Los Angeles herald., 1908-05-03
YEARS OF LABOR
ARE SUCCESSFUL
BUILDERS HONEST EFFORTS
AT LAST REWARDED
SQUARE DEALING HIS KEYNOTE
OF SUCCESS
Manufacturer of Durocar Still Holds
Customers Who Dealt with Him
In the Middle West
Long Ago

y in Southern California, he would need
~ to go no further than to the manager
and superintendent of construction,
George II. Shugars. Mr.. Shugars is
building a motor car that is like him.
self, honest and reliable in every way
and made up OF the choicest that is to
be had. A little of the history of Mr.
Shugars' connection with the automo-
bile business will show how he has
made a success of the Durocar and why
he is winning friends and customers to
himself so rapidly and binding them so
securely.
About fifteen years ago Mr.. Shugars
was In the carriage and bicycle busi-
ness in the middle west, and while his
competitors did a small business Shu-
gars began to start a bank account, for
when he got a customer he kept him
by the absolute fairness of his dealings.
At the same time r. E. Olds, inventor
of the Oldsmobile and later the REQ,
was experimenting with his first gaso-
line motor car Shugars was trying to
apply gas engine to q wheeled vehicle.
Both met with discouragement. The
machine that Olds built would run a
rod or two and stop, while the machine
that Shugars had constructed woul
run for two or three blocks until the
motor got so hot that it stuck.
Shugars has water jacketed engine,
but at that time he had not solved the
RToDieIn ny BeIlIlB d VI
water. He had one pipe run from the
water tank to the cylinder. and conse-
quently no cooling was effected. Olds
saw what was the matter but as he
wanted to buy Shugars' motor that he
might use some of the ideas that were
in 1t and which he could not get access
to he would not tell why the motor
heated up so.
Makes New Car
Shugars finally sold the machine and
later made a three-cylinder car that
operated successfully. In the meantime
he had organized a company for the
manufacture of the Shugars gas engine
and was turning them out in consider
abs quantities.
After the successful completion of the
three-cylinder car he began the manu-
facture of the Auburn at the plant of
the Auburn vehicle works, which had
been for some time engaged in making
wakons and carriages
The Auburn proved a success, though
The first cars were of only four-horse
power and could not operate on the
sandy roads of Indiana. Several of the
cars were brought to California by
Ehugars and sold here, and today there
are number of them still in apera-
tion.
Recently while on the road Mr.. Shu-
gars came across one of them and
stopped the driver. A friend of Shu
gars' advised him to conceal the fact
that he was the maker of the car, but,
true to his characteristics Shugars
frankly told the driver at the outset
that he built the car. In an instant the
man had climbed out of the little ma
chine and came to Shugars, who for an
instant wondered if it would not have
been wiser to have followed the ad-
vice of his friend and not claimed the
child, but the man grasped his hand
IT. l. rr1.. Nr.Y ,ra4i
him and that if he built the car he had
never built one and never would that
would give any greater degree of salts
faction than it had.
Gains New Ideas
The same thought and conscientious
effort that he had put into those first
Auburns he has put into the Durocars.
Always on the alert for new ideas With
, the desire to improve his cars. he
finally placed the Auburn high up in
the list of machines and among the
leaders in the two-cylinder class.
His successful management of the
Auburn factory and the high class of
the car attracted the attention of the
late l.. K. Lull of the local Tourist
factory, and when he was in the east
he approached Shugars with an offer
TO come to Southern California and
take charge of the Tourist factory.
The charms of Southern California |
finally induced hi INTO make the change |
and soon after he came he had the |
factory running in good shape and |
paying dividends for the first time.
The desire to build a motor after his
own ideas soon induced Shugars to
organize a company and begin the
manufacture of the Durocar, and from
the start the venture has proven good.
The factory is running full time and |
has been for quite while, and al
though the cars are turned out at the
rate of three to four a week they are
still nineteen cars behind with their
orders.
Boost for Car
Every driver of a Durocar has be-
come an enthusiast and they are all
boosters for George Shugars and his
motor car.
A fully equipped plant with the lat
est improved machinery is we'll or
ganized and works like single unit.
The motor. which is the essential
feature of all cars, is made entirely
in Los Angeles, the casting and the
raw stock being finished at the fac
tory. Two cylinders are used and it
fs impossible to tell from the running
of the motor or the riding Of the car
that 1t Is not four. One of the good L
features that Shugars has installed is
a supplementary frame that sets on
I0e CRANK case anu lIlIOuSn WHICH run n
all of the valve lifts and the cam and
timer shaft This arrangement obvi-
ates any possibility of improper align
ment or play in the valve lift rods.
The cam arrangement is of a high |
order and is so timed that the run
ming of the motor Is so we'll balanced /
that there is little or no vibration and /
an entire absence of the lunging mo-
tion so frequent in two-cylinder mo-
tors. Il
A compression release that throws /
out automatically when the first charge Il
is exploded makes starting much Il
easier In fact it is not at all unusual
for the motor to start on the spark
time after time.
Besides the perfectly equipped ma
chine shop there is a body making
shop, where special designs are turned
out. a top department that is second II
to none in this section and which ca
ters to the local trade as well as doing
ali the trimming on the Durocars; a
painting shop, where the last refine
iuent is the usual thing, and in the
basement a repair and adjusting de-
partment that looks after the cars of Il
the company's customers as well as
those of large number of owners of Il
other makes of cars who have right
f1,lly concluded that If George Shugars
can build as good a car as the Dura-
BILE Duro is surely is safe to repair any
other make.