The History Book Club discussion

This is a thread which will focus on the "history of the automobile".

Probably one of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful car, ever made is the Talbot-Lago "Teardrop" with coachwork by Figoni et Falaschi (who also made coachwork for Delage, another gorgeous car). This is the 1938 model. These were made in France during the time when cars had an art deco design. I was lucky enough to see one at the Hershey(PA) show, one of the largest car shows in the U.S.
Trust me, this is rolling art!

Very sleek Jill. Thanks for the post and image.

I love cars from that era......so beautiful.

Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 1903-2003

Douglas G. Brinkley

Synopsis

The saga of how Henry Ford and Ford Motor Co. changed our world. Reveals the details of Ford's achievements, from the success of the Tin Lizzie to the Model A and V-8, through the Thunderbird, Mustang, and Taurus. Innovators include: Thomas Edison, Alfred Sloan, the Wright Bros., Diego Rivera, and Charles Lindbergh. Discusses 3 factories: Highland Park, River Rouge, and Willow Run, where B-24 airplanes were mass-produced during WW2. Tells of Ford's expansion throughout the world, as well as the acquisitions of Volvo, Land Rover, Jaguar, and Mazda. Explores Ford's darker aspects, incl. its founder's anti-Semitism and wartime pacifism. Introduces us to: James Couzens, Lee Iocacco and William Clay Ford Jr.

Billy, Alfred, and General Motors: The Story of Two Unique Men, a Legendary Company, and a Remarkable Time in American History

William Pelfrey

Synopsis

"You couldn't find two more different men. Billy Durant was the consummate salesman, a brilliant wheeler-dealer with grand plans, unflappable energy, and a fondness for the high life. Alfred Sloan was the intellectual, an expert in business strategy and management, master of all things organizational. Together, this odd couple built perhaps the most successful enterprise in U.S. history, General Motors, and with it an industry that has come to define modern life throughout the world. Their story is full of timeless lessons, cautionary tales, and inspiration for business leaders and history buffs alike. "Billy, Alfred, and General Motors" is the tale not just of the two extraordinary men of its title but also of the formative decades of twentieth-century America, through two world wars and sea changes in business, industry, politics, and culture. The book includes vivid, warts - and - all portraits of the legends of the golden age of the automobile, from "Crazy" Henry Ford, Ransom Olds, and Charles Nash to the brilliant but uncredited David Dunbar Buick and Cadillac founder Henry Leland. The impact of Durant and Sloan on their contemporaries and their industry is matched only by the powerful legacy of their improbable and incredible partnership. Characters, events, and context - all are brought skillfully and passionately to life in this meticulously researched and supremely readable book."

The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors

Axel Madsen

Synopsis

The roller-coaster life of the flamboyant creator of General Motors

William C. Durant did big things the big way: he overreached, but, until his final failure, he picked up the pieces time after time to confound his competitors. From a turbulent childhood in the small town of Flint, Michigan, to his phenomenal success in creating General Motors, Durant's meteoric career easily rivals the success stories of modern legends like Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates. With his trademark smile and personal charisma, Durant assembled General Motors in a few short years, buying companies at the rate of one every thirty days. Durant's deal-making artistry even tempted Henry Ford, and had Durant upped his acquisition price Ford would be a division of GM today.

Durant's story illuminates the conflict between innovation and control of innovation -of the uneasy alliances struck again and again between inventors and their sources of capital. His years of heady success building General Motors were marked by epic struggles with bankers. But he depended on only a few sources of big money to finance his exploding business, and pitted himself against forces he underestimated or refused to consider. Gambling on a run on GM stock, he was finally forced into a buyout that ousted him from his role in the GM empire.

Into the dramatic tale of this early twentieth-century mogul come the fascinating automotive pioneers -Henry Ford, David Buick, Charles Nash, Albert Champion, Louis Chevrolet, and Alfred P. Sloan. On Wall Street, J. P. Morgan turned down Durant's request for a loan while Pierre du Pont invested in Durant's expansion. Tracing the fortunes of a man and his era, The Deal Maker is a fast-paced, rousing tale of Durant's dizzying success and ultimate failure.

