(first posted 11/11/2011) What car from 1917 would you buy to keep for a hundred years? Two hundred?
Monte Shelton, Portland race driver (Can Am, F5000, IMSA Camel GT, and Trans Am, he’s raced the Daytona 24-hour 11 times) and longtime Jaguar dealer, regularly drives this 1917 Detroit Electric Model 64 Brougham.
One spring afternoon Lily and I were walking the dogs, and parked there under a shady tree were Monte and his wife Susanne, just watching the world go by in their elegant sitting room on wheels. He generously took us for a little spin around the neighborhood. The quiet and smoothness of this 94 year old car is uncanny. It felt strangely futuristic.
A brougham was a light, four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage. It had an enclosed body with two doors, like the rear section of a coach; it sat two, sometimes with an extra pair of fold-away seats in the front corners. As you can see in this ad, the Detroit Electric Model 64 is a proper Brougham. Two sit in the forward-facing seat, driver on the left side, while a third faces them in a corner seat. This is a whole other way for a car to be, a path not taken.
Electrics were expensive but reliable, clean and easy for anyone to drive, when crank starters were breaking arms. Popular among wealthy women, like the ladies in the ad, and with doctors and other professionals needing dependable transportation. Even Henry Ford’s wife drove a Detroit Electric for years.
My crude interior photo shows the driver’s view forward, tiller at hand. Down there between the front seats is the instrumentation, voltmeter and ammeter. A spacious, airy interior with excellent vision in all directions. Those corners have the first curved glass in a production automobile.
Here’s a proper photo of another car. The steering and drive tillers tilt up for easy access and down for driving. There’s a small pedal on the floor for the brakes. Only eight distinct speeds are available, from a drum with contacts that switch battery taps and motor windings. No electronic controls in 1917.
The drive train couldn’t be simpler. A brushed DC motor is mounted under the floor, just ahead of the differential and rear axle. No transmission is necessary. Electric motors have full torque from zero on up, that’s why locomotives use them.
An 84 volt pack runs the Model 62, seven batteries front and seven rear. Here’s this car at a show, its modern lead-acid batteries being charged by the original GE charger that’s normally in Monte’s garage. Besides batteries, tires, motor brushes and contact cleaning, there’s nothing to wear out on this car. Monte did give the car a full restoration of interior and finish, nearly a century after it was built.
Thomas Edison put a major effort into better batteries. Here he is with a 1914 Model 47, fitted out with his nickel-iron batteries, available exclusively in Detroit Electrics. Nickel-iron batteries are lighter and charge faster than lead-acid, but they were much more expensive, and didn’t work so well in cold weather.
The Detroit Electric’s top speed is about 30, and it’ll go 60 to 80 miles on a charge. Monte drives it around the city, down to his dealership, and to the occasional public event. It’s a real car, easily driven and easily maintained, 94 years after it was new. It’s surely good for another 94 years, and fuel will never be a problem.
Bonus Extra: Curbside Classic Book Review
Not only did Monte Shelton give me a ride in his electric car, he lent me a sharp new mystery thriller, The Detroit Electric Scheme, by D. E. Johnson. Fiction for sure, based on the real D-E and real people, in early-1900’s Detroit when it was a wild boom town. The son of Detroit Electric’s owner finds his ex-girlfriend’s new fiance freshly murdered in the factory’s hydraulic roof press, and he’s been framed for the crime. He drops out of sight, and with help from his buddy Edsel Ford, just back from college, they try to find the real killer. We also get a good idea of life in the early car business, their battle with arch-rival Baker for the electric car range record, and a visit to the 1912 Detroit Auto Show, where Kettering demonstrates the first electric starter in a Cadillac.
It was a fun read and I recommend it to all CCers. Thanks, Monte!
Wow! the funny thing is, this car has a better range than those horrid little G-wiz things that are clogging up London traffic. I never really liked electric cars because they’ve always been cheap and plasticky. However, this one is something I can get into. Its like a dear old aunt’s Victorian parlour, lacking only a few doilies and the tea service. I love the curved side glass, and my father would love the idea that he could watch the road AND make eye contact with passengers while driving without the risk of veering off the road.
Thanks for reminding me about that curved glass, Brian, it was the first curved glass in any car. I added that little point to the article.
Yes on the better range…but zero safety equipment of any kind. I think I prefer what the Volt does. Less pure electric range but plenty of air bags, seat belts, highway driveable, excellent brakes, A/C, etc. And, while peiple have been working on batteries for a long time we really are just getting started on the learning curve. Many predict much, much better batteries in the near future. Hope they are right.
I can’t help but wonder what it would cost to make & sell “replicas” of these. You can use reproduction Model T parts for the fenders/wheels/suspension/fittings. There are lots of suppliers for electric motors, controllers & batteries so matching or exceeding the original performance would be easy. The bodies could even be done in fiberglass with a steel frame to simplify coachbuilding.
