The Cars That Made America

What’s A “Car Dude”?

Celebrities including Toby Keith, Tim Allen, Pilar Lastra, and Danny Koker ponder that age-old question: What exactly makes someone a “car dude”?

The Cars That Made America

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The Cars That Made America

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September 04, 2017

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American automotive history isn’t just about impressively brawny engines. Or irresistibly curvy chrome. Or the reliable, practical vehicles that stir steadily off the lot. That’s why our “Cars That Made America” list draws from all those categories—and from the duds as well.

Because in the aggressively competitive auto industry, the Edsels and Vegas can be as significant as the Model Ts and Mustangs. Sometimes ideas thrown at the wall stuck. Other times they slipped leisurely to an ignominious grease puddle on the floor. But each time, the entrepreneurs, marketers, designers, engineers and managers who guided American automobile production learned something. Failures (and there were many) often informed later successes. Clunkers could beget crowd-pleasers.

In this rundown of influential American cars, we see visionary engineers scheming ways to go swifter and further, in greater convenience and style. We see brand wizards tapping deep into the national psyche, evoking core American values of freedom, self-reliance and practicality. The cars here range from plain and utilitarian to sporty and joy to fantastically opulent. Many were testosterone-fueled under the bondage mask, while others had to go up the hills backward.

This subjective list, which reflects a varied cross-section of a century of American automobile development, leaves out many wonderful cars. One thing’s for sure: Everyone has their own automotive hit parade. We’d like to hear yours. Stutz Bearcat? Cadillac V-16? Chevy Camaro? Hemi ‘Cuda? Weigh in with your picks and the reasons for them on HISTORY’s Facebook page.

Advertisement for the Oldsmobile Runabout by the Olds Motor Works in Detroit, Michigan, 1901. (Credit: Jay Paull/Getty Photos)

OLDSMOBILE MODEL R

The very first practical, reliable, mass-produced American automobile

How many built: 12,000+ inbetween one thousand nine hundred one and 1904

Ransom Eli Olds, who had embarked experimenting with self-propelled vehicles in 1887, was working on several different prototypes in his company’s Detroit factory in one thousand nine hundred one when a fire ruined the building and three of those prototypes. The only survivor: the Model R, popularly known as the Curved Dash for its curved, buggy-like footboard.

By the end of the year, Olds had built some four hundred twenty five of them. Priced at just $650, the Curved Dash was accessible to a broad range of prospective customers. Its tiller steering and buggy-like bod were familiar to the horse-trained public. Its rugged 7-horsepower single-cylinder engine, ordinary 2-speed planetary transmission, chain drive and high ground clearance were strong enough to get through the rigors of the nation’s largely rugged, rutted mess tracks. It remained in production through one thousand nine hundred four and inspired the hit song “In My Merry Oldsmobile:”

Come away with me, Lucille,

In my merry Oldsmobile.

Down the road of life we fly,

Automo-bubbling, you and I.

A Buick Model ten outside the Long Island Automotive Museum in Fresh York State, 1950s. (Credit: Carsten/Three Lions/Getty Pics)

BUICK MODEL Ten

A moderately popular early bid to build a car for the masses

How many built: 23,100 inbetween one thousand nine hundred eight and 1910

When General Motors incorporated in the fall of 1908, its CEO, William “Billy” Durant, went on a buying spree, building his empire by gobbling up the lion’s share of the competition within the very first year. (He couldn’t woo rival Henry Ford, the other visionary of the burgeoning industry.) Buick, the very first company Durant acquired, became GM’s core brand. And the Model Ten, painted all white with snappy brass trim, was Buick’s most popular model.

The defining characteristic of the four-cylinder Model 10—and of every Buick since—was its overhead-valve cylinder head, a.k.a. the “valve-in-head” engine that gave superior spectacle. All Model 10s were marketed as a vehicle for “men with real crimson blood who don’t like to eat dust.” Despite arriving on the scene just before Henry Ford’s very first Model T splashed onto the market, the Model ten didn’t take off in the same way. Production ended when Buick realized it could build on its reputation—and its efficient valve-in-head engine—to sell more expensive cars at higher profits.

