Here is another row. I’ve never seen this many Avanti. One of the owners heard me say to my wife, “I don’t know there were this many Avanti left!” He tossed me a disapproving look and then laughed.
So enjoy Avanti row.
And some more!!!!
Avanti Engines
Thanks for reading. More coming up.
Tim
This was a slow week in auto history.
A not so small feat was the formation of the Little Motor Car Co on 10/30/1911 – The Little was an automobile built in Flint, Michigan by the Little Motor Car Company from 1912-15. The Little first was available as a two-seater with a four-cylinder 20 hp engine, and had a wheelbase of 7 ft 7 in (2,310 mm) . In 1914 a 3.6 L six-cylinder L-head engine was available in a later model that had a larger chassis. This was phased out in 1915 as it was too close in size and price to the Chevrolet Six. Durant merged the Little Company and Chevrolet in 1913, gave the Chevrolet name to the Little car and moved manufacturing from the Detroit plant to Flint.
The Little was merged into Chevy in 1913.
On Nov 1, 1955 Studebaker debuted the “Hawk”. – Hawk came in the Power, Sky, Golden, Flight in it’s first production year 1956. Want to talk rare cars? How about the Flight Hawk in the K7 body type – only 560 produced. The Power Hawk numbered 7,095; Sky Hawks 3,050 and the Golding Hawk came in at 4,071.
Golden Hawk
56 Flight Hawk
Power Hawk
’56 Sky Hawk
On Oct 2, 1935 two debuts for you –
The Cord 810 and the Ford Zephyr
1935 Cord 810
1936 Ford (Lincoln) Zephyr
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Here are you Auto Factoids for the week.
Sept. 9, 1935 – Studebaker ships its first order of cars (163) exports to New York via the Pennsylvanian RR, final destination? London, England.
Sept 10, 1942 – Gas rationing began to help the war effort.
Then on Sept 14, 1899, Henry H. Bliss was the first individual to be killed in a car accident. He stepped from street car (trolley) and was struck by an electric taxi and died of his injuries the next morning.
September 15, 1881 in Milan, Italy, Ettore Bugatti was born.
Thanks for reading
Tim
Fresh out of WWII the America car industry was facing the challenge of converting back to peace time auto production. This as a huge task and the pressure was on, because if the average American owned a car there was a good change (50%) that it was 9 years old or older and needed replacing. Materials were still in short supply, money wasn’t and to ensure that stayed the case most of the car company merely refreshed their 1942 cars. Toss in labor issue and you can understand how tough the situations was.
Ford lead the 17 manufacturers that year with 468,022 units produced. Chevy followed second with 398,028 cars. The others followed as such:
Plymouth – 264,660 Dodge – 163,490
Buick – 153, 627 Pontiac – 137,640
Olds – 117,623 Nash – 94, 000
Hudson – 91,029 Mercury – 86,608
Chrysler – 83,310 DeSoto – 66,900
Packard – 30, 793 Caddy – 29,214
Studebaker – 19,275 Lincoln – 16,465
Corsley – 4, 99
1946 Crosely….not much to look at for sure but it did sport a 4 cylinder power plant.
I’m betting they meant to build this:
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Well I wasn’t present for the 1956 year but it was an interesting year. Lincoln and Continental were separate makes and interestingly enough the Clipper (a model of Packard) tried ‘independence’ on for size. Oh…and there were some very cool show cars.
The finished out with Chevy and Ford way out in front with 1,567,117 and 1,408,487 – respectively. They were followed over 500,oo behind, were Buick with 573,024, Plymouth with 571,634 and Oldsmobile with 485,458. The rest of the field looked like this:
Pontiac – 405,730
Mercury – 327,943
Dodge – 240,686
Cadillac – 154, 577
Chrysler – 128,322
DeSoto – 109,442
Nash – 83,420
Studebaker – 69,593
Lincoln – 50,322
Hudson – 22,588
Clipper – 18,482 (out paced Packard by nearly 8,000 cars)
Imperial – 10,684
Packard – 10,353
Metropolitan – 9,0868
Continental – 2,550
Here is an ad for a 1956 Clippard Super…Looks alot like…>>>
…this 1955 Packard Clipper…doesn’t it?
1956 Show Cars were really hot looking.
1956 Centurion by Buick. Come on!!! Warp speed Mr. Sulu!!
Pontiac was in the game with their 1956 Pontiac Club de Mer show car. I like it!!!
What? A Parkard you say?!!!! Yup this was the Predictor (name only would have killed this model). But just think how cool that would have been!!!!
A few other things were happening in 1956 like:
– Studebaker’s Goldenhawk was given Packard’s 352 cid V8
– American Motors developed a 200 pound air-cooled V4 engine
– Plymouth ran a gas-turbine car from New Your to L.A.
It’s ugly!!!
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Oh the cars of the 1950’s were great. So how did they start out that iconic decade?
Some fantastic car and shapes came out in 1950.
Leading the numbers game was Chevy and Ford with over a million each, Chevy with 1,498,590 and Ford with 1,208,912, not bad.
Plymouth was third with nearly 800,000 out of first place with 610,954, Buick with 588,439 and Pontiac finished up the top 5 with 446,429.
