CarPort

As tradition tells it, Fred Tone was watching the unloading of automobile chassis when he had one of those “better idea” moments. The frames were stacked upside down. Why not build cars that way, he reasoned, with axles above the chassis. They would have a much lower center of gravity and thus better handling. Tone….
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Timing, as they say, is everything. International Harvester’s timing seemed ideal, when it introduced the new Scout utility vehicle as a ’61 model. Intended to challenge the Jeep CJ-5, it offered more modern styling and a dose of creature comforts. Power came from a “half-V8” slant four, derived from a truck engine. Scouts could be….
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Everybody knows that Fluid Drive was Chrysler Corporation’s answer to Hydra-Matic, and that it goes “clunk” when it shifts. Everybody’s half right. Indeed, Fluid Drive, introduced on Chrysler cars for 1939 and extended to DeSoto and Dodge in 1941, was Chrysler’s weapon in the shiftless wars, arriving a year before Hydra-Matic and proving to be….
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Queen Isabella I is best known for bankrolling Christopher Columbus in his quest to the New World. Less remembered is her role, with husband Ferdinand (Ferdinand II of Aragon, Ferdinand V of Castile – he wore two crowns), in instigating the Spanish Inquisition. Which one, we might wonder, was on Carl Borgward’s mind when he….
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Gregg D. Merksamer is no shrinking violet. Heads turn when he enters a space; conversation stops as shock and awe spread through the room. It’s no surprise, then, that Gregg D’s recent visit to the North American International Auto Show landed him in the pages of the Detroit News. Gregg D., whose regular beat runs….
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Walter Chrysler and I have something in common. When he was 33 he bought a Locomobile and took it apart. I know the feeling: during the summer I turned nine I bought a Ford and did the same thing. I knew I’d have a car sooner or later. I’d been consumed by them from my….
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De sooner, de better. Chances are, if you live in the United States, your mail is delivered in one of these Long Life Vehicles. Ours is; if you live in a city yours may be brought to your door by an ambulatory carrier. Since 1986, the United States Postal Service has purchased nearly 100,000 LLVs….
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The French had a word for it: “automobile,” combining Greek and Latin roots, though it was initially used as an adjective, as in voiture automobile (self-propelled conveyance). First used around 1890, the term did not catch on in the United States until 1899, when it replaced “motocycle;” in Britain “motor car” was preferred and still….
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I’ve owned 40-some cars in my lifetime, but only one Cadillac. In the summer of 1967, in a misguided fit of youthful enthusiasm, I bought a boat. Since my Austin-Healey Sprite was an inappropriate tow car, I looked around for something heftier. After considering a 1955 Cadillac, a 1960 Lincoln and the car I should….
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Alfred P. Sloan’s doctrine of “a car for every purse and purpose” was firmly entrenched by the early 1930s. General Motors had a clear cascade of makes, from Cadillac at the top of the market to Chevrolet at the bottom. Walter Chrysler recognized the phenomenon, which led him to introduce price-leader Plymouth to balance his….
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