Historic Car Brands
Schacht
From 1904 until 1913 the Schacht Manufacturing Company – later Schacht Motor Car Company – produced more than 8000 ‘high-wheelers’ and cars in Cincinnati, Ohio.
The Schacht Manufacturing Company was started by William and Gustav Schacht in the late 1800s, to produce horse-drawn buggies. Like many such companies, Schacht experimented with petrol-powered buggies in the early 1900s and produced its first ‘high-wheeler’ in 1904.
Like many such conversion designs it retained the narrow, large-diameter wheels of the company’s horse-drawn carriages, but, unlike nearly all of the early designs, the Schacht sported a front-mounted brass coolant radiator and a proper steering wheel, not a tiller.
The Schacht was a powered by a twin-cylinder, 10hp ‘boxer’ engine that was mounted centrally and was hand-crank-started from the rear of the vehicle.
Suspension of front and rear axles was by means of longitudinally-mounted, inverted-leaf springs that were bolted to the chassis rails at their mid-points and slipper-mounted to the front and rear axles at their extremities. Axle location was by means of radius rods.
Drive sprockets projected outboard from the under-seat engine and drove the rear axle by means of chains and sprockets.
Advertised as: “The simplest, most practical, efficient and economical car made”, the high-wheelers were priced at US$650 (US$22,748 in 2024 dollars) and were popular.
In 1905 until 1907, a larger, four-cylinder, 40hp touring car was added to the range and aimed at the luxury end of the market, with a price tag of US$2800-$3200 (US$111,988 in 2024). However, it was not a success, so from 1908 to 1911 only twin-cylinder cars were produced.
The engine grew more powerful, culminating in a twin-cylinder engine, rated at 24bhp, by 1910.
However, in 1908 General Motors had been established and Henry Ford launched his Model T. These companies’ cars had the volume advantage of mass production and much lower pricing, so the writing was on the wall for many small-volume car producers, including Schacht.
1910 Schacht Model R – RM Sotheby’s
After 1910 Schacht adopted then-conventional designs, with a four-cylinder Model AA mid-priced at US$1385 (US$46,739 in 2024). Schacht marketed a “Three Purpose Car” runabout that was convertible to a family car or delivery wagon.
The twin-cylinder engine was front-mounted, with a transverse crankshaft and flywheel.
Schacht entered the 1912 Indianapolis 500, with a 60bhp Wisconsin-engine-powered race car, driven by Bill Endicott. Endicott in the Schacht #18 placed fifth.
1912 Bill Endicott in Schacht #18 – Indianapolis 500
The company again entered the Indianapolis 500, with John Jenkins driving Schacht #18 in 1913, powered by a Schacht engine. However, the car retired with a broken crankshaft.
The company had become nearly bankrupt trying to compete with the Big Boys on the national stage, so a sensible decision was made to switch entirely to truck production, instead of making cars and trucks. By 1913 the Schacht car had a four-cylinder, 50-horsepower engine, fully-floating rear axle and up to four tones gross mass rating, so the foundations were in place.
The name of the new company was the G A Schacht Motor Truck Company and sales were good. In 1927, a decision to expand production and marketing nearly bankrupted the company, until the R K LeBlond Machine Tool Company stepped in with financial help.
The official name became the LeBlond-Schacht Truck Company although the new trucks wore only the Schacht name, as did the company’s letterhead. Schacht ceased regular production in 1938 and closed its doors in 1940.
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