In May of 1920, General Motors announced the launch of an ambitious new car division, but the plan quickly fell apart.

The Sheridan is but a minor footnote in automotive history today, but it has at least one distinction. This was the first car brand developed and launched from within General Motors. All the other makes to that point—Buick, Cadillac, Oldsmobile, Oakland, Chevrolet, and the rest—had been founded independently and then absorbed into the corporation.

The new car brand was a pet project of GM president William C. Durant, who chose an experienced Buick executive, D.A. Burke, to run the operation, which was to be based in the former Interstate automobile facility in Muncie, Indiana. The well-publicized sales organization included playboy, race driver, and Durant’s son R.C. “Cliff” Durant and Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, the famed race driver and World War I flying ace.

The Sheridan plan consisted of  two models, a four and an eight, with the engines for both supplied by GM’s Northway division in Detroit. The four, which was intended to slot into the GM lineup somewhere above Chevrolet and Oakland, featured a 116-in wheelbase and a 224 cubic-inch engine with overhead valves and a detachable head (above).

The eight, pointed higher up the price range, offered a 404 cubic-inch Northway V8 and rode on a luxurious 131-in wheelbase, supporting seven-passenger body styles. Both cars were thoroughly conventional in design and Sheridan’s PR campaign actually played up that point, boasting that the cars included no novel and presumably troublesome features. The Sheridan was presented as essentially an assembled car produced under the GM banner.

The Sheridan was announced in May of 1920, and product photos and specifications were released in August and September. But on December 1, the plan came undone when Durant was forced out of General Motors management for the second and final time. With Durant out of the picture, the new Sheridan organization had no support within the corporation. As vice president Alfred P. Sloan soberly described it, the presence of the new make in the GM product lineup was “without justification.” Promotions continued and the factory continued to take orders, but it seems that Sheridan was now a lame duck.

While GM was done with Sheridan, Durant was not. In January of 1921, he formed  another car company, Durant Motors, and in May he moved to take back Sheridan as well. GM was happy to oblige. In two separate transactions, Durant and associates purchased the Muncie plant for $5 million and the rights to the Sheridan car shortly later, while Rickenbacker was promoted to president and general manager.

Apparently, few if any Sheridan cars were produced under Durant’s ownership, as production at the Muncie plant was given over to the new Durant four-cylinder car. In August, Rickenbacker departed from Sheridan to launch his own carmaker, Rickenbacker Motor Company, with backing from Detroit heavyweights Barney Everitt, William Metzger, and Walter Flanders. However, Captain Eddie did not walk away from the Durant experience empty-handed. Cliff Durant and his wife had recently divorced, and in September of 1922, Adelaide Frost Durant became Adelaide Frost Rickenbaker.

Various sources have placed the Sheridan production total at anywhere from 300 to 800 cars, but these appear to be guesses at best. It seems the big eight-cylinder model probably never got past the pilot stage. Only two Sheridans are known to exist today, one of them at the National  Automobile Museum, Bill Harrah’s former collection in Reno, Nevada.