Rusty, I wonder if this is the book you mentioned, 1536 pages of info. A MUST HAVE book for every car historian. Makes a great gift. Merry Christmas! Bob
That's not the same cover art, but I suspect that it is the same book. I also fed my mania by supplementing my library with a copy of The Encyclopedia of American Cars from 1940-1970. I was in San Antonio on leave from my tour in The Philippines and visited a 54 Ford Club member who lived near Boerne, TX. We hopped in his 54 and visited his friend....an old man who had several old cars, including a recently acquired 51 Studebaker with the distinctive bullet-nose. He was talking to us about the car and was trying to remember who designed it. I spoke up and said that it was Raymond Loewy. He was sort of taken aback by this 20 year old kid's knowledge of automobile minutia and asked me what else I knew about Studebakers, to which I sincerely replied, "well...probably just about anything you'd want to know I guess." The old timer laughed and asked me to fill him in and I responded with a short talk that went on for a good 20 minutes or so. He was delighted and let me drive the Studebaker....the first one from that era I'd ever driven. Most people with an obsession find ways to make a living related to said obsession. I never have figured out how to do so.
It was "Utopian Turtletop". Another of her suggestions was "Pastelogram". Then there was "Intelligent Bullet". And you thought "Edsel" was bad. In total, they had a list of 3000 possible names from all sources. After much agonizing, research and testing the marketing department presented Henry Ford II with the top 4 names to pick from: Ranger Pacer Corsair Citation He chose none of them. He said "let's name it Edsel after my father" and that was that. "Edsel" tested terribly with the public. They said it suggested "dead cell" " Red cell" and the like. Outside Ford Motor Company hardly anybody had heard of Edsel Ford. Ranger, Pacer, Corsair and Citation all became model names of Edsel.
Too easy. The Goggomobil was made by a cat named Hans Glas. He had a son whose nickname was "Goggo". The car was named after the boy. Believe it or not, 275 lb 6'3" road tester Tom McCahill tested one for Mechanix Illustrated in the fifties even though he feared he might need a can opener to get out. He described it as being as chic as a worn mop, but with a heart of gold.
If you like that one, can you tell me what the Cornelian and Audi have in common? How about Audi and REO? REO and HCS?
Lincoln started out making the Liberty aircraft engine, then switched to cars after WWI ended. It ran into financial trouble and was bought by Ford Motor Company. Leland had also helped start Cadillac, from the dissolved remains of the Henry Ford Company after Henry separated ties with his financial backers.
First price, Rusty! i'm about as tall as Tom McCahill, but 'only' 200 lb, when i pulled me first over an Goggo it was a bit frightening, but once you're in it is pretty comfortable for there's nothing but "space" behind the headlamps. just sold my '61 coupe to my buddy, he also owns a '61 Cadillac coupe deVille, it's a sight to see both cars standing next to each other! a bit similar, coupes with no posts (the little one only has A- and B-pillar), tailfins, panoramic windows, 'tons' of chrome .. just that Goggi is filling the cad only from B-pillar to rear bumper.. and fun to drive, it's boneshaking at top speed, a bit more than 60 mph... Greets, Carsten
Way I heard it, the 'd' is hard to pronounce in Japanese so they started using 't' instead. Started out as Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, making textile equipment. Then there was the Allstate sold by Sears. They started the insurance company but I believe the name predates that, first being used on auto parts they sold. The Billy Durant lent his name to the, well, Durant. He was behind the early creation of GM...after his own company went broke, it was rough sledding for him...when he died he was the manager of a bowling alley. Isuzu, of course, was founded by Joe Isuzu. If you don't know who he is, you are a young whipper-snapper, aren't you?
Fun and informative thread! The names of cars and where they came from are often dumbfoundingly hilarious to very fascinating. I see a certain irony in three early companies: Anger, Cutting and Blood!
Well, yes, but that was actually the final stage of badging and marketing the car (which had succeeded either Maxwell or Chalmers, don't remember off hand). Joe Washington Frazer (yes, THAT Frazer) was Walter P's righthand man at the time and suggested Plymouth, the name of a well-known brand of reliable baling wire. The idea was picking a name that evoked quality and was well known by the common man, the primary target market for the new car. Finally, officially, the Plymouth ship mascot was picked to represent the Plymouth line -- maybe because they couldn't picture a bale of hay on the hood ornament???
not sure if this has been said already, but isnt Cadillac named after the guy who discovered Detriot?????, im from Oz, so excuse me if im incorrect!!