Ford Model ‘T’, 1910. The Model T was introduced by Henry Ford in one thousand nine hundred nine and the Ford Motor Company’s Detroit factory was adapted for its mass production. (Credit: Oxford Science Archive/Print Collector/Getty Photos)

FORD MODEL T

Put the world on wheels

How many built: 15,458,781 inbetween one thousand nine hundred eight and 1927

Embarking price: $825 for the Runabout model; by one thousand nine hundred twenty five it had dropped to $260

Simpleness. Spectacle. Reliability. Those were the magic ingredients baked into Henry Ford’s insanely successful Model T, a technical and commercial triumph that not only democratized driving for the masses, but in doing so, helped convert America’s landscape and culture. Farms were no longer dramatically isolated from one another. Street paving accelerated and building of the nation’s vast network of roadways began in earnest. Street lights, road signs and a entire fresh array of roadside businesses sprouted, including the now-ubiquitous gas station.

Ford also revolutionized industry at large with assembly-line production, which helped speed manufacturing and shove prices down. The cost of the Model T’s touring-car version dropped from $850 in one thousand nine hundred eight to less than $300 in 1925. Such prices helped people who never aspired to driving think that they, too, could afford a newfangled horseless buggy—and the freedom it provided. As sales soared, Ford at times produced more Model Ts than the next ten automakers’ output combined.

Whereas GM’s CEO Billy Durant was known as the consummate salesman, Henry Ford made his name as a visionary, roll-up-your-sleeves engineer. He designed the Model T as a workhorse of a car, building it with light, affordable vanadium steel that suggested rugged durability and a supple suspension that stood up to the era’s potholed wagon roads. He gave the engine twenty horsepower, which propelled the car to top speeds of forty to forty five miles per hour. And because he dreamed any reasonably mechanically competent farmer to be able to maintain and repair their Model T, he made its engine’s cylinder head removable. An unusual feature for the time, that simplified the necessary (and frequent) process of cleaning out carbon buildup in the combustion chambers and valve pockets, making it far simpler than the rivals’ fixed-head engines.

The Model T did have its quirks. For one, the 10-gallon fuel tank was placed under the front seat and fuel was gravity-fed to the engine. Because of that and the reality that switch roles gear suggested more power than the forward gears, owners could often be seen driving up a steep hill backward.

And then there was Henry Ford’s decision to suggest Model Ts in any color—as long as it was black. Ever practical, with an eye on production efficiency, he realized that the pigmented paints used in the T’s early years (crimson, green, gray and blue) required numerous decorates with time inbetween decorates to dry and sand. Vast storage areas were packed with bods being painted, costing the company both time and money. Black cured much more quickly and it became the standard (and only) color suggested from one thousand nine hundred fourteen to 1926. Customers didn’t seem to mind and production hopped by almost two-thirds in 1915.

By one thousand nine hundred fourteen the Model T’s success had made Henry Ford rich, but he had a problem. The moving assembly line he had pioneered should have made it possible to sell cars at ever-lower prices, but the assembly line’s repetitive tasks proved unattractive at a wage of about $Two.25 per 9-hour workday. Worker turnover killed productivity; sometimes workers just walked away from their stations, bringing the entire line to a halt.

Ford’s solution was innovative: He raised the wage to $Five per day and cut the workday to eight hours. One day after it was announced, a crowd estimated at Ten,000 people displayed up at the Ford plant looking for $5-a-day employment. That solved the turnover problem, letting the assembly line run efficiently. Ultimately, with its production facility that, figuratively speaking, sent metal ore in one side and finished cars out the other, Ford downright predominated the $300 car market.

Dodge Model 30, 1916. (Credit: National Motor Museum/Heritage Pics/Getty Pics)

DODGE BROTHERS MODEL 30

The very first Dodge Brothers automobile

How many built: 596,770 inbetween one thousand nine hundred fourteen and 1921

Beginning price: $785 for the Touring Car model

As successful Detroit contract manufacturers, John and Horace Dodge were a major supplier of automotive parts to industry giant Ford. But when Ford got cash-strapped and couldn’t make payments, the Dodges accepted company stock instead. Henry Ford bought the stock back in 1919, providing the Dodge brothers a $25 million windfall.

But even while the Dodges were a crucial element to Ford’s success, they weren’t all that amazed with the Model T. John Dodge is quoted as telling, “Someday the people who own a Ford are going to want an automobile.”

