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 with 140.
Knox was sixth with 100.
Rounding out the bottom was Packard and Stanley with 81 and 80 respectively.
This is a 1901 Winton Racer..what's the guy in the front doing?
1901 Autocar
The 1901 Autocar has a shaft-drive engine, powered with a water-cooled, two-cylinder, horizontal-opposed engine in the front of the car. The gasoline tank and battery box were under the front seat.
I love auto history, and one of the areas I enjoy learning about is what car companies made to help support war efforts. So this series will be a small snapshot of the vehicles and some surprising other items. As a note, most of the makers didn’t just volunteer to stop producing cars, although most complied with the restrictions on materials – like not using chrome for the brightwork, which created the very collectible attribute for wartime cars – the blacked-out version.
First up, American Bantam. “Who?” you might be saying. Ok fine. Do these ring a bell:
The company started out as the American Austin Car company In 1930 and in 1934 became associated with the British Austin Car Company and then filed for bankruptcy. In 1935 it was revived as the American Bantam Car Company. They are credited with the first jeep prototype. (So any guesses as two one of their contributions during WWII?). The company stopped doing business in 1941.
Reach search show 3 main contributions for the American Bantam Company.
First up and one of the most important military vehicles.
As if that wasn’t enough the also produced two trailers for pulling behind the jeep.
1939 Bantam Pumper Trailer for use with the Jeep.
Impressive.
amphibious Trailer
And there you have it. American Bantam’s extremely important contributions to the World War II effort and tahe beginnings of one of the most versatile military vehicles…the Jeep!!
Chevy and it’s customer loved the Chevelle, the customers because of the low price and horse power, Chevy because of the sales. Now days a Chevelle is a highly sought after collector car. Finding a real good one is rare unless you want to play nearly a years salary.
Among those are clusters of the extremely rare. Within the production of the 1965 Chevelle there is an extremely rare version. That was the year Chevy took its brand new Mark IV 396 engine and hoisted it to the engine bay. It was the first of its kind (but not the last – the following year the 396 Chevelle became a regular model) with 375 hp and a 4 speed transmission. This was the special SS model of the Chevelle.
This was Code Z16 and only 201 1965’s were made with engine/transmission and trim, making this one of the rarest of the Chevelles SS.
Finishing up the front seats of Mustang and putting them back in the car. Yes, I know I should have gotten all the new carpet and the heat and sound deadening but I didn’t. They are easy enough to remove so not really a big deal. I did notice while the seats were out just how thin the carpeting actually was, there is nothing between it and the floor pans, I’ve got to get those done…soon…soon.
Here’s some shots of the final production.
Drivers seat
Passenger's Seat. This is the one I just finished.
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
I was just reading about the 2015 Mustang (yeah..they are planning it now) in the Oct 2011 Motor Trend.
It’s going to look great with a lower angled windshield and it will be lighter, but it will begin to lose it’s muscle car images, at least
underneath.
From the Motor Trend web site. 2-15 Mustang
The live axle will be gone, replaced with an independent rear suspension. Not really what you want to take to the track. There was talk that the live axle might live on in factory drag packs, but the tooling would be expensive and perhaps not cost-effective. We’ll see what actually happens.
Ford Live Axel
Independent Suspension.
But this is not focus of this blog entry. What I really want to mention was a side bar in the article. It is entitled “Icons on An Icon” “What should the next Mustang be?” Those interviewed were Jack Tenack who was a designer for Ford and global design vice president ( He actually drew the first proposal for the 1965 Mustang); Chris Theodore who was chief of Ford Motor Company’s North American product development (he left after a disagreement over the
suspension for the 2005 Mustang with Phil Martens); Tom Gale who had nothing to do with Ford at all, he was Chrysler design chief (now retired).
Generally Mr. Tenack stayed true to form, basically wanting small changes to the next issue of the Mustang, reinforcing the muscle car
image. He thinks all-wheel drive should be added as an option…that’s not horrible.
Mr.Theodore wants the new Mustang to have a 4 cyclinder…WHAT??? Yeah, get this, he’s like the V8 engines reserved for ‘specialty models”…can you say …hiss…boo??? “Hey, the 70’s called they want their paradigm back!!” Of course he led the charge to replace the live axle.
Mr. Gale thinks that we need to copy Europe and thinks the Mustang needs to be smaller. He says the Camaro is more similar to is predecessor then the Mustang is to its predecessor.
Drop me your thoughts. No V8? Live axle? Smaller ‘Stang?
One of the things I enjoy checking out is increase in the value of some of our US classic cars.
I recently ran across this breakdown in Hagerty Insurance magazine…it normally has some good articles. This one was about American Motors and it had a section on original cost of the cars and the current collector’s value. So check this out:
1967 Marlin – a cool looking car if you ask me – had a base prices of $2,963. Today that car will cost you about $23,100.
A good looking car in Two Tone paint.
1969 Javelin SST – love these cars – I once dated this girl who drove one and..oh…um..nevermind – back in the day they cost $3,144 and today average cost is $33,900.
69 Javelin SST
1970 AMX 390/325 – I know I’m suppose to love these cars – they being, perhaps the sporty-est of the AMC brand, but I don’t – they would run you $3,798 back then and now you can pick one up for a mere $55K!
1970 AMX
1972 Javelin SST – see my comment for the ’69 – base price in 1972 was $3,807 and today $22,400.
1973 Gremlin X Coupe – ok I really don’t care at all about these, except when I see them at the drag strip with a huge GM block stuffed between the fenders – they would set you back $2,098 back in ’72 and today you can get one have it mounted on a pole in the front yard for $11,700 (pole not included and labor extra and you’ll have to sign a waiver).
