TITLE: Used Car History at Auto Lemon - Used Car History Check |
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Site Description: Used Car History reviews and guide on classic and older model cars. Including car designers from Italy and Germany. Learn history of cars from classic, exotic, used, new to prototype model cars. |
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| Used Car HistoryTo celebrate the invention of car, AUTO LEMON - USED CAR HISTORY CHECK presents you with used cars and the car designers history. The car history will be categorized by important period when there were significant changes on the car design trend. We continue updating used car history with the latest information, please bookmark our site. Thank you for your continuous support by purchasing our automotive service and products. We hope you enjoy reading our articles. At the bottom of this page we give reviews and performance specification on each car model, we will add the pictures in the future. Car History From Italy1860-1945 Used Car History PeriodItalian
design did not grow out of specialization. From the Vespa scooter to the
Sacco beanbag, from the inflatable Blow chair and Olivetti's red Valentine
typewriter to Alessi's Conica espresso maker, most of Italy's design classics
were created by self-taught designers. None of the people responsible
for Italian design's mythic aura had ever studied "design'a field
that didn't even exist in Italy's schools until the 1980s. Instead, they
are architects, artists, engineers, chemists, aircraft builders, and race
car drivers. The Italian automobile industry developed more rapidly, though its output of luxury limousines and race cars was reserved for a small, wealthy clientele. Fiat was founded in 1899, followed by Lancia in 1905 and Alfa Romeo in 1909. These companies combined progress and tradition in a peculiar mix: while technological achievements and division of labor in the manufacturing process pointed forward into the new century, their cars' interiors displayed the pompous opulence the old century had felt at home in. The Fiat Zero, introduced in 1912, marked a turning point. The Italian answer to Ford's Model T, it followed the American principle of lower cost through mass production. Efficient industrial production after the American model became increasingly common, particularly among the large automobile manufacturers. Adopting the streamlined look, car-body designers such as Pinin Farina and Bertone applied it to such luxury models as Lancia's Aprilia Coupe, the Fiat 1500, and the Alfa 6 C 2300 "Pescara" Coupe. In 1936, Fiat took a more important step, introducing a car that had been designed for social reasons, not spectacular looks. The Fiat 500, priced at a widely affordable 8,900 lire, was the world's smallest car and quickly became ubiquitous on Italy's roads. By 1948,150,000 of the "Topolini"had been sold. 1946-1965 Used Car History PeriodThe automobile industry was a major client for Italy designers. With their genius for elegant and occasionally spectacular details, the car body designers Pinin Farina and Bertone were celebrated as the automobile's haute couturiers. Cars like Pinin Farina's 1947 Cisitalia, with its voluptuous curves, and the sleek 1956 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider became the embodiment of motorized luxury. While the former racecar driver Enzo Ferrari focused on producing speedy sports cars. Fiat concentrated on building mid-sized and compact models. Fiat's 1957 introduction of the Nuovo 500, an updated version of the old Topolino, turned countless Italians into motorists. "Italians wanted cars, and would have accepted the smallest space, as long as it was on four wheels," Dante Giacosa, the little vehicle's creator, wrote in his memoirs. 1980-1999 Used Car History PeriodIn the automotive industry, where high production costs demand a certain predictability of success, design followed other criteria. Giorgetto Giugiaro was representative of a new generation of car designers. Progressive and service-oriented, his focus was not on luxury models but, after the oil crises of the 1970s, on lower-priced compact and mid-sized cars. The stripped-down 1980 Fiat Panda and the 1983 Fiat Uno still displayed a distinctively Italian flair and were hugely popular with young, upwardly mobile Europeans, a testament to Giugiaro's subtle instinct for stylistic details and trends. Car History From U.S.In 1923, 30 years after the start of mass car production, some 15 million vehicles were registered in the world, and over 80 percent of those were in the USA. This may come as no surprise to either those who live in America or to those who have visited it, because the country is vast. As the land became increasingly populated during the 19th and 20th century, it demanded more forms of transport, and between 1805 and 1942 there were simply thousands of different car manufacturers in and out of business. Some produced just the one model before succumbing to failure; others, like Henry Ford, went from strength to strength. Ford invented the production line and literally flooded the market with cheap Model Ts, which became the backbone of the American car industry between 1913 and 1927. In fact, of the 12 million vehicles registered in the USA in the early 1920s, over half were Fords, which shows just how popular and significant the Model T was. But there were standout vehicles prior to the Ford's Tin Lizzy Model T. The Stutz Bearcat, which this book starts with, was remarkable, even though today it looks like a vintage car with barely enough power to beat a jogging pace. In fact, the Bearcat could travel at 80 mph (129 km/h) and cruise at 60 mph (97 km/h), making it one of the supercars of its day. And it was built to such a degree that when, in 1915, one customer returned his car, complaining that the new 16v overheadcam engine was no good, Harry C. Stutz gave the car to dare-devil motorcyclist Erwin 'Cannonball' Baker, who consequently drove across America on little more than dirt tracks, doing 3.700 miles (5,953 km) at an average of 13.7 mph (22 km/h), taking just over 11 days to complete the trip and breaking every record in the process, with a broken shock-absorber clip the only casualty! This feat swamped the manufacturer with orders, and it was only the attempt at floating the company on the US stockmarket which eventually destroyed the brand.