The Fisher Body Craftsman's Guild: An Illustrated History

John L. Jacobus

Synopsis
The Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild was a national auto design competition sponsored by the Fisher Body Division of General Motors. This competition was for teenagers to compete for college scholarships by designing and building scale model “dream” cars. Held from the 1930s through the 1960s, it helped identify and nurture a whole generation of designers and design executives. This richly illustrated book presents the history of the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild, from its inception as a philanthropic project by the Fisher family during the Great Depression, to its expansion overseas, and finally to its end in 1968. Many former participants in this famous model building and design competition share their memories and photographs of their models, some of which are startlingly inventive even when viewed today. Virgil M. Exner, Jr., Charles M. Jordan, Robert W. Henderson, Robert A. Cadaret, Richard Arbib, Elia ‘Russ’ Russinoff, Galen Wickersham, Ronald C. Hill, Edward F. Taylor, George R. Chartier, Charles W. Pelly, Gary Graham, Charles A. Gibilterra, E. Arthur Russell, William A. Moore, Terry R. Henline, Paul Tatseos, Allen T. Weideman, Kenneth J. Dowd, Stuart Shuster, John M. Mellberg, Harry E. Schoepf, and Ronald J. Will, are among those designers and design executives who participated in the Guild. The book also describes many aspects of the miniature model Napoleonic Coach and other scale model cars the students designed.

A Reliable Car and a Woman Who Knows It: The First Coast-To-Coast Auto Trips by Women, 1899-1916

Curt McConnell

Synopsis
The audacity of driving a horseless carriage from coast to coast in the early years of the 20th century is hard to imagine in an age of superhighways and global positioning systems. Roads might be nothing more than muddy ruts made by wagon wheels; sources of gasoline or replacement parts were few and agonizingly far between; frequent repairs and tire changes were necessary; and the traveler was subject to the whole range of nature's perils and discomforts.
For a woman to attempt the trip was, at the time, a jaw-dropping event. Yet in 1909, 22-year-old Alice Ramsey and three female companions piled into a Maxwell in New York City, and 59 days later they triumphantly rolled into San Francisco. A few years later silent film star Anita King would become the first woman to make the transcontinental drive solo. These and other early coast-to-coast drives proved women's growing independence, as well as the automobile's long-distance viability.
Detailed accounts of five coast-to-coast drives make up this lively history. Drawing from plentiful contemporary newspaper reports and the women's own words, author Curt McConnell recounts the bold adventurers' experiences day by day and mile by mile.

The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History

by Jason Vuic (no photo)

Synopsis
Six months after its American introduction in 1985, the Yugo was a punch line; within a year, it was a staple of late-night comedy. By 2000, NPR’s Car Talk declared it “the worst car of the millennium.” And for most Americans that’s where the story begins and ends. Hardly. The short, unhappy life of the car, the men who built it, the men who imported it, and the decade that embraced and discarded it is rollicking and astounding, and one of the greatest untold business-cum-morality tales of the 1980s. Mix one rabid entrepreneur, several thousand “good” communists, a willing U.S. State Department, the shortsighted Detroit auto industry, and improvident bankers, shake vigorously, and you’ve got The Yugo: The Rise and Fall of the Worst Car in History.


Brilliantly re-creating the amazing confluence of events that produced the Yugo, Yugoslav expert Jason Vuic uproariously tells the story of the car that became an international joke: The American CEO who happens upon a Yugo right when his company needs to find a new import or go under. A State Department eager to aid Yugoslavia’s nonaligned communist government. Zastava Automobiles, which overhauls its factory to produce an American-ready Yugo in six months. And a hole left by Detroit in the cheap subcompact market that creates a race to the bottom that leaves the Yugo . . . at the bottom.

