Little Motorcar Co. of Flint Mich. 1912 ? Maybe ?

[TOM H. S.]

My father's father was an amateur photographer in his day and he took a picture of himself and his future wife sitting on the doorsill of this small car along with her sister which I think is a 4 cylinder LITTLE MOTORCAR CO OF FLINT MICH. Can someone please verify this as it also looks like a Model T Ford too. Thank-you

[modela28]

Yes, I think you are correct.  The radiator / hood shape as well as the fenders, runningboards and cowl match the pictures below for a 1912 Little.  One of the most obvious clues to me is the bracket that extends from the windshield filler board the to the windshield bracket on the  cowl.

[dustycrusty]

https://sloanlongway.org/1912-little-motor-car/         

 

  Little automobiles were built in 1912-'13 to take on Ford's surprisingly brisk-selling Model "T". Manufacturer Billy Durant (creator of, and recently fired from G.M.) realized rather quickly that it was a poor name to attract the  male consumers (compared to the less-than-subtle advertising of competitors like, say,  Apperson with their "Big Dick" line of speedsters) so he re-badged it after a race car driver named Louis Chevrolet and tried again...

[zdillinger]

The Little was an amazing financial sleight of hand trick by Billy Durant. After he got fired from General Motors, he started Little Motor Car Company, Mason Motor Company, and Chevrolet Motor Car Company all within three months of each other in 1911. Basically he spun up a $1 million company with physical resources from the Durant-Dort wagon company, vastly overvalued stock, and less than $40,000 in actual cash, producing about 3,000 cars. For a while Little was the only company of this new Durant conglomerate that actually made money, and Little profits subsidized Chevrolet when the first Chevrolets flopped miserably. In 1913, Chevrolet was doing well enough with the 490 and Durant simply moved Chevrolet production to Flint into the Little building. Little as a marque ceased to exist. Basically the same thing happened with the Mason, by the way. Chevrolet Motor Car Company bought all the outstanding shares of the Mason Motor Company and it too ceased to exist.