May 10, 1923 – GM names Alfred P. Sloan as president.
They didn’t just pick from the streets. He was actually, a draftsman for a bearing company, Hyatt Roller Bearing. That company eventually merged with a few other companies with United Motor Corporation. Sloan became the president of that and shortly after that they were purchased by GM.
He served GM from 1923 to 1956 in some manner including board chairman.
Imagine the innovations he saw during his tenure!!! The corporate mergers, the V8, the Corvette, lucky guy!!
Alfred P. Sloan
May 12, 1969 (or 14th) – The last Chevy Corvair was produced.
Last Corvair build. If you know only a little about automotive history or maybe politics or the consumer safety revolution of the 60’s and 70’s you’ll know the name Ralph Nader. With a little Google’in you’ll find various search results linking him to the demise of the Chevy Corvair (and apple pie and America) – most are not flattering to Mr. Nader. According to most accounts the last Corvair carried 6000 as the last 4 digits of it’s serial number. The car was blanketed by the press when it rolled off the assemble, but then disappeared. There are various stories as to the actual disposition of car #6000 but it remains a mystery. We do know it was a two door, hard top, Monza, Olympic Gold was the color and it likely had a Service 140 replacement engine.
I’m seeing the Corvair but can’t help notice the Nova’s on the rail car.
The last Corvair convertible was #5997 which was a Forest Green Monza that has come up for sale a few times.
If you are a Corvair fan you’ll enjoy this read: 1969 Corvair: Finger Tip Facts by Corvair historian Dave Newell.
As we run through the middle of the 2nd month of the year, here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids). A light week this week. Feb 10, 1942 – Pontiac stops car production for WWII. – As you know WWII took a lot of sacrifice …
It’s a light week for the automotive history. April 5, 1923 Firestone introduces balloon tires. Everything we’ve accomplished with our rides has greatly.
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the last week of April 2015! Light week for Auto Factoids unless you are Lamborghini or Ford fan. Ferruccio Lamborghini was born on April 28, 1916 in Renazzo di Cento, Italy.
Bob and Carol Marsh, of Chesterfield, are the owners of the 1966 Corvair Corsa convertible shown on this page. And, believe it or not, this is the actual car Bob owned when he was in high school. He told me he “hot rodded” the car as a teenager. (Can …
There were many Corvair owners that braved the wind and brought their Monza’s, Drop Tops and Van’s to the 29th Annual Chevy Showdown today.
Here are some of the pictures.
Parking and setting up
I’d estimate about 20 Corvairs attended. The white Monza was beautifully done!! There were a couple unique Corvair powered entries.
In a previous post entitled “Lost Classics – Trucks – Corvair Rampside” I mentioned that I’d never seen a Rampside in person. Well, I can scratch that off my car bucket list. Here is the 1961 Corvair powered Rampside.
Corvair 95
This Corvair 95 Rampside is in very good condition and got to the show under it’s on power provided by the ‘Flat Six’.
Now the Rampside also came in the Greenbrier packaged. And there was a Greenbrier Corvair there….this great looking 1962 van with the 110 engine.
1962 Greenbrier Corvair Van
AC in front and back!!!
Yup that’s A/C stuffed back here!!!
There now I’ve seen all manner of Corvairs!!! Only that was there was the Corvair wagon.
More coming up on the Chevy Showdown here in Tucson, Az
I love classic trucks and in my 3 plus years of bogging in this field I haven’t done much on trucks. Yes, you’ll see some in my Parking Lot Spot Light pieces but not much else.
Then I got to thinking about doing some articles to make up for that and I realize, after I picked up a book (“Collectible & Classic Trucks” by The Auto Editors of Consumer Guide) at one of my company’s stores (we specialize, among other things, used books) that even those in to the classic truck scene, often over look some really cool trucks.
So I thought I’d cover a few. First up is one I forgot was ever made, much less have seen (in person) any in the past 20 years or so. The Covair Rampside trucks.
This is a ’61 Rampside
This are rear engined, air cooled workhorse that are clearly Corvair all the way.
Fully restored they look great. But leaving them survivor style is really cool as well. Like David Hopkins’
David Hopkins “Everything mechanical is new, but when it came to do paint and body we just couldn’t erase all the history.”
These rough and tough working guy trucks were powered a by rear-mounted, horizontally-opposed six cylinder, air-cooled engine that delivered 80HP and 128 ft-lbs of torque with 145 cu-in of displacement.
This wasn’t the only truck that was Corvair based. We’ll look at the others coming up.
I watched the event on History Channel – more thoughts on that later. I didn’t actually see this particular Corvair, but I thought, wow that is a lot for this car.
$40k Corvair. I wonder what the largest sum every paid for a Corvair?
A crowd estimated at 10,000 people, including 3,400 registered bidders, helped to shape the spectacle at the Lambrecht Chevrolet auction in Pierce, Nebraska this past weekend. … 1963 Corvair Monza Coupe, 6 cyl. 4-speed …
This is my latest segment. It will be a frequent blathering of car stuff – current and maybe some old stuff. I hope you enjoy it.