My dad had a Yugo. I remember it well.

Probably the greatest sports car made in the United States (sorry, Thunderbird lovers), owning a Corvette was every young boy's dream. This book covers them all, beginning with the less than perfect 1953 model which was a bit of a clunker through today's mighty machines.


The Complete Book of Corvette: Every Model Since 1953

by Mike Mueller (no photo)

Synopsis

An exhaustive review of six generations of American high performance, from the first 6-cylinder ’Vette of 1953 through today’s fire-breathing, world-beating C6, The Complete Book of Corvette offers an in-depth look at the prototypes and experimental models, the anniversary and pace cars, and the specialty packages for street and competition driving that have made the Corvette a living automotive legend for more than half a century. With extensive details, specs, and photographic coverage, this book is the ultimate resource on America’s sports car. Officially licensed with Chevrolet and including many never-before-published photographs from the carmaker’s archives.

Bryan, what did you remember about it - anything good - did it have some redeeming qualities?

Who doesn't love the iconic Volkswagen Beetle but how many know that it originated in Nazi Germany as the "peoples car". Regardless of its origins, it is known all over the world by its unusual silhouette and its re-introduction in the US in 1998 was a great business move by the company, as the attraction of these little cars was still extant.

Thinking Small: The Long, Strange Trip of the Volkswagen Beetle

by Andrea Hiott (no photo)

Synoopsis
Sometimes achieving big things requires the ability to think small. This simple concept was the driving force that propelled the Volkswagen Beetle to become an avatar of American-style freedom, a household brand, and a global icon. The VW Bug inspired the ad men of Madison Avenue, beguiled Woodstock Nation, and has recently been re-imagined for the hipster generation. And while today it is surely one of the most recognizable cars in the world, few of us know the compelling details of this car’s story. In Thinking Small, journalist and cultural historian Andrea Hiott retraces the improbable journey of this little car that changed the world.

Andrea Hiott’s wide-ranging narrative stretches from the factory floors of Weimar Germany to the executive suites of today’s automotive innovators, showing how a succession of artists and engineers shepherded the Beetle to market through periods of privation and war, reconstruction and recovery. Henry Ford’s Model T may have revolutionized the American auto industry, but for years Europe remained a place where only the elite drove cars. That all changed with the advent of the Volkswagen, the product of a Nazi initiative to bring driving to the masses. But Hitler’s concept of “the people’s car” would soon take on new meaning. As Germany rebuilt from the rubble of World War II, a whole generation succumbed to the charms of the world’s most huggable automobile.

Indeed, the story of the Volkswagen is a story about people, and Hiott introduces us to the men who believed in it, built it, and sold it: Ferdinand Porsche, the visionary Austrian automobile designer whose futuristic dream of an affordable family vehicle was fatally compromised by his patron Adolf Hitler’s monomaniacal drive toward war; Heinrich Nordhoff, the forward-thinking German industrialist whose management innovations made mass production of the Beetle a reality; and Bill Bernbach, the Jewish American advertising executive whose team of Madison Avenue mavericks dreamed up the legendary ad campaign that transformed the quintessential German compact into an outsize worldwide phenomenon.

Thinking Small is the remarkable story of an automobile and an idea. Hatched in an age of darkness, the Beetle emerged into the light of a new era as a symbol of individuality and personal mobility—a triumph not of the will but of the imagination.(

Bentley wrote: "Bryan, what did you remember about it - anything good - did it have some redeeming qualities?"

It really did fill a niche: great gas mileage. It was like riding in a tin can but it got the job done.

Well there you go - it wasn't all bad. Do you remember why he bought it - did your Mom have any say in the purchase? Or was it something your Dad decided.

My parents were separated by then and he needed something inexpensive and good on mileage.

Oh, so I guess it worked and was good on mileage.

