Here is your Auto Factoids for this week.
Jan 13 – Ford figured how to build car bodies with plastic and patented the process in 1942.
Jan 14 – Ford kills the Edsel division by merging it with Lincoln Mercury in 1958. Although the Edsel division didn’t produce cars until 1958 Ford actually started R&D in 1955, code name ‘E-car’. They produced full-size models Citation, Corsair, Pacer, Ranger, as well as stations wagons the Bermuda, the Villager, and the Roundup. Only 118,287 Edsels were built (only 2,846 in 1960) and 7,440 produced in Ontario, Canada. It was voted one of the 50 worse cars. I still want one, prefer a two door or a wagon. Got one you want to get rid of? Drop me a note.
Nice 4 Door Wagon
OH!! Tell me you don’t like an Edsel in the ‘vert configuration???!!!
2 Door Ranger!!!!
Jan 16 – A.J. Foyt was born in 1935.
Jan 16 – Chrysler debuted the Omni (Dodge) and Horizon (Plymouth) in 1977. The Omni would later have the distinctions of being treated to a Carol Shelby maker over 9 years later (1986).
1987 Shelby GLHS – nice looking car!!!
Jan 17 – Caddy shows the worlds it’s first car – where else? Madison Square Garden – 1903.
1903 Cadillac
Jan 17 – 1956 Ford Motor Company allows the public to buy stock.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
Oh, the Omni and Horizon twins. Their claim to fame was the very first transverse mount FWD cars built in America. These cars were actually (SIMCA) Talbot Horizon that were designed in France in the early 1970s and had Peugeot anemic 70HP motors.
Chrysler was dying, and needed desparate help. Lee Iacocca was still being abused by Henry Ford II, and the K CAR was being shelved due to no R&D money. Chrysler ‘pulled a rabbit out of the hat’ literally with taking the Talbot Horizon and placing a VW Rabbit powertrain in the car that was US EPA ready. When the car was introduced, the autocross crowd went wild as the Horizon actually handled and braked slightly better than the VW Rabbit.
My uncle replaced his slant 6 Valiant (that had 230K miles) with a 1978 Horizon stripper that only had a Chrysler A413 auto trans as an option. I loved driving that car; it was quick agile and I realized that you need not get 12MPG to blast away cars from red light to red light.
I went ahead and bought a 1982 TC3 Horizon as my first new car, and have to say that is was bang for the buck and reliable to boot. Other than a clutch at 89K miles and maintenance I beat that little 80HP 2.2l 2 barrel Holley car every chance I could get while getting 20MPG around town.
I went on to buy a 1986 Shelby Charger 2.2l turbo in the late 1980s that could EASILY blow away the 305V8 Camaros and 5.0 Mustangs of the era that had a whopping 145HP (Shelby Charger 2.2l intercooled was 180HP).
The L/M Body MOPARs were never credited with saving Mother MOPAR like the K CARs. I always had a theroy that these cars showed up before Iacocca and therfore never got the limelight they deserved.