40hp, 336 cu. in. inline four-cylinder engine, three-speed manual transmission, solid front axle and live rear axle with semi-elliptic leaf springs, driveshaft brake and two-wheel mechanical brakes. Wheelbase: 106"

- From an important private collection

- Rare early four-cylinder Oldsmobile

- Believed to be the only surviving Model X3

This rare Model X3 Oldsmobile was purchased at auction in 1989 in the small town of Wartrace, Tennessee. According to an elderly local gentleman, it was the first automobile ever to enter the town. It had been purchased by a Mr. Smotherman, who kept the car and drove it for the better part of a decade. It then passed to Grady Smotherman who drove the car for a number of years and sold it back to the original owner, who stored it in his barn around 1933. In 1946 it was entered in a local parade but wouldn’t start, so it was pushed back into the barn. It didn’t emerge again until the 1989 auction.

After the auction, the new owner took the car to his garage and began the restoration. It was taken apart down to the last nut and bolt. Parts were marked, some placed in plastic bags, and the entire process was photographed and videotaped. With the help of close friends and car club members, the total restoration was completed in 1997. That August, the car was featured as the keynote car for the year 1909 at the Oldsmobile Centennial in Lansing, Michigan. At that time it was still in two pieces – a rolling chassis and the completed wooden body.

The car’s engine is a four-cylinder, with jug-type cylinders cast in pairs. It develops 35/40 horsepower. The bottom half of the engine is cast aluminum with a cast-aluminum oil pan, an oil pump and a water pump. The transmission has three speeds forward and one reverse. The parking brake acts on the rear wheel drum brakes, and the foot-pedal brake acts on the drive-shaft drum. The frame is steel, and the body is all wood. The wheels are wood-spoke artillery type. All trim, the lights and the plumbing are brass, and it has acetylene headlights and kerosene cowl and taillights.

The late Helen Earley of the Oldsmobile History Center verified the car’s authenticity in 1989. The recipient of several awards, it received the AACA Cup in 2000 for the most outstanding restoration of the year, pre-1921. It was purchased by the current owner in 2004. According to the late Dick Neller, one of the hobby’s authorities on brass-era Oldsmobiles, this is the only 1909 Model X3 in existence.

As part of a large private collection, this car has been treated to climate-controlled storage but has seen little exercise in recent years and will require thorough professional inspection before being driven.