According to the “Standard Catalog of American Cars: 1805-1942”
printed by Krause Publications in Iola, Wis., North Carolina was
home to 13 of the 2,000 carmakers that have come and gone since
the American automobile industry began in 1896. South Carolina
can claim 12. Some cars were manufactured in limited numbers,
but many of the companies were “paper” corporations only.
Charlotte’s only claim to automobile production for the masses
was the Wizard Junior, a two-passenger roadster that weighed a
mere 800 pounds and topped out at 35 mph — a respectable speed
during the car’s brief life from 1920-‘21. The Wizard Automobile
Co. was made up of F.W. Edwardy Jr. and Sr. and Charles Hamel,
president of the Cyclomobile Co. of Toledo, Ohio. Unfortunately,
once a factory was built on the southwest side of town to
produce the Junior and promised Senior, it was discovered that
the Wizard’s promoters were more adept at selling stock than
selling cars and the company’s building was sold for $105,000 to
the Automatic Step