OK, we all know about the huge multinational conglomerates like GM, Ford and Stellantis, along with Toyota, Honda and the like that manufacturer cars in Canada, but there aren’t any truly homegrown Canadian native-brand car makers, right? Well, in a word, wrong.
Visionary Canadian inventors were building cars before Henry Ford, many didn’t survive, but some are still around.
Article by Doug Switzer Moto/ology Publisher
Canada has several indigenous manufacturers and over the past century or so, there have been many more. I remember as a young man someone in the industry saying there were at present over 26 active manufacturers of automobile, trucks, buses and other vehicles in Canada. Several of them were healthy producers of racing and competition cars that had enjoyed considerable international successes.
Canada’s first self-propelled “automobile” was a steam carriage designed and built by Henry Seth Taylor and demonstrated at the 1867 Stanstead Fall Fair in Stanstead, Quebec. His “Steam Buggy” was considered by many to be a mere novelty and although it garnered some mild interest, it was more famous for crashing into a creek on its demonstration run.
The first gasoline internal combustion car that was completely designed and built in Canada was the Fossmobile, bult by George Foote Foss in 1897. It was a rudimentary conveyance that looked more like a buckboard wagon and although grand production plans were made, they never came to fruition. As a matter of fact, a spot-on replica of Canada’s first car has been built by Legendary Motorcars in Ontario and toured for the 125th anniversary of the ICE car in Canada. It was donated by the Foss Family to the Canadian Automotive Museum in Oshawa, Ontario where it is now on display. As mentioned, the Fossmobile never entered production, but it did have some interesting features like the first front-mounted engine and a harbinger “column shift” where the transmission gear selector was attached to the steering tiller.
The first car manufactured in Canada in any numbers (albeit very small numbers) was the Redpath Messenger, another somewhat rudimentary conveyance with a carriage-style wooden body, a one-cylinder engine with a two-speed gearbox, a shaft drive system and an industry first– a tilt steering wheel! The car was the result of a collaboration between William Redpath and Andrew Reid and were originally built in their facilities in Kitchener, Ontario before financial and production problems led to them being taken over by Alfred Robinson, the supplier of their wooden bodies. Robinson moved production to his factory in Toronto but only completed three cars before the factory burnt down, ending their valiant efforts.
Tudhope
Another early manufacturer that started out as a maker of wagons was the Tudhope Company of Orillia, Ontario. Founded by William Tudhope in the mid 1870’s, his very successful outfit made wagons and carriages through the latter half of the 19th century, and he set up a distribution network across Canada. This national sales system was very successful, and he was touted as the leading manufacturer of carriages and wagons in Canada and perhaps the British Empire.
With the inclusion of his sons in the activities of the firm, the Tudhope company graduated to building automobiles and made a deal with the W.H. McIntyre Company of Indiana for engines and some mechanical components. The first Tudhope McIntyre automobile hit the streets in 19O8. The cars were sold across Canada and enjoyed considerable success until the original factory burned down later in 1909.
Undeterred, the family built a new. modern factory to build both carriages and automobiles and William Tudhope’s son, James struck a deal to use the Everitt designs for engines and mechanicals from the Metzger Motorcar Company in the U.S. However, to maintain control on things, he arranged to make all the components himself under licence at his factory in Canada. Since the introduction of the Tudhope Everitt in 1911, several models of Tudhope motorcars were manufactured over the following years and they enjoyed a reputation for quality and reliability. In 1913, the company was bought out by a group of investors led by Frank Fisher, with the cars now being known as Fishers. WWI saw the final demise of the Tudhope Fisher company’s car manufacturing although they soldiered on making bodies for other car brands and a few carriages until they ultimately ceased activities in the late 1920s. It should be pointed out that this Fisher body company in Canada was not connected in any way with the huge Fisher Body company that became part of General Motors in the United States. The Canadian company was a completely separate operation and was not associated with the U.S. company.
