The
Dort was an automobile built by the Dort Motor Car
Company of Flint Michigan from
1915
-
1924.
Dort used
Lycoming
built engines to power their vehicles.
Dort Motor Car
traced its history back to its founding as the Flint
Road Cart Company in 1884 by
William Crapo Durant
and
Josiah Dallas Dort,
who sold wagons, built by local suppliers for $8 a
piece. In
1900,
the company which by now was making 50,000 annually
wagons, carts and carriages changed to Durant Dort
Carriage Company.
Durant and
Dort’s largest competitor in the area was Flint
Wagon Works, which acquired
Buick
Motors in
1903.
Durant and Dort wanted to begin automobile
production, and Billy Durant acquired
Chevrolet
with Dort’s backing.
Dort was a
Director and Vice President of
Chevrolet
in
1912;
in
1913
Dort stepped down and by
1915
he and Durant cut their business ties.
Dort continued
manufacturing cars until 1924, when the mounting
price of development and distribution of the
vehicles made it impossible to compete in the
automotive markets of the
1920s.
Josiah Dallas Dort’s death in
1923
sealed the fate of Dort Motors