Cunningham Four-Cylinder Cars (Models J–S) History
Catalog record
This is a brief catalog introduction with limited source documentation. A licensed, identity-checked lead photograph has not yet been added for this page. Detailed year, configuration and ownership coverage must be identified separately; this page is not a complete vehicle catalog.
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Model history available. Detailed year guides are not published for this model.
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Having entered the automobile business in 1907 and begun building its own engines around 1910, Cunningham offered its first complete catalogued cars in the early 1910s. These were large, expensive four-cylinder machines aimed squarely at the carriage-trade clientele the firm had served for decades, hand-built in tiny numbers and bodied in the company's own coachworks.
The line progressed through a short sequence of models — the Model J (1911–1912) with a roughly 40-horsepower four, the Model M (1913), the longer-wheelbase Model R (1914), and the Model S (1915–1916), the last of the big fours. By 1910 Cunningham cars already sold for around $4,500–$5,000, placing them among the most expensive automobiles in America and well ahead of the era's mass-market cars.
The four-cylinder cars were superseded in 1916 by the V8-powered Series V, which would define Cunningham for the rest of its automobile-building life.
Generations
Model J
Cunningham's first catalogued complete car — a large luxury machine with a company-built four-cylinder engine rated around 40 hp.
Model M
Successor to the Model J with a slightly less powerful four (about 36 hp).
Model R
A 1914 model on a longer 129-inch wheelbase.
Model S
The last and largest of the four-cylinder Cunninghams, replaced by the V8-powered Series V.
Body styles
- Touring
- Roadster
- Limousine
- Town car
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