thousand Helpers But Reo the Fifth, despite all my inventions, belongs to other men more than to me. A thousand men have contributed to it. I have searched the whole world to secure for each part the very best that any man has discovered. For that is the essence of motor car design- ing—to learn what is best and adopt it. No modern car owes more than a trifle to the genius of any one man. So this car_is not mince—it is merely my compilation. It shows my skill in selection— in picking the best—more than my skill in de- signing. It shows, above all, what my myriads of cars in actual use have taught me. And I frankly confess that I owe a great deal to the many brilliant designers whom it has been my good fortune to associate with me. Where This Car Excels In Reo the Fifth you will find many good features found in no other car. You will find all the best features used in other up-to-date models, You will find them combined with style, finish and appearance which marks the very latest vogue. But the vital advantages of this new car lie in excess of care and caution. In the utter exactness—in the big margins of safety. One of the greatest lies in formulas for steel. I have learned by endless experiment— by countless mistakes—the best alloy for each purpose. All the steel that I use is now made to my order. And each lot is analyzed to prove its accord with the formula. Experience has taught me not to take any chances. I used to test gears with a hammer. Now I use a crushing machine of so tons capacity. And I know to exactness what each gear will stand, I took the maker’s word on magnetos at one time. Now I require a radical test, and I have found but two makes which will stand it The axles are immensely important. I use Nickel Steel of unusual diameter, and fit them with Timken Roller Bearings. The carburetor is doubly heated—by hot air and hot water—for the present grades of gasoline. The car is over-tired. So with every part. From start to finish this car is built under laboratory supervision. The various parts pass a thousand inspections. It is one thing to build a theoretical car, to meet all expected conditions. It is another thing to build one to meet actual conditions. The unusual and unexpected bring out a car's weakness. The best thing I have learned, in these dec- ades of experience, is the folly of taking chances. I had one of these new cars run for ten thousand miles—run at_ top speed, ight and day, on rough | roads. That is equal, | figure, to three years’ average usage. Then I took the car apart, and I tound every important part in the whole car practically as good as new. That's where this car excels—in that excess of caution taught by 25 years of experience. I am not abler than other designers. I have simply been learning longer. Reo the Fifth We equip this car with mohair top, side curtains and alip-cover, Self-starter, if wanted, $25.00 extra.