Automobile.blog.com offers its readers some car-related trivia for the holidays. There’s some pretty good stuff: “The Monumental Axis in Brazil is the world’s widest road and can accommodate 160 cars side-by-side at a given time.” But the list lacks what the National Enquirer’s editors call a “Hey Martha!” And any pistonhead who doesn’t know that “The Dodge Neon is sold in Europe under the brand name Chrysler Neon” is forgiven for not knowing OR caring. So I’m tasking TTAC’s Best and Brightest to offer more challenging, obscure and entertaining automotive factoids. I’ll start with an easy one (at least for the car historians amongst us): In 1951, a new car was launched whose maker claimed it was so frugal that “every third mile was free.” Hint: it had a supersonic engine. Hint two: new pic.
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What is sold in Asia as the “Harrier”?
What car nearly killed Andre Agassi?
Harriers are not capable of supersonic flight – by the way.
Maximum speed: .89 Mach (662 mph, 1,070 km/h) at sea level
I think you all need a beer…
I for instance want some hallacas, wine and panettone.
What is the one and only country where the vehicle turning across traffic has the right-of-way over others turning from the crossed lane?….*did that question make sense?*
Sounds like “priorite a la droit” (France) to me.
Bear;
No….New Zealand. They made sure that was on my written test too!
RF, in the US, or Europe?
The French (i.e Peugeot) developed and sold the world’s first power folding metal roof in 1935.
That’s all I have…..
The first Toyota Celicas were powered by redesigned forklift engines. In the Aug. 1974 issue of “Road And Track,” the four-cylinder Celica was the second fastest car, ever, through their slalom course. The fastest? A Corvette.
Canadian Model T touring cars had 3 doors in the USA (no driver’s door), while Model T Ford touring cars built in Canada had 4 doors, because the Maritime Provinces still drove on the left side of the road so cars sold there had right hand drive.
The Tucker auto, as designed for production (and all 51 cars built on the assembly line) had a boxer six cylinder engine originally designed by Air Cooled Motors of Syracuse, which Tucker bought. After Tucker Corporation collapsed, the ex-Franklin engines were used in the Bell 47 choppers. Most everyone over age 50 in the US have heard these engines countless times – every single M A S H episode. Yeah, that sound was the sound of a Tucker, too.
The 1950 Studebaker Automatic Drive was so technically advanced that even after Studebaker could no longer afford to buy them from the supplier (Detroit Gear Div. of Borg-Warner), B-W shipped the production machinery to the UK and built the transmission through 1967.
That the three men who founded Cerberus all have daughters who are being held captive by Osama Bin Laden, and they will not be released until 5 million Sebrings have been sold to Americans.
Paul
U.S.
These are quotes from a book regarding an American designed and built car:
“Matched hides..were imported from Bridge of Weir, Scotland..carpeting was 1.5 inch deep-pile rayon..several primer coats were applied, followed by a double surface coat and two separate double coats of hand-rubbed lacquer. Buyers could choose from 14 solid colors and 5 two-tone combinations. Chrome plating..three times as durable as SAE standards..bolts were hand-torqued to aircraft standards.”
IIKRAMLATNENITNOC6591
pleiter:
Sounds like the Continental Mark II of 1956.
Everybody:
It’s much more fun when you make us guess the answer!
RF, Seems like it would be the Henry J. Supersonic engine?
Rod Panhard, Gen1 Celicas were powered by a number of different Toyota family engines, from 1600 to 2000 cc. The fact that Toyota also made (makes) forklift engines based on their automotive engines is neither unique or distinctive. Many automotive engines find their way into industrial uses.
LALoser, Toyota Harrier is also the Lexus RX.
This North American car company, famous for it’s eccentric option packages, once offered a package featuring, amongst other things, a tortoiseshell vinyl roof and little turtle emblems, on their full sized cars. What was the name of the company and what was the name of the option package?
This same company also offered an option package on their full-sized car that featured an Aztec motif on the interior upholstery. What was the name of this package?
What notable quirk do a late 1970s Olds Cutlass and a Mercedes 190E 16-valve have in common?
1951 Oldsmobile Rocket 88. Olds first V8. Had no idea they thought it was frugal.
wmba, Olds Rocket V8 came out in 1949.
Paul got it!
How many car companies have been purchased and combined over the years to create the company now called GM?
The car in the photo is a Henry J from Kaiser-Frazer.
