Marmon Motor Car Company
Indianapolis, IN
1902-1933
Howard C. Marmon was chief engineer at his family's company, The Nordyke & Marmon Company of Indianapolis. The firm was a leading maker of flour mill processing machinery. In the middle of 1902, Howard completed his first prototype gasoline powered motor car. The car had a remarkable design. It was powered by an OHV, air cooled, two cylinder engine. The three speed, sliding gear transmission was supplied power through a multiple disk clutch in the flywheel. The engine and transmission was mounted in a sub frame with single three point suspension. Marmon’s second car design was finished in 1904. This car was powered by a V4 engine, coupled to a three speed planetary transmission. While designing the second model Marmon attempted an independent front suspension, but decided against the design. He built six cars in 1904 and sold them mostly to his family and friends.
By the following year, 1905, Marmon completed another prototype, this one with a V6 engine. He created another prototype in 1906 with a V8 engine on a 128 inch wheelbase frame. The 1906 prototype was displayed at the New York auto show. The Model M-37 had a $5,000 price tag and didn’t get much attention.
ABOVE: Description of a 1913 Marmon. From: The Horseless Age. January 5, 1913.
From The Marmon News, (a company produced magazine). September 1917
Armed with what he learned from the 1906 New York auto show, Harold shifted his focus back to the V4 cars he had started with. He set about developing the cars by using as much aluminum in their construction as he could. This included the engine, transmission and body work. While he had stepped up car production he was still losing money on the venture. The flour mill machinery arm of the company sold more equipment in 1904 than any other firm in the world. The main business was supporting the side venture.
In 1908 a model with a water cooled engine was introduced and all subsequent Marmon cars had water cooled engines. In 1909, Marmon introduced the Model 32. In 1911 the company made a race version of the Model 32, called the Wasp. The race car was driven by Ray Harroun in the first Indianapolis 500. The car won the race. In addition to the race department the company also made a cross country run in 1916 and completed the task in a record 6 days.
In 1924 the firm got a new president named George Williams. Despite the growing reputation of the Marmon car, sales were still low. The company produced 2,597 cars in 1924 and 4,500 cars in 1925. Williams was convinced that the era of high priced, low production car companies was over. In 1926 the company sold the flour mill business to Allis-Chalmers. After the sale and reorganization, the Marmon Motor Car Company was born.
Sales continued to go up with the company now focusing solely on a cheap V4 car design. Williams hired former Lincoln chief engineer Thomas J. Litle in 1929 to design and produce an even cheaper car. The Roosevelt debuted late in 1929. The car had a 24 horsepower V8 and sold for a rock bottom price of $995.
ABOVE: A recreation of the 1909 Indianapolis 500 winning “Marmon Wasp”.
Marmon production information. From: The Horseless Age May 1, 1918
Sales in 1929 topped 22,323 up from 14,770 in 1928. The stock market crash of 1929 hit the company very hard. This is noticeable in sales figures:
1931 - 5,684
1930 - 12,369
1932 - 1,365
1933 - 86
While the demise of Marmon is a sad one, the company went out on a high note. They dropped production of low priced cars in 1933 and concentrated on a new, final design. All 86 cars produced by Marmon in 1933 had a 500 cubic inch V16 engine that produced 200 horsepower and was able to easily make 100 MPH.
In May of 1933 the Marmon Motor Car Company went into receivership and was gone entirely within 6 months. Howard Marmon’s brother, Walter, was never very keen on the car business, but went along with everything because it was more interesting than making flour mill machinery. After the Marmon Company failed, Howard went on to design a four wheel drive truck with Arthur Herring. Trucks were produced with the Marmon-Herring name until the early 1960s.
By: Chris Breeden
ABOVE: A 1918 Special Marmon Coupe. From: The Detroit Public Library Digital Collections
A drawing of Marmon’s Straight-Eight engine. From: The Detroit Public Library Digital Collections
