About Oldsmobile Curved Dash
This is the first mass-produced vehicle in automotive history, and its presence on the market heralded a new era when parts could have been replaced without the need to make them custom.
By 1901, Oldsmobile was already an established brand. The genius behind it was no other than Ransom Eli Olds, who created his first steam-powered vehicle in 1887 and its first gasoline-powered car in 1896. But his ahead-of-its-time thinking proved to be much more valuable in 1901 when the Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout was brought on the market. Not only that the car was built on an assembly line, but it was built using interchangeable parts.
It was the pioneering era, and there were no standards or procedures on how to build a vehicle. But there was a requirement for the vehicle's homologation. Olds had already prepared a few prototypes to be tested, but a fire broke into his factory, and the only intact model that emerged was the Runabout. Maybe it wasn't even the best of the batch; we'll never know. But this model was the one that reached the assembly line.
Its look was similar to a carriage without a horse at the front. There was a curved panel in front of the bench, hence the Curved Dashboard name. The steering was via a lever, and there was no gearbox. Moreover, the canvas top appeared later as a measure of protection against rain, although there was no windshield.
With the one-cylinder engine placed in the back and a massive flywheel, the Oldsmobile Runabout was considered smooth for its time. It didn't send the same vibrations as other motorized vehicles from that era. While it was not powerful, it also lacked a speedometer, tachometer, or other gauges. But it proved the value of the assembly line.