Bryan....you are the only person I know who had a Yugo or was related to someone who had one. I wonder if there is a Yugo Owners Club? :0)

It didn't hold up for too long; my dad broke his leg, so my mom took the car and it didn't last much longer. She traded it in for a Ford pick-up :-)

Wise move - your Mom must have been the realist in the family (smile)

Wonder what the Blue Book value of the Yugo was?????

In 1982, not much

Many young people never heard of the Studebaker.....the beloved "Studie" but it was a strong and classic marque in American automobile history for years. From the 1950 bullet-nosed to the Golden Hawk and the Avanti, they are now seriously collectable.

More Than They Promised: The Studebaker Story



Synopsis:

This lavishly illustrated book on the famous automobile manufacturer traces the Studebaker family from its arrival in America in 1736, to the beginnings of the wagon business under John M. Studebaker and his brothers in the nineteenth century, to the family’s entry into the automobile industry in 1902, to the last Studebaker automobile to roll off the assembly line in 1966.

The book, however, is much more than the story of a family business; it is also, in microcosm, the story of the industrial development of America. The Studebakers had always been industrialists in the sense that they made their living by manufacturing things, albeit on a small scale. When the Industrial Revolution hit the country with full force, spurred on by the Civil War, it transformed America from a rural-agrarian society into an urban-industrial one. The fortunes of the Studebaker family were transformed with it.

As the title suggests, the Studebaker story was mostly one of success. Studebaker wagons and carriages were long noted for their quality and popularity, and so, too, were Studebaker automobiles. The 1953 Starliner and the 1963 Avanti, designed under Raymond Loewy’s direction, are widely regarded as among the most innovative examples of American industrial design.

The book deals in detail with the soaring prosperity of the company in the 1920s, the bankruptcy and miraculous recovery in the 1930s, the stupendous success of the early post-World War II period, and the eventual decline of the company’s fortunes in the mid-1950s. It describes the development of such famous models as the Lark, Avanti, and Gran Tourisimo Hawk, with special attention paid to the Avanti II, a surprisingly successful spinoff from the dying company that continued to be produced until 1991. The final chapter, on why Studebaker died, is tightly reasoned and more convincing than previous theories. Throughout, the author has used personal incident and characterization to bring to life the rich, tumultuous history of one of America’s longest enduring industrial empires.

Before the Smart Car and the Cube and all those little cars that we see today, there was the American Bantam. There were few made and they are very collectable today. Top speed?....about 50mph (maybe) but they are head turners at car shows. The model shown below is the 1939 Roadster.



The American Bantam

The American Austin Car Company was founded in 1929, in Butler, Pennsylvania in premises that had belonged to the Standard Steel Car Company. Their intention was to assemble and sell in the United States a version of the Austin 7 car, called American Austin. After some initial success the Great Depression set in, and sales fell off to the point that production was suspended. In 1934 the company filed for bankruptcy.

The automobile was designed in the hopes of creating a market for small-car enthusiasts in the United States. The cars had 747 cc inline-four engines and looked something like small Chevrolets with Stutz and Marmon-style horizontal hood louvres. The bodies were designed by Alexis de Sakhnoffsky and made by the Hayes Body Company of Detroit. The coupe was billed as a sedan, and sold for $445, slightly less than a Ford V8 roadster. The Great Depression made the cheaper secondhand cars more appealing, so sales dropped off.

More than 8000 cars were sold during the company's first (and best) year of sales, but sales fell off to the point that production was suspended in 1932. It restarted in 1934 with bodies now made in-house but stopped again between 1935 and 1937.

About 20,000 cars were produced.

From the 1960s the car gained a following with drag racers, who used them as base material for altereds. These were hybrid off-street driven hot rods and all out drag racing machines.

In 1935 Roy Evans, a former salesman for Austin, bought out the bankrupt company, which was reorganized under the name American Bantam. ("Bantam" is a smaller-bred version of any particular poultry breed — the name must have been chosen for the size of the automobiles that the company made.) The formal connection with UK Austin was severed, though a relationship was maintained. A series of changes was made to the American Austin car design, including a modified engine, and an exterior sheetmetal designed by Alexis de Sakhnoffsky.

