I was reading the other day and I came across a car manufacturer that I hadn’t heard of prior and yes it was an American car maker. The maker was Velie.
1911 Velie passenger car
Like some car manufacturers Velie started out as a carriage maker (as in horse and carriage). The owner was Willard Velie and we received his funding from this mother who was the wife of John Deer. Yes that John Deer. It’s not exactly clear if John Deer was is father, but we’ll assume it was so.
Willard created Velie Motor Vehicles Co. in 1908 and produced their first car in 1909. It was a 4 cylinder and sold 1000 units and were sold though John Deer dealerships. The 1909 and 1910 models primarily used existing engine but in 1911 build their own. In that same year the Velie car participated in the Indianapolis 500 and finished 17th out of 46.
1911 Racer
That helped keep car production was at 3,500 vehicles a year. By 1914 Velie added a six-cylinder side-valve Continental engine to the mix of power plants. and by 1918 only offered six cylinders. The car became so popular and reliable that a few folks in Louisiana name a town after the car.
In 1918 Velie won the race at Pikes Peak which helped increase production to 9000 a year cars by 1920.
In 1928 they introduced the an 8 cylinder engine a Continental straight eight and were a roll so to speak. (Not to mention their little side business for producing air planes.) However that was not to be, Willard died in late 1928 and Willard Jr. died a few months in 1929 later. That ended the Velie Motor Vehicle Co.
John Deer company bought the plant and well they sold a few tractors now and then.
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
Thanks for all the comments and emails on the Part 1 of the Cars You Never Heard Of.
Thought I’d follow it up with the Panther Kallista. This stems from the same article in “Classic and Sport Car” a UK publication. The article pitted pricey European cars against less expensive cars and rated them. It’s over all theme was “See you can get this close to the expensive cars, for less.”
1985 Panther Kallista
Kallista was the product of the Panther Car Company and they were built between 1980 and 1990, actually coming on the market in about 1982. The were a box chassis with an aluminum body. The engine that was first used was Fords 2.8 V6 which cranked out 2792 cc from its 12v configuration. The electronic fuel injection helped it deliver 150 hp and 159 lb ft of torque. Top speed was about 120 mph with the help of the 5 speed manual transmission.
In the article Kallista was compared against the Morgan Plus 8 which you can purchase now days for about 35,000 British Pounds (about $70k US) compared to the collectors price of 7,000 BP ($14k US). In that contest comparing Driving, Practicality, Character, Value and Usability the Morgan was judged with a total of 37 points and the Panther Kallista end up with 35.
I did find one on Ebay with a few days still to go with a current bid of just over $4k. It’s an 1986, 4 cylinder – not a V6.
Some people are visual creatures and some are more in tune with the mechanics of life. I am a visual creature. The shape and colors of things are what I see first. So the whole idea of designing and drawing cars just fascinates me. Since this is a Mustang enthusiast website, thinking of what the next Mustang will look like is a mini obsession of mine.
Back in September of 2009, I started following a blog on the design of the new Mustang for 2014. And what appeared on that blog just blew me away.
Now I realize that Area 51 exists for more than just concealing a crashed alien space ship. It is also a test area for military vapor ware that we may see 20 years or so after it is new, you know, after it becomes obsolete and is no longer top secret. Well, getting a glimpse into the design studios of a major car company is like getting a tour of Area 51. You may see things that amaze and confuse and things you may have thought only existed in someone’s twisted imagination.
So how would it feel to get a whole truck load of sketches of the 2010 Mustang, drawn by one of the designers, just months after the new design was introduced? Yeah, it was pretty special. Rob Jensen was one of the designers of the 2010 Mustang, specifically, the GT500. Now, maybe you have seen these sketches before. Maybe they amazed and confused you back then, as they were way too “artsey” for a production car. But some parts and pieces of them made it onto the 2010 cars and some of them were left on the drawing board, literally.
