Hinckley: One for the book
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Jack Rittenhouse’s drive down Route 66 was a bantam-weight adventure that produced a much-treasured memorabilia.
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Hinckley: Swashbuckling entrepreneurs and dreamers
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A stopover city well known to Route 66 travellers was for 25 years competing with Detroit as America’s principal Mo’town, with Moon rising to be the biggest brand.
Read MoreHinckley: The house that Henry built
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The US has old Ford factories and assembly plants that date to a short evolutionary period in the company’s history.
Read MoreHinckley: Planes, trains and automobiles
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Our resident Route 66 expert has picked a fabulous must-see stop-off.
Read MoreHinckley: A man of many talents
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When it comes to Czech cars, most people undoubtedly think of Skoda. However, Czechoslovakia’s car production has long been associated with another automobile brand – Tatra.
Read MoreHinckley: Turning copper into gold
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An air-cooled wonder … that proved a disaster for Chevrolet.
Read MoreHinckley: America’s first ‘motown’ wasn’t Detroit
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Bicycles, plows and Buick … these and more all came from the city of Jackson.
Read MoreHinckley: It seemed like a good idea at the time
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In the first half of last century, Henry Ford decided to one-up the rubber industry by creating a mini-Dearborn in the Amazon.
Read MoreHinckley: The man who would be king
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Heard of patent trolls? Arguably one of the first was George Shelden; his influence on the automotive sector in its earliest years is fascinating.
Read MoreHinckley: It seemed like a good idea, but …
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In the dawning years of the automobile industry, design and development was only limited by the imagination. Most everything seemed like a good idea. Right hand or left-hand steering. Tiller or steering wheel. Steam, petrol or electric power. Three or four wheels, six wheels, eight wheels. Back seat or front seat driving.
Read MoreHinckley: A Marriage of Convenience
/BY the 1920s, automobile companies had become multifaceted, building vehicles for every budget and every need; a scenario that made it increasingly difficult for smaller operations to compete against the likes of General Motors and Ford.
Yet there was a small but lucrative market where smaller manufacturers had an edge.
Read MoreHinckley: A Checkered Tale
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THE last of the truly independent American automobile manufacturers had its origins in a Joliet, Illinois based body manufacturer. This obscure company would serve as the cornerstone for the quintessential American taxi brand – Checker.
Read MoreHinckley: A business built on connections
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A WELL-organised livery and carriage service companies took to the streets of Chicago almost as soon as this great US city was established.
One of the earliest of these companies, Parmelee Transportation Company established in May 1853, would play a key role in the development of America’s use of the horseless carriage as inner-city taxis and serve as the foundation for the building of empires.
Read MoreHinckley: An empire from the ashes of others
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ARGUMENT could easily be made that bicycles were the cornerstone of the American auto industry.
The Duesenberg brothers launched their empire with bicycles. Louis Chevrolet started his racing career with bicycles, as did Barney Oldfield. Alexander Pope was the country’s largest manufacturer of bicycles in the 1890s before he turned his attentions toward automobile development and production.
Read MoreHinckley: Franklin – story of an innovator
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HERBERT H. Franklin was a visionary who knew his stuff.
Even though the company he established was never a leading automobile manufacturer, it was a technological pioneer. It also was the benefactor of fierce brand loyalty from customers.
Read MoreHinckley: Studebaker's electrifying start
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IN 1952, Studebaker celebrated its centennial.
Well before this auspicious occasion the company had been eclipsed by Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler as an automobile manufacturer. Still, Studebaker continued to be a leader in innovation and styling. And it still enjoyed a strong brand loyalty that the larger companies envied.
Read MoreThe amazing Glen Curtiss, part two
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MANIFESTATIONS of Glen Curtiss’s diverse interests, visionary imagination, and fascination with advancing the evolution of personal transportation included bicycles, motorcycles, aircraft engines and aircraft.
He even blended various aspects of these with the creation of vehicles like a flying car prototype built in 1917.
Read MoreThe amazing Glen Curtiss
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GLEN Curtiss was a visionary.
He transformed a bicycle repair shop into a motorcycle manufacturing company. He developed and tested a flying car in 1917. And he also made contributions to the development of recreational vehicles, to automotive design, and even to the transformation of Florida.
Read MoreThe brands behind the brands
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DURING the infancy of the American automobile industry, a countless number of brilliant independent thinkers built an empire on the work of equally gifted independent thinkers.
As an example, consider the early reputation for durability earned by Ford and Oldsmobile-built automobiles. The cornerstone for this reputation was the gearboxes, differentials and components manufactured by the Dodge brothers, John and Horace.
Read MoreGardner: Another make-big done in by the Depression.
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RAISE a hand if you have ever heard of Russell E. Gardner.
Okay, raise a hand if you have ever seen a Gardner. No, again? Such is often the legacy of the independent thinker.
When Russell Gardner left his native Tennessee in 1879, he was so broke that if steamboats were selling for 10 cents apiece the best he could have done was run up and down the bank yelling about how cheap they were. He arrived in St. Louis with less than one dollar to his name.
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