I attended an antique car auction 50 years ago in Brighton, MI.
With me was my wife Sylvia, and Sonny & Betty Chisholm.
Watching cars go through the auction ring, I was struck by the beauty of the most brass-laden vintage car I had ever seen. Watching the bidding and subsequent sale I said to Sonny- “that car was sold way too cheap.” The more I thought about it I said to Sonny- “want to become partners on that car if I can buy it?” “Ok,” he said so off I went to the payment department of the auction and standing in line was the buyer with his bidding paperwork in hand.
I approached him and said- “do you want to make a quick $500.00 cash right now and hand me the paperwork for the Cartercar?”
He immediately said “yes” and I went up and paid for the car.
We now owned a 1911 Cartercar.
Most of you will never have heard of such a vehicle. Byron J. Carter was born in Jackson, MI. in 1863. He worked at several automotive jobs as he knew cars were the coming thing. He produced his first car at a plant in Pontiac, MI. in 1905. Its unique feature was friction drive and a lavish coachwork body laden in beautiful brass. Friction drive was gearless. A flywheel on the engine provides the power and when one pushes the outside lever forward that centers another friction coated flywheel which engages and away you go. The further you push the lever, the faster you go ahead or pull the lever back and off you go in reverse. Speed would top out at around 35mph.
Byron Carter spotted a lady in a stalled Cadillac on the Bell Isle Bridge near Detroit one day and stopped to help. While cranking the car, the crank reversed breaking his jaw. Pneumonia set in and on April 6/08 Byron Carter died. Charles Kettering of GM’s AC-Delco division, along with Henry Leland, were so upset with the death of their friend Byron Carter at a young age that they went to work on developing the first electric starter which when produced first went on the 1911 Cadillac models. This helped put lady drivers behind the wheel more than any other auto invention. Billy Durant, now President of the recently formed General Motors Corporation was always on the lookout for automotive companies with different features. Maybe friction drive was the coming thing so on Oct. 6/09 bought out the Cartercar company from the shareholders.
He built a few Cartercars but sales were very slow so the car was discontinued in 1916 and the line turned to the production of the Oakland car.
I arranged for a truck to drive over to Michigan and got the car home. We needed storage space and I rented “Apple” Bill McGuire’s garage, behind Tim Hortons on Elgin Avenue for it.
The two of us with the help of our wives and John Bacardi would polish that brass to perfection for the shows we took it to. The highlight was taking first place over several beautiful cars at the CNE in Toronto.
Eventually we wanted to sell the car as its upkeep was constant. I knew a car dealer very involved with the Canadian Automotive Museum in Oshawa. A group came to see the car, offered some cash and a generous tax receipt and off the Cartercar went to its new home.
It still sits there in all its glory but not with the same brilliant brass shine.
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