Another interesting sidenote worth mentioning is the successful OTACO manufacturing company that was founded by the Tudhopes as an offshoot of their operations. OTACO (From Orillia Tudhope Anderson Company) manufactured cast stoves, heaters, tractors, agricultural and logging machinery and many other items, including popular die-cast and stamped steel models known as Minnitoys. During WWII, OTACO made the landing gear for the DeHavilland Mosquito aircraft being built by DeHavilland Canada in Downsview, Ontario. The company went through a series of owners until the final owners, Redlaw Industries shut down the foundry operations in 1990.
McKay Automobiles
The Nova Scotia Carriage Company had two of its managing employees, brothers Daniel and John McKay undertake production of an automobile in 1910. Their cars were well-received, but due to financial, economic and other factors the company ended auto and carriage production in 1918 effectively being put out of business.
Gray-Dort
Gray-Dort started out as a maker of carriages under the name of William Gray & Sons Company Ltd. They made automobile bodies in Walkerville, Ontario for Ford before securing rights to the Dort automobile designed in the U.S. and beginning production of the Gray-Dort in Chatham, Canada. They carried on, producing some 26,000 cars until their dissolution in the mid 1920s.
McLaughlin
Another early contender from Canada was the McLaughlin Motor Car Company established by R.S. McLaughlin in Oshawa, Ontario in 1907. They built some very posh automobiles that secured a great reputation for quality and reliability. This company also grew out of a carriage manufacturer and under the senior McLaughlin’s son, Sam, later built cars with Buick drivetrains until finally merging with U.S. auto entrepreneur Billy Durant’s newly formed Chevrolet to become General Motors of Canada. Sam McLaughlin sat on the board for GM until his death at age 100 in 1972.
Aurora Cars
When looking at Canadian auto manufacturers in more modern times, we have to mention Aurora Cars Limited. This fascinating manufacturer was established in the early 1980s in Aurora, Ontario Canada, a suburb just north of Toronto by some industrious enthusiasts with a passion to build what they deemed would be the ultimate tribute to the much-admired Shelby Cobra. Entering production in 1981, the Aurora GSX roadster (they never used the word “Cobra” anywhere on their car or in their literature) was a true thing of beauty and patterned off an original Shelby 289 Cobra. The cars were only available as factory-produced, finished vehicles and were never offered as kits. In fact, the Aurora GSX was also subjected to the rigorous EPA and crash safety tests of the day and passed earning it a rating that allowed it to be sold as compliant in all 50 U.S. states and Aurora became the only solely owned Canadian car company to be included in the North American Auto Pact. The cars featured superb glass fibre bodies made to exacting standards by the esteemed C&C Yacht company. They had an advanced space-frame chassis and four-wheel independent suspension with four-wheel disc brakes. The rear brakes were mounted inboard to reduce unsprung weight. Power was provided by Ford 5 litre engines, some prepared by noted tuners Holman & Moody in the U.S. The wheels were gorgeous Dayton chromed wire affairs, and the interiors featured English Wilton carpets, Italian leather and genuine English Smiths instruments. With most of the mechanical components being supplied by Ford, and the excellent build quality, a deal was struck whereby the Auroras would be sold in Ford dealerships throughout North America and were warrantied along with other Ford models.
With over 450 man-hours of labour put into each hand-built car, they were expensive and had a limited market. However, they were very fast. Weighing in at around 2100 lbs. with more than ample horsepower, the cars were capable of 0 to 60 times well under 5 seconds and top speeds of around 170 miles per hour. For a time, it was deemed North America’s fastest production car. This drew the ire of General Motors who was not happy at having the Corvette upstaged. It’s been inferred that there were backroom shenanigans orchestrated by GM that ultimately led to the corporate undoing and ultimate bankruptcy of Aurora Cars Limited, but nothing was ever proven. It is thought that just under 200 of these cars were built and some survive today in private collections.
Bricklin (General Vehicle)
No review of Canadian automobile manufacturers would be worth its salt if it didn’t cover Malcolm Bricklin’s star-crossed effort at building the ultimate safety sportscar in New Brunswick, Canada.
