Please help to bring the Browniekar home! Pledge Form
The Browniekar was a car built from 1908 to 1911 by the Omar Motor Car Company, a subsidiary of the Mora Motor Car Company in Newark.
There are only three Browniekars known be in existence today and there is one located on the west coast that is available to buy. The owner is liquidating a collection of cars, and this Browniekar is in pristine condition. We have an opportunity to bring this important piece of Newark’s history back to where it was made, and to display it in the museum for all to see.
But we need your help. Please fill out the pledge form (link above) and commit to a donation of any amount. The “submit” button will send it directly to us.
We will continue to fundraise, within the time allotted, until the cost of the vehicle is met. This could range upward to a maximum of $22,000 to cover all expenses. This historical collection piece will hold its value or even appreciate in value after the purchase.
The owner is holding the vehicle for us, but there is a time element, so please make your pledge today. We thank you for being a partner in this worthy cause.
Below – some history
Mora automobiles were built in Newark, beginning in 1906. Samuel Mora had been a sales executive for Eastman Kodak in Rochester before starting his own company building cars. Moras were a high-grade motor car for that era.
The firm’s initial factory was located in a portion of the recently vacated Reed Mfg. Co. plant on Siegrist St. in Newark, adjacent to the main line of the West Shore Railroad. When the company relocated to their newly constructed factory on Hoffman St in 1908, the Siegrist plant was taken over by the Omar Motor Car Co., a subsidiary of Mora.
The Browniekar was developed by William H. Birdsall, the engineer of the Mora four- and six-cylinder automobiles, along with his assistant, Arthur M. Dean. The Browniekar would soon become exponentially more well-known than the Mora motor car ever was. This was largely because, as a marketing strategy, Browniekars were offered as the prize in contests across the country.
The Browniekar is a two-passenger roadster that is sized for children, yet it is a real and usable car. It rides on a wheelbase of 66 inches and has a single-cylinder 4-stroke engine that delivers 3½ hp. with a top speed of 10 mph. The Newark Union Gazette stated that “the boy or girl who drives a Browniekar will obtain, by practical experience, a knowledge of things mechanical, construction, ignition, and operation of gas engines, etc., that he or she would not be able to obtain from books.”
Cash-flow problems caused the demise of both the Mora and Omar companies in the middle of 1910, and while the Frank Tomey Co. bought the operation, they ceased production by September of 1911. All we are left with is the history and a few choice specimens. Hopefully, one of those will be coming to Newark soon.