With a name that could only have emerged from the age of empire, the Oldsmobile Autocrat was introduced in 1911 as the company’s mid-range model. It was a grand machine worthy of its moniker, however, with a rugged pressed nickel-steel alloy frame measuring 124 inches between the axles, and essentially a junior version of the flagship Limited’s six-cylinder engine, with four jugs, cast in pairs, to displace 471 cubic inches and produce an impressive 50 horsepower.

Clothed in leather-trimmed aluminum coachwork in five different styles, it was visually impressive and had the potency for hill-climbing or whatever else its usually wealthy owner demanded of it. This had been proven when Oldsmobile entered two prototypes of the model into the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup on Long Island, one of which finished a very respectable 11th place.

Fewer than 1,000 Autocrats were made in 1911, with only a small percentage of them finished as roadsters.

THE POLLARD-NELLER ROADSTER

According to prior owner Jim Bradley, the example offered here is one of three Autocrat roadsters currently known. It is believed to have been discovered by the pioneer collector Barney Pollard of Detroit, who began his collecting in the 1920s and eventually assembled in his railside warehouses some 700 early cars, many of which he can legitimately be credited as having saved from the scrappers. Among them was the Autocrat, which by the time of his acquisition had been converted to a service vehicle, with a floodlight in place of the rear seat. A wonderful photograph included in the file shows the car with Mr. Pollard’s elderly mother proudly behind the wheel, and notes that the Olds had been sourced in New Jersey in the early 1950s. Significantly, the original roadster front seat—with its different door shape and lower sill line than a touring car—is clearly still in place.

Mr. Pollard sold the car in the early 1970s to the respected Oldsmobile collector and historian Dick Neller of Okemos, Michigan, who had admired it for decades but long proved unable to acquire it from the Pollard barns. After being at last successful, Mr. Neller restored it to its original grandeur, with an engine and mechanical systems built by well-known Brass Oldsmobile specialist Eldon Eby, and the rear seat recreated. The Nellers displayed their Autocrat at many shows and in various tours, and in their ownership it was featured in Dennis Casteele’s 1981 book The Cars of Oldsmobile.

In 2005 the Olds was sold by the Neller family to Mr. Bradley, who undertook a fresh frame-off restoration in the present two-tone carmine and burgundy livery, with much of the original coachwork preserved and the fitment of an electric starter for more reliable operation. Afterward the car was shown at the Meadow Brook Concours d’Elegance in 2009, winning a class award and Most Significant General Motors Car.

Acquired by Charles Noto from Mr. Bradley in 2019, this important Brass Era Oldsmobile remains in excellent overall condition, with recent freshening including the refinishing of its running boards. It remains a truly potent beast and a gleaming treasure—a true Autocrat of the road.