Car that started it all at GM Canada

McLaughlin Motor Car, which was later rolled into Oshawa auto giant, celebrates centenary

Nov 17, 2007

Special to the Star

The automotive world was considerably different 100 years ago: horses were more common than automobiles, some cars were still just motorized buggies, and popular models included REO and Maxwell.

That year, a new Canadian company also came into being, when McLaughlin started up in Oshawa.

Although General Motors of Canada will celebrate its official centenary in 2008, the company's roots date back a century next week. On Nov. 20, 1907, the McLaughlin Motor Car Co. was incorporated – the automaker would become GM of Canada.

McLaughlin originally planned to produce a car of its own, but when that fell through, it turned to Buick. It built its first car, the McLaughlin-Buick Model F, in December 1907. GM owns the only complete one known to exist, which was painstakingly restored over five years, beginning in 1989.

"One of the head engineers in GM, Ted Robertson, wanted to start up the McLaughlin history, and he knew I was into old cars and offered me the job one day," says Boyd Wood, a retired automotive technician at GM's Experimental Engineering Department who researched the car. "From the numbers we came up with and certain things we saw, we feel it's one of the first ones built."

Under the guidance of Stew Low, GM's director of public relations, Wood began the enormous task of making the Model F as historically correct as possible. "I don't think there's a more authentic and researched car in Canada than that McLaughlin," he says.

Originating near Bowmanville and later moving to Oshawa, McLaughlin started out making axe handles and, in 1867, filled an order for two sleighs. Sam McLaughlin, a son of the founder, worked with the company as it grew to become Canada's largest carriage maker. But while his father preferred working with horses, McLaughlin was intrigued with horsepower.

The Buick Model F was in production in Flint, Mich., when McLaughlin visited company owner William Durant, who would later create GM. McLaughlin bought a 1906 Model F in Toronto and decided it was the car he wanted to build, but unable to reach a deal with Durant, he hired an engineer to develop an original design.

The story goes that the car, called the Model A, was ready for production when the engineer became ill and McLaughlin, unable to build the new car without him, approached Durant again and agreed on terms.

Some historians believe McLaughlin feared his design would fail and invented the story to save face, but either way, it was a sound decision.

It was common for early Canadian automakers to build versions of existing American models, saving themselves the cost and pitfalls of designing a car from scratch, but most failed when the U.S. companies went under; Buick's success ensured McLaughlin's stability.

The McLaughlin-Buick was almost identical to the American version, but with some luxury touches.

"The windshield frame is strictly Canadian, and it's an elaborate wooden one, going back to McLaughlin's carriage-building days," Wood says. "American cars only had a metal bar around the windshield. McLaughlin also lined the top on the underside, where the American Buick wasn't."

Wood's extensive research took him to Flint, where he photographed a Buick missing its upholstery – "The seats look the same, but when you take the upholstery off, you can see how they're constructed differently," he says – and to Utica, N.Y., where the company that built the radiator still had the original die for the Buick script. Sherry Classic Cars in Warsaw, Ont., which did the restoration, used the die to make a new brass rad shell.

Wood also scoured flea markets, where he found antique brass connectors for the battery.

"I went to Dunkirk, N.Y. (southwest of Buffalo) and found someone selling them," he says. "I called Sherry and they were just starting to make them, and I said don't bother, I've got the originals."

The huge five-seater touring car, finished in the dark wine shade exclusive to the Model F, contains a two-cylinder, 22-horsepower engine mounted under the seat, with a chain driving the rear wheels; the hood hides the fuel tank. The transmission, operated by foot pedals, has two forward speeds and one reverse. The car sold for $1,400 new; the top was an extra $100, the windshield $50.

It's believed McLaughlin built 154 Model Fs for 1908. That year, William Durant incorporated General Motors, bringing together formerly independent companies Buick and Oldsmobile, and in 1909 adding Cadillac and Oakland, which would become Pontiac. In 1908, he also bought 1,000 shares in McLaughlin.

Tossed out by GM's bankers in 1910, Durant started a new company with racing driver Louis Chevrolet, and by 1916, McLaughlin was building those, too.

Durant regained control of GM again in 1917, bringing Chevrolet under its banner a year later; in an odd twist of fate, McLaughlin built Chevrolets and Buicks together before GM did so in the U.S. Sam McLaughlin sold his company entirely to General Motors in 1918.

The Model F was bought in 1908 by a family from Sauble Falls, Ont.

"In 1937, Sam McLaughlin traded a new Chevrolet to them to get this car back," Wood says. "This is the car that started General Motors in Oshawa."

The McLaughlin-Buick has been in storage for six years, and will go on display at GM's head office in Oshawa. Low says the company hopes to be able to put it on permanent display at Parkwood, Sam McLaughlin's home in Oshawa, now maintained as a historic site.

Toronto Star