Monroe (make of car)

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Monroe racing car

Monroe was an American automobile brand.

Brand history

RF Monroe was the head of the Monroe Body Company in Pontiac . William C. Durant was the driving force behind Chevrolet in Flint . Together they founded the Monroe Motor Company in Flint, Michigan in August 1914 . Monroe became President, Durant Vice-President. In the same year the production of automobiles began. The brand name was Monroe . There was a close collaboration with Chevrolet. The former Chevrolet plant in Flint was used and the vehicles were sold through the Chevrolet sales organization.

In April 1916, Durant withdrew. Monroe moved the headquarters to Pontiac, Michigan. Now the former factory of the Welch Motor Car Company has been moved into. A source gives Monroe Motor Car Company as the new name . Bankruptcy followed in 1918 .

The William Small Company from Indianapolis , Indiana , which had previously sold Monroe vehicles, took over the property rights. The Pontiac plant was ceded to General Motors . Louis Chevrolet was involved as an engineer in the development and revision of the vehicles. In August 1920 the company went bankrupt . Production obviously continued.

In January 1922, the Indianapolis-based Fletcher American National Bank acquired the remains.

In March 1923 the Strattan Motors Corporation became new owners. Frank E. Strattan managed the company. He continued production and also developed a cheaper vehicle, which he later made in his Strattan Motors Corporation .

In June 1923, Frederick Barrows bought everything from Premier Motors and founded Monroe Motors Inc. Production ended that same year.

A total of over 14,000 vehicles were built.

vehicles

All vehicles had a four-cylinder engine . First they came from the Mason-Neilan Regulator Company and Sterling . From 1918 the engines were manufactured in-house.

In 1915 the model M-2 appeared . The engine developed 14 hp. The chassis had a wheelbase of 244 cm . The only structure was a roadster with two seats.

In 1916 the engine power was increased to 15 hp. A runabout with two seats was added.

In 1917 this model became the Model M-3 . In addition to the two-seat roadster and a Cloverleaf roadster, there was a five-seat sedan . The M-4 model had a 35 horsepower engine. The wheelbase was 292 cm. Superstructures were a five-seater touring car and a Cloverleaf roadster.

From 1918 to 1919 there was the model M-6 . It corresponded to the larger of the two previous year's models. There was a choice of a touring car with five seats, a roadster with two seats and a sedan with five seats.

1920 from the Model S . The dates didn't change. The limousine was omitted.

There were no changes in 1921.

In 1922 the five-seater sedan was back on offer. There was also a three-seater coupe .

The coupé was discontinued in 1923.

motor race

Louis Chevrolet and Cornelius Van Ranst made seven racing cars. Four were named Monroe and three Frontenac. The connection to Frontenac Motor Corporation is unclear. Gaston Chevrolet won the Indianapolis 500 in 1920 . Two sources say it was a Monroe.

Model overview

year model cylinder Power ( hp ) Wheelbase (cm) construction
1915 Model M-2 4th 14th 244 Roadster 2-seater
1916 Model M-2 4th 15th 244 Roadster 2-seater, Runabout 2-seater
1917 Model M-3 4th 15th 244 Roadster 2-seater, Cloverleaf Roadster, sedan 5-seater
1917 Model M-4 4th 35 292 5-seater touring car, Cloverleaf Roadster
1918-1919 Model M-6 4th 35 292 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster, 5-seater sedan
1920 Model S 4th 35 292 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster
1921 Model S 4th 35 292 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster
1922 Model S 4th 35 292 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster, 3-seater coupé, 5-seater sedan
1923 Model S 4th 35 292 5-seater touring car, 2-seater roadster, 5-seater sedan

Production numbers

year Production number
1915 1,123
1916 2,238
1917 3,644
1918 1,318
1919 1,636
1920 2,653
1921 1,215
1922 289
1923 228
total 14,344

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. 992-993 (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. 1056-1057 (English).

Web links

Commons : Monroe  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g h i 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. 992-993 (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. 1056-1057 (English).
  3. ↑ Karla A. Rosenbusch: Automobile Quarterly Volume 33, Issue 3.