The Model thirty was the Dodge Brothers’ idea of what an economical automobile should be: a well-built, durable car with more power and more standard features than the Model T. With a 35-horsepower, 212-cubic-inch, four-cylinder engine and a 3-speed sliding gear transmission, it came fully tooled from the factory with a folding top, electrical lighting, leather upholstery, electrical starter, windshield and speedometer. Originally constructed in the traditional manner, with steel panels over a wood framework, the Model thirty in one thousand nine hundred twenty three became the first-ever to suggest an all-steel automobile bod. The brothers, in a belt-and-suspenders stir typical of their conservative nature, added rivets to the welding for reinforcement.

Ford Phaeton Type Model A. (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Photos)

1927 FORD MODEL A

Model T’s successor suggested modern features at an economy price

How many built: Three,572,610 produced inbetween one thousand nine hundred twenty seven and 1931

Kicking off price: From $430 (Roadster) to $640 (Convertible Sedan) in 1931

By the mid-1920s, it became apparent even to Henry Ford that his beloved Model T was being surpassed in features and in the marketplace by competitors. So in one thousand nine hundred twenty six the company set out to create a successor.

The very first blueprints date to January 1927. With the company’s existing vertically integrated production facility, and capability to make a large number of its own parts, work proceeded at a phenomenal tempo. Model T production ended May 26, 1927. The development of the fresh car, named “Model A,” was announced on August Ten, 1927. The very first Model A was assembled October twenty one and the car was introduced publicly on December Two, 1927. Just over Three,800 were built in calendar year 1927.

For an economy car, the Model A boasted several infrequently seen innovations, including four-wheel hydraulic-lever shock absorbers, self-adjusting four-wheel mechanical brakes and a laminated safety-glass windshield. Henry Ford’s son Edsel updated styling and design features with crowned fenders and lower rail height.

On February Four, 1929, Ford built its one millionth Model A; the two millionth followed on July 29th, slightly six months later. But by one thousand nine hundred thirty one the Model A, too, had been surpassed by a horde of voracious competitors.

one thousand nine hundred thirty one Chevrolet parked in front of a market, Washington, D.C., 1941. (Credit: Louise Rosskam/Buyenlarge/Getty Pics)

1931 CHEVROLET AE INDEPENDENCE SIX

The very first Chevrolet to outsell Ford (beyond the one thousand nine hundred twenty seven Ford shutdown for Model A changeover)

How many built: 623,901 in model year 1931

Nickname: ‘Stovebolt Six,’ because its fasteners resembled common hardware-store stovebolts

Chevrolet introduced the Six in 1929, just after Ford brought out the Model A. With its overhead-valve six-cylinder engine, it was marketed with the slogan “A six for the price of a four.” It took Chevy, and the Depression, two years to whittle away the celebrity aura surrounding the Model A, but the Chevy Six’s features and value soon made an impression.

For one thing, the one thousand nine hundred thirty one Chevrolet’s fifty hp bested Ford by ten horsepower. And even with the introduction of the powerful Ford V-8 in 1932, the one thousand nine hundred thirty two Chevrolet’s sixty hp was only five ponies less than the V-8. It was also smoother running and free of the V-8’s rattly rail. It set up a seesaw battle for volume inbetween Ford and Chevrolet that persisted through the next decades.

one thousand nine hundred thirty two Ford Model eighteen V-8, photograph by Simon Clay. (Credit: National Motor Museum/Heritage Pics/Getty Photos)

1932 FORD MODEL eighteen V-8

The very first low-priced V-8

How many built: 178,749 built in 1932, ems of millions more through 1953

Beginning price: From $460 for a standard Roadster to $650 for a convertible sedan

Henry Ford had been experimenting with unusual multi-cylinder engines even before the Model A. He rejected an inline six as being a copycat, seeking something distinctly different to perpetuate the photo of Ford as the automobile innovator. A more powerful V-8 for a low-priced car suggested that innovation.

