page_title: Carl Breer
section_title: Studebaker
hierarchical_section_title: Carl Breer / Career / Studebaker
caption_attribution_description: 1918 Studebaker Special Six
context_page_description: Carl Breer was an American automotive industry engineer. Along with Fred M. Zeder and Owen Skelton, he was one of the core engineering people that formed the present day Chrysler Corporation. He made material contributions to Tourist Automobile Company, Allis-Chalmers, Studebaker, and was the moving engineer behind the Chrysler Airflow. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.
context_section_description: Breer moved to the west coast in 1911 and worked for the Moreland Motor Truck Company. In 1914 he helped organize the Home Electric Auto Works company (a service and accessory business), but soon lost interest in the company and sold out to his partner. He then built for himself a combination experimental garage and shop in 1916. In this same year he received a letter from his friend Fred Zeder asking if he would be interested in joining him at Studebaker to organize a research division. Zeder was then chief engineer at Studebaker and was developing a new engineering department for them. He also invited Owen R. Skelton to Studebaker, bringing together the Zeder-Skelton-Breer engineering team, which came to be known as "The Three Musketeers".
  Zeder's job was to develop engineering that replaced the obsolete Studebaker models. The engineers worked together efficiently and produced  cutting-edge engineering technology that resulted in immediate profits for Studebaker. The "Big Six" Studebaker 1918 spring models came with such things as a unique clutch, lower center of gravity design, and  detachable cylinder heads. Studebaker was so confident of the new technology that they discontinued making horse-drawn carriages in 1919.
  Breer formed a close relationship with Fred M. Zeder and later with Owen R. Skelton. They all had an engineering background. Skelton's expertise was as a technical engineering design analyst. Breer had the capacity to solve difficult technical engineering problems (especially in engines) with existing technology, and Zeder was a capable administrator and salesman as well as an engineer. Breer was the oldest of the three.
caption: 1918 Studebaker "special six"
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