Jump in. We’re off to round up another fresh batch of lost, obscure, and forgotten General Motors brands.

This is the third edition in our continuing exploration of lesser-known GM brands and divisions. For your review, here are the first two installments:

The Lost Marques of General Motors 

More Lost Marques of General Motors

In case you were wondering, we’re nowhere near the end of this story. GM has a rich, colorful, 115-year history, and we’re just getting started. Here are five more interesting sidetracks and dead ends in company lore.

Among the many companies gobbled up by wagon tycoon William C. Durant in 1908-09 to create General Motors was the Welch Motor Car. Co. of Pontiac, Michigan—builders of large, very expensive six-cylinder cars. In 1910, GM launched a lower-priced model, the Welch-Detroit, assembled in the former Olds works on Jefferson Ave. in Detroit. A 1910 Welch-Detroit Model S Touring is pictured here. To further consolidate, the Welch, Welch-Detroit, and Rainier operations were combined within GM’s Marquette division, but all the makes were closed down by 1912.

The father of the Welch automobile back in 1903 was Allie R. Welch, who also designed pencil sharpeners, flashlights, and mechanical novelties and held more than a dozen patents. Auto historians often cite the Welch as one of the earliest auto engines to employ hemispherical combustion chambers. On November 8, 2013, Allie Welch set off in his canoe on a duck hunt, but a sudden storm blew in. While the canoe was later found, he was never seen again.

Even some aircraft fans aren’t aware that North American Aviation, producer of the famed P-51 Mustang fighter of World War II, was a GM subsidiary. GM acquired the company in 1933, combining it with the automaker’s General Aviation division, formerly Fokker Aircraft. NAA’s best-known products under GM ownership include the T-6 Texan trainer, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, and of course the stunning P-51. In 1948, GM divested the company to focus on postwar auto production, and in 1967, NAA merged with Rockwell-Standard to become North American Rockwell.

GM’s Geo brand was rolled out in 1989 as a marketing platform for badge-engineered import vehicles sold via Chevrolet’s mammoth USA dealer network.  The broad model lineup included the Prizm (a Toyota Corolla twin), the Suzuki-built Metro, and shown here, the Isuzu Impulse-based Storm. Stylish but not as fully equipped as the Impulse, the Storm was offered from 1990 through 1993. In 1997, the Geo label was abandoned and the vehicles were rebadged as Chevrolets.

When GM acquired inventor Charles F. Kettering and his Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., better known as Delco, in 1918, one of its most promising products was the Delco Light. At the time, electrical service was widely available in urban areas but only reached 10 percent of rural America. Battery-generator sets powered by small gasoline engines—there were dozens of manufacturers, Delco being the most popular—provided folks off the grid with dependable, relatively affordable electric power for home and farm use.

Delco Light plants were offered in varying capacities with engines of one and four cylinders, and a complete array of 32-volt DC appliances were available. With the eventual success of the U.S. government’s Rural Electrification Administration, GM finally discontinued the Delco Light product line in 1947.

Along with Buick, Olds, and Cadillac, the Oakland Motor Car Co. of Pontiac, Michigan was one of the key elements assembled in 1909 to form General Motors. But by 1926, the Oakland division was fading in popularity and GM added the Pontiac companion brand to increase volume. The Pontiac junior line sold so well that the parent Oakland brand was discontinued in 1932. Oakland’s last hurrah was the eight-cylinder line introduced in 1930 (shown above and in the lead photo). The novel flat-crank V8 employed a synchronized mechanical engine mount to manage vibration.