For the Mustang Enthusiast in the crowd that leans towards the visual, stunning design side of cars, please enjoy the collection of sketches in our gallery below. Some are from Rob Jensen, some are from others on the Ford Mustang design team. Still others are designs by professional artists and amateurs that put together some very impressive Future ‘Stangs.
One thing to keep in mind, if you are seeing it here, out in the open, then most likely it looks absolutely nothing like the next Mustang will look. Think of this as the Area 51 Museum of Mustang design. If you like something you see, give the artist some love as I will try to provide links to as many of the artists as I can. If there is another artist out there that we need to know about, definitely put them in the comments or drop us a line.
3. Reader choice – you choose the next engine to highlight
I have a couple commercial ventures on the near horizon:
1. Certified Auto Appraiser – I’m about to finish my certification and will be specializing in Classic, Muscle, Antique and speciality cars.
2. Auto restoration project management. Focus is on those individuals that love their cars, but don’t have the time nor the experience to know what needs to be done. I’m actually waiting for my first car. It is a 1975 VW Bug coming all the way from Iowa City, Iowa, should be here this will for inspection and the beginning of its restoration.
So what engine would you want to see highlighted? Drop me a note here or on Facebook.
I was recently talking to a coworker of mine who own a 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak Delivery Van (link – http://wp.me/pKHNM-Bx ) and we were discussing his 6 volt system and the troubles with low amperage.
Well I just ran across a couple of interesting articles dealing with that subject. Now I will tell you I am not “the guy” for electrical work – nope not me (I had a bad experience – ok – a couple of bad ones). But even this one I can understand.
Increasing the power supply often means that you need to convert to 12 volt and maybe 15 years ago yes, but now 6 volts are readily available. So here is what you do (sorry no pics)
Take two 6 volt batters and link them in parallel by connecting the two negative terminals to each other and the two positive to each other. The main positive cable goes from the positive terminal of the first battery to ground and the main negative cable is connected to the negative terminal of the second battery. Of course in some case you may have to modify the batter shelf, but it will sure help kick up the cold cranking amps.
Folks seem to like this segment so let’s continue with 1950.
19 major car makers existed back then and Chevy topped the production totals with 1,498,590 units followed closely by Ford with 1, 208,912. The rest of the field were all less than have that.
From Michael Woodword – hey, I just got a 1993 thunderbird with a 5.0 HO. every time I come to a stop, the oil pressure drops dramatically. I was wanting to know if you would have any idea what could cause this. Thank You
But when I get back up to speed its fine.
It would be nice to get an opinion from an expert which ar
nt easy to find
ANSWER: Michael. The pressure should drop when you stop, dramatic swings in the gauge could be a problem with the gauge or you need replace your oil sending unit.
I recent attended a showing of the latest Transformers movie (“Dark Side of the Moon“) and if you know anything about this series or of the cartoon of years gone by, you’ll know that the main characters are machines that turn in to robots. Most of these are vehicles, cars, trucks, semis and even military aircraft.
The car group included a lot of chevys this time, a Camaro which is one of the main stairs, an Impala and a Corvette (actually a representation of a prototype Corvette). The Corvette transformed into a rollerblading robot – which I thought unfitting of my favorite car.
There is the human hero and of course a hot model as his object of desire.
When the hot model was threatened or in harm’s way you could hear the audience get involved. But when an evil robot was about to execute the Camaro character the audience got really vocal. Kids cried at that images, thinking that the Camaro was about to get wacked, forget about the girl….just don’t hurt the car!!!
Yes we love your cars. Oh and the good cars – the Chevy‘s– saved the world again.
But that’s movies and you can just enjoy it with no lasting harmful effects..unless you are me or maybe it wasn’t me but the subliminal messages. I left wanting a Camaro, but not just any 2012 Camaro, but a yellow with black striped bumble bee Camaro.
It must be subliminal messages, I had the same desire after watching Will Smith zip through the empty streets of New York City in the 2007 Shelby GT500 Mustang in his move ‘I Am Legend’ yes the red with white stripes.
