Chassis Number: 12578
This Detroit Electric Model 82 has a 4.3-horspower, 84-volt DC motor, direct shaft drive, solid front and live rear axles with semi-elliptical leaf spring suspension, and rear-wheel mechanical drum brakes. The wheelbase is 100 inches.
Over the course of its 30-year lifespan, the Anderson Electric Car Company, builders of the Detroit Electric, produced more electric automobiles than any other American passenger-car manufacturer. Somewhat in vain, they tried to keep up with modern fashions, and by 1920 had updated their charmingly upright bodies with a dummy front hood and a false radiator, resembling that of a Franklin or Fiat. The bodies were built at H&M Body Corporation of Racine, WI.
This particular car is one of the few of these later Detroit Electrics known to survive, and it is perhaps the only one with a known ownership history since new. Originally built as serial number 12678, it was reassigned its current number, 12578, shortly before being shipped to the Gray-Dort Motor Company, a short distance over the Detroit River in the southwestern Ontario railroad and agricultural town of Chatham, Ontario, CAN.
One of a believed 95 Detroit Electric Model 82s made, and one of very few that remain extant, this car boasts a fascinating and well-known ownership history that is second to none, as well as a high-quality restoration for one of the foremost electric-car collectors.