I’ve visited the Bowling Green assembly plant a few times and it never grows old. The last time I was there they were expanding the plant to include Chevy Volt production and (not releasable at that time) and this as well:
The new Corvette Stingray will be built at GM’s Bowling Green, Ky., assembly plant, which underwent a $131-million upgrade, including approximately $52 million for a new body shop to manufacture the aluminum frame in-house for the first time.
I did a post from a car show down on the border and covered a corvair with a Ralph Nader for President bumper sticker which was a hoot. (See it here Corvair – The Last Car .) But one Corvair I haven’t seen in years at a car show or anywhere is the Lakewood.
1962 Lakewood
There’s a good reason for this. These Corvair station wagons were only made in 1961 and 1962. Only 33,271 wagons were produced in those two years. A subset of those were the Monza of 1962. Only 2567 of those wagons were produced.
A there were a couple of engine the 80 horse power Turbo Air and a 98 horse powered Super Turbo Charge.
That makes me think I need to do post on just Corvairs.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
1954 Corvette dream cars – Corvette Corvair fastback, Corvette Nomad wagon and Corvette convertible coupe http://t.co/OrJk5A2sX1
Normally, I do a Auto Factoid piece and you’d find a entry that would say on May 14, 1969 the last Corvair rolled off the factory line.
Some folks loved the car and many collectors still do. There were a few that really disliked the car for various reasons and one guy in particular, Ralph Nader, believed they represented all that was wrong with the U.S. auto industry. Although he may not have single-handedly contributed the end of the Corvair’s production, many believe he was instrumental in it’s early demise.
That’s why in a border town car show in Nogales, AZ I found this humorous:
What’s funny about a 1966 Corvair?
How about the Ralph Nader for President bumper sticker?
I love this time of year here in Arizona. Not just because you can work on your classic/muscle car in the garage without feeling like a Christmas turkey in the oven. I love this time of year because it’s Car Auction Season! For the next 3-4 weeks classic cars (and others) are bountiful between Tucson, AZ and Phoenix, AZ.
With Barrett Jackson Car Auction kicking off this week and RM, Russo and Steel auctions following up, beautiful cars are brought out in to the cool winter sunlight and driven or set on display. Now, I’m not just talking about at the auctions themselves. But I’m talking about the little known phenomenon that occurs in and around the area.
We have a tradition were we will spend some time driving round Scottsdale and Fountain Hills and other little sections of the greater Phoenix area and looking for the displays of cool classic, muscle, antique cars. The owners have push these beauties out of their warm protective garages, out into the cool winter air. Everywhere you drive, sitting next to the curbs or at the edge of the driveways are some of the most prized, collectible and unique cars south of Payson, AZ.
Some of these are for sale, owners hope to catch the eye of disappointed bidder on his way home or get noticed a buyer that doesn’t really want to ponying up baskets full of old presidents to just participate in the auctions, but still suffering from the ‘classic/muscle/antique car flu that is epidemic this time of year. Others just what to show off their well-loved works of metal art and have a discussion about it with passer-byes.
It is a great time! We’ll be head there to spend couple days attending the events at Barrett Jackson and we’ll take the time to drive around the area and I’ll grab a few shots of the local car eye candy and post them up. If you are headed up drop me a note, I’ve met a few readers at such events, that’s always cool.
BTW – Don’t forget some of the best view is in the parking lot at the these events – snap some shots and post them up on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/AGCarRestoration .
Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2017 Sneak Peek. By local contributor Scott McGinty. It’s never too early to scout out some beautiful cars that will be at the 2017 …
Feb 5, 2016 … Date set for Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2017. The 46th annual car show and auction will take place Saturday, Jan. 14, through Sunday, Jan.
Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale 2017 Sneak Peek. Events. By local contributor. Scott McGinty. It’s never too early to scout out some beautiful cars that will be at the …
Dec 27, 2016 … 1957 Mercury Turnpike pace car | Barrett-Jackson photo Editor’s note: This is the 13th in a 30-day sponsored series featuring cars to be sold …
I haven’t done one of these in a while, but I was reading an article from the ” Worlds Most Excellent” automotive publishing enterprise – Hemmings. An article in the January 2017 issue of Classic Cars publication is a piece written by Jeff Koch (who is their – West Coast/Southwest guy) on GM’s Flattop designed cars of the 1959-1960 era. These were massive cars with huge trunks and tons of wrap around glass.
This a 1959 Pontiac Bonneville Flattop 4 door- ain’t it huge?
According to the article these were just a two-year deal – ’59-’60. So that got me to thinking how many were made?
