Gray-Dort 25 SM, 1923-1924, Luxury Sedan

Topical stamp collectors will be able to add to their "car" collections when a six-stamp souvenir sheet is issued featuring Canadian automobiles on August 23, 1993. It is the first of a four-year series on historic vehicles, highlighting transportation's major role in Canada's development. The most significant transportation revolution on this century has been the mass-production automobile. The supply and demand for newer and faster vehicles never ceases as Canadian continue to make innovative contributions to the fascinating story of the automobile. Vehicles powered by internal combustion engines began to appear in Europe in the 1880s as dozen of inventors strove to develop the automobile. The enthusiasm for self-powered vehicles in Canada was initially hampered by streets better suited to carriages and sleighs, and trains were available to avoid bumpy and slow treks over poor roads. As the advantage became clearer - no fixed itineraries, no time schedules, and the more autos were used - the better the road became, car sales boomed. While Ford has become a household name, other early Canadian manufacturers made equally important contributions but did not survive. From 1916 to 1924, Gray-Dort Motors of Chatham, Ontario produced 26,000 mid-priced and luxury cars. After several successful years of supplying for other manufacturers, in 1915 the Grays decided to enter the business themselves and signed an agreement with the Dort Motor and Car Company of Flint, Michigan, to build the American car in Canada. At the outset, the Canadian factory merely assembled Dorts and attached a Gray-Dort nameplate. Soon, however, Canadian content had increased to 60% and the cars had a solid reputation and offered good quality at a competitive price. Gray-Dort went out of production after the American parent company folded in 1923. This souvenir sheet was created by using images of the six cars, drawn and illustrated on computer. All of the line, tonal and full-colour drawings were produced in Aldus Freehand. The typography and image assembly was done in Quarkxpress.