- Quality Detroit-built assembled car
- Continental Red Seal engine
- One of 1,718 built in 1919
Historians have recorded no fewer than nine different American cars
named "Columbia." Perhaps best remembered are the electric and
gasoline cars built by Colonel Albert Pope in Hartford,
Connecticut, from 1897 to 1913. The car offered here is not one of
those, or even related. It was built by Columbia Motors Company in
Detroit, Michigan. Columbia Motors was formed in 1916, when J.G.
Bayerline, Walter L. Day, and T.S. Bollinger left the King Motor
Car Company and joined with auto industry veteran William E.
Metzger, one of the founders of E-M-F, and A.T. O'Connor, formerly
of Olds Motor Works. The quintet set about building an assembled
car with engines from Continental, Timken axles, Warner
transmissions, and the like.
The Columbia Six debuted early in 1917 and had the distinction of
being perhaps the first car to use thermostatically controlled
radiator shutters to maintain engine temperature. Priced below
$2,000, the Columbia Six sold relatively well for a startup auto
company. With production of 6,000 cars in 1923, the partners became
optimistic and bought the neighboring Liberty Motor Car Company.
However, within the year, both firms were no more.
The Merrick Auto Museum acquired this Columbia Six in 2013. Painted
maroon and cream with a tan lined canvas top, it has a Continental
L-head six with Auto-Lite electrics and Borg & Beck clutch. The
seats are upholstered in brown pleated leather. The Stewart
speedometer is unusual in that it incorporates and inclinometer
showing the steepness of grades. The radiator has a Boyce winged
MotoMeter reading the coolant temperature.
Columbia Motors production for 1919 totaled just 1,718 cars. The
new owner of this car will probably never meet another on the
road.To view this car and others currently consigned to this
auction, please visit the RM website at
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/hf19.
