Portal:Michigan/Selected Biography/4

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David Dunbar Buick (September 17, 1854 - March 5, 1929) was a Scottish-American inventor best known for founding the Buick Motor Company. He was born in Arbroath, Angus, Scotland but moved to Detroit, Michigan at the age of two when his parents emigrated to the United States.

During the 1890s, Buick developed an interest in internal combustion engines and began to spend his time on experimenting with them. Buick set up a new company, the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company, in 1899 to build engines. Due to monetary troubles, he set up a second company in 1902, the Buick Manufacturing Company, with the twin aims of marketing engines to other car companies and of manufacturing and selling its own cars. His concentration on development had also produced the revolutionary "Valve-in-Head" overhead valve engine. This method of engine construction produces a much more powerful engine than the rival side valve engine design which all other manufacturers used at the time. Overhead valve engines are now used by all car companies.

The money had run out again by 1903 and Buick was forced to raise more money via a $5,000 loan from a friend and fellow car enthusiast, Benjamin Briscoe and form the Buick Motor Company which was to become the foundation stone of the General Motors empire.