For Easter we attended the Forest Park car show, Concours d’Elegance, back after a two-year hiatus. It was not as big an affair as many of the pre-pandemic ones were. Concours d’Elegance specializes in stock historical vehicles. Before the pandemic it had been paired with another show that featured modified vehicles, but that show has departed to St. Charles. Still, this show was special, because our neighbor, Art was displaying his classic car, a 1948 Ford that had been his father’s first car. Art’s dad was also at the show. The featured Knox seems to have been the oldest vehicle in this Easter show.

The Knox Automobile Company was established at the beginning of the 20th-century. This 1902 Knox runabout model could seat two passengers upfront, with a backseat driver above the engine. This model has a one-cylinder five horsepower engine. This flat-mounted single-cylinder engine was air-cooled. Rather than flanges to improve the efficiency of cooling, 1,750 threaded 5mm diameter rods were screwed into the cylinder casing as projecting studs, which led to the engine sometimes being referred to as “Old Porcupine”. A two-speed planetary transmission was fitted. This engine was placed in the center of the car.