With UAW members and leadership meeting to debate the union’s future, it’s the perfect time to look back at the conditions from which the UAW emerged. Here is 1936 film titled “Master Hands” which portrays the men and machines that built Chevrolets on the eve of the UAW’s recognition. According to the excellent Youtube channel USAutoindustry, “Master Hands” was
filmed in Flint, Michigan, just months before the United Auto Workers won union recognition with their famous sitdown strikes.
Clearly a lot has changed since then. But has the UAW?
So, GM’s ban on use of the term “Chevy” hasn’t quite taken effect yet. Above is an image of the front page at Chevrolet.com, and clearly there are still a number of references to the old abbreviation. And no wonder: the term “Chevy” has been a mainstay of Chevrolet’s advertising from time immemorial… up until very recently, you could even catch Chevy ads that never used the whole word “Chevrolet.” We’ve assembled a few ads featuring the word “Chevy” throughout the years, and we present them now in memoriam of a convenient and iconic nickname.
There’s no doubt that cars can be time machines… but so can cameras. These pictures of the LUC Chopard classic car rally in Moscow were taken a week ago today, but thanks to the impeccable cars, time-warp setting and old-school photo techniques, they somehow manage to capture the flavor of a lost era. Even when a blinged-out Infiniti QX intrudes, reminding the viewer that these are just a bunch of plutocrats playing with their expensive toys circa 2010. As is so often the case, the fantasy is far more satisfying than the reality. It’s Sunday… why not indulge a little?
[Courtesy: EnglishRussia, Hat Tip: commenter rodehardputupwet]
This video is the kind of thing that a pretentious grad student would call “an artifact.” For one thing, it proves that Germans do have a sense of humor… they just need Porsche to add enough consonants to the end of its racing models to be activated. This, in turn, gives a keen insight into the reason nobody mentions Germany when it comes to identifying nations that build the “coolest” cars. The Germans, and I say this as an often-overly-serious person of Germanic descent, are just too damn serious. In fact, the satire here is so seriously deadpan as to be almost un-funny. If the humor isn’t obvious enough for you, go ahead and start calculating how much Porsche charges for each “G,” “T,” “R,” and “S.” You’ll be laughing in no time.
What is it about former (or ostensible) communist leaders and retro limousines? China’s Hu Jintao got a tip of the hat from us last October for stepping out in style at the country’s National Day celebrations in a retro-fabulous Hongqi HQE. Now, The Guardian reports that
President Dmitry Medvedev has decided to trade in his Mercedes and bring back the ZiL, in what appears to be the latest attempt by Russia’s nostalgic leadership to turn the country into a Soviet theme park. Medvedev has asked aides to examine whether the austere and enduringly sinister limousine can be brought back into production.
And why not? After all, what’s more authentically Russian than being ferried through Red Square in an “enduringly sinister” vehicle made by a company that was at one time known as “Stalin’s Factory”? Is it too soon to ask about American-market availability?
Back in 1987 the only V8 I knew about was made out of tomatoes and some weird spicy stuff. I was all of 14 then, and my concerns in life were little more than the infrequent dating opportunity and eating out (my mom didn’t believe in cooking). There was college… but that seemed as far away as the drop dead gorgeous brunette who sat two desks in front of me in Spanish class. I was terrible in Spanish, and with good reason. Back then I remember trying in vain to read my Spanish homework at the local Audi customer’s lounge. A place my mom frequently visited and despised for 5000 good reasons. Later that evening, a 60 minutes expose would result in our Audi being taken straight to a dealership one more time. But this time the sign up front said ‘Acura’.
Honda hasn’t always replaced its bread-and-butter compact, the Civic, every five years. The Mk.1 Civic soldiered from 1972 until 1979. The second through fifth generations were replaced on a regular four-year schedule, before Honda settled into a five-year product cadence with the sixth generation (1996-2000). If it were to keep with that cadence, we’d be seeing a ninth-generation Civic sometime this year, replacing the Mk.VIII, which debuted in late 2005. According to Automotive News [sub], however, Honda is holding off on releasing a new Civic until 2011. What gives?
Today, we’re setting the way-back machine for 1999 for an ABC “exclusive” behind the scenes of General Motors. Rick Wagoner is in charge, market share is dropping and the Aztek still hasn’t emerged from its camouflage. It’s a more innocent time, as evidenced by ABC’s breathless, toothless reportage, and it makes for good nostalgia and good schadenfreude. Does it get any better than that? Read More >
Worried that a ride-over-handling-oriented California, the end of manual transmissions and flirtations with hybrid power have left Ferrari without any kind of brand focus? Don’t be, Maranello spokesfolks tell Autocar. There is at least one line that Ferrari will never cross: building a four-door to compete with Aston-Martin’s Rapide, Porsche’s Panamera or Audi’s A7.
