We have a hard time getting revved up about horseless carriages over one century old, but this 1908 Maxwell LC Tourabout is pretty remarkable. Check out the horizontally opposed two-cylinder powerplant. Take that Subaru.
Sure, it might not look like much, but this vehicle is quite remarkable, especially for the time. Karl Benz was the first to patent the notion of a boxer engine, but this example is the first we've seen of that vintage that actually runs. The engine is kept running smooth by case oil like a modern engine, but the pistons also get a central oiler mounted on the buckboard, carburetion comes from a single unit branching to each head (which we assume would lead to a constant rich/lean condition since it's mounted biased to one side), each head has two valves which are inserted through holes filled with giant screw-in plugs, and poke out the other side and are retained with externally mounted valve springs. The whole shebang is kept running by a huge cast-iron flywheel and generated a scalding 14 HP and came with not one, but two speeds — quite a hot rod. It came with tag of $825 before options, that's around $19,500 in 2009 US bucks, competitively priced with Henry Ford's Model T at the time, though still out of reach of most Americans.