1922 Dort 5 Passenger Sedan (9420101410)

1918 Dort Sedan and Sedanet (6113179245)

The Dort Motor Car Company of Flint, Michigan, built automobiles from 1915 to 1924. In 1886, William Crapo "Billy" Durant and Josiah Dallas ("Dallas") Dort, as equal partners, established the Flint Road-Cart Company, later named the

Durant-Dort Carriage Company Durant-Dort Carriage Company was a manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint, Michigan. Founded in 1886, by 1900 it was the largest carriage manufacturer in the country. This very successful business made the partners rich men and it became the ...

. By 1900 it was the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in the United States. In 1914, Durant sold out of the business and departed, amicably, to pursue his existing interests in General Motors. Dallas Dort and the remaining stockholders took over the carriage business, incorporated the Dort Motor Car Company, and used some of the same plant to manufacture Dort cars. Dort's chief engineer, the Swiss mechanic

Louis Chevrolet Louis-Joseph Chevrolet (; December 25, 1878 – June 6, 1941) was a Swiss-American race car driver, mechanic and entrepreneur who co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company in 1911. Early life Louis-Joseph Chevrolet was born on December 25, 18 ...

, together with noted French designer Étienne Planche, designed the company's product. Two models were launched in 1915 and 1916: both touring cars (i.e., open cars without a fixed roof) with a 4-cylinder, 17-horsepower (12.7-kilowatt) Lycombe engine. They quickly acquired a reputation for being reliable. Demand became so strong – 9,000 cars in its first year – that the company opened an extra factory to the south of Flint, adjacent to

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Windsor Windsor may refer to: Places Australia * Windsor, New South Wales ** Municipality of Windsor, a former local government area * Windsor, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane, Queensland **Shire of Windsor, a former local government authority around Wi ...

, in the Canadian province of Ontario. In 1917, three more models were introduced: the ''Cloverleaf'' roadster and two sedan (closed-in) models. Dort's cars came at a premium: whereas Ford Model T cars were selling for $440 in 1915, the Dort sedan sold in 1917 at $1,065; the

convertible A convertible or cabriolet () is a passenger car that can be driven with or without a roof in place. The methods of retracting and storing the roof vary among eras and manufacturers. A convertible car's design allows an open-air driving expe ...

sedan at $815; the five-place open tourer at $695, and the roadster at $695. A coupé followed in 1918. In the company's peak year, 1920, production was 30,000 cars. Subsequently, more luxurious models, including the ''Harvard'' and ''Yale'', were introduced with design features derived from a Rolls-Royce model, and a six-cylinder car was produced in 1923. Dort had become the country's 13th largest automobile producer by 1920. The company built new large factory on the east end of Flint; however, the post-

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

recession took hold at the same time. The company started bleeding cash and attempted to seek capital or a merger partner, neither of which eventuated; staff numbers were cut and expenses were curtailed. By 1924, J. Dallas Dort was ready to retire, and liquidated the company. The new factory building was sold to

AC Spark Plug ACDelco is an American automotive parts brand owned by General Motors (GM). Factory parts for vehicles manufactured by GM are consolidated under the ACDelco brand, which also offers aftermarket parts for non-GM vehicles. Over its long history it ...

to manufacture carburetor air filters and fuel pumps. Dort died while playing golf on May 17, 1925, aged 64. File:Durant Dort Carriage Co Office.jpg, Water Street offices and showroom in 1977 before restoration File:DurantDortCarriageCoFactoryFlintMI.JPG, The Water Street factory inherited from Durant-Dort File:Dortcar.jpg, 1918 Dort demonstrates its durability File:Sloan Museum at Courtland Center December 2018 21 (1922 Dort Model 19-T).jpg, 1922 Dort Model 19-T at the

Sloan Museum The Sloan Museum of Discovery is a nonprofit, public hands-on and interactive discovery museum located within the Flint Cultural Center in Flint, Michigan. The museum has four interactive primary galleries, including a hands-on earth scienc ...

File:South Australian Railways -- Dort motor inspection car at Islington workshops, ca 1924.jpg, Eleven Dort tourers were exported to be motor inspection cars on the

South Australian Railways South Australian Railways (SAR) was the statutory corporation through which the Government of South Australia built and operated railways in South Australia from 1854 until March 1978, when its non-urban railways were incorporated into Aust ...

Notes

References

See also