As for the rest of what you guys are on about, I haven’t a clue.
–chuck
pls :
How many car companies have been purchased and combined over the years to create the company now called GM?
I’m going to guess 14…..(number also depends on how you want to characterize partial investments like Isuzu.)
…. Buick, Olds, Cadilac, Oakland (Pontiac), Rapid Motor (GMC), Reliance Truck, Chevy, American General (Hummer), Saab, Vauxhall, Opel, Holden, Isuzu, and Daewoo.
… plus there were other investments that have come and gone that weren’t “car companies” like Hughes, United Motors (Delphi), AC Spark Plug, EDS.
Robert Farago
Ya, that’s got to to be a Henry J built by Kaiser.
When I was in high school in 1952 a buddy of mine was given one by his father. As with most Kaiser products they were way ahead of their time in style and safty features but cheap built in my opinion.
Tom Anderson: First gear is down and to the left in the “racing pattern”.
Here’s mine:
Toyota may have used forklift motors, but which famed sports cars used a converted wartime firepump engine?
Might be a bit too easy, or too historical, or too (insert adjective here) but here goes:
1) Automotive pioneer Henry M. Leland founded two automotive companies still with us today. Name them.
2) What were the “Three P’s of Motordom?”
3) Regarding #2, which make or makes went belly-up under Studebaker’s watch?
4) Name the first automobile sold in the United States.
5) LaSalle : Cadillac :: Pontiac : ??????
menno probably knows all these. I’ll repost answers if he doesn’t, because I’m lazy…
billc83:
1: Lincoln & Cadillac
2: Packard, Pierce Arrow & Peerless
3: Packard, though Stude owned Pierce Arrow for a time IIRC it was independent by the time it died.
4: Winton?
5: Oakland
And that’s a Henry J by Kaiser in the picture. I think it had a Willys engine [the 4] and the Continental 6 built for Kaiser. It was also sold through Sears outlets as the Allstate, using Sears automotive service items by that name: tires,batteries, etc.
Jack Baruth:
The SAAB Sonnett (and other models) used a V-4 engine. Also used in the European Ford Taunus (*not* Taurus). This V-4 was also used in industrial and agricultural water pumping systems.
Jack Baruth: The only answer I can think of other than what eggsalad said (I wouldn’t consider the SAAB) a famed sports car, is the Conventry Climax engine, which became the default Fomula Car engine for a while, but I would be hard pressed to identify that engine with a specific “sports car.”
Jack Baruth: Lotus 11
Whoops! My Bad on the Rocket 88. Henry J it is, and the irony is I’m consuming a book that goes into some detail about Kaiser’s contribution to the war effort making Liberty ships.
As for Jack Baruth’s question: The Crossley Hotshot or whatever it was had a WW2 firepump engine made out of tin (steel) stampings on an aluminum crankcase. It revved like hell for the time, if my memory serves correctly, which it didn’t on my first guess on the Henry J. Oh well.
I guess the Supersonic engine was the Kaiser marketing man’s estimation of the worth of their flathead 6 engine in the Henry J. Some things never change.
Perhaps the 4 cylinder version gave the free mile in three compared to the six!
Actually, the Eixo Monumental in Brasilia is two parallel roads about six lanes wide with a huge park in between. So perhaps just twelve cars and a whole bunch of people standing side by side could set some record on it.
If you rearrange the letters in, “The Chrysler Neon”, you get…
Ten Horny Lechers
There were *too many* legitimate answers to my question, although the Eleven was what I had in mind.
Here are a few random, pretty easy trivia questions from my favorite automotive era, the late Seventies and early Eighties:
* How does a Bonneville “Model G” differ from a regular Bonnie?
* Some GM divisions offered a two-door X-body with a trunk, some offered a two-door X-body with a hatchback. One offered both. Which one?
* The year is 1984. Two of my friends just bought Mustang GTs, but they have different engines. What were they?
* The year is 1973. There was one car for sale in the United States which could break into the thirteens in the quarter-mile. What was it, and what was the next American car to run “thirteens” after it?
what country invented the world’s first car, and when?
What US brand did the US send to the USSR in large numbers under the lend-lease program, whose name became a synonym for excellence and (feminine) beauty to the US soldiers at the base in Poltava?
Jack Baruth,
Bonneville G was a rebadged A-body (LeMans), not a full size B-body.
Pontiac Phoenix was a hatchback 4-door, notchback 2-door.
