Frontenac (automobile)
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Two separate automobile manufactures have produced cars under the Frontenac name brand.
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[edit] Dominion Motors
Durant Motors Company of New York, New York first used the Frontenac marque in 1931 on vehicles built and sold in Canada. The Canadian Durant firm was acquired by a group of Canadian investors and renamed Dominion Motors Limited. The firm continued building Durant and Frontenac cars. The first Frontenac, for 1931, was model 6-18, a 109" wheelbase car based on the Durant 619.
After Durant Motors went under in 1932, Dominion Motors switched to De Vaux for a source of car designs. The 1932 Frontenac range consisted of two sixes, 6-70 (109" wheelbase), an update of the 1931 6-18, and the 6-85 (114" wheelbase) based on the De Vaux 6-80.
And just as Durant got into trouble, so did De Vaux. The firm was taken over by its major creditor, Continental Motors, in late 1932. Continental decided to continue car production under the Continental name and Dominion Motors decided to base their cars on Continental vehicles. Just as the 1933 Continental line consisted of three models, so did Frontenac.
The last Frontenac models were the C-400, a 101½" wheelbase four cyinder car based on the Continental Beacon and the C-600, based on the 107" wheelbase, six cylinder Continental Flyer. Frontenac imported the 114" wheelbase Continental Ace, putting a Frontenac nameplate on the grille and selling them as the Frontenac Ace.
Although Continental continued into 1934, Frontenac called it quits in 1933. Dominion Motors also built Reo cars and trucks for the Canadian market. Reo continued to use the plant into the early 1950's and in 1950 and 1951 Kaiser used part of the plant to assemble Kaiser sedans for the Canadian market.
[edit] Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited
In 1960 Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited introduced the Frontenac. It was designed to give Mercury-Meteor dealers a compact to sell, since the upcoming Comet was originally intended to be an Edsel, which was sold by Ford-Monarch dealers. Produced for the 1960 model year only, the Frontenac was essentially the 1960 Ford Falcon with its own unique grille, tail lights and external trim including red maple leaf insignias. Despite strong sales (5% of Ford's total Canadian output) the Frontenac was discontinued and replaced by the Mercury Comet for 1961. A small number of mildly restyled 1961 Frontenacs were built and sent on a cross-Canada endurance run in the summer of 1960 which received media coverage, but a 1961 model was never offered for sale.
[edit] Resources
Zavitz, Perry R. Canadian Cars, 1946-1984, Bookman Publishing, Baltimore, Maryland, 1985, ISBN 0-934780-43-9
Canadian Automotive Information Handbook, Canadian Automotive Information Service, Oakville, Ontario : 1939 edition
