Back to back: Cadillac or Cartercar?

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Beforehand it’s hard to tell which motor manufacturer will become a winner and which one won’t. Some just hit the right spot at the right time, or so it seems, becoming a hit, is produced in hundreds of thousands and will last for decades. This while others just fade away months or years after their instigators came up with their ideas. Ideas that may have been just as good, perhaps even better, but didn’t have the luck of proper funding, of finding the right space to build or sell them, didn’t get noticed by the right people or just didn’t have the perseverance needed to establish a car manufacture.

The duo from our little comparison may be a good example of this model. After all, anyone here will know Cadillac. Although the last two decades seem to have been a rather bumpy ride for the luxury US car builder, Cadillac, formed in 1902, lasts until this day. And the car seen here is a great example of the marque at its prime ‘At the forefront of technological advances’, introducing an electrical system for starting, ignition and lighting in 1912.

That year, this particular car was born as a Cadillac Model 30 Tourer with 286.3 cubic inch four-cylinder engine. It features the then state-of-the-art electrical system fully intact as originally designed and in exact working order. Having said that, with just four owners from when it was new, this is quite a special car, having never been taken apart and more important, never restored. Only the hood has been replaced (in 1940) “and the car might have had some paintwork done prior to the War, but most areas on the car still wear the original paint.” Even the 1912 exhaust whistle is still there! See it for sale here.

How different did things go for another motor manufacturer at the same time elsewhere in Michigan? The Cartercar Model 5A Touring offered in the same sale was made by Cartercar of Pontiac in 1913. It also came with a 40hp four-cylinder engine and, like the Caddy, also features an electric starter (which was an option for Cartercar at the time). But it was also advertised as ‘The Car of a Thousand Speeds’ thanks to its automatic friction drive system. This system allows the driver to select any ratio rather than having fixed gear positions, which seems pretty interesting to us. According to the auctioneer, it is believed that under 50 Cartercars exist today, most known to be in poor condition. This one was fully restored some years ago, still running and driving ‘amazingly well!’. See it advertised here.

Question is: would you go for the marque that everyone knows or could you be tempted to opt for something much more obscure but possibly least as exciting?

Words Jeroen Booij. Photographs courtesy SG Auctions.

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