1984 Mustang GT: 302 V8; Mustang Turbo GT: 2.3 turbo four.
Pass on the last question.
Name the first and last model year in which Lincoln offered a “Cartier” designer’s series car
Jack Baruth:
Ding! Olds offered a dogleg pattern five-speed with the 260ci. V8.
Here’s some more:
1) Ford and Chrysler both made hemi-head V8s during the muscle car era. Which GM division almost joined them?
2) Around the time Audi stopped building FWD sedans powered by longitudinally-mounted inline-fives, what other manufacturer started building its own? What was that vehicle called?
3) Who supplied the engines for the diesel-powered Lincoln Continentals and Mark VIIs of the ’80s?
Tom Anderson:
2) The Honda Accord Vigor and Inspire, known here as the Acura Vigor, succeeded by the Acura 2.5TL.
3) Bay Em Vay, who also inflicted that smoker on the 524td.
I won’t answer your next set :)
Tom Anderson:
The answer to question number 3 is BMW is who supplied diesel engines for Lincoln Continentals and Continental Mark VII’s in the mid eighties.
Sorry, question has already been answered correctly, although not that clearly. Anybody have an idea on my question?
Okay, a few more from the Carter and Reagan eras:
1) My friend rolls up in his new 1981 Cavalier. I can’t see anything but the nose of the car, but I know it’s a hatchback. Why?
2) What happens when you pull out the “Premium Sound” knob in an early Panther-platform Town Car?
3) What was the platform mate for the last-generation Chrysler Cordoba?
4) We’re in Plato’s Cave and a silhouette of a full-sized sedan is flashed on the wall. It could be a 1980 or 1981 Bonneville. What else could it be?
Jack Baruth :
1. Because you know what kind of car your friend drives.
2. You can’t put it back on.
3. Ricardo Gonzalo Pedro Montalbán Merino
4. Pysilocibin Cubensis Mushrooms
The 1973 Trans Am with a SuperDuty 455 managed 13 second quarter mile times. The next one was the 1990 ZR1 Corvette.
Jack:
You are very tricky grasshopper.
Though I agree with esldude.
The 1973 SD 455 T/A had to be in the 13’s. Perhaps the other car would be a Stage-2 or 3 Buick GS, also with the 455.
Would the platform mate of the Chrysler Cordoba be the Dodge Magnum?
The old Magnum, not the recent station wagon.
Please tell me if I got 70% or better on this quiz.
My trivia question is:
During the opening credits for the early eighties crime drama T.J. Hooker, Shatner’s wig becomes slightly dislodged as he slides across the hood of what kind of patrol car.
Hint: It’s a Chrysler product.
The SD-455 Trans-Am was a thirteen-second car… and then we had a fourteen-year hiatus until the 1987 Buick GNX.
The Cordoba’s platform twin was the pointy-nosed Dodge Mirada.
Fun to see a Henry J. The first wave of compacts is an interesting story, because it illustrates what happens when carmakers saturate an untested market. Four independents came out with compacts in the early 1950s (Nash, Kaiser, Hudson and Willys), and of those only Nash’s Rambler was successful.
In a way that’s too bad, because the Rambler was arguably the least interesting of the four designs. If the Henry J had hung on for just a few more years it likely would have been the best import fighter because of its more lightweight and simple body. The Rambler, in contrast, was an ungainly bathtub.
The Henry J initially sold quite well, but it ultimately proved to be too spartan for a purchase price not all that much lower than a Chevy or Ford. Folklore has it that the body dies for the Henry J mysteriously disappeared while Kaiser was transferring them to South America.
1) What was the first-generation Hyundai Excel also sold as?
2) What was the purported main reason the Sunbeam Tiger was discontinued?
3) What was Chevrolet’s first air-cooled production model?
4) What car lent its engine to the Lancia Thema 8.32?
5) Among GM’s “companion makes” of the 1920s, most of us know Cadillac’s was La Salle and Oakland’s was Pontiac. What were Buick’s and Oldsmobile’s called?
6) Which company’s cars were offered with “mod tops?”
7) Which marque offered pushbutton shifting in the steering wheel hub?
TomAnderson
1) Mitsu Précis
2) Chrysler’s purchase of the firm and the dimensional fit problems with Chrysler’s engines (purportedly)
4) Fezza 328
6) Mopar
Tom Anderson,
#3: 1923 “Copper cooled” Chevrolet
#7: Edsel
TomAnderson…
some googling brings up a wiki entry to answer (5):
The wide gap between Oldsmobile and Buick would be filled by two companion marques; Oldsmobile was assigned the up-market V8 engine, Viking automobile and Buick was assigned the more compact 6 cyl. Marquette.
