This is a picture of a rare 1912 Flanders auto, taken at the Automotive Hall Of Fame, Dearborn, MI.
This is the first one I ever saw, in three years only 31,514 were built.
LR
Fuji W1, SPM
The Flanders Automobile Company was a short-lived US-American automobile manufacturer which operated in Detroit, Michigan, from 1910 to 1913.
It was the brain child of Walter E. Flanders (1871-1923), who formerly held a position as General Factory Manager at the Ford Motor Company's Piquette avenue plant. There he co-invented the ingenious manufacturing methods which made the Model T Ford so famous.
In 1908, Flanders left the Ford Motor Company in disagreement and co-founded, together with Bernard F. Everitt and William Metzger, the E-M-F Automobile Company in Detroit. This car based on Flander's experience with the model T Ford, the first mass-produced car. At the beginning, there were to offerings, model "30" and model "20". The "30", although prone to many faults, became a huge success but failed to outsell the model T Ford. Although second in its best year, it was beaten by the model T with a wide margin.
In this situation, Flanders convinced the Studebaker brothers, who held substantial stock in E-M-F and were its sole distributor in the USA, to buy the defunct factory of the DeLux Motor Company in Detroit, and to build there a new challenger to Ford. So, E-M-F dropped the "20", concentrating on their model "30". The new Flanders, appropriately named model "20", was patterned after this smaller E-M-F.
In 1912, however, Studebaker made the next logical step and took over E-M-F and Flanders completely, selling both now as Studebakers. A total of 31'514 cars was built in the three years of its existence. This was a good result, anyway...