Here’s the rest of the 19 makers:
Oldsmobile – 408,060
Dodge – 341,797
Studebaker – 320,884
Mercury – 293,585
Chrysler – 179,299
Nash – 171,782 (produced it’s 2,000,000th car)
DeSoto – 136,203
Hudson – 121,408
Cadillac – 103,857
Packard – 42,627
Lincoln – 28,190
Kaiser – 15,228
Crosley – 6,792
Frazer – 3,700
Do you have a favorite? I have a couple. My first would be the Hudson, followed closely by the Studebaker with its bullet nose.
I don't know why but I love the shape of these cars. Here is the 1950 Hudson Commodore.
There is nothing more interesting than the Bullet Nose Studebaker. Here is the 1950 Land Cruisera.
What else went on in 1950?
Micro Cars!!! Say WHAT??? Yeah!!! The IMP – hailed as “The Little Car with the Big Future”. With an MPG of 10 miles per gallon and all fiber glass body, the hopes were high. But the car didn’t sell and disappeared in the same year.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Over 5.5 million car produced in 1951.
Of the 20 solid car manufacturers only 2 were over 1 million cars, 14 in six figures. Here is how they broke out.
Chevy – 1,229,986
Ford – 1,013,381
Plymouth – 611,000
Buick – 404,657
Pontiac – 370,159
Mercury – 310,387
Dodge – 290,000
Oldsmobile – 285,615
Studebaker – 246,195
Nash – 205,307
Chrysler – 163,613
Kaiser – 139,452
Hudson – 131,915
Cadillac – 110,340
DeSoto – 106,000
Packard – 100,713
Henry J – 81,942
Lincoln – 32,574
Frazer – 10,214
Crosley – 6,614
Here are some sample:
1951 Frazer Convertible - I like paint scheme.
'51 Hudson Hornet Cub Coupe
1951 Crosley
Thanks for reading
Tim
1911 oh… that was a great year! Well I don’t actually have any proof of that, but there sure were a lot of new car makes that year. Here the list:
Alpena; ArBenz; Atterbury; Carhartt, Case, Chevrolet; Colby, Crow-Elkhart, Dalton, Gaylord, Havers, Hupp-Yeats; King; Lenox; Mighty Michigan; Motorette; Nyberg: Penn; Rayfield; R.C.H.; Roader; Rogers; S.G.V.; Standard Electric (yes electric); Stutz; Stuyvesant; Virginian; W.F.S.
So who were the leaders for that year?
Ford out-paced all with 69,762 Cars.
Second up was Studebaker/EMF with 26,827.
1911 Studebaker...you can't use just '11 any longer - someone might think this was a 2011 Studebaker
Willys-Overland up next with 18,745 and Maxwell about 2,000 less at 16,000.
One of the 16,000 Maxwells
Buick came in at fifth with 13,389, beating out Cadillac with 10,071 cars.
Hudson and Chalmers finish up the list with 6,486 and 6,250 respectively.
The 1911 Chalmers - look at that stance!!!!
1911 Milestones:
– International Motor Company was formed (MACK)
– Buick sets a speed record, running 20 miles in just over 13 minutes.
– First Indianapolis 500 was held and won by Ray Harroun in a six-cylinder Marmon Wasp – 6 hours, 42 minutes and 8 seconds of drive time.
The Marmon Wasp
Thanks for reading.
Tim
It is 1922 and the car industry is moving right along. Small start-up car companies pop up here and there in the 1920’s.
Here is how they stacked up for 1922.
Top spot was Ford producing 1,147,028 cars.
Dodge was a very distant second with 152,653 car rolling off their assembly line.
Chevrolet ran in third place with 138,932 cars made.
And finish up the list were Buick with 123,152; Studebaker with 105,005; Williys-Overland with 95,410; Durant with 55,300 and finally Maxwell/Chalmers 44,811.
Total passenger cars produced were 2,274,185 with 269,991 truck being made.
Rickenbacker was a new upstart beginning production in 1922.
Durant produce a car priced at $319 . Ford reduced prices to $298.
Balloon tires were introduced.
Hey fuel gauges began being installed in dash in 1922.
1922 Durant Star - An attempt to undercut Ford's prices
1922 Rickenbacker 4 Door
I love this one:
1922 Chrysler Panel Truck
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Folks seem to like this segment so let’s continue with 1950.
19 major car makers existed back then and Chevy topped the production totals with 1,498,590 units followed closely by Ford with 1, 208,912. The rest of the field were all less than have that.
Plymouth – 610,954
Buick – 588,439
Pontiac – 466,429
Olds – 408,060
Dodge – 341,797
Studebaker – 320,884 (Don’t ya wish they would have made it? I would love to have seen their innovation continue.)
Mercury – 293,658
Chrysler – 179,299
Nash – 171,782
DeSoto – 136,203
Hudson – 121,408
Cadillac – 103,857
Packard – 42,627
Lincoln – 28,190
Kaiser – 15,228
Croslely – 6,792
Frazer – 3,700
Of note:
This was the last year for the Old 6 cylinder 76 models, while their Rocket 88 set speed records at Daytona – averaging 100.28 mph.
Packard began selling the only automatic transmission ever developed by an independent car maker.
The Rocket 88 - record setter.
Can a pick a Frazer out of a line up? Me either. Here’s one.
1950 Frazer Manhattan Convertible
How about a Crosley? Yeah I could do that one.
Crosley Hot Spot - circa 1950
And what did a automatic transmission look like in 1949? Here is the Packards Ultramatic.
The looked a lot like todays automatic transmissions
Thanks for reading.
Tim
