Yesterday we told you about a Camaro on RacingJunk that was selling for $100k and came with three super powerful engines. Today we’re spinning the dial in the other direction and inviting you to buy something with a mere 5hp for the princely sum of more than $33,000 (that’s where bidding is currently at as we write this and the reserve has not been met). The car in question is a 1902 Oldsmobile and outside of being little more than an hyper-unsophisticated golf cart, the machine is pretty cool. 

Back in 1902, you were pretty big stuff if you owed a “horseless carriage”. This was a “runabout” designed for short trip and pleasure driving back during the dawn of the motor age. This is one of the “curved dash Oldsmobiles” that are largely credited as being the first mass produced cars in the world with nearly 20,000 produced during a six year run from 1901 through 1907.

The engine is a single cylinder beast with a 4.5-inch bore and a 6-inch stroke cranking out a peak of 5hp, which it fed through a chain drive to the rear axle, which was little more than an enclosed sprocket which turned the rear tires. Burnouts and wheelies had not even been imagined yet and the worst fate a car owner could suffer was to break his prized machine, becuase in this era, it normally meant you took it to the blacksmith’s shop, where it had the indignity of sitting near horses that were getting new shoes!

Amazing to see where we’ve come from since the dawn of the automotive age. We’d love to take a turn at the tiller in this little contraption…especially with the front lamps lit!

eBay Find: A 1902 Olds Runabout