It was the Wall Street Crash of 1929 which also saw the end of the revolutionary Cord L29, so called as it was launched in 1929. Head of the company, Erret Lobban Cord, worked his engineers and designers hard to come up with the car in just eight months, even though, as a great salesmen, he embellished the truth and said the prototype had taken years of development. That car used a frontwheel-drive configuration, the first for any production vehicle, though racers had used it previously and had been beating rearwheel-drive machines. What Cord did was make the FWD set-up workable with a tight turning circle and strong chassis, while creating a car which was beautiful in proportion and very low because it didn't require a transmission tunnel. It was E.L. Cord who also headed the Duesenberg company, having acquired it in 1926. He ordered the engineers to make a car which would rival the best in the world. They duly did with the Model J, and not just the car but the model gained a reputation for being the finest the US had ever produced. But here was another victim of Wall Street, while the larger manufacturers soldiered on. Chevrolet was one of those giants, and the company had, since 1912, tried to produce more innovative cars than Ford and, hence, top their sales figures. Ford had been at the top of the sales in the US car market since 1906, and they were to stay there until 1926. The following year Chevrolet won over buyers through its Capitol series, and partly because of the ageing design of the Model T. The following years saw Chevrolet offer four-wheel brakes and a six-cylinder engine over Ford's four, which again put the brand at the top of the sales pile. But Ford were able to hit back with full Model A production (after initial delays) in 1929 and 1930, though the see-saw continued in 1931 with a new series from Chevrolet called Independence. So it went on, though Chevy had the better grab of the market until World War II.
Both the crash of 1929 and World War II sorted the wheat from the chaff in the car market, and saw many names either disappear altogether or be swallowed up by bigger companies. However they went, far fewer made it through to the late 1940s, but it remained a significant time in car production. Technology was fast developing and the engineering practices became more refined as, more than ever, costcutting was essential in an increasingly competitive market. Developments in casting techniques led to stronger and lighter components which cost less to make, plus advances in fuel refinement meant that engines could produce more power reliably. But the post-war period was certainly not about gearing down; it was about gearing up for an increasing number of drivers, and that brought about more diverse machines as an offshoot. Unusual cars like the Studebaker Champion came along, as did unlikely collaborations such as that between the American George Mason, president of Nash, and Briton Donald Healey, who simply met on the Queen Elizabeth liner and decide to make the Nash Healey car between them for the US market. Cars like the 1949 Mercury defined a new way for styling, because, like the Fords of the same year, they used slab sides. This marked them out as quite radical to the separately tendered cars which dated back to the 1940s, and even 1930s in some cases. Another significant move for the era was provided by Hudson, who introduced their Step Down chassis which allowed their cars to sit much lower and, therefore, have a lower centre of gravity, which improved handling immensely. The early 1950s saw the rise and rise of chrome on cars, as an increasingly opulent society flourished in the States. The more chrome you had, it seemed, the more successful you were in life. But chrome wasn't the only addition, as many of the cars of the time were designed by stylists who took their influence from the transport industry in general, and therefore used ideas from both planes and trains of the era. Cars were given bold noses and fintailed rears, and arguably the most celebrated of these brash vehicles was the Cadillac Series 62 of 1959. With fins over 1 ft (0.3 m) high and twin bullet lenses protruding rearwards, the 1959 Caddy was every bit a design icon and easily rates among the top five of all-time American classics. The 1950s also saw the birth of two American sports cars: Ford's Thunderbird and Chevrolet's Corvette. Again the two companies were fighting for the same market, but fortunately it was a huge one and sales of both vehicles flourished; at least the Corvettes did after a couple of years in production, and once Chevrolet had slotted in their new compact small-block V8 of nearly 275 ci (4.5 litres). The Americans then had some serious sports machine on their hands, enough to give plenty of sleepless nights to the European bosses of Ferrari and Jaguar.
