It’s well known that Ford never produced a model designated as a “speedster.” Yet thousands of Model T speedsters were fabricated by shade-tree hotrodders in the first few decades of the twentieth century. Cutdowns or bodied – didn’t matter!
Some tinkerers even formed their own companies around their idea: a body kit, a suspension modification, a go-fast array of engine parts. Opportunity abounded in these early entrepreneurs, and the ready supply of used, cheap Model Ts provided the perfect platform on which they tinkered and experimented.
Following is a brief look at two companies that made bodies for the T. We will cover another pair in our next edition. Plus, we’ll look at some more later on down the road, as T speedsters and their people embody early twentieth century spirit!
Morton & Brett
Like many of the companies that offered parts and services for the burgeoning Model T speedster crowd, Morton & Brett just appeared on the scene in the mid- to-late nineteen-teens. No doubt that it started with Elvin Morton and Jack Brett tinkering away in somebody’s garage. And then, during one garage session, one of them said: “Hey, why don’t we sell some of this stuff?!”
As seen in period photos, likely early clients were Louis and Arthur Chevrolet’s Frontenac racing team, as well as John Craig of the Craig-Hunt Inc, a racing parts supplier. In 1920 M&B had a storefront at 811-815 23rd Street, Indianapolis, and by 1922, ads for their bodies appeared in national auto journals.
Morton & Brett Factory Store circa 1920.jpg
1923 ad for M&B. image courtesy Larry Sigworth collection
By 1923 M&B also had their own catalog of speed parts and body types that they either made or sold for street or track.
Ad from 1926 M&B speed parts catalog. image courtesy AACA Library
At some point in 1923 they either merged with or bought the rights to Jack Craig’s “Raceway” speedster body and made it part of the M&B lineup, renaming it the “Roadway.” Note that the Raceway body in the ad below resembles the Roadway body in the M&B ad above.
Craig Raceway ad. Why won’t that girl come down from the tree? image courtesy Horseless Carriage Foundation Library
A testament to M&B’s success was that several companies sold M&B-patented bodies under their own name in what was probably a franchise agreement. M&B had been producing bodies for at least a few years before they were awarded this patent.
Morton & Brett Design Patent 1920. U.S. Patent Office
Thus we see M&B bodies appear as Frontenac (Chevrolet Bothers), Laurel (associated with Robert Roof, the speed heads guy), Green Engineering, and several other, smaller companies in the 1920s.
Frontenac Catalog 1921. Image courtesy Larry Sigworth Collection
For instance, Fordspeed of New York City sold an M&B Speedway body under their name through the Montgomery Ward’s catalog. One example of this Fordspeed body outfitted the Shiloh Speedster of Fayetteville, Arkansas as featured in a previous post, “Everyman and the Model T Speedster.” Go check it out if you haven’t yet read it!
Montgomery Ward catalog 1921
M&B sold speed parts for Model T, Model A, Chevrolet track racers, and street speedsters well into the 1930s. Although they folded up their operation sometime during that decade, Morton & Brett had already laid the foundation of the speed parts industry, a multi-billion dollar industry that thrives in the United States to this day!
PACO
The Peoria Accessory Company was started in 1913 by Frank L. Mackemer. Mackemer’s company operated a retail front at 601-607 South Washington St, Peoria, IL, and sold parts for street and racing cars for the Ford Model T, making it one of the earliest known retailers for the infant speed car market.
In 1914 Mackemer adopted the brand name PACO and began making racing bodies. The first version (Model 21) had staggered seating to allow the driver extra elbow room, as well as curved cutaway on the passenger side for both occupants to use for entry/egress. The PACO had a unique look.
PACO ad in March 1916 Fordowner magazine. image courtesy AACA Library
Mackemer would apply for a patent on its staggered-seat design in 1916 and then revise it for a bench seat as well.
PACO body design patent with staggered seat. U.S. Patent Office
PACO body design patent with bench seat. U.S. Patent Office
Set back from the stock T body location by about six inches, the longer, louvered hood and taper tail gave the PACO “Speed King” a speedy look! Sans optional disc wheels or the external exhaust pipes, this speedster was priced at $165 F.O.B. Peoria.
PACO ad in Motor Age, Jan 24, 1918. All of this for only $165… plus options extra! image courtesy HCFI Library
A later version, the Model 22, would have slab sides and a chisel tail. It too had a unique look and was called the “Foreigner,” perhaps from a Peugeot-like appearance (Peugeot track racers were all the rage at this time). The Foreigner sold for $122.
Like Morton & Brett, PACO’s main facility was a speed parts supply house, with the car bodies made at PACO Manufacturing, initially located in Illinois, later to be relocated to Peoria. Later versions of the initial PACO models would make use of the Ford stock fenders, and a “Palster” was also produced in 1922.
The Great War was not kind to small companies, and PACO was no exception. Materials shortages halted production in 1917. The postwar depression no doubt hampered sales, of which there were no clear total numbers, and the panic of 1923 finally did it in. Bankruptcy. Adios, PACO mio!
1919 PACO Speedster. Image courtesy HCFI Library