Michigan Motor Car Company

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Michigan Buggy Company
Michigan Motor Car Company
legal form Company
founding 1883
resolution 1913
Seat Kalamazoo , Michigan , USA
Number of employees 553
Branch Carriages , automobiles
Status: 1913

Michigan Buggy Company carriage

Michigan Motor Car Company , previously the Michigan Buggy Company , was an American manufacturer of automobiles .

Company history

Moses Henry Lane left the Kalamazoo Wagon Company in 1883 and founded the Michigan Buggy Company that same year . The seat was in Kalamazoo , Michigan . He made carriages . In 1904 the production of automobiles began on a small scale. The brand name was Michigan . According to the company, the number of employees rose from 348 in 1909 to 553 in 1913.

Something like series production of motor vehicles did not begin until 1911. The company name changed to Michigan Motor Car Company . A source gives September 24, 1912 as the founding date of this second society. Participants were M. Henry Lane, Frank B. Lay Jr., George T. Lay, and Victor L. Palmer. WH Cameron was recruited as a designer, who previously worked for Willys-Overland and Flanders Manufacturing Company , and John A. Campbell as a body designer. According to the company, 6,125 vehicles were sold.

Production ended in 1913. Some people in the management were sued and some were convicted. Edward F. Gerber, who sold vehicles of this brand in Pittsburgh , tried in vain to continue production. Hugh Chalmers of Chalmers Motor Car Company couldn't help either.

The States Motor Car Company took over the plant in 1915.

There are no known associations with the other Michigan brand passenger vehicle manufacturers : Michigan Automobile Company (1901), Fuller & Sons Manufacturing Company (1903-1907), and Michigan Hearse & Motor Company (1916).

Motor vehicles

Initially, only the self-made carriages were fitted with gasoline engines . They were single-cylinder engines with 3.5 hp . They drove the rear axle via a two-speed transmission without reverse gear. The chassis had at least in the first year 137 cm wheelbase and 91 cm track width .

Model B appeared in 1911 . It had a four-cylinder engine of Buda made, the 40 hp. The wheelbase was 284 cm. There was a choice of touring cars with five seats and roadsters with two seats.

In 1912 it became the Four-40 in the versions Model 40-K as a five-seater touring car and Model 40-M as a two-seater runabout . The wheelbase was lengthened to 320 cm. There was also a smaller and weaker model, the Four-33 . The engine power was specified with 33 hp and the wheelbase with 284 cm. Are known Model D and Model E as a two-seat roadster and Model H , which is a five-seater touring car as well as a five-seater torpedo was -Tourenwagen.

In 1913 the smaller model was Model L renamed. The 290 cm wheelbase formed the basis for a five-seater touring car. Were from the larger model Model R and Model S . The wheelbase was shortened to 300 cm. Touring cars with five seats and roadsters with two seats were available.

A surviving Model R from 1913 sold for $ 132,000 in 2014 .

Model overview

year model execution cylinder Power ( hp ) Wheelbase (cm) construction
1904-1910 Motor buggy 1 3.5 137 Motor buggy
1911 Model B 4th 40 284 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster
1912 Four-33 Model D 4th 33 284 Roadster 2-seater
1912 Four-33 Model E. 4th 33 284 Roadster 2-seater
1912 Four-33 Model H 4th 33 284 5-seater touring car, 5-seater torpedo touring car
1912 Four-30 Model 40-K 4th 40 320 5-seater touring car
1912 Four-30 Model 40-M 4th 40 320 Runabout 2-seater
1913 Model L 4th 33 290 5-seater touring car
1913 Model R and Model S 4th 40 300 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster

literature

  • Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 970-971 (English).
  • George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 2: G-O . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1032 (English).

Web links

Commons : Michigan Motor Car Company  - Collection of Pictures, Videos, and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Beverly Rae Kimes, Henry Austin Clark Jr .: Standard catalog of American Cars. 1805-1942. Digital edition . 3. Edition. Krause Publications, Iola 2013, ISBN 978-1-4402-3778-2 , pp. 970-971 (English).
  2. ↑ George Nicholas Georgano (Ed.): The Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile . Volume 2: G-O . Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, Chicago 2001, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 , pp. 1032 (English).
  3. ↑ a b Michigan Buggy Company (accessed October 20, 2018)
  4. ↑ 2014 auction (accessed October 20, 2018)