DILE

Dile Motor Car Co. (c1913-1916)

Reading, Pennsylvania

This may be a Dile radiator script (c1914-1916)    bmhv

The Dile was named after Fred K Dick and Irvin D Lenger by taking the first two letters of their last names. The Dile Motor Car Company was established in late 1913, as was confirmed by press announcements in December 1913. 

The Dile was a small 11 hp four-cylinder, two-passenger sport roadster, sometimes advertised as a cyclecar. The first Dile may have been assembled in 1913 but production probably did not start until 1914, when the car was advertised for sale at $485. In June 1914, it was announced that the Dile Motor Car Company had "recently put out a roadster" and was planning to increase production to five cars a day.  

The Dile Motor Car Company declared bankruptcy in mid-1916 with problems arising from material shortages due to the First World War cited as reasons for the difficulties suffered by Dile. It took until the fall of 1918 before the Dile assets were finally sold to Belmont Motors Corporation.

Emblem

It appears that the Dile did not carry a radiator emblem. However, I can find no original period photos or illustrations of the Dile clearly showing the radiator to confirm this absolutely. The following Dile advertisement from 1914 does have a photo of a Dile roadster, which appears not to show a radiator emblem or script but the photo is unclear. 

Dile advertisement (1914)    ebay

The only surviving Dile car that I have seen has a brass "Dile" script attached to the radiator core, as shown above at the top of this post. However, I cannot confirm that this script is original or was added later during restoration. 
    
The "Dile" name does appear on the hub caps, see example below:

This is a Dile hub cap (c1913-1916)    bmhv