As Enzo [Ferrari, company founder] would say, we will never do four doors. And we will keep this tradition. Frankly speaking no-one is asking for a four-door Ferrari. If you want a four door Ferrari we have a Maserati. We stand 60 years and we never needed four doors. What never means, I don’t know, but one of the strong points of Ferrari is to keep the product in the right way. I’m not saying four doors is not right for the image, but it’s not part of our heritage.
TVR has never been a well-known brand in the United States, where its closest brush with fame was a cameo by a TVR Tuscan in the excrescent JohnTravolta vehicle Swordfish. In the UK, however, the TVR name is as rich in legend as Lotus or Morgan, speaking to a proud history of wild, hairy, fiberglass muscle cars with bizarre styling and even more bizarre handling characteristics. And like most blue-collar, British, backyard shed-based sportscar makers, TVR has not had an easy time of it lately. Having spent ruinous amounts developing an in-house V8 and a derivative straight-six engine under Peter Wheeler’s leadership in the 90s, the company fell on hard times and was bought in 2004 by 24 year-old Russian oligarchlet Alexander Smolensky. Despite promising to keep TVR British, Smolensky broke up the firm, kept the IP and brand rights, and reportedly moved production to Turin. Now, suddenly, Smolensky says he’s bringing TVR back, promising an appearance by an all-new Chevy LS-powered TVR at this summer’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. And yet TVR fans aren’t exactly falling all over themselves with glee… now why would that be? Read More >
It’s a curious coincidence of history that the most anti-American parts of the globe are so dependent on old American cars. Havana is the classic example of this, and its still-rolling examples of classic American cars have become photographic icons, simultaneously representing both the failures of the communist government and the excesses of the preceding (but long-gone) American-backed regime. Another example of history written in the automotive landscape comes to us today from The BBC, which hosts a slideshow of cars from the Gaza Strip.
From our regular Curbside Classic Clues, to a recent headline hunt for This American Life, TTAC’s Best and Brightest have proven again and again that they’re the internet’s go-to resource for crowdsourced identification of the most obscure elements of automotive esoterica. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder if it’s even possible to stump some of you guys. Which is why I sat up and took notice of Hemmings Motor News’s Twitter appeal for help identifying this obscure, coachbuilt baby, posted at Coachbuilt.com. I figure this is as good a shot as I’ll ever have at pushing the limits of your collective automotive knowledge. Or, proverbially, not.
Well, Lear’s vapor turbine never ended up being built in the millions by 1975… but the prediction that electric cars would be best for taxis, delivery vehicles, or a family’s second car for commuting and shopping seems to be coming true. Oh, and we all know how the lead or no-lead fuel debate worked out. But with mass-market electric cars getting closer to reality every day, it’s fun to look back at where we once thought technology might be going. This copy of “Cars of the Future” certainly doesn’t fail to entertain on that count.
While the autoblogosphere frets bout whether BMW drivers can tell which wheels drive their cars, the real news in the BMW-goes-FWD storyline is the impact that the sea change in brand strategy is expected to have on volume. Automotive News [sub] reports that BMW is developing a new family of modular gas and diesel engines, which are intended “primarily for BMW’s new front-wheel-drive architecture, but the powerplants also will be used in the automaker’s rear-wheel-drive cars,” according to CEO Norbert Reithofer. And the volume at which this new family of three, four and six-cylinder engines will be produced is one of the early indications of where BMW is going with its FWD expansion. Today, BMW sells just under 1.3m vehicles worldwide. That’s fewer cars than will be powered by this new family of engines alone, which Reithofer says will motivate 1.5m vehicles worldwide. Considering BMW’s goal is to sell 2m vehicles of all its brands by 2020, it’s clear that much of that growth will be made possible by new FWD-inclusive drivetrain technology. Read More >
Over the weekend I penned a screed calling baby boomers to task for embracing retro style over the the values that made the revolutionary cars of their era so revolutionary [editor’s note: there’s nothing like having a carburetor on your 35 year-old motorcycle magically fix itself to inspire faith in old, simple machinery]. The new New Beetle was square in my crosshairs over the weekend, but it’s hardly the only example of boomer retro-madness. Another favorite for nostalgic boomers are the legendary muscle cars that marked the high-water point for Detroit thunder, and this feverish demand combined with limited original runs have run the prices of famous muscle cars into the Barrett-Jackson stratosphere. It’s also inspired a legion of knock-off and replica manufacturers, who see huge money to be made by aligning supply with demand. They, in turn, have inspired a number of huge lawsuits from the original creators of the limited-edition legends. Carroll Shelby’s prolific legal battles against creators of Cobra replicas have given him the reputation of being a guy who never met a buck he didn’t like, and now GM has joined the Shelby legacy, suing Mongoose Motorsports for daring to produced replicas of the 1963 Corvette Grand Sport roadster.
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