Flanders Motor Company
Named for Walter Flanders, formerly a production manager for Ford, these cars were built from 1910-1912. To illustrate how crazy the automobile business was in the early days, in 1908, Flanders was the F in the E-M-F cars which were distributed by the wagon-building Studebaker Brothers.
In 1910, Flanders organized the Flanders Mfg. Co. and produced the Flanders Model 20.
In 1911, the company introduced the Flanders Electric. By the end of 1912, Studebaker had taken over both E-M-F and Flanders Mfg. Co. and all these cars became Studebakers.
In 1913, Flanders organized a "new" Flanders Motor Company and produced a Flanders Six but only a handful were produced and Walter Flanders went to work for the United States Motor Company which was trying to emulate General Motors. Flanders insisted the company buy out his company and scrap every weak company in the organization.
In the end, Flanders scrapped even his own car and was left with just one car, the Maxwell. In 1925, Maxwell morphed into the Chrysler Corporation.Specification4 cylinder, water cooled engine20 horsepower102° wheelbase.
October 10, 2016
I just met John Flanders at the Flanders Motorcycle Company.in Pasadena CA. The company made Flanders motorcycles and his brother Bruce has two of them. He showed me this 1912 Flanders convertible built by his father Walter who was Henry Ford's production manager. He is in the Automotive Hall of Fame. Studebaker eventually bought out the Flanders Motor Company in 1913. John's youngest brother Paul is the announcer for the USA Motorcycle Racing Speedway in Industry CA.