Production was resumed in 1937 and continued through 1941. Despite a wide range of Bantam body styles, ranging from light trucks to woodie station wagons, only about 6,000 Bantams of all types were produced.

Jill wrote: "Before the Smart Car and the Cube and all those little cars that we see today, there was the American Bantam. There were few made and they are very collectable today. Top speed?....about 50mph (may..."

What a head turner, eh? Cool little car!!

They are really teeny....it is the kind of car you could call "precious".

Bryan wrote: "Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company, and a Century of Progress, 1903-2003

Douglas G...."

A friend just sent me this link which I think goes well here: (The Race That Changed Everything)

http://www.youtube.com/embed/POXqGsgAtaY

Harley Earl was one of the great innovators in American car design. Everytime you look at the fins on a 1958 Cadillac, you can thank him.

Harley Earl

byStephen Bayley (no photo)

Synopsis:

If Henry Ford said, "You can have it any color as long as it is black", the rejoinder came from Harley Earl. He was the man who gave the American car of the 1950's its distinctive flash and swagger, all tailfins, twotone color and chrome.

__________________________________________________

A beautiful example of his design genius.

Well that color will wake you up.

With a forward by car collector Jay Leno, this book covers the lifetime of the Packard automobile.....from the simply beautiful cars of the 20s through 30s, to the clunky and unattractive later models when Packard and Studebaker merged in an attempt to save their marques. It didn't work.

Packard

by Dennis Adler

Synopsis:

Foreword by Jay Leno. The author delivers the complete history of this magnificent marque, from Packard's first Model A horseless carriage of 1899, to the company's final days in 1958. Archival black-and-white photographs, stunning new color photos, and a thorough and well-researched text guide you through Packard's stylish lineup.

London: A rare 1960s Ferrari convertible sold last night in California for a record $27.5 million.

The 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4*S NART Spyder’s price was the most paid at auction for the Italian car maker anywhere in the world and the most for any car bought at a US public sale.

“The NART Spyder is a very special car,” the UK-based dealer John Collins, who was the underbidder at the RM Auctions event, said in a telephone interview. “They’re so rare. They’re among the most beautiful of all Ferraris. Some of the biggest collectors in the world own one, and Steve McQueen tried to buy this one after he crashed his,” said Collins, of the Telacrest dealership.

Classic Ferrari racers from the 1950s and 1960s are the world’s most consistently valuable motor cars, dominating both the auction and private market. Prices for the marque’s investment-grade road cars have surged in 2013. The HAGI F index of collectible Ferraris has climbed 34.3% this year through July, according to the London-based analysts, the Historic Automobile Group International.

The RM event forms part of a bellwether series of classic
car sales on the West Coast that also includes high-value selections from Gooding & Co. and Bonhams.

Estimated by RM at $14 million to $17 million, the Ferrari had been entered by family of the late North Carolina businessman Eddie Smith Sr., the car’s one and only owner.

Racing team
The NART Spyder -- named after the North American Racing Team -- was the brainchild of Luigi Chinetti, Ferrari’s North American importer. Only 10 were built.

“Canadian fashion entrepreneur Lawrence Stroll, a motor racing enthusiast, was bidding in the room via an intermediary,” dealers said, who also identified Stroll as the buyer.
An after-hours call to Stroll’s New York office to confirm the purchase was not immediately returned. Stroll built Tommy Hilfiger into a global brand in the 1990s.

“Proceeds of the sale of the Ferrari will be donated to charity,” RM said.

The price, which included fees, was the second-highest for any car at a public sale after the 19.6 million pounds ($29.7 million) given for a 1954 Mercedes-Benz W196 that Juan Manuel Fangio drove to two Grand Prix victories, sold by Bonhams in Goodwood, U.K., on July 12.
The actress Faye Dunaway described another example of the NART Spyder as one of those red Italian things when it appeared in the 1968 movie, The Thomas Crown Affair.

