K-R-I-T Motor Car Company

7.75x9.25 black and white photograph of a painting of the Krit Motor Car Company factory located at 1608 East Grand Boulevard

Logo prominently showing the swastika emblem

1911 KRIT motor car Advertisement

Its name probably originated from Kenneth Crittenden, who provided financial backing and helped design the cars. The emblem of the cars was a swastika (a symbol that was not yet associated with Nazism). Krit occupied two different sites during its history: the first one it took over from the Blomstrom car, and in 1911 moved to the works that had been used by R. M. Owen & Company who had moved to become Owen Magnetic. The cars were conventional 4-cylinder models and many were exported to Europe and Australia. The outbreak of World War I seriously damaged the company and it failed in 1915. A few cars were subsequently assembled from remaining parts.

In 1911 the KRIT Motor Company was purchased by Walter S Russel of the Russel Wheel and Foundry Company.[2]

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  1912 KRIT motor car Advertisement
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  1917 KRIT Motor Car Co. - Patterns available

• 1913 K-R-I-T "KT" 5-Passenger Touring at the National Automobile Museum.

• List of defunct United States automobile manufacturers

• Once teeming with auto plants, Detroit now home to only a few nameplates (Detroit News 15 January 2000)