Performance became a big part of car-marketing in the 1950s and 1960s. While the sporty two-seaters from two major manufacturers were indeed fast (the Corvette held the fastest production-car record for some years), the sedans weren't exactly far behind. Engine displacement had been getting larger ever since the war, and Chrysler had been adding cubic inches as well as developing their engines internally. The advent of their 'Hemispherical' design combustion chamber left other manufacturers reeling at the outputs possible, though fortunately for them, the engines were designed for full-sized sedans, and hence all the performance was needed to stay level with other, lighter vehicles. Other manufacturers began to add the cubic inches, but it was the unlikely and fairly staid Pontiac who really came up with the goods in 1964. That year, John DeLorean was the general manager, and he knew that America's youth weren't satisfied with the cars that had pleased their parents in the previous decade. Hence, when a young advertising executive in the business, Jim Wangers, approached him about a concept which involved fitting the company's 389 ci (6.3-litre) engine in the mid-sized Le Mans/Tern pest bodyshell, DeLorean gave it the go-ahead immediately and, in doing so, created the muscle car. Called the GTO after the Ferraris of the same name, it was an instant success, and this sent shockwaves through the industry as manufacturers scrabbled to jump on the bandwagon and grab a share of the booming market. Ford were ahead of most because they were already in the process of producing a new model, and it was to be in the same vein as the GTO, but much more readily available to America's youth. The Mustang stole the show as soon as it was released: it was truly a sensation, and very few cars since have created such an impression. While based on the rather ordinary Falcon, the new sheet metalwork was striking, and the name Mustang was a marketing dream as it conjured images of the hard-working steeds of the American cowboys: fast, tough and entirely dependable. The fact that the car came in coupe, fastback and convertible styles merely added to the all-round appeal. Chevrolet and, later, both Dodge and Plymouth, produced cars to rival the Ford's new machine and all became known, after the Mustang, as pony cars. But later in the 1960s the barebones nature of many muscle cars developed with the market as young people grew older. They wanted more creature comforts and hence later muscle cars became more refined. The power remained, of course, and both Dodge and Plymouth made a big impression on the market, not just with the Hemi 426 ci (6.9-litre) motor, but with 440 ci (7.2-litre) Wedge engines and torquey small-blocks powering compact fastbacks such as the Challenger. But this was all about to change. FUEL AND ENVIRONMENT The muscle era peaked in 1970, but while these boulevard bruisers were busy burning fossil fuels, environmentalists were growing increasingly unhappy with pollution and, with Americans being by far the biggest users of internal combustion-engined vehicles, they were targeted. This led to the introduction of lead-free fuel and, due to the lack of refinement in this new fuel, cars' compression ratios needed to be decreased. Hence power outputs dropped and sales slumped. The fuel crisis of 1973 further depressed the market and most manufacturers simply withdrew their muscle cars. The following years of the 1970s marked several changes, the most prominent being the development of smaller and therefore more lightweight models, which had improved fuel economy. By the middle of that decade the country also saw import cars on a severe rise, with Golf's new hatchback of 1975 making big impressions on the youth of America and also those who were more practically minded. The US didn't sit on its laurels for too long, introducing its own compact cars which won over buyers, even though they had no performance bias. Somewhat tamer muscle cars were still built during the 1970s, it's just that they were in far fewer numbers (though they are mentioned in this book) and weren't hyped as much by the manufacturers. As the 1980s dawned, computer technology found its way into cars and made them far more efficient. The bonus was with computer engine-management that power could be found while keeping the cars environmentally friendly, hence the whole performance saga went off with a bang again early that decade. Ford released a new Mustang in 1979 and it steadily gained more power through the 1980s, while Chevrolet were close on their heels with the Camaro in its third-generation guise. Turbo technology also had its part to play at this time, as factory cars found the sort of power usually associated with muscle cars, but with engines far smaller and many times more efficient. What it all led to is one of the greatest car-producing decades with the 1990s. More than ever, cars became easier to produce with computer aid. And while the days of chrome and huge engine-displacement might be long gone, America remains at the forefront of car production with the biggest car companies in the world, which looks promising for many future classics. Finally, throughout the decades covered in this site, many one-off specials built by individuals or small companies have been produced. Hot rodders who have developed their cars for speed and style, drag racers who have simply built for the fastest acceleration possible, and cruisers who have put style way ahead of content, are all praised here. It is they who, along with the manufacturers, have kept the American classics alive and will continue to do so in the years ahead. |
Used Car & Car Parts History
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Cars HistoryWe will start from the beginning of car history from classics to modern cars. The following are list of cars that has become classic.
Click the following car link to get the car reviews, history, performance
(0-60 mph, hp, torque, etc.) and specification data.
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