Over all car production for 1959, which still saw the likes of DeSoto, Edsel (its last gasp of breath), Studebaker, Imperial (as a separate brand…again) and even the Metropolitan, as producer of cars. The leader for that year was Chevrolet in first place with just over 1.46 million cars produced followed by Ford in close range with 1.45 million cars produced. The rest of the field looked like this:
Plymouth with 458, 261 (in third place which gives you an idea how the rest fared) followed by Pontiac with 383k, then Oldsmobile with 382K and Rambler with 374k. Buick managed 285K and Dodge produced 156k, which was just slightly than Mercury with 15ok and Cadillac with 142K cars produced. The field rounded out with Studebaker driving 126k out of the factory and a substantial for Chrysler with just 69, followed by Desoto with 45k, Edsel with 44k and Lincoln/Continental with just 26k. At the bottom stood Metropolitan and Imperial 22k and 17k respectively.
So an estimated 2,655,686 cars were produced by GM in that year. That’s a lot of flattops this include Cadillacs that didn’t escape the design.
Nor did the Corvair!!
So where are the now? I just don’t see that many around and I’m sure it’s due to the 2 year only style and finding all that wrap around glass.
Have you seen one of these cool designed GM Flattops? Drop me a note and pic and I’ll publish it up.
This is it. The beginning of it all. What were they making in 1901? The top producer was the Locomobile car company with a total out put for the year 1,500 cars. Winton was second with 700 cars. Oldsmobile (ahh one we’ve heard of!!) was third with 425. White came in fourth with 193. Autocar was next …
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; …
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 …
The Roaring Twentys – a great time in US social and economic history. 1928 things still looked pretty good and no indication of the tough economic times that would lead to the terrible 30’s. 1928 saw 8 car companies fighting it out for market shares. Chevy lead the way with just over a million …
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the first week of Nov. 2015. I’m going to call this Packard Week (like Shark Week only on wheels)!!! Here is why:
Starting right off on the Nov. 1st 1955 Studebaker’s Hawk showed up on the car scene.
They when on sale in 1956 and came in the Flight Hawk, Golden Hawk and Power Hawk and Sky Hawk. As you may know these were tough time for Studebaker/Packard so the Flight, Power and Sky Hawk models were only available in 1956. The power plants for these cars ranged from Studebaker’s old straight 6 cylinder bored and stoked to displace 185 CIDs for the Flight Hawk, and their OHV 259″ V8, which came in a 2bbl and 4bbl configuration (180 HP and 195 HP ) for the Power Hawk to the Sky Hawk’s OHV 289 CID with the Golden Hawk sporting Packard’s 352 CID (5.8 L – V8) that managed to produce 275 BHP. That is pretty good power in fairly light car.
Sky Hawk
Flight Hawk
Golden Hawk
Power Hawk
On Nov. 2, 1935 we have two events.
Cord’s 810 debuted as did the Fords’ (Lincoln’s) Zephyr. Cord 810 was a beautiful and advanced car. It was the first US designed and built front wheel drive car with independent suspension and sported a set of very cool hidden headlights (operated with a crank on the dash-board) – another US first!! It was power by a Lycoming 289 V8 (125HP) and had a 4 speed overdrive transmission.
1935 Cord 810. This is the Sportsmen Convertible
The Zephyr was produced under the Lincoln sub-brand and was powered by 267 cu in (4.4 L) L-Head with 110 HP. It sold 15,000 units in its first with was over 50% of all Lincoln sales for 1936.
1936 Zephyr
Continuing on with Packard Week, on Nov. 5, 1863 John Ward Package was born.
Before building his first automobile in 1899, he successfully operated his own business, Packard Electric
John Ward Packard
On Nov. 6 is a very busy day in Automotive history we have 3 major mile stones.
On this day in Carlo (a.k.a. Karl) Abarth was born in Austria in 1908. He was ultimate gear-headed business man!!! Started out designing bicycle and motorcycle frames in Italy as a teenager for Castanga, then back to Austria and motorcycle racing where he managed to become 5 times European champion. After begin seriously injured in a racing accident he gave up racing, designed a sidecar and started a company with Ferry Porsche (and couple other guys) that was eventually called Cisitalia. They produced the Tipo 360 F1 prototype – which was a flop. Later on he founded the Abarth & C company that eventually produced racing cars with the scorpion logo then moved into the production of performance exhaust now called Abarth. He should the company to Fiat and they named a car after him.
Abarth Race Car
Logo
Edsel Ford was born in 1883 in Detroit, MI on this same day. Often only known for the Edsel sub brand he was instrumental in design and development of the Lincoln as well. But we all love the Edsel.
To finish up Packard Week the first Packard car was test driven on Nov. 6, 1899.
Here is this weeks AutoFactoids (#AutoFactoids). May 10, 1923 – GM names Alfred P. Sloan as president. They didn’t just pick from the streets. He was actually, a draftsman for a bearing company, Hyatt Roller Bearing.
Here are your Auto Factoids (#AutoFactoids) for the week. Actually, I’ve combined two weeks because I forgot last weeks and this week’s was limited. So let’s start off with the week of the 15th (’cause going in chronological …