I could just imagine this as a commuter car for those who don’t need to get on the highway. or a delightful alternative to the golf cart for those retirement communities in FL that ban cars.
What a good idea! It’s been on my mind since you posted this.
Done right with fine craftsmanship and upholstery, electric broughams like these would also be popular as luxury taxis and sightseeing cars in places like Manhattan. This brougham is built like a fine display case, and surely that was part of the appeal, to dress up and show off around town.
Yes, using reproduction Model T parts and off-the-shelf EV parts they would be straightforward to build. The cabin looks more like cabinet making to me. For production you could run off panels with a CNC router. They could be licensed as Neighborhood EVs, legal on public streets with up to 35 mph limits in most places, like those GEM cars you see around apartment complexes and resorts. Only this would be far more attractive.
Sounds like a great opportunity!
It is amazing that something this old can still be somewhat functional. Obviously, the owner has to stay off of the faster roads, and you wouldn’t want to get hit in it, but the fact that it still gets its owner from point A to point B without the drama usually associated with antique iron – this is saying something.
What little I know about these old electrics was that they were dead-end engineering oddities. It is nice to get a modern perspective on them, and how their capabilities are not all that different from electrics today. These seem pretty advanced to me.
Now, who will find us a steamer?
Out of curiosity, was Detroit Electric the first automobile to use the “Brougham” moniker? Earliest reference I can find online are to a 1914 Detroit Electric Brougham and a 1916 Cadillac Brougham.
Apparently the Cadillac had 4 doors and could set 7 people, so even at that time the meaning of Brougham was being stretched relative to a Brougham style carriage.
“Brougham” was a generic body type, like sedan or coupe. The home page at http://www.earlyelectric.com/ shows a 1905 Woods Brougham. Detroit Electric sold broughams from its start in 1907.
The Wikipedia page on Brougham (car body) says “In the 1930s, a brougham was a two-door or four-door sedan, especially one electrically driven.”
Thanks for asking, it’s interesting to dig for stuff like this.
It has a padded vinyl top (well, faux-leather of some sort), wire wheels, and you could get red velour button-tufted seats. That’s Broughamy enough for me!
It even has coach lamps! Broughaminess supreme.
Detroit Electric Brougham Supreme!
As a side note, when I was growing up in the ’70s and saw the word “brougham” on any car, having never heard it said out loud before I thought it was pronounced “brewing ham” !!!!! It wasn’t until years later that I discovered how it was supposed to be said.
I used to live in Brougham Place in Adelaide and the way people would spell it or say it!
What a killer find! Nice writeup and photos, too. I’ve loved the Detroit Electric since I first saw a 1910 Opera Coupe at age 8. It was similar to the model T “phone booth” in basic shape but much more ornate, with gorgeous sculpted, carved wood details inside and out. I think the body was actually made of wood on the 1910 Opera Coupe, though the fenders were steel. The glass on that car had the most beautiful etching or engraving of a floral pattern around the window borders. Similar velvet interior, but built for two. Just incredibly graceful and elegant.
The battery technology issue is unfortunate, and I doubt we’ll see significantly better batteries anytime soon — if ever. About every four to six weeks there’s an article on some tech news site about exciting new battery tech but it never seems to pan out.
A century of that doesn’t mean we should give up, but it doesn’t look particularly hopeful. Probably doesn’t help that so many scientists are making a living by publishing papers claiming to be “this close to a big breakthrough”, whether they really are or not.
The combination of energy density, portability, and stability we get from fossil fuels is apparently a rather unique phenomenon. I’ll be very happy if someone proves me wrong though.
I’d love an electric car (silent torque, no fumes), but living in a rural area as I do it would have to be capable of recharging in an hour or two and have a range of at least 200 miles in order to not be merely a toy. Probably doable, but only in an ultralight vehicle which I wouldn’t be willing to suffer for the kind of long drives we have.
Everything old is new again.
What an amazing car electric cars havent come very far in 100 years in range or recharge time.
No comparison between cars then and cars now. This 1917 D-E is wonderful, but you sure wouldn’t want to get hit in it, or spend longer than short trips in it, especially on a summer day.
It definitely seems that as far as what’s actually available they’ve come farther in the 9 years since this comment was made than in the 90 before that.
I would drive to work in it
A car like that would last me days without charging, but 30 is about 20 mph too slow for this town…
Thanks for the great article and pictures, Mike! I especially like your description and photos of the seating, control arrangements and tech details.
A Detroit Electric appeared in episode #149 of the Perry Mason TV series “The Case of the Borrowed Baby” (1st aired 14 Apr 1962). The car in “Borrowed Baby” did not have wrap-around windows and the front end of the car was not shown in the cable broadcast version I’ve seen so far – I suspect that it had the squared-off front-end like VEVA’s Model 31: http://www.veva.bc.ca/detroit/index.php .
