Who built the first two-seater motor car with a fully enclosed body?
first MOTOR CAR WITH A FULLY ENCLOSED BODY
The first MOTOR CAR WITH A FULLY ENCLOSED BODY was the French-built two-seater 2+ hp Renault, manufactured at Billancourt in 1898. Remarkably robust for such a small car, one model drove from Paris to Rambouiilet in 2 hr 49 min in 1899, covering the 65 miles at an average speed of nearly 24 mph. The enclosed Renault (there was also an open version) was intended principally for the use of doctors on their rounds, and with its very short wheel-base has been described as having ‘a silhouette like a top hat on a roller skate’.
In Britain, prior to the introduction of an enclosed production model, there were a number of attempts by individual owners and experimenters to provide weather protection for the driver as well as the passengers. The first on record was by Dr. W.W. Barrett of Hesketh Park, Southport, who acquired a six-seater Daimler in December 1898 and had a special enclosed body built for it. There were three Windows on either side and three doors, one at the rear of the vehicle.
The following year Messrs Mulliner, coachbuilders, offered a detachable enclosed body designed by V. Friswell of Friswell Ltd., Holburn Viaduct, London as an optional extra to the Benz Ideal, a popular car in the lower price bracket.
The first SALOON CAR full-sized was a four-seater motor brougham produced by the Duryea Co. of Coventry, and exhibited for the first time at the Stanley Motor Show on 16 January 1903. It was followed in 1904 by the 12 hp Argyll, the first all-British saloon car (the Duryea Co. was an American concern), which had a brogham body with two side-doors and a rear entrance, and a remarkably elegant curved windscreen.
