Some famous and infamous events this week occurred this week in automobile history.
General Motors incorporated 9/16/1908 – I often think that GM was started with Chevy, but in fact GM was a holding company for Buick in 1908. Shortly after incorporation Oldsmobile was added and the following year (1909) Cadillac, Cartercar, Elmore, Ewing, and Oakland (would become Pontiac) were purchased and added to the company.
Speaking of Buick, on Sept. 17 in 1854 David Buick was born in Scotland. He didn’t start out building car but engines to sell for farm equipment and then for cars and then developed his business to build both engines and cars in 1902. He developed the “Valve-in-Head” overhead valve engine.
Now for the infamous – Sept. 19th 1970, Ford introduced the Ford Pinto. We all know the story of the lack of safety surrounding the gas tank and the less than stellar calculated approach to not wanting to spend the $$ to make is safe.
1970 Pinto
Finally this week on Sept. 21, 1895 Duryea Motor Wagon Company was founded.
The Duryea brothers entered their horseless carriage in many shows and races. The Duryea Motor Wagon carriage won the first prize in the first ever American automobile . The wagon was produced in 1893 and had a 1 cylinder engine and 4 HP.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
I always though David Buick was a plumber. The story goes that he used various springs and tappet seats from his plumbing business to create the ‘valve in head’ one cylinder engine.
Hey Bill.
He was a plumber.