“Dunaway’s co-star, Steve McQueen, was also among the first owners of the exclusive convertible that would have cost about $15,000 at the time,” dealers said.

Arizona Ferraris
Ferraris from the 1950s and ’60s sold this year include two 250 GT models that raised $8.25 million and $8.1 million at Gooding and RM respectively at sales in Arizona in January.

The market for classic cars continues to expand. This latest California series of auctions, which ends tonight, is estimated to exceed $325 million, a record for the series, according to Michigan-based analysts Hagerty. Last year RM, Gooding and Bonhams raised in excess of $220 million, a 33% increase on 2011.

The previous record for any car sold at auction in the US was the $16.4 million paid for a 1957 Testa Rossa prototype at Gooding in California in August 2011.
The record price paid for any car remains the $35 million given in a private transaction in June 2012 for a 1962 Ferrari GTO 250 racer made for the U.K. driver Stirling Moss, traders confirmed to Bloomberg.
“California sets the temperature of the market,” Simon Kidston, founder of the Geneva-based classic car adviser Kidston SA, said before Saturday’s sale. “The rarest classic cars are selling extremely well and the prices are just going in one direction. Ferraris have become the equivalent of Google stock.”

Muse highlights include Manuela Hoelterhoff on arts, Catherine Hickley on German art, James Clash on adventure, James Russell on architecture and John Mariani on wine.

Article: http://www.livemint.com/Companies/5Jp...
Source: Bloomberg

Note: During the 1980’s I was employed in the textile hosiery industry. Eddie Smith was my #1 customer and the company I worked for was Eddie’s #1 supplier. I’d generally visit with Eddie and his associates once a week. Eddie, who passed away in 2007, grew up in an orphanage, never forgot his roots and his life was every bit a true American success story. He was a professional businessman, very humble, quick to laugh, a roll model, an inspiration to me, and above all he lived each day of life to it’s fullest more than anyone I can recall. Eddie, who occasionally drove his Ferrari to work, mentioned to me that he chose not carry insurance on the car as it was too expensive. In the mid-80’s he mentioned to me that he had not had an offer for his car, but had received two out of the blue within one week, one from Atlanta and one from California. They asked if he knew how much his car was worth and he stated that a hard top had recently sold for 1 million so his convertible and the fact he was the original owner, must be 2 million or so. He was not interested in selling.

In the late 1980’s he drove a new hardtop Ferrari he also owned to tour the Biltmore House and the attendant let him park near the mansion. He laughed when he overheard a little girl telling her parents that the owners had arrived.

A neighbor of mine, who owns an Italian sports car dealership, recently repainted the auctioned Ferrari, very professionally I must say.
http://www.rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cf...

Interesting story, Mark. The Ferrari is one great car although that price surprises me a little since some of the rare and equally desirable cars in the auction world, such as the 1931 Bugatti Royale (only six were made) sold for $9.7 million. But if two wealthy people want a car, there is no stopping them in the bidding process. I wonder what the reserve was?

A year and a half ago my neighbor estimated the car at 30 million so he was not far off.

The Smith family is an example of American generosity as they donated all the money to charity. I never rode in the car, but I did run my hand across the leather and imprint the cars beauty in my mind.

I'm glad that someone else shares my love and enthusiasm for classic cars....I would have loved to have run my hand over the leather, so I understand that!! As I said in my first post on this topic, the classic car is rolling art.......that is why the E-type Jaguar is an exhibit at MOMA in NYC.

Chrysler: The Life and Times of an American Automotive Genius

by Vincent Curcio (no photo)

Synopsis:

Here is a richly detailed account of one of the most important men in American automotive history, based on full access to both Chrysler Corporation and Chrysler family historical records.

