1912 Speedwell Roadster

1907 to 1914 Speedwell Motor Car Company, Dayton, Ohio.

The Speedwell was a large, conventional tourer designed at first by Gilbert Loomis who had made cars under his own name in Westfield, Massachusetts from 1901 to 1904. The first models had 40hp 4 or 60hp 6 cylinder Rutenber engines on wheelbase of 116 and 132 inches with roadster, tourer or limousine bodies. Only 25 were sold in 1907, so the company decided to concentrate on a one model policy and to make their own engines. These were of 50hp and the cars had a wheelbase of 120 inches. They made up for a single chassis by offering six body styles in 1909, and ten in 1911. These included roadsters, tourers, a limousine and a Duck Boat. Also that year they included a 132 inch wheelbase again, and from 1913 offered an all 6 cylinder range which included cars with poppet valves and Mead sleeve-valve engines. The latter were not a success, and when the inventor Cyrus Mead was killed in a car crash the Speedwell directors had no one to turn to for improvements. In 1914 they suffered a disastrous flood at the factory which delayed deliveries for a long time, and the business never recovered. About 4000 Speedwell cars were made as well as a number of trucks.