Whatever Happened To Chalmers Motor Company?

Few people recognize the Chalmers Motor Company today, but it once helped define early luxury automotive racing. Founded by Hugh Chalmers—who first made his fortune as vice-president of National Cash Register—Chalmers moved from cash registers to cars in Detroit with the Thomas-Detroit Company and the E.R. Thomas Motor Company of Buffalo. After Thomas sought out, Chalmers bought his stake and renamed the business Chalmers-Detroit in July 1908. The company’s Model 30, featuring a 226-cubic-inch four-cylinder engine, helped win the 2,851-mile Glidden Tour in 1910, after Chalmers achieved full ownership. Plans for 60,000 annual sales faltered: dealerships were flooded by 1916, demand lagged, and sales collapsed. A Maxwell Motor Company bailout followed, but post–World War I conditions and declining designs and pricing meant the last Chalmers vehicles were built in 1923.