Here are your Auto Factoids for the first week of March 2014.
3/4/1902 – American Automobile Association was formed. We call ‘Triple A” and most of us think about it as an insurance or travel agency with roadside assistance and it is that for sure. It was formed by nine motor clubs in a response to a lack of roads and highways suitable for automobiles. The group in part included the Chicago Automobile Club, Automobile Club of America, Automobile Club of New Jersey, and others. They began producing maps 1905 and hotel guides in 1917. The association branched out to include other programs such as teh Racing Board in 1902 to officiate the Vanderbilt Cup International Automobile Race in long island. This board alwo sanctioned the Indianapolis 500 and give the awards for national racing championships in 1905, 1916, 1920-1941 and 1946-1955.
3/5/1971 – Rolls-Royce get a bail-out loan from the Brittish Goverment
’71 Silver Shadow
Same day in 1952 Willis introduces the Aero-Ace. These came with the Hurricane 6 or the Lightning 6
Areo Ace
3/7/1929 – GM buys Opel
Opel was a Germany car company that produced it’s first cars were produced in 1899. Before that they were in the sowing machine and bicycle business. Opel designed and manufactured vehicles are also sold under the Buick brand in the United States, Canada, Mexico and China and the Vauxhall brand in the United Kingdom.
3/8/1969 – Pontiac give the world the iconic Trans Am
The Trans Am was a package for the Firebird. Although there were a total of 87,000 plus Firebirds and Trans Am produced for the year, there are some rare Trans Am’s put together:
114 Trans Am’s carried the L-74 RAM AIR III V8 between the fenders with the Turbo-Hydramatic
520 Trans Ams had the same L-74 and RAM set up only with the synchromesh transmission
There only 8 Trans Ams convertibles made and they all had the L-74s. If that’s not rare enough, try this: 4 of those had manual transmissions and 4 had the Hydramatic.
Likewise you count the number of Trans-Ams that were equipped with L-67 RAM AIR IV and the Turbo-Hydramatic in single digits – 9. There were 46 more that had the the synchromesh trans.
Thanks for reading.
Tim
