Interesting Historical Automotive Facts

[Jay_LHD3]

So I was flipping channels last night and got stuck again watching the program on the History Channel where they show how J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie built our country. At the end they show the piece on Henry Ford and while watching this time I was reading the facts that were popping up on the bottom of the screen.

It stated that Henry Fords' first company was the Henry Ford Company that became Cadillac. I thought this was very interesting and figured that there has to be a fair number of other facts like this too in the automotive history that most people don't know about.

You guys or gals know of any other interesting historical automotive facts?



Reference to the Henry Ford Company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford_Company

[FenwickHockey65]

GM came super close to buying Ford around 1910.

[Silverlsinva]

im glad they didn't or their might have been no mustang or Camaro.

[Scalded Dog]

A number of automobiles, some even more aptly described as "carts with engines on board" built in the previous century, as far back as the 1920s, had drag coefficients far superior to the 5th gen Camaro. While not flattering to know that our Camaro's drag coefficient is also eclipsed by some models of the Dodge Durango, the AMC Pacer, the Ford Falcon, and the Nissan Leaf, at least we beat the Ferrari F50, Lamborghini Countach, the Dodge Viper, and the Jaguar XJS. However, my point is that even in the early part of the 20th century, automotive engineers understood the importance of drag, and were able to design some rebarkably slippery shapes... even WAY back in the day!

[Scalded Dog]

Okay, here's a more trivial "interesting" historical fact: REO Speed Wagon was a vehicle, long before it was a rock band. Some of y'all might be too young to remember the REO Motor Company (yes, I am too young for that!), and many may be too young to remember REO Speedwagon, the band, but... the band was named after the vehicle, and not the other way around!

[LBreezie]

I know windshield wipers were an invention invented by a woman haha oh and the most expensive car to be sold is like a 1931 Bugatti Royale sold for $8,700,000.

[ChrisBlair]

Originally Posted by Jay_LHD3

So I was flipping channels last night and got stuck again watching the program on the History Channel where they show how J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller, and Carnegie built our country. At the end they show the piece on Henry Ford and while watching this time I was reading the facts that were popping up on the bottom of the screen.

It stated that Henry Fords' first company was the Henry Ford Company that became Cadillac. I thought this was very interesting and figured that there has to be a fair number of other facts like this too in the automotive history that most people don't know about.

You guys or gals know of any other interesting historical automotive facts?



Reference to the Henry Ford Company: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Ford_Company

Well, yes and no. Ford's company became defunct and from that plant and its equipment a new company was formed. Ford's former backers brought in a guy named Henry Leland to do an appraisal en route to selling everything off, instead they organized the shambles into Caddy, using an engine that Leland, conveniently, had developed. Sounds to me like ol' Hank had a conflict of interest...but it's not like they took Ford's company, re-named it, and kept on keeping on building the same cars with a new name

This part may qualify as an interesting fact: GM's history is strange. They owe it all to a guy who patented a way to get ceramic to stick to iron, a good inventor and bad businessman, a Scot named David Dunbar Buick, who sold the works to Billy Durant, who in turn used Buick as the financial backing to found GM.

[FenwickHockey65]

Who lost the company, founded Chevrolet, and got his old company back through Chevrolet.

[ChrisBlair]

The Buick Century was so named because it could do "the Century", or 100 mph

[Jay_LHD3]

I always thought the history of the LT5 engine was interesting, being built by a boat engine company. Though I'm not sure if this is normal practice to outsource the engine work to other companies, but I do remember Harley going to Porsche to help build one of their engines.

From wiki:

For model year 1990, Chevrolet released the Corvette ZR-1 with the radical overhead cam LT5 engine, which shared only the 4.4 inch bore spacing with any previous LT engine. The LT5 was engineered by Lotus Engineering in the UK headed by design manager David Whitehead, the engine was produced by Mercury Marine at Stillwater OK headed by Project Engineer Terry D. Stinson.[2] It was an all-aluminum 5.7 L (349 cu in) small-block V8, but was thoroughly different from any of the other Chevrolet 350 engines. The bore and stroke were both different at 3.9 by 3.66 in (99 by 93 mm) instead of the usual 4 by 3.48 in (102 by 88 mm) and it featured Lotus-designed 32-valve DOHC heads rather than the usual Chevrolet 16-Valve OHV Heads. It was hand built by specialty engine builder, Mercury Marine in Stillwater, OK. This engine produced 375 horsepower (280 kW) and 370 lb·ft (502 N·m) for the 1990-1992 Corvette ZR-1 and jumped to 405 horsepower (302 kW) and 385 lb·ft (522 N·m) from 1993 until its final year in 1995, thanks to cam timing changes and improvements to the engine porting. 1993 also added 4-bolt main bearing caps and an exhaust gas recirculation system. The engine was used only in Corvettes.[3] The LT5 was very expensive, and after six years of production, GM canceled the ZR-1 option. A total of 6939 were produced.[4] The LT5 however wasn't an evolutionary dead end. Despite being discontinued, a new class of premium V8s for Cadillac and eventually Oldsmobile, the dual overhead cam V8 Northstar and its derivatives, drew heavily from the LT5's design and lessons learned from its production.[5]

[77rs]

Originally Posted by Scalded Dog

Okay, here's a more trivial "interesting" historical fact: REO Speed Wagon was a vehicle, long before it was a rock band. Some of y'all might be too young to remember the REO Motor Company (yes, I am too young for that!), and many may be too young to remember REO Speedwagon, the band, but... the band was named after the vehicle, and not the other way around!

REO Ransom E. Oldsmobile

[77rs]

Chevrolert built an air-cooled porcupine engine in the '20's. They badly overheated most were replaced. At least one engine survives.

[Retro69]

Originally Posted by 77rs

Chevrolert built an air-cooled porcupine engine in the '20's. They badly overheated most were replaced. At least one engine survives.

What does "porcupine" insinuate?

[77rs]

Originally Posted by Retro69

What does "porcupine" insinuate?

It had hundreds of metal pins on the engine for cooling.