Rapid Transformation

Albert North and Harry Hamilton relocated their Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works to larger premises in 1899 to boost their output of carriages, wagons, and springs. Within a few years they were also assembling trucks for the Rapid Motor Vehicle Co. and soon took over the entire operation. By 1907, the partners built an even bigger factory nearby and became the largest producer of commercial motorized vehicles in the world. Billy Durant of General Motors bought the company in 1909. The Rapid truck soon became the GMC truck, and the making of trucks in Pontiac continued until 2009, a run lasting more than one-hundred years. No more than 40 of the first Pontiac cars were ever built.

Pontiac, Michigan · United States