Historic Car Brands

The Summit car was produced by Sydney firm, Kelly’s Motors Ltd, from 1923 until 1925. Design and assembly was directed by William Kelly, with backing from Sir Hugh Denison, businessman and proprietor of the Sydney Sun Newspaper. However, the Kelly-Denison partnership pre-dated the Summit launch by several years.

Summit featured in a five-stamp, historic car release by the Australian Postal Commission in 1984

Kelly’s and Denison’s business partnership dates back to 1910 and the two men may have met through horse racing, in which both had a keen interest. (Denison won the Melbourne Cup with his horse Poseidon in 1906.)

After driving a taxi himself, Kelly launched the Suburban Taxi Cab Company, with Denison’s backing and then purchased Elliott Motors, NSW Chevrolet agents, in 1916.

However, following pressure from Chevrolet to accept excess floor stock during the post-WWI economic downturn, the company was sold and William Kelly took up the position of sales manager for Acme Springs Limited. 

The F C Acme Floating Spring Syndicate was headed by Christian Fredriksen, who had observed the unsuitability of imported-vehicle suspensions in Australian conditions and had patented the Acme six-spring suspension design. 

Three sets of cantilevered leaf springs on each side of the car were connected together so that road shocks were distributed across the chassis, making for a smoother ride on rough roads.

In 1921, Kelly and Fredriksen went to England and America with an Australian Six car fitted with the Acme spring set-up, but there was little interest from the northern hemisphere. The only plus from the trip was William Kelly’s insight into how 1920s car makers integrated in-house and bought-in componentry.

Acme suspension remained an option on the Australian-made Lincoln Six, but when that marque supplemented the Acme system with a four-spring design of its own in 1922, the writing was on the wall for the Acme setup.

1923 advertisement – The Australian Motorist

Kelly’s and Dennison’s Summit car brand was to be the answer, with the Acme suspension as standard equipment, along with a then wish-list of inclusions: eight-day clock, interior lighting, cigar lighter, sun shield, wind deflectors and nickel plated bumpers. A radio was added in 1924 and is believed to be the first such offering on any new car in the world.

The Summit was an assembled car, using components imported from America: 112-inch-wheelbase Gardner chassis; Lycoming four-cylinder, 21hp side-valve engine; Zenith carburettor; Brown-Lipe three-speed and reverse transmission and spiral-bevel drive axle. 

Summit Roadster – Australian Motorlife Museum

Press reviews were favourable, as the Ballarat Star, 26th January, 1924 reported:

We take the pleasure of introducing to your notice the Summit car. An advertisement in this issue will give you an idea of its fine appearance sturdy construction and complete equipment.

The Summit factory is in Sydney, and you will be interested to know what brought about its beginning and great care that has been exercised to ensure the car being reliable in work, comfortable in use, complete in appointments, but withal moderate in price.

The manufacturers of the car are Kelly’s Motors, Ltd, of Sydney. Mr W T Kelly for many years controlled one of the largest car importing houses in New South Wales. His experience thus gained convinced him that, however good the im-ported cars may be, there were many points that could be improved upon to satisfy the requirements of Australian roads and conditions. 

He attempted to get cars from abroad with the alterations in design that he considered necessary for Australia, but failed. He then decided to build the car himself in Australia.

He was fully determined to turn out a machine of the highest quality, embodying all the improvements that his experience showed him to be necessary for Australian conditions and he decided to name it the Summit.

Knowing the strenuous work imposed on the mechanical parts by Australian conditions, Mr. Kelly spent over two years examining factories throughout America and Europe before making his final selections.

The working parts of the Summit are drawn from manufacturers whose products have been used and recognised for perfection and reliability throughout the entire world for many years, and all parts are standardised.

The springing, however, was a point to which Mr Kelly devoted careful attention. Imported car were, in his experienced opinion, lamentably inadequate for Australia’s road conditions, especially outback. The coming into being of the Australian invented Acme spring suspension solved this difficulty. 

No description can properly convey the perfection of these wonderful springs; it is only by riding in a Summit car that you can fully grasp their marvellous efficiency, for with them there can be no recoil or shock.

The bodies are built at the Summit factory and the beauty of design, comfort, and top quality material and construction throughout are in keeping with the excellence of the rest of the car.

The equipment is very complete and the user’s comfort is carefully studied.

Its working parts are made by the world’s best makers, its design is specially Australian, its appearance creates a feeling, of pride in the breast of any owner, its equipment includes everything, required for either protection or comfort at no extra cost, and its price is extremely low for such a high-grade product.

Above all, its springing is so perfect that, besides the great comfort that absence from road shocks gives its passengers, the same absence from road shocks gives exceptional tire mileage and reduces repair bills and upkeep generally.

You should certainly give this Australian assembled car your careful consideration.

Another press report was done by The Sun Newspaper, on 22nd March, 1924:

Summit Tourer – National Motor Museum

Summit itself handled Sydney and Melbourne sales, while May’s Motors was appointed agents in Adelaide.

Priced at £475 (A$950) the soft-top Summit, with a choice of five-seat tourer or two-seat roadster bodywork, was expensive and the Doctor’s Coupe and Hard Top models were £535 (A$1070). All versions were around £150 (A$300) more than their conventionally-suspended competitors, so their main appeal was to buyers who needed the more rugged Summit suspension.

As a result, town-oriented buyers stayed away in their hundreds, so sales were poor and only 500 had been assembled, when, in early 1925, Denison appointed a receiver. In November 1925 Kelly was declared bankrupt, but, by the end of 1925, he was running Kelly’s Motor Auctions at Sydney’s Circular Quay.

Five Summit cars are known to have survived into the 21st century and the model held in the National Motor Museum was the subject of a comprehensive restoration at the Museum in 1988. Another museum exhibit – A Summit Roadster – is at the Australian Motorlife Museum near Wollongong, south of Sydney.

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