Chrysler emerges as a man who loved machines, an accomplished mechanic who also had highly developed managerial skills derived from half a lifetime on the railroads, a man whose success came from his deep understanding of engineering and his total commitment to the quality of his vehicles. Vincent Curcio traces Chrysler's rise from a locomotive wiper in a Kansas roundhouse to the head of the Buick Division of General Motors, to his rescue of the Maxwell-Chalmers car company, which led to the successful development of the 1924 Chrysler--the world's first modern car--and the formation of Chrysler Corporation in 1925. Chrysler was quite different from the other auto giants--a colorful and expansive man, deeply involved in the design of his cars, a maverick in establishing his headquarters in New York City, in the world's most famous art deco structure, the fabled Chrysler Building, which he built and helped to design. Because of his emphasis on quality at popular prices, the company weathered the Great Depression with flying colors--losing money only in the rock-bottom year of 1932--and despite the market fiasco of the Chrysler Airflow (which was years ahead of its time), the company grew and remained profitable right up to Chrysler's death in 1940.

The definitive portrait, Walter P. Chrysler is must reading for all car enthusiasts and for everyone interested in the story of a giant of industry.

HE OWNED AND DROVE THE SAME CAR FOR 82 YEARS...

This man owned and drove the same car for 82 YEARS!!!

Can you imagine even having the same car for 82 years?

Mr. Allen Swift (Springfield, MA.) received this 1928 Rolls-Royce Piccadilly-P1 Roadster (brand new) from his father as a graduation gift in 1928.

He drove it until his death last year... at the age of 102.
He was the oldest living owner of a car that was purchased new.
It was donated to a Springfield museum after his death.

It has 1,070,000 miles on it, still runs like a Swiss watch, is dead silent at any speed and is in perfect cosmetic condition (after 82 years). That's approximately 13,048 miles per year (1087 per month).
Now feast your eyes on this...
see attached picture below.
1,070,000 - that's miles, not kilometres!
That's British engineering of a bygone era.
I don't think they make them like that anymore.





When he was younger.

Now it is in the Springfield Museum

NEW SPRINGFIELD HISTORY MUSEUM MADE POSSIBLE BY CONNECTICUT ENTREPRENEUR

General Museum News

January 30, 2006

The Springfield Museums have received a gift of $1,000,000 from Mr. Allen Swift of West Hartford to purchase the Verizon building at 85 Chestnut Street in Springfield for the purpose of creating a new history museum. Swift also donated his 1928, one-owner, Springfield-built Rolls-Royce automobile to form the basis of the new museum's transportation collection.

Swift, who died in October 2005 at the age of 102, was a legend among Rolls-Royce collectors for owning his green Phantom I, S273 FP Rolls longer than anyone in the world had ever owned an individual Rolls-Royce. In recognition of that fact, Rolls-Royce Motors presented him with a crystal Spirit of Ecstasy award at the Rolls-Royce Annual Meeting in 1994.

Swift and the Springfield Museums were brought together through a network of antique automobile collectors. In 2002, when he was 99 years old, he approached the Museums to discuss finding a new home for his Rolls-Royce. Confident in the Springfield Museums' ability to care for the automobile and to tell the story of Rolls-Royce manufacturing in Springfield, Swift indicated that he would donate his car if a building could be found to house it.

In the summer of 2005, the Springfield Museums became aware that the Verizon building, adjacent to the Museums, was available for purchase. Joseph Carvalho, president of the Springfield Museums, and Guy McLain, director of the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum, shared that information with Swift and described how the building could be converted into a museum. In September, Swift's attorney informed the Museums that Swift would donate the money to purchase the building.

The Springfield Museums will take possession of the building in June and will launch a fund-raising campaign to renovate it. When complete, the new Museum of Springfield History will display wide range of remarkable artifacts that tell the rich and multidimensional history of this city.

And here it is in its new house:

Great story of an amazing classic auto and record!

In my hometown one elderly fellow drove a Model T pickup every day and as he generally kept it under 45 miles per hour there were usually several cars in line behind him on a two lane road. I'd often pass him on the straight-away's heading to high school.:-)

Funny Mark - but isn't the car pristine - amazing

Yes, amazing- Not many individuals receive a Rolls-Royce Roadster for a graduation gift so I was intrigued as to Allen Swift’s background.

