Gentlemen: I oing research on an automotive engine by the name of Charles Greuter. He designed an overhead cam engine (4-cyl.) for Excelsior Car Co. I cannot find anything of him which Excelsior Car co. he worked for and from when to when. Was it the Excelsior Motor Co in Tyseley, Birmingham (And the cars sold under the name of Bayliss-Thomas.) or was there another Excelsior Motor Co, in the United States (Chicago, Il ) ? A leads or other websites to help confirm would deeply be appreciated.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Char...YHafe0QGuxZCECA&start=10&sa=N&biw=320&bih=533 Good gravy man, do they not have Google were you come from? There's pages of info on him and that 4cyl was for a stuz no?
That 4-cylinder engine was never in a car and was used as a demo model to try and sell its big brother the 8 cylinder to other car companies, as Excelsior was an engine manufacturer that sold engines to the other car companies. Unfortunately there were no buyers to the radical new design. However the new management at Stutz was very intrigued by the design and hired away its designer Charles Greuter . He brought along with him the prototype 8 cylinder and the demo model. The 8 cylinder engine was the basis for the vertical 8 engine that appeared in 1927 in the Stutz. The prototype 8 was first put in a six ch***is and tested for 10,000 miles at the Indy Speedway and where I believe they found out how noisy the gear drive was and had Greuter redesign it with a chain drive for the production car. That ch***is and engine now supercharged was later used by Glen Shultz to win Pikes Peak and the Penrose trophy. The 4 cylinder engine was auctioned off recently and now in the hands of Speedy Bill and his museum and the 8 cylinder prototype engine also still exists.
The name Excelsior was a much overused label in that time..... the Excesior motorcycles procuced in Detroit and then Chicago had a inline four[air cooled] in them. They were later renamed Excelsior Henderson to differentiate their brand from the Excelsiors built and sold in England at the same time.... The american company also made an inline air cooled 6 cyl, those and the fours were commonly adapted into light aircraft of that time....