"The Billy Durant lent his name to the, well, Durant. He was behind the early creation of GM...after his own company went broke, it was rough sledding for him...when he died he was the manager of a bowling alley." It wasn't a bowling alley, it was a chain of bowling alleys. He wasn't the manager, he owned them. He also owned a supermarket. Not a grocery store, a supermarket. Bowling alleys and supermarkets were 2 of the hottest fads of the fifties. Durant got into them on the ground floor, in the late 40s. If he had lived another 10 years, he undoubtedly would have added another multimillion dollar fortune to the ones he made, and lost, from the Flint Wagon Works, General Motors, Chevrolet and Durant. But he died in 1947, 86 years old, still hustling. My favorite Durant quote: When he was riding high in the twenties an old friend tried to give him some advice. "Billy" he said, " you are on top of the world right now. But you have been there before, and we both know what can happen. Why don't you take, say, ten million dollars and put it into government bonds, something safe, and put it in your wife's name. Then no matter what happens, you will have that to fall back on." Durant looked at him, puzzled. "What good is ten million dollars?" he asked.
Oldest vehicle maker in the world = General Motors of Canada, formerly known as The McLaughlin Carriage Company. They made their first vehicle in 1867, a cutter, a type of sleigh. Cornelian and Audi were both named by their makers, after themselves, but using a synonym. Cornelian was made by a man named Blood. He did not consider this an attractive name for a car so settled on Cornelian, or bloodstone. Audi means listen in German. The name was chosen by August Horch. Horch means practically the same as Audi. He could not use the name Horch because he had already used it on his first car company, which he had sold. REO was a similar story. Ransom Eli Olds sold the right to the Olds name when he sold Oldsmobile to General Motors. So he used his initials on his next venture. Harry C. Stutz did the same thing. After being ousted from the Stutz company in a hostile takeover he started making HCS cars and fire engines.
Great insights,.... I recall 1961 as the last De Soto, but never knew the entire story. Thanks for the info !!! 4TTRUK
Colonel Sam..... Colonel Robert Samuel McLaughlin, CC, ED, CD (September 8, 1871 January 6, 1972) was an influential Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He started the McLaughlin Motor Car Co. in 1907, one of the first major automobile manufacturers in Canada, which evolved into General Motors of Canada. Born near Bowmanville in the hamlet of Enniskillen, Ontario, the son of Robert McLaughlin, he started working in 1887 for his father's company, McLaughlin Carriage Works, at one time the largest manufacturer of horse-drawn buggies and sleighs in the British Empire. With engines from William C. Durant of Buick he produced the McLaughlin-Buick Model F, establishing The McLaughlin Motor Car Company, incorporated on November 20, 1907. In 1908, its first full year of operation, it produced 154 cars. In 1910 he became a director of General Motors and sold his company in 1918 becoming president of General Motors of Canada, which continued to sell cars under the McLaughlin-Buick brand until 1942. He retired in 1945, but remained chairman of the board until his death. Their wooden shed in Enniskillen is still standing .
yeah im pretty sure some dude named henry leyland named cadillac after his distant relative, some french guy with about 6 names, his last name being cadillac, who discovered the detriot area!!!!!
"Cadillac was founded in 1902 by Henry Leland,[5] a master mechanic and entrepreneur, who named the company after his ancestor, Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, the founder of the city of Detroit. The company's crest is based on a coat of arms that Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac had created at the time of his marriage in Quebec in 1687." - Cadillac's page on Wikipedia "In 1701, he founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit, the beginnings of modern Detroit, which he commanded until 1710." "The city he helped found, Detroit, became the world center of automobile production in the 20th century. William H. Murphy and Henry M. Leland, founders of the Cadillac auto company, paid homage to him by using his name for their company and his armorial bearings as its logo in 1902. Various places bear his name in North America, in particular Cadillac Mountain, Maine, and the town of Cadillac, Michigan." - Antoine's page on Wikipedia
Founded in Des Moines, Iowa, United States by brothers August Duesenberg and Frederick Duesenberg, the company's principal place of operations moved to Auburn, Indiana. Duesenberg was active in various forms from 1913 to 1937. Wikipedia again
Not correct. Toyoda was an industrialist in pre-war Japan, and was not a naval officer. The name was changed to "Toyota" to differentiate the auto and truck lines from other products the company produced. Had nothing to do with the war.
Might be the name of the first European dude to set foot there. The area now known as Detroit, as well as nearly all of North, Central, and South America were already fully populated when whitey showed up, 10,000-12,000 years later.
Sorry, but no. The oldest car maker in the world is plymouth. Thousands of years ago God drove Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden in a Fury........ sorry.
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