1973 Grebmlin X Coupe (Seen here without the pole)
1976 Pacer DL Coupe – well.. if wasn’t a DL coupe….ok even though it is…insert comment for Gremlin above – except for $15,000 you can pick one up today, remove the body from the frame, bury it upside down in backyard and with a little tweaking you can have a really cool hot tub.
1976 Pacer DL Coupe…just before it was turned into a hot tub!
OK..that was mean..here ya go:
’76 Pacer DL Sport Coupe
1978 Matador Hardtop Coupe would have tapped your wallet for nearly $5K (4,799) – I sort of liked these cars – but not a lot and today you can sort of like them for about $12,500 big ones.
78 Matador Coupe
Unless it look like this one!!!
This is the Matador X
Want to see some more brands laid out like this? Drop me a comment and I’ll dig some up.
I bumped in to Bill Holtzclaw from Cartersville, Georgia, virtually (Facebook) and he shared a few pics and some detail on his restoration of a 1967 Olds F-85.
Bill's F85
“I am doing a full, frame-off restoration on this 1967 F-85 Club Coupe. It has a convertible frame, 442 suspension, steel crank 330, .030 over with W-31 cam and 2” intake valves, close ratio Muncie 4 speed and heavy duty 3.91 posi rear. It is a radio delete, heater delete, carpet delete car with the factory cloth and vinyl interior. The drive train is built and the chassis is being assembled. The interior is done, the chrome and bright work is done. Next, we’ll pull the body and put it on a rotisserie. It will be two-tone Crystal and Midnight Blue.”
“I’ve had a lot of interest in this project from some of the leading Oldsmobile collectors in the country. It is my version of what would have been a 1967 W-31, which was introduced in 1968. All of the parts to build this car back in the day were available as either RPO options or over-the-counter upgrades. The W-30 package was available as an over-the-counter package in 1967. The W-30 cam and the W-31 cam are one in the same, and the OIA kit will work for both small block and big block cars. So, it was a possibility! ”
The upholstery turned out awesome! He used NOS fabric for the seat inserts. The car was a factory carpet delete car with a near-perfect vinyl floor covering. “I cleaned it and had it dyed the color blue (same as dash pad) that I wanted. It looks absolutely brand new! I had seat belts custom made to stock appearance, and the standard steering wheel came out nice, too.”
Check out the vinyl floor covering
“I had the gauges restored by R&M restorations in Greenville, SC. The odometer was re-set to zero.” The dash bezel was restored by Chrome Tech USA. They repaired the 44 year-old plastic, re-chromed it and then detail painted it. The radio and heater delete plates were purchased from Red Venom Enterprises. “They only make the radio plate, so I purchased two and trimmed one to fit the heater control panel and the PRNDL panel. ”
Bill did the polishing himself
He installed a Sunpro Mini Tach in place of the factory clock. Looks like it came from the factory that way!
Great Job - Bill!!
Final Product
Bill is also the owner of a 1967 Oldsmobile F-85 Town Sedan with “Police Apprehender” package. It has the HiPo 330/320 hp, Heavy Duty Jetaway and 442 suspension upgrades.
Nice!!!
Might be why he’s known as OldsMoBill. “I am also known as the “Oldsmobile Police”!” Bill states.
Bill, I hope you check back with your status from time to time and thank you for sharing.
I want to cover two more cars in this part. The first will be the TVR S3..?? ..yeah…me too! The second will the Caterham Seven.
TVR S3 was put up against the Triumph TR4 and frankly there is nothing I know about a TVR S3..so here we go.
TVR S3 C
TVR engineering started back in England in 1947 with the first TVR being produced in 1949. Here’s the 2nd TVR built:
#2 TVR
Through out its history it used all types of engines include the Ford Kent engines and even a Buick engine (3.5 litre Rover V8).
The S series was produced between 1986 – 1994. The TVR in this article had steel spaceframe chassis and a fiberglass body. The engine was an iron, overhead valve, 2936cc 12v V6 with electronic fuel injection. This power plant cranked out 168 hp and 170 lbft of torque. The suspension was an independent double wishbone with rack and pinion steering. This all combined to let the car reach its top speed of 135 mph.
In the comparison, the TVR S3 beat out the Triumph TR4 in Driving, Practicality, Character, Value and Usability 42 to 32. The price of the TVR S3 is about 4000 Euros with the Triumph at 13,000 Euros.
The company was sold to a Russian buyer in 2004 and after a not so great start the company halted production.
For a full history on the TVR – check out http://www.tvrsseries.com/
Next up is the Caterham 7:
Caterham Seven
The Caterham Seven is a kit car – you can still buy and build them today. Interesting enough it started out as the Lotus Six. The next version was the Lotus Seven, however Lotus dropped the production and Catherham purchased the rights to build the kits. The components are flexible with such pieces as Ford axles and de Dion-axles being used. The engines used is very expansive from the Lotus Twin Cam engine to Ford’s cross flow engines. Even Cosworth BDRs appeared around 1983, in 1600 cc 140 bhp (104 kW) form, followed by 1700 cc 150 bhp (112 kW) versions three years later. In the ’90’s the common engine had become the 2 litre Vauxhall HPC, as fitted to the Vauxhall Calibra, putting out 165—175 bhp. Motor cycle engines have been also used with the likes of the GSXR1300 engine used in the Suzuki and the Honda CBR1100 engine.
These are favorites for the SCCA and other grass-roots racing.
