1910 Paige-Detroit Model B

The Paige Detroit Motor Company built automobiles from December 1909 to 1927, selling approximately 800 vehicles in its first year. The 'Paige Detroit' eventually became 'Paige,' and total production is said to have amounted to around 400,000 cars, with peak sales of 43,556 in 1923.

The Paige Detroit company was formed by Frederick Osgood Paige and Harry Mulford Jewett. F. O. Paige had been promoting a small two-passenger runabout, designed by Andrew Bachle, which used an unusual 2.2-liter three-cylinder, two-stroke engine. Mr. Jewett was a wealthy coal merchant who saw the commercial potential of Paige's runabout. The first Paige Detroit vehicles were the 25-horsepower Challenger Open Roadster, priced at a competitive $800. Company advertisements declared, '... the most perfect three-stroke two-cycle engine ever built for an automobile. Gives the same delightful, continuous, driving power as the highest grade 'Six' of the four-cycle type – only half the number of cylinders – over a hundred less parts.'

Fred Paige left the company in 1910 after seeing his car and supposedly declaring, 'It's rotten. A piece of junk!' Jewett took over as president and shut down the assembly line to reorganize the engineering department to build a more conventional model. The company would offer both the three- and four-cylinder models for a time, and it continued to market the three-cylinder for marine use thereafter. By 1911, 'Detroit' was dropped from the company's name, and it was thereafter known simply as 'Paige.'

Production steadily increased over the years and by 1916, Paige was solely building six-cylinder models. The Paige Speedster was built to display the company's sporting prowess, and it would be the prototype and test bed for the soon-to-be-released Paige Daytona built to compete head-on with the legendary Stutz Bearcats and Mercer Raceabout. The automobiles produced by Paige became renowned for their large and powerful engines along with sporty body styles. In 1921 a stock Paige Daytona was the first production car to breach the 100mph barrier at Daytona Beach. Ralph Mulford drove the Paige 6-66 Speedster at Daytona Beach, Florida on January 21, capturing the Straightaway Stock Chassis record at 102.83mph in .35.01 seconds.

Following a few years of losses, Jewett sold Paige to Graham Motors in 1927, which became known as Graham Paige.

by Daniel Vaughan | Oct 2022