Development went on in accomplish secrecy in a workshop used by Henry Ford’s revered friend, inventor Thomas Edison, which Ford had moved to Michigan. The very first prototype was finished in May 1930. The Ford V-8 would go on to upend the American automobile industry. Its 221-cubic-inch V-8 engine produced sixty five horsepower, over fifty percent more than Model A. It had a single-piece cylinder block and crankcase, a miracle of foundry technology at the time. The V-8 was brief and rigid, and it dropped right into the space designed for the Model B four-cylinder engine already planned for production in 1932. That meant no expensive factory re-tooling.

The Ford V-8 did have problems, like cooling issues that were never adequately solved. But its light weight, reliability and substantial power laid the base for American automobile engine development for years to come.

Even bank robbers John Dillinger and Clyde Barrow wrote to Ford to express their appreciation for the Ford V-8. Barrow and his gf Bonnie Parker met their end in a bullet-riddled one thousand nine hundred thirty four “Fordor” (the company’s pun) sedan.

one thousand nine hundred twenty nine Duesenberg Model J. (Courtesy of Rick Carey)

DUESENBERG MODEL J

Glam in the extreme: the pinnacle of Classic Era design, spectacle, quality and style

How many built: About four hundred eighty inbetween one thousand nine hundred twenty nine and 1937

Embarking price: $8,500 for the chassis, without coachwork—enough for ten Model A Fords

E.L. Cord became holder of Duesenberg Motors in one thousand nine hundred twenty six and gave Fred Duesenberg elementary instructions: Design the finest, fastest, most luxurious automobile in the world. It arrived on December 1, one thousand nine hundred twenty eight and it was everything Cord could ask for, surpassing its competitors in almost every respect.

Its graceful, swooping lines and opulent materials provided the flawless conveyance for image-conscious Hollywood starlets and captains of industry. Whether an ordinary 4-door sedan or a custom-built speedster, figures reflected the finest work of the best coachbuilders in the U.S. and Europe, boasting everything from bright chromium outside harass pipes to intricately inlaid fine wood interiors and richly embroidered fabrics.

Its eight-cylinder engine produced a claimed two hundred sixty five horsepower, almost twice that of its most powerful American contemporary. Even with the most intense formal coachwork, the Model J could lightly exceed one hundred mph. But that wasn’t enough. So August Duesenberg developed a centrifugal supercharger that raised output to three hundred twenty horsepower.

Given the high cost of the chassis and its coachwork, Duesenberg clients were wealthy. Movie starlets Gary Cooper and Clark Gable had special supercharged short-wheelbase convertible coupes built. Chewing-gum magnate Philip K. Wrigley, Bill “Mr. Bojangles” Robinson, big-band conductor Paul Whiteman, candy heiress Ethel Mars and many more wielded Duesenbergs—sometimes a succession of them. International Peace Mission founder “Father Divine” had a custom-bodied opened up Duesenberg that seated eleven with a raised rear seat under a removable roof section that permitted the 5-foot-tall preacher to be more readily seen when providing speeches through the car’s built-in public-address system.

J.L. Elbert’s book on the marque is subtitled “The Mightiest American Motor Car.” The Duesenberg is so mighty that he could have left out “American.”

Promotional portrait of the Chrysler Airflow, 1934. (Credit: PhotoQuest/Getty Pics)

CHRYSLER AIRFLOW

Brilliant scientific engineering caught in the crush of the Good Depression

How many built: 35,740 inbetween one thousand nine hundred thirty four and one thousand nine hundred thirty seven

Walter P. Chrysler was an American Horatio Alger story, working his way up from farmhand to manager of the American Locomotive Works’ Pittsburgh factory, then to Buick. He successfully ran Buick for Billy Durant’s General Motors at a one thousand nine hundred seventeen salary of a almost unimaginable $175,000 per year plus stock, then left to embark his own car company.

When Willys Motors was subsumed into the GM fold, its engineering team—Carl Breer, Fred M. Zeder and Owen Skelton—joined up with Walter Chrysler. It was a marriage made in engineering heaven, and their finest accomplishment was the one thousand nine hundred thirty four Chrysler Airflow. It grew out of experiments Carl Breer began in the late 1920s with a puny 20×30 inch cross-section wind tunnel suggested by the Wright brothers. The Airflow embodied the results of this and other wind-tunnel experiments with its teardrop form, steeply sloped radiator grille and the very first one-piece curved windshield. Albeit a lightweight framework was used, the one-piece steel assets provided chassis rigidity, an auto industry very first. The engine was placed over, not behind, the front-axle centerline.

