Lozier Motor Company
Plattsburgh, NY ~ 1905-1910
Detroit, MI ~ 1910-1918
The story of the cars that bear the name Lozier starts off in 1897, when George R. Burwell and John G. Perrin, employees of Henry Abrams Loziers Toledo, Ohio based bicycle works, got bored making bikes and decided on building cars instead. In 1898 the pair produced two prototypes: a steam car and a gasoline powered tricycle. Before they could go into production on the tricycle, Lozier sold his business, trike plans and all, to the American Bicycle Company
Mr. Lozier, finding himself in possession of $4 million after the deal was done, moved to Plattsburgh, New York and established the Lozier Motor Company. Its intention was to produce boats and boat engines. Burwell and Perrin went along with Lozier to New York to help in his new business, but they both still had ideas about making cars.
In 1901 the day-dreaming duo created another pair of prototype automobiles, again, a steamer and a gasoline powered car. After finally persuading the owner, Burwell and Perrin decided to make a gasoline powered car. Not just any gasoline powered car, but a very refined, very powerful, and very expensive car.
ABOVE: Lozier race cat at the 1909 Brighton Beach 24 hour race. Photo from the Detroit Public Library Digital Collections
Perrin returned after taking a wrecked Mercedes-Benz and pulling it apart and reverse engineering it, before repairing it and then returning it to the unsuspecting owner. When he got back he learned that Henry Abrams Lozier had died and the company now belonged to his son, Henry A. Lozier. The junior Lozier was fine with the plan to create a new automobile that would rival the Mercedes-Benz and other European made cars.
The company didn’t go into production right away, instead they began ordering European made engines and other car components from overseas and even some domestic parts. They were in the next stage of development. This was all building up to a U.S. produced car that would rival the best the world had to offer.
Perrin tracked all over the east coast of the U.S. touring car manufactures and garages. While doing this under the guise of friendliness, the owners figuring he was sniffing around for a job, Perrin amassed technical drawings, operation instructions, manufacturer abilities and countless other pieces of car construction data that, at the time, could only be obtained by running around and looking and asking.
In order to achieve this, in 1903, the company sent an engineer to Europe on an investigative trip to see how cars were being made there. Exactly what the engineer reported back is unknown to us here at Vinmotive, but the trip sparked an idea in the company. This flash caused Perrin to publicly leave the company in 1903, but this was only a cover. You see, Perin was still being paid by Lozier through Burwell. Perrin was engaging in some good old fashion industrial espionage.
ABOVE: Lozier AD from Life magazine. From: The Hathi Trust, Digital Library.
With Ralph Mulford as driver, no other car would break more 24 hour speed records than the Loziers of the day. In 1910, they won the Elgin road race, in 1911 the cars would win the Vanderbilt Cup and come in second at the Indianapolis 500. The Lozier was able to achieve these feats because it was well built, not because it was the fastest car. It also developed an early form of liquid brake cooling. The maker also employed aluminum in the construction of its bodies and in 1908 they introduced drive shafts and left behind chain drives.
Then, in 1907, Lozier went racing…
In 1905 the Lozier company introduced a car at the New York auto show. The car was said to be a “better Mercedes-Benz”. The company produced a total of 25 1905 Model B 4 cylinder 35 horsepower, 5 passenger touring cars in 1905. They followed up by making 56 cars in three different models, with 4 different body styles in 1906.
Production numbers at the New York plant were never very high, 600 cars a year was all the plant was able to produce and despite the high price the cars brought, the demand was always more. In 1910 Henry Lozier was approached by a group of people from Detroit about mass producing his car in Michigan to compete with the Packard. In a reorganization, Lozier production was moved to a large new factory in Detroit.
ABOVE: Lozier race car at the 2022 Chattanooga Motor Car Festival. Photo by: Chris Breeden
As so often happened with these early manufacturers, the old guard was quickly pushed out. Henry Lozier found himself gone by 1912. Burwell had retired a few years before and in one of the many shake ups, Perrin found himself wanting to go on with some of the other old company people and start a new venture, but he was still under contract for two more years.
In 1915 a new organization called the Associated Lozier Purchasers began buying Lozier stock and by mid-March had enough controlling stock to take the company over. They began slashing prices and undermining the factory and its product. The company went through several more restructurings and mergers and finally, in 1918, as the Lozier Motor Company they took a lease out on the former Standard Auto Truck Company plant and began making cars. A newspaper article claimed they were making 5 cars a day and had enough orders to last six more months. Six months later, when the plant lease came up for renewal, it was not extended and the Lozier car was gone.
The new board put Perrin to the task of designing a 4 cylinder car that would compete with the Cadillac that was being produced by Henry Leland. Perring did that, designing the type 84 that was marketed for $2,100. But, Cadillac shocked Automobile producing world when they released their totally secret V8 that was sold in the $2,000 price range.
ABOVE: Advertisement from Life magazine. From: The Hathi Trust Digital Library
By: Chris Breeden
