Friday, October 11, 2013
Thursday, October 10, 2013
Chevy History
On November 3, 1911, Swiss race car driver and automotive engineer Louis Chevrolet co-founded the Chevrolet Motor Company in Detroit with William C. Durant and investment partners William Little (maker of the Little automobile) and Dr. Edwin R. Campbell (son-in-law of Durant) and in 1912 R. S. McLaughlin GEO of General Motors in Canada.
Durant was ousted from the management of General Motors in 1910 for five years. He took over the Flint Wagon Works, incorporating the Mason and Little companies. As head of Buick Motor Company prior to founding GM, Durant had hired Louis Chevrolet to drive Buicks in promotional races. Durant planned to use Chevrolet’s reputation as a racer as the foundation for his new automobile company.
Actual design work for the first Chevy, the costly Series C Classic Six, was drawn up by Etienne Planche, following instructions from Louis. The first C prototype was ready months before Chevrolet was actually incorporated. However the first actual production wasn’t until the 1912 model. So in essence there were no 1911 production models, only the 1 pre-production model was made.
Chevrolet first used the “bowtie emblem” logo in 1914 on the H series models (Royal Mail and Baby Grand) and The L Series Model (Light Six). It may have been designed from wallpaper Durant once saw in a French hotel room. More recent research by historian Ken Kaufmann presents a case that the logo is based on a logo of the “Coalettes” coal company. Others claim that the design was a stylized Swiss cross, in tribute to the homeland of Chevrolet’s parents.
Louis Chevrolet had differences with Durant over design and in 1915 sold Durant his share in the company. By 1916, Chevrolet was profitable enough with successful sales of the cheaper Series 490 to allow Durant to repurchase a controlling interest in General Motors. After the deal was completed in 1917, Durant became president of General Motors, and Chevrolet was merged into GM as a separate division. In 1917, Chevrolet’s factories were located at New York City; Tarrytown, N.Y.; Flint, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Oakland, California; Fort Worth, Texas, and Oshawa, Ontario General Motors of Canada Limited, McLaughlin’s were given GM Corporation stock for the proprietorship of their Company article Sept. 23, 1933 Financial Post page 9. In the 1918 model year, Chevrolet introduced the Series D, a V8-powered model in four-passenger roadster and five-passenger tourer models. Sales were poor and it was dropped in 1919.
Chevrolet continued into the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s competing with Ford, and after the Chrysler Corporation formed Plymouth in 1928, Plymouth, Ford, and Chevrolet were known as the “Low-priced three”. In 1933 Chevrolet launched the Standard Six, which was advertised in the United States as the cheapest six-cylinder car on sale.
Chevrolet had a great influence on the American automobile market during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1953 it produced the Corvette, a two-seater sports car with a fiberglass body. In 1957 Chevy introduced its first fuel-injected engine, the Rochester Ramjet option on Corvette and passenger cars, priced at $484. In 1960 it introduced the Corvair, with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine. In 1963 one out of every ten cars sold in the United States was a Chevrolet.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, the standard Chevrolet, particularly the deluxe Impala series, became one of America’s best-selling lines of automobiles in history.
The basic Chevrolet small-block V8 design has remained in continuous production since its debut in 1955, longer than any other mass-produced engine in the world, although current versions share few if any parts interchangeable with the original. Descendants of the basic small-block OHV V8 design platform in production today have been much modified with advances such as aluminum block and heads, electronic engine management, and sequential port fuel injection. Depending on the vehicle type, Chevrolet V8s are built in displacements from 4.3 to 9.4 liters with outputs ranging from 111 horsepower (83 kW) to 994 horsepower (741 kW) as installed at the factory. The engine design has also been used over the years in GM products built and sold under the Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Hummer, Opel (Germany), and Holden (Australia) nameplates.
In 2005, General Motors re-launched the Chevrolet marque in Europe, using rebadged versions of the Daewoo cars produced by GM Korea.
The Chevrolet division is currently recovering from the economic downturn of 2007–2010. GM began developing more fuel efficient cars and trucks to compete with foreign automakers. In late 2010 General Motors began production of the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt (and related Opel/Vauxhall Ampera), which later was announced as the 2012 North American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year, and World Green Car of the Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet
Durant was ousted from the management of General Motors in 1910 for five years. He took over the Flint Wagon Works, incorporating the Mason and Little companies. As head of Buick Motor Company prior to founding GM, Durant had hired Louis Chevrolet to drive Buicks in promotional races. Durant planned to use Chevrolet’s reputation as a racer as the foundation for his new automobile company.
