 The
only car that could rival the dominant Panhards at the beginning of
this century were the products of Emille Mors and electrical engineer
by training. His first cars had rear-mounted, two-cylinder engines. In
1999 he introduced a front-engined inline 4-cylinder which became the
foundation of his racing success. Designed by Henri Brasier the 2-hp
7.3 litre racing Mors won the 1900 Bordeaux-Perigueux-Bordeaux and
Paris-Toulouse-Paris races in the hands of Alfred Levegh.
In 1903 Mors used a streamlined
body resembling an "upturned boat". The Mors Dauphin, French
for dolphin had a pressed-steel chassis and an inlet-over-exhaust
engine with all valves mechanically operated from a single camshaft.
Two team cars were leading the doomed Paris-Madrid race when it was
halted at Bordeaux with Gabriel leading his teammate Salleron. In all
the company built 13 Dauphins. Mors would continue to race until 1908
but this was to be their last major victory. |
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