I came across your article just as I was finishing off an entry for the “Borrowed Baby” episode on the wiki Perry Mason site. The Episode Page is at http://www.perrymasontvseries.com/wiki/index.php/EpisodePages/Show149 . Your text and photos of the seating and control arrangements are a perfect reference item, so I hope that you don’t mind that I’ve linked to your article (almost at the bottom under “Comments”, where it reads “here is a 1917 Model 62”). Also, Perry Mason fans are likely to be interested in picking up a copy of “The Detroit Electric Scheme”!
It would be fun to know where that car appearing in Perry Mason in 1962 is today. Thanks again for the great article, Mike!
whether you are male or female one must be dressed as an edwardian lady to drive this car ,gloves ,bustle,corset,picture hat.got it,lol
One for Emily and Florence! Because they are ladies…..
Hello all,
we recently purchased an Brougham 1917 car and having it carefully restored.
At time and prior restorations have coated the chassis #.
Does anyone know where it might be so we can recover the chassis # ?
Cherrs.
Nicholas.
Wasn’t Grandma Duck’s car one of these?
Range and speed limitations notwithstanding, it is pretty remarkable how well this translates to modern around-town use.
Back in the day before aerodynamics had been invented. Maybe the air was thinner in 1917.
With a top speed of 30 mph, I think a telephone booth shape is just as efficient as a Prius shape.
If wasn’t shaped like a phone booth, it might have hit 45 mph.
That’s a great find. Wouldn’t take as much as you think to make it modern. I figure the motor was greatly understressed. One 28v motor that I have experience with would go with 48 plus without damage if kept cool. Of course, the aerodynamics are pretty much hopeless but it’s a classic and a half.
An odd footnote to the history of Detroit Electrics from the Autoweek of 12/13/07….
“That the company would not quit produced a strange development after its 1929 bankruptcy. “Alfred Dunk bought all the assets,” said Bill Mackey.
“He still had people ordering cars, so he went out and bought up all the old Detroit Electrics that he could find, brought them back to the factory, chopped the tops six inches, put on new fenders, new wheels, new bumpers, and shipped them out as brand-new 1932, 1933, 1934 Detroit Electrics.”
Go figure….
These actually made a lot of sense during the Great Depression, so that’s not entirely surprising.
I wonder if all post-bankruptcy Detroit Electrics were really just re-bodied older models like that article suggests… they were around until 1939 (!) but just barely. Apparently very few of the later cars have survived and there’s hardly any info out there on them.
One of these updated models featured in a recent Hemmings Classic Car.
I suppose but I can’t think of another instance when another car company did something like this.
In 1950 Powell used rebuilt 1941 Plymouth chassis pulled from junk yards as the basis for their pickup and station wagon.
Everything old IS new again, and this time they’re paying attention to aerodynamics
http://cleantechnica.com/2015/01/10/detroit-electric-sp01-finalizes-look-will-built/
I was trying to think, what does this car have in common with the Disco-Brougham Revival of the 1970s? Four wheels… rear wheel drive… hmm… not much else.
But there’s one thing that actually is very similar between them: part of the appeal in each case was driving something that seemed like a posh living room on wheels. Detroit Electric was just far more literal about it. That must be the true meaning of “brougham” in automotive context!
In one of Jay Leno’s Baker videos, he mentions driving up into the hills to look at Christmas lights in his 1909 Brougham and I was really fascinated by the thought. Imagine that? Looking at the world outside lit-up all around through those enormous windows, creeping along slowly but effortlessly and silently in an Edwardian parlour? That must be incredible.
Sean, I could not agree more with that last paragraph. It must be awesome. I have admired these cars for a long time, but have only seen one in the flesh. Never having had the pleasure of sitting in one.
I thought Monte lived in the West Hills, not Alameda. His store and covered used car area are like a free car show for any Burnside walker.
In that picture with the car charger. Is there any chance of getting a close up of the charger? Restoring one and missing that center badge?
Thanks in advance
I have an axle with two wood wheels and tires marked Detroit Anderson Carriage Co..does anyone have a value on these?! Thanks so much!
Stick some Tesla Model S guts in one and take it to the strip.
Unless you have to have the retro-nostalgia of the Detroit Electric, there’s the Low-Speed Vehicle (LSV) Polaris GEM car:
https://gem.polaris.com/en-us/
Of course, to get one with doors and a battery equivalent to the Detroit, it will run you ~$20k. For that kind of money, seems like a used Leaf would be a better choice.
“Tall enough for milady to stand up in”—almost—might have been a sales slogan ?
And so we come full circle: many of todays’—or tomorrow’s—electric city-mobiles have the same nearly-symmetrical profile as this 1917 Detroit Electric . . .
We are restoring a 1917 Model 63 Detroit Electric at the WAAAM museum in Hood River, OR. A lot of the work is being done in the workshop on the museum floor. You can walk by and get a close up look at the progress. It will be along time before our Model 63 looks as good as Monte’s but we’ll be giving museum visitors rides in our DE by this summer.
Come out to Hood River and see the Detroit Electric along with our other planes and antique cars.