Design
The American Underslung's chassis design and huge 40-inch (1,016 mm) wheels gave it a distinctive appearance and it was noticeably lower than other cars from the same era. The chassis was hung below the axles rather than set atop them, with the engine and transmission mass moved closer to the ground lowering the center of gravity and giving sports car appearance and handling. The design mounted the engine and body within the frame rails rather than on the top as with other cars of the era. Developed in collaboration with Harry Stutz, the 1905 Underslung "was one of the most significant, if unsung, automobiles of this century's first decade."
The automobiles were marketed at the upper price range of the market. Prices for the American Underslung ranged from US$1,250 to $4,000. The cars came with Teetor-Harley 6.4 L (391 cu in) straight-4 engines producing 40 hp (30 kW), as measured by an old system, and starting in 1908 a 7.8 L (476 cu in) with 50 hp (37 kW) became available.
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Famous quotes containing the word design:
“Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“To nourish children and raise them against odds is in any time, any place, more valuable than to fix bolts in cars or design nuclear weapons.”
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“You can make as good a design out of an American turkey as a Japanese out of his native stork.”
—For the State of Illinois, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)