Malcolm Bricklin was a U.S. businessman that made his first fortune trading in hardware and plumbing supplies in Florida. He branched out into a successful career importing early Subarus from Japan into the United States and established Subaru of America. along with his skills at importing, Bricklin had a dream of building a somewhat exotic “safety vehicle” and seeking financial backing he found just what he was looking for in the provincial government of New Brunswick in Canada.
In the early 1970s, New Brunswick was experiencing a dire economic situation with unemployment running at close to 25% and very little industry to help matters. Seeing Bricklin’s plan to build plants and cars in the province looked like a marvelous way to turn things around and generate some interest as well through the car’s striking features and press presence.
Bricklin’s plan was bold, the new car would have many features that were well ahead of its time. With the emphasis being on safety, the car was designed to withstand crash impacts that were far ahead of what was required at the time and in some cases, contemplated.
The company Malcom Bricklin set up was called General Vehicle and the car was named the SV1, SV standing for Safety Vehicle. The plan was to build 1000 cars a month.
Other advanced features of the car were the colour-impregnated acrylic and glass fibre body panels, impact-absorbing deformable bumpers, a stout roll cage structure and of course, the trendy gull-wing doors.
The cars were initially powered by engines and drivetrains from American Motors in the U.S. but with AMC having their own difficulties, they soon ran into supply problems and made a switch to Ford 351 “Windsor” V8s. Initial reviews of the car were actually quite positive with Car & Driver magazine stating the performance of the SV1 could pose a threat to Chevrolet’s Corvette. The safety features were considered a bonus and despite the Bricklin’s initial quality-control issues and high price, the gull-wing doors were just plain cool.
Early on in the production run, however, things began to unravel. The supply problems with AMC were just the start. The initial target selling price of the cars was to be $4000, but this crept to over $6000 then almost $8000 and by 1975 it was almost $10,000! Production numbers were supposed to be 1000 cars per month, but they were lucky to be doing half that and in early 1975 no cars were produced at all. Build quality and supply issues plagued the production line and despite a 400-strong dealer network with over 40,000 backorders the government money started to dry up. Premier Richard Hatfield’s province was already in deeper than they bargained for and with production nowhere near what was needed, they pulled the plug.
After building almost 3000 cars in two years, General Vehicle was forced into bankruptcy and the grand Bricklin experiment was over.
These are just a few of the many car manufacturers in Canada that have come and gone over the years and without going into a multi-volume tome on the subject, we’ll saw off on our histories for now.
With that said, following is a partial list of some more Canadian manufacturers including some from more recent times…
AMW/ADLER Metal Works
BOMBARDIER RECREATIONAL PRODUCTS
CAMPAGNA MOTORS Manufacturer of the T-REX Trike.
CANADIAN ELECTRIC VEHICLES Manufacturer of the MIGHT-E TRUCK
CONQUEST
Manufacturers of armoured vehicles
CHINOOK RACING CARS
Fejer Bros.
EDISON MOTORS
Electric truck manufacturer.
FELINO CARS
FERRET
Makers of Formula race cars
GREEN POWER
Manufacturer of electric buses
HTT AUTOMOBILE
Manufacturer of the PLÉTHORE hypercar
ALTONA, KELLY, TSR and PSR
Formula Vee race cars
LION ELECTRIC
Manufacturer of Electric trucks and buses
MAGNA INTERNATIONAL
Major international manufacturer of automobiles and parts for several companies
MAGNUM RACE CARS
MANIC MOTORS
MULTIMATIC
Manufacturer of limited production racing cars including their own endurance racing prototype cars and multiple projects for Ford, Aston Martin, Porsche and others.
NEW FLYER
Bus manufacturer
ROCHEL
Manufacturer of armoured vehicles
SADLER
Manufacturer of racing cars
STEBRO
Manufacturer of auto accessories and race cars
TAV TERRADYNE
Manufacturer of armoured vehicles
TIMMIS
Manufacturer of the Timmis Ford V8 replica of the 1934 Ford
There are no doubt more Canadian auto makers that we’ve not mentioned, and there’s no slight intended. If our readers can come up with some more, we’d be only too happy to hear about them! Perhaps, in future issues we’ll do some more in-depth profiles on some of these fascinating manufacturers. Keep watching future issues of Moto/ology!