CVI1908 C.V.I. Six-Cylinder Chassis

CVI's sole defensible marketed automobile identity, called both C.V.I. and the Cutting Six in period coverage. Cycle and Automobile Trade Journal reported that the first chassis was on the road in February 1907 and publicly exhibited at Chicago's December 1907 show, but described the customer program and illustrated car as the 1908 C.V.I.; the prototype activity therefore does not create a separate 1907 production model. One 117-inch chassis served three- or four-passenger runabout and five- or seven-passenger touring bodies, all at $4,000. The detailed January 1908 specification establishes a 4 x 5-inch six-cylinder engine—about 377.0 cu in or 6,178 cc—rated 30 hp at 1,000 rpm, decisively correcting the four-cylinder 4.2-litre description repeated by some later summaries. Its engine used paired cylinder castings, valves on opposite sides, two camshafts, a six-throw crankshaft, aluminum crankcase and sump, mechanical-oiler-assisted splash lubrication, and independent battery/coil and Bosch-magneto ignition. The chassis used a cork-insert leather cone clutch, three-speed selective sliding gearbox, shaft and bevel drive, Garford axles, 56-inch track, 10.5-inch clearance and extensive Hess-Bright/F&S ball bearings. Period weights were 2,600 lb for the illustrated touring car and 2,550 lb for the runabout; the structured 1,179 kg value is explicitly the touring specification. Runabout and touring coachwork are configurations of the same marketed chassis, not three invented models. Later references sometimes call the car Model A or 40 HP, but the recovered factory-era article does not use that model code and gives 30 hp at 1,000 rpm, so those secondary labels remain aliases rather than the canonical model identity. No closed body, commercial version, second engine, additional model code or post-1908 CVI is established.