April 6, 1898- I bet, again you never heard of this company before?

Thirteen days after selling its first car, the Winton Motor Carriage Company became an international marque, selling a car to John Moodie of Hamilton, Ontario. The international sale was a testament to Alexander Winton’s pioneering enthusiasm for car advertising. The Scotch-born Winton had undertaken the industry’s first “publicity stunt” a year earlier when he and one of his mechanics had driven a 2-cylinder Winton Motor Carriage 800 miles from Cleveland, Ohio to New York City. Winton managed to gain enough attention for a small article in Horseless Age, the leading motor-car journal of the day. Over the next few years, Winton launched an advertising campaign that included regular print ads in Scientific American and the Saturday Evening Post. In 1899, Winton undertook his second publicity-oriented motorized trek to New York City, this time achieving his goal of reaching a broad audience of potential car buyers. In addition to the estimated 1,000,000 people who saw Winton drive into the city, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a series of articles covering the journey.

The Winton Motor Carriage Company ceased automobile production on February 11, 1924. However, Winton continued in the marine and stationary gasoline and diesel engine business, an industry he entered in 1912 with the Winton Engine Company.

Winton Engine Company became the Winton Engine Corporation, a subsidiary of General Motors, on June 20, 1930.