1903 Cadillac Runabout Rear-Entrance Tonneau

This car—serial number 13—is the oldest known Cadillac. It was one of three displayed at the New York Automobile Show in January 1903

by Carl Bomstead

Founded by Henry Leland and Robert Faulconer, the Cadillac Automobile Company of Detroit completed its first car in October 1902. The firm’s superior manufacturing technology—precise gear cutting was Leland and Faulconer’s specialty—soon established it as the foremost builder of quality cars in the United States. The company was formed using funds supplied by two of Henry Ford’s ex-backers and took its name from Le Sieur Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, the great French 17th century explorer who founded Detroit in 1701.

The car offered here, serial number 13, is the oldest known surviving Cadillac. It was one of three displayed at the New York Automobile Show in January 1903, the others being numbers 10 and 11.

An excellent performer by the standards of the day, the Cadillac’s 98-ci, single-cylinder engine (“Little Hercules”) was mounted on the left beneath the front seat and drove through a two-speed-plus-reverse planetary transmission by chain...