Words And Photography By Jim Donnelly
Talk about covering the market. For five memorable years that ended in 1911, an extravagant and powerful luxury automobile named the Mora was produced in Newark, New York, about 30 miles south of Rochester. During its final two years, a unit of Mora built a strange, truncated roadster with belt drive, not quite a cyclecar, but instead, a powered car for privileged children, whose parents might have already owned a large
Mora. This curiosity is a Browniekar, riding on a 66-inch wheelbase, three of which are known to exist today.
This lovely restored example belongs to Steve Heald of Sodus, New York, an authority on cars built on his home turf. He is likely the only collector in modern times to have owned a Mora and Brown-iekar at the same time. He's also a fount of tales on central New York automotive folklore, to wit: "It was decided that there was a market for juvenile cars, as they were called. There are a couple of theories on its name. One of them involves Samuel Mora, who, before he ventured into building cars, was director of sales for Eastman Kodak, in Rochester, which produced the Brownie camera. The theory is that to capitalize on the Brownie camera, Mora decided to call this little car the Browniekar."
The Browniekar is kid stuff only in terms of basic concept. Mora, both the person and company, was allied with a good, well-traveled chief engineer. William H. Birdsall, who went by Billy, entered the automotive world as general manager and designer of the Buck-
mobile, built in Utica, New York, for two years ending in 1905. Before allying himself with Mora, Birdsall designed the Regas, under the Rochester firm's ownership by D.D. Dunn, who'd become rich selling Sen-Sen, the early licorice breath lozenge. At Mora, Birdsall crafted a powerful, durable straight-six, so he was more than ready for the Browniekar.
Mora actually built the Browniekar under a subsidiary, Omar, an anagram of the Mora name. It is not a catalog-built vehicle. "They had their own foundry, so they designed and built their own miniature engines," Heald explained. "It's based on a De Dion design. It's a single cylinder, 3.5hp, 3-inch bore, 3.5-inch stroke, which I think calculates to 24 cubic inches. The intake valve is drawn down by suction from the downward piston stroke. It does have an exhaust valve, actuated by a little, bitty singlelobe camshaft that's gear driven. It also has an Omar carburetor, so this is not an assembled thing."
As new in 1908, a Browniekar retailed for $150, which was inexplicably raised to $175 the following year. Ready to go, it weighs about 300 pounds. Part of the weight is attributable to the robust flywheel that turns a flat belt connected to a cross-shaft, to which V-belts for each wheel are linked. It took a while before this Browniekar was actually mobile. Heald found it, complete but unrestored, owned by an individual that he called "a collector of things." Heald made a new dashboard coil box for it. The wooden frame needed some replacement pieces.
"I had the original flat belt, but the finaldrive V-belts were missing. I found a 1909 magazine article that discussed those drive belts," he recalled. "The V-belts are made of four-ply leather. The flat belt is a piece of canvas, folded inward. I used a staple from the original belt (as a pattern). I had a Mennonite saddle maker use his heavy-duty sewing machine to sew in the right number of stitches. The drive belts are held together with copper rivets. Those people who helped with the belts were invaluable." ®
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