The thrill of the police chase: a speedy Simplex for New York's coppers

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To own something with Simplex in the name these days, you might need to rob bank. In March of this year, a 1903 Mercedes Simplex notably sold in Florida for a whopping $12,000,000, although that is a slightly distant relative of the car seen here. This car is one of the very first products of the Simplex Automobile Co. of New Brunswick, New Jersey and it's seen in New York, apparently in 1907, the first year of production, when $12,000,000 would buy half of Broadway or several major buildings in the heart of Manhattan. It's unrelated to the Mercedes except for the fact that it relied heavily on imported Mercedes parts. Even so, it was a 1912 Simplex 50hp by the New Jersey firm which held the previous record for a pre-Great War car when it sold for $4,845,000 in January, 2023.

Unfortunately for those of you who have just started to plan your next heist, the police are one step ahead of you. The thing about this car is that its registration PD NY is a major clue concerning its proprietorship. Yes, this really was a car owned and used by the New York Police Department no less—we know New York's never been cheap, but they really travelled in style a century ago. It probably wasn't driven by your average officer though, who was more likely to have still been riding a horse at the time. Perhaps it was the privilege of a constable or chief superintendent. It makes us think back to the Dutch police Mercedes of the 1920s seen last year (here).

We also wonder which of the Simplexes this one is, but we note that it's right-hand drive. Georgano wrote: "The best-known model of the new company was the 50hp, a massive chain-driven car of high-quality whose four-cylinder T-head engine had a capacity of ten litres. The chassis prices was $4,500 and bodies were made for Simplex under contract by such firms as Quimby, Demarest, Holbrook and Brewster. In 1908 a stripped version won the 24-hour race at Brighton Beach." Could a New York policeman really have been driving around in what today would be a $5,000,000 car? 

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: source unknown
 

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