Actual design work for the first Chevy, the costly Series C Classic Six, was drawn up by Etienne Planche, following instructions from Louis. The first C prototype was ready months before Chevrolet was actually incorporated. However the first actual production wasn’t until the 1912 model. So in essence there were no 1911 production models, only the 1 pre-production model was made.
Chevrolet first used the “bowtie emblem” logo in 1914 on the H series models (Royal Mail and Baby Grand) and The L Series Model (Light Six). It may have been designed from wallpaper Durant once saw in a French hotel room. More recent research by historian Ken Kaufmann presents a case that the logo is based on a logo of the “Coalettes” coal company. Others claim that the design was a stylized Swiss cross, in tribute to the homeland of Chevrolet’s parents.
Louis Chevrolet had differences with Durant over design and in 1915 sold Durant his share in the company. By 1916, Chevrolet was profitable enough with successful sales of the cheaper Series 490 to allow Durant to repurchase a controlling interest in General Motors. After the deal was completed in 1917, Durant became president of General Motors, and Chevrolet was merged into GM as a separate division. In 1917, Chevrolet’s factories were located at New York City; Tarrytown, N.Y.; Flint, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio; St. Louis, Missouri; Oakland, California; Fort Worth, Texas, and Oshawa, Ontario General Motors of Canada Limited, McLaughlin’s were given GM Corporation stock for the proprietorship of their Company article Sept. 23, 1933 Financial Post page 9. In the 1918 model year, Chevrolet introduced the Series D, a V8-powered model in four-passenger roadster and five-passenger tourer models. Sales were poor and it was dropped in 1919.
Chevrolet continued into the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s competing with Ford, and after the Chrysler Corporation formed Plymouth in 1928, Plymouth, Ford, and Chevrolet were known as the “Low-priced three”. In 1933 Chevrolet launched the Standard Six, which was advertised in the United States as the cheapest six-cylinder car on sale.
Chevrolet had a great influence on the American automobile market during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1953 it produced the Corvette, a two-seater sports car with a fiberglass body. In 1957 Chevy introduced its first fuel-injected engine, the Rochester Ramjet option on Corvette and passenger cars, priced at $484. In 1960 it introduced the Corvair, with a rear-mounted air-cooled engine. In 1963 one out of every ten cars sold in the United States was a Chevrolet.
During the 1960s and early 1970s, the standard Chevrolet, particularly the deluxe Impala series, became one of America’s best-selling lines of automobiles in history.
The basic Chevrolet small-block V8 design has remained in continuous production since its debut in 1955, longer than any other mass-produced engine in the world, although current versions share few if any parts interchangeable with the original. Descendants of the basic small-block OHV V8 design platform in production today have been much modified with advances such as aluminum block and heads, electronic engine management, and sequential port fuel injection. Depending on the vehicle type, Chevrolet V8s are built in displacements from 4.3 to 9.4 liters with outputs ranging from 111 horsepower (83 kW) to 994 horsepower (741 kW) as installed at the factory. The engine design has also been used over the years in GM products built and sold under the Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick, Hummer, Opel (Germany), and Holden (Australia) nameplates.
In 2005, General Motors re-launched the Chevrolet marque in Europe, using rebadged versions of the Daewoo cars produced by GM Korea.
The Chevrolet division is currently recovering from the economic downturn of 2007–2010. GM began developing more fuel efficient cars and trucks to compete with foreign automakers. In late 2010 General Motors began production of the plug-in electric Chevrolet Volt (and related Opel/Vauxhall Ampera), which later was announced as the 2012 North American Car of the Year, European Car of the Year, and World Green Car of the Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet
Dodge History
By 1921, after the deaths of the Dodge brothers, Graham Brothers started selling 1.5 ton pickups through Dodge dealers; it had Graham bodies and Dodge parts. A one ton model showed up later in the 1920s, still powered by that same four cylinder engine, and Dodge Brothers bought a controlling interest in Graham Brothers in 1925, picking up the rest in 1926.
In 1928, Chrysler acquired the Dodge Brothers company, just after launched its DeSoto and Fargo truck brands, both of which competed directly with Dodge Brothers. Fargo trucks sold in the US from 1928 through 1930, and continued for decades as an export brand; they had nothing in common with Dodge trucks, sharing parts with Plymouth and DeSoto instead.
Dodge introduced a half-ton pickup for 1929 just after its acquisition by Chrysler, the last “original” Dodge Brothers-designed truck. For this year, three engines were available – two Dodge engines with six cylinders (63 and 78 hp), and a Maxwell four cylinder that was substantially smaller than the Dodge engine, but produced more power (45 hp).
The trucks had four wheel hydraulic brakes, a significant safety feature by no means standard on competing pickups, but standard across Chrysler Corporation vehicles.
http://www.allpar.com/model/ram/ram-history.html
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