Saturday AACA car show . . .
Read MoreLike many early automakers, Mitchell started out building wagons before transitioning to automobile production. Henry Mitchell began building wagons in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1838. By 1854, Mitchell had moved to Racine, Wisconsin and started the Mitchell Wagon Works. By 1864, H. Mitchell and Company, where "company" refers to Mitchell's son-in-law William T. Lewis, was one of the largest manufacturers in the state.
Financial troubles kept initial production very low, (37 cars were completed in 1904). William Durant took control of the company in 1904 and began to turn things around. Production had spiked to 750 cars for 1905, and increased to 8,800 by 1908. Durant founded General Motors Corporation that same year and made Buick the first GM division.
Brothers James Ward Packard and William Dowd Packard built their first automobile under the name of the New York and Ohio Company in Warren, Ohio in 1899. A total of five cars were built that year, followed by 47 cars in 1900. By 1903, the company name had changed to the Packard Motor Car Company and moved to Detroit, Michigan.
This car, a Model 30, was introduced in 1907. The name Model 30 is a reference to the 30 hp produced by its 432 CID inline 4-cylinder engine. Even though it was an expensive car, (prices started at $4,200), it was a decent seller with 1,128 produced that first year.
The Model 30 was produced until 1912 with a total of 9,540 examples leaving the factory over the course of the model run. Also of note is the fact that the Model 30 was Packard's last 4-cylinder car, as the 74 hp 525 CID inline 6-cylinder would debut that same year.Harry C. Stutz founded the Ideal Motor Car Company, (which later became the Stutz Motor Car Company), in 1911. The first car he produced was a racing car that finished 11th in that year's Indianapolis 500. The "street" version of this racer, which was essentially a copy of the racer with added fenders and lights, went on sale as the Stutz Bearcat in 1912.