On July 2, 1912, Mr. Bill Mitchell was born in Greenville, Pennsylvania. His father was a Buick dealer who regularly brought home trade in Stutz and Mercer sport cars. At the age of 15, Mr. Mitchell received a summer job as an office boy at the Barron Collier advertising agency in New York. While working at the Collier’s agency, he became interested in sports car racing and soon was illustrating event programs for American Road Racing Club.
In 1930, Mr. Bill Mitchell enrolled at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and studied at the Art Students League in New York. During the early part of his career, he developed a drawing technique characterized by action and dynamism. In 1935, he took his automotive designs to General Motors Vice President of Design, Mr. Harley Earl. Being beyond impressed by his drawing technique, Mr. Earl hired Mr. Mitchell as General Motors automotive designer.
On March 15, 1954, the Chicago Auto Show featured the 1954 Ford FX Atmos show car. Ford generated the name for the vehicle by having FX representing “future experimental” and Atmos from “Atmosphere” which derived from “free and unlimited creative thinking”. One of the designers of the 1954 FX Atmos was questioned if designers nowadays build “dream models” before putting their concepts onto the drawing boards. Without a doubt, the 1954 Ford FX Atmos show car drove a variety of opinions throughout the country. The 1954 Ford FX Atmos offered a wheel base of 105 inches, length 220 inches in height.
The body was made of white plastic with broad bands of red on a front luggage compartment lid and along the rear lower half of the wheel housing. The upper sides of the car were painted ice blue. The show car contained no engine, but featured a three passenger model with a bubble top dome. The driver would sit in the central seat while two passengers would sit slightly to the rear of the driver on each side. In order to move the vehicle at that time, the driver would have to steer manually with hand grips located at elbow level.
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During the 1960s, the Ford Falcon was one of the most successful cars ever launched. On October 8, 1959, the compact car was introduced to the buying public at a base price of $1,915 dollars. Within twenty-one months of the Ford Falcon release date, Ford dealers sold approximately 778,086 Falcons. Lee Iacocca, former Vice President and General Division Manager of Ford Motor Company, stated that the Ford Falcon was not only the number one selling compact in the industry, but also was the third bestselling car in the automotive industry.
Shortly thereafter, the Ford Falcon Futura model was displayed at the International Automobile Show in New York City, New York. Lee Iacocca declared, "We are introducing the Falcon Futura for compact car buyers who want to combine luxury appearance with economical operation.” The Ford Falcon Futura, unlike the other Falcon’s, not only offered the basic economy advantages, but also featured a deluxe interior. There were contoured designed bucket seats inspired by the Thunderbird, exclusive wheel covers, and three tear-drop shaped ornaments on the rear fenders. The Ford Falcon was a new line designed to compete with many foreign economy models.
If you happened to see the Robert De Niro thriller Taxi Driver, the kids movie Stuart Little or Steven Spielbergs 2002 film Catch Me if You Can you might notice a common tread in each. All three - and many, many more films “ featured prominently the one-of-a-kind Checker Cab. In fact, until the last one was built in 1982, the quirky Checker Cab was as much in New Yorks milieu as the Empire State Building, the Staten Island Ferry or the Statue of Liberty. At its hey day in the mid-fifties its estimated that of the 12,000 taxis operating in New York City at the time 9,000 were the iconic Checkers. Founded in 1922 by the enterprising Morris Markin “ the Checker cab had the reputation for being reliable, long-lasting and comfortable. Something the people of New York, Chicago and other large cities soon became to appreciate as the ride of choice to get them about town.
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CPP’s new Complete Rear Dual Adjustable Coil-Over Kit is designed to convert your 1963-72 Chevy truck to a corner carving, performance driving vehicle! Our kit includes our new Totally Tubular Trailing arms, coil over springs and dual adjustable coil over shocks and all the mounting hardware to make this rear suspension
Get that cool street rod stance and track proven performance for your 1963-87 Chevrolet C10 Truck! Our Complete Front Coil-Over Conversion Kits include dual-adjustable coil-over shocks, spanner wrench and bearing kit, our Totally Tubular™ upper and lower control arms, and all the mounting brackets and hardware for a simple bolt-on installation.
Sue Vanderbilt in a 1958 Cadillac Eldorado Seville “Baroness;" the show car that she styled for the Feminine Show. When you look back at General Motors’ rich design history, one of the most talented individuals, who made her career as part of GM’s vaunted Creative Design Team, was the late Suzanne E. Vanderbilt.
Vanderbilt was one of the original Damsels of Design – a group of eight, great talented female designers that the famed Harley Earl hired during the early days of the 1950s.
Throughout history, the Oldsmobile story has inspired many automotive historians with its rich and celebrated heritage which started right in Michigan’s capital city of Lansing.
I remember a particularly exciting year in 1978 when Oldsmobile introduced their new line of vehicles and automotive catalogues to the buying public. My first impression was that Oldsmobile was using 1978 to create a family-oriented lineup of new cars. The company used its advertising and marketing to highlight many traditional family values
The year 1966 was a great year for automotive sales in the U.S. Many car manufacturers were doing very well for the economy and in 1966 the average cost for a new Dodge vehicle sold for $ 2,280 and the price of gasoline for 32 cents a gallon.
The Chrysler Corporation was also doing very well within the automotive markets with its popular Dodge Dart models. The 1966 Dodge Dart models made their debut in Dodge dealerships on September 30, 1965.
Based on a 1956 Chevrolet 210 Sedan, this recently completed mild custom was built to showcase the timeless factory “Tri-Five” heritage. With a new GM Performance ZZ4 power plant backed by a factory-fresh GM 700R4 transmission, it is equipped with rack-and-pinion steering, four-wheel Wilwood disc
To ensure that Shelby American would have its 1966 GT350 models in dealerships when Ford released the new ‘66 Mustangs, Shelby ordered an additional 252 cars from Ford’s San Jose plant at the very end of 1965 production. These ‘change-over’ cars (often referred to as ‘carry-overs’) were essentially Shelby-spec ’65 GT350s, and received the same performance modifications,
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