Allen’s grandfather emigrated from England to America and in the early 1880’s he started the M. Swift & Sons factory crafting gold leaf products. During WWII their process was involved in making the gilded Purple Hearts.

http://articles.courant.com/2011-04-1...
http://www.mswiftandsons.com/

Aaah - thanks we even have more to the story.

Bentley wrote: "Aaah - thanks we even have more to the story."

Still one final amazing piece of automotive history is that this 1928 Rolls-Royce was not assembled in England but rather in America at the Rolls-Royce Springfield, Massachusetts production plant where about 3,000 were made! During the first decades of the 20th Century Springfield was on the leading edge of technology manufacturing the famous WWI Springfield 03’ rifle and other products. Unfortunately the 1929 sock market crash created major rippling effects and the Springfield business community was hit hard.

Note: This fine article appears to reflect the mileage at around 172,000.

http://www.frankaazami.com/blog/13269...

What a wonderful story!!!

The left hand drive is one clue that the car was assembled in the US, although Rolls in England would build left hand drives to spec, if desired. Those beauties were hand engineered.......nothing like them in this day and age. Antique cars are my weakness.

I bet the odometer went around a few times Mark. (smile)

Yes, my uncle found it and I thought it would be a great human interest story here.

Ingenious: A True Story of Invention, Automotive Daring, and the Race to Revive America

by Jason Fagone

Synopsis:

An epic tale of invention, in which ordinary people’s lives are changed forever by their quest to engineer a radically new kind of car

In 2007, the X Prize Foundation announced that it would give $10 million to anyone who could build a safe, mass-producible car that could travel 100 miles on the energy equivalent of a gallon of gas. The challenge attracted more than one hundred teams from all over the world, including dozens of amateurs. Many designed their cars entirely from scratch, rejecting decades of thinking about what a car should look like.

Jason Fagone follows four of those teams from the build stage to the final race and beyond—into a world in which destiny hangs on a low drag coefficient and a lug nut can be a beautiful talisman. The result is a gripping story of crazy collaboration, absurd risks, colossal hopes, and poignant losses.

Ingenious is a joyride. Fagone takes us into the garages and the minds of the inventors, capturing the fractious yet beautiful process of engineering a bespoke machine. Suspenseful and bighearted, this is the story of ordinary people risking failure, economic ruin, and ridicule to create something vital that Detroit had never pulled off. As the Illinois team wrote in chalk on the wall of their barn, "SOMEBODY HAS TO DO SOMETHING. THAT SOMEBODY IS US."

Here is the inside scoop on the making of the stainless steel car with the gull wing doors that caused a bit of a stir when first released but sank like a stone.......and the scandal surrounding it.


The DeLorean Story: The Car, the People, the Scandal

by Nick Sutton (no photo)

Synopsis:

This is the inside story of the DeLorean saga written by a senior manager who worked with the company from beginning to end and saw it all. The short life of the DeLorean DMC-12 sports car – a vision of the future with its gullwing doors and stainless steel body – began after John DeLorean secured financial backing from the British government for his car-making venture in Northern Ireland. Four years and nearly 9,000 cars later the company went bust and DeLorean faced questions about fraud against the British taxpayer, and his big ally, Colin Chapman of Lotus, also drew scrutiny. As an insider’s account, this book contains a great deal of new information about the DeLorean scandal.
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Its lasting claim to fame.....the car from the film "Back To The Future"

Very interesting. I think it has some style though which has been emulated even recently.

By the way, Jill - thank you for all of the adds to the Travel and Transportation folder. I will just say it here rather than clutter up the threads. Much appreciated.

I love anything on wheels!!!

Quick note..........McFarland & Company is a major publisher of automotive literature.

Jill,

Ry asked me to send this dedication along to you.