1) My friend rolls up in his new 1981 Cavalier. I can’t see anything but the nose of the car, but I know it’s a hatchback. Why?
2) What happens when you pull out the “Premium Sound” knob in an early Panther-platform Town Car?
3) What was the platform mate for the last-generation Chrysler Cordoba?
4) We’re in Plato’s Cave and a silhouette of a full-sized sedan is flashed on the wall. It could be a 1980 or 1981 Bonneville. What else could it be?
1) The nose of the hatchback is different from the sedan.
2) I assume all of the speakers blow up, thereby demonstrating the worthlessness of the Ford Premium Sound units.
3) Dodge Mirada, along with the Imperial.
4) Probably a 83 Parisienne, which is like the 81 Bonneville, only far less interesting.
Or it could be the mushrooms.
Jack Baruth: It was the Chevrolet Citation that had both 2 door notchback and 2 door hatchback models of the X Body. The Notchback came and went,one or two model years Chevy didn’t offer it.
And it was the only 2 door of the bunch that was styled in that particular manner. Chevy called it a “club coupe”. The others had the so called “formal” roofline.
TaurusGT500,
The answer to how many car companies have been combined and purchased to form the modern GM is – 52. I was stunned when I saw that number. And actually I got that from a book written in ’85, so I guess that doesn’t include the Hummer brand, and I don’t remember when they bought Daewoo or Saab.
I had a marketing prof in college at the time who used GM as his brand differentiation example. When I told him they had bought 52 brands and only managed to make 6 (at the time) survive he took the message to heart but said he might still use it as an example.
Hey Paul N, you’re correct about the many different engines available for Celicas, but…
1. We only got one crummy fork-lift derived engine here in the States, the 18R and it’s smog-controlled successor, the 18RC.
2. Even when powered with this crummy engine, the Celica still had this amazing performance on R&T’s test course.
3. And yes, most of us car freaks know about The Tractor & Auto Connection” in Triumphs, Porsche and Lamborghinis etc.
Since this is about to drop off the front page, I’ll answer a few of my own and elaborate on the ones which were answered correctly.
All Cavalier hatchbacks were “Type-10” models with a urethane nose.
The Citation had a special two-door bodystyle as noted above. How amazing that GM took the time to style two different X-coupe variants!
The “Premium Sound” knob activated two large speakers in the doors of Town Cars with the option. As far as I can tell, the purpose of this was to amaze people in the showroom, because obviously if you paid for ’em you would want them on all the time.
In our “Plato’s Pontiac Cave” question, the answer is not an ’83 Parisienne. The first two years of the Parisienne, like the Canadian Parisienne of all years, shared a front and rear cap with the Chevrolet Caprice/Impala. But the 1985 and 1986 Parisienne returned to the Bonnie’s front and rear caps plus wheel skirts.
TomAnderson:
#2 I seem to recall that when Chrysler took over the Rootes Group, they found themselves in the awkward position of manufacturing a car with a Ford engine in it. The Sunbeam Tiger was an Alpine with a small-block Ford V8. It was discontinued because, as carzzi says above, no Chrysler V8 would fit.
NickR: This North American car company, famous for it’s eccentric option packages, once offered a package featuring, amongst other things, a tortoiseshell vinyl roof and little turtle emblems, on their full sized cars. What was the name of the company and what was the name of the option package?
This same company also offered an option package on their full-sized car that featured an Aztec motif on the interior upholstery. What was the name of this package?
I don’t believe anyone else answered this one. These were “spring specials” from Chrysler. IIRC, the tortoise-themed car was a Plymouth, and the Aztec-themed car was called the “Navaho” and may have been a Plymouth as well.
One year (1973?) they also offered a nautical-themed Chrysler called the Mariner, based on the Newport. It had round porthole windows in the C-pillars, and the interior was trimmed with tough vinyl like that found on boat upholstry.
My Question:
Name the first and last year Lincoln offered a “Cartier” designers series car.
Since no body anwered, and now that this thread is in ttac.com thread heaven…
The answer is…
1976 and 2003.
In 1976 it was first offered on the Continental MARK IV
and in 2003 it was last offered on the Town Car.