Description
1902 Covert Two Seater 3HP Spindle Seat
Registration No. AR1457
Car No. 78
Engine No. 84
VCC Dating Certificate No. 1390 (2011)
The Covert Motorette was a light car built by Byron V. Covert & Co of Lockport, New York and used an engine that closely resembled that of De Dion Bouton. The Covert was one of many light cars produced in New York in a boom period for motorcars just after 1900. The cars were marketed in the UK by R. Reynold Jackson and Co as the Jackson-Covert.
The Spindle Seat Motorette featured a 3HP, Single Cylinder, water cooled engine with atmospheric inlet valve that achieved drive via a Two speed gearbox with twin chain final drive and expanding clutches. The suspension was based on Full elliptic leaf springs both front and rear.
Period advertisements described the covert as ‘The Ideal Light Car for town or country. Superior in construction, Artistic in design and efficient in all conditions’.
This fine example was brought to the UK in the late 1970s by a Mr Cecil Bendall who restored the car. It features very attractive open side and spindle seat coachwork that is believed to be original. The car is fitted with a period Zenith carburettor which has allowed improved performance and an electric self starter has also been put in place to achieve very easy starting.
The car has been dated by the Veteran Car Club of Great Britain and presented with a date of 1902, meaning an early start on the London to Brighton Run, missing the heavy traffic. An extremely rare survivor of a short lived Marque that is in nice mechanical and cosmetic order.
