Production chronology1911
Sourced production or model lifecycle range used by the main catalog timeline.
curated ↗1 year
← Motorette (Kelsey)
Motorette (Kelsey) / Model record
Motorette (Kelsey)Model M
Production1911
Recorded originUnited States
ClassTwo-seat three-wheel runabout
Power10 hp
Opening production Motorette, launched at $385—roughly half the price of a Ford Model T. Air-cooled prototypes overheated, prompting thermosiphon water cooling and a radiator behind the seat. A surviving car confirms two-speed planetary transmission, right-hand tiller steering, pressed-steel frame, front full-elliptic and rear quarter-elliptic springs, chain drive and rear-wheel brake. Sources conflict on representative twin displacement (approximately 57 versus 72.2 cu in), so no single capacity is forced across the range.
Chronology ledger
Dates with their meaning intact
Record depth — Documented
How this is measured → This record contains useful sourced evidence, but it does not yet meet the reference-ready standard. Still needed: attributed imagery. Fields we cannot source stay empty rather than guessed.