Chelsea

Chelsea was the automobile marque of the Chelsea Manufacturing Company formed in Newark, New Jersey, in 1914. Spring production centered on one two-seat side-by-side torpedo roadster. Advertising called it a cyclecar, but the vehicle did not satisfy the usual narrow/light cyclecar formula: its wheelbase was 2,590 mm and track 1,420 mm, and it used a water-cooled four-cylinder gasoline engine rated 12 hp, a conventional multi-speed gearbox and propeller-shaft drive to the rear axle. The engine's displacement, supplier, cylinder dimensions and valve arrangement are not preserved. The company announced ambitions for 500 cars annually, but that was a plan rather than evidence of production. A Chelsea was entered for a reliability competition in September 1914, showing that at least one operable car existed; the business ended later that year. No chassis numbers, output total, price, dimensions beyond wheelbase/track, weight, speed, transmission ratios, braking or suspension specifications survive. One Cyclecar Roadster row therefore accounts for the complete recoverable range. This Newark company is explicitly unrelated to the earlier Chelsea Manufacturing Company of Chelsea, Michigan, founded by A. R. and Fred Welch and transformed into Welch Motor Car Company; shared corporate wording does not establish lineage. It is also distinct from British Chelsea cars, neighborhoods and unrelated manufacturers.

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