The resulting Airflow of one thousand nine hundred thirty four was like nothing else worldwide. Initial enthusiasm for the concept was followed by skepticism. Despite ambitious advertisements displaying an Airflow shoved over a cliff, then driven away, buyers weren’t planning on driving over cliffs. And with the Fine Depression furious, few wished to splurge $1,345, 60% more than a conventional Chrysler CA six sedan, to take a chance on advanced technology. The Airstream disappeared three years later, an chance lost.

one thousand nine hundred forty nine Ford mild custom-built with pinstripes, whitewall tires, and clean lines. (Credit: Al Paloczy/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Photos)

1949 FORD

The very first Ford designed and built without Henry Ford’s oversight

How many built: 1,118,740 built in two models and two engines

Commencing price: From $1,333 (Six Business Coupe) to $Two,264 (Custom-built V-8 Station Wagon)

With Ford wholly possessed by its founding family, Edsel’s death in one thousand nine hundred forty three and Henry’s in one thousand nine hundred forty seven compelled the next generation to take the reins and usher the company into the postwar era. That included designing the very first postwar model: the one thousand nine hundred forty nine Ford, a major departure from traditional offerings.

One look at the figure design exposed the differences: Fenders integrated with the assets. The sides flowed continuously. And the passenger compartment was sleekly rounded. Underneath, the transverse leaf springs that Henry had stubbornly clung to since horse-and-buggy days were gone, substituted with coil-spring independent front suspension and longitudinal leaf springs for the live rear axle.

With civilian car production leisurely gearing back up after Detroit’s massive war effort, both Chevrolet and Plymouth also introduced redesigned cars in 1949, but neither did it as well, or as successfully, as Ford: Chevrolet sold 1,037,600 and Plymouth, 508,000. The third-generation Ford team led by Henry Ford II had taken a surprising initiative and made it a success.

one thousand nine hundred fifty three Chevrolet Corvette. (Credit: National Motor Museum/Heritage Pics/Getty Photos)

1953 CHEVROLET CORVETTE ROADSTER

America’s sports car

How many built: three hundred in 1953, Four,640 in total inbetween one thousand nine hundred fifty three and 1955

Beginning in 1949, General Motors introduced its annual Motorama, parading the company’s products and new-vehicle concepts. In 1953, each of GM’s then fiercely independent divisions showcased their vision for a “sports car.” Most had simply restyled cars already in production. Buick weighed in with the Wildcat I, conceived by car-design guru Harley Earl, accomplish with a foot-controlled radio and “Robo-static” hubs. Pontiac suggested the Parisienne, a two-seater with a landau roof and pink upholstery, meant to be driven by a chauffeur.

Chevrolet went for something fairly different: a petite fiberglass-bodied two-seater patterned after the sexy British Jaguar XK-120 roadster. They called it “Corvette.”

It became such a sensation that Chevrolet began low-volume, hand-built production at a plant in Flint. Only three hundred were built in one thousand nine hundred fifty three using modified Chevrolet frames, suspension and a 150hp 3-carburetor version of its 236-cubic-inch overhead-valve six. All had Powerglide automatic transmissions.

For one thousand nine hundred fifty four Chevrolet moved production to a puny dedicated facility in St. Louis, planning to sell Ten,000 Corvettes. They didn’t sell almost that many, but GM management, particularly the corporation’s legendary chairman Alfred P. Sloan, felt it had a place in the corporation’s stable and added welcome sizzle to the brand—particularly when crosstown rival Ford announced the two-seat Thunderbird for 1955. That year, the spectacle of the Corvette’s brand fresh 195hp overhead-valve V-8 engine (a $135 option) began to switch the public’s perception. Chevrolet did reach its annual sales target of Ten,000, but not until 1960. Today Corvette production regularly exceeds 30,000 annually, all tracing their ancestry back to those Polo White one thousand nine hundred fifty three roadsters.

One of those avid spectators around the fresh Corvette at the Fresh York Motorama in one thousand nine hundred fifty three was a Belgian-born Russian engineer with extensive racing practice in Europe, Zora Arkus-Duntov. He approached General Motors for a job, was hired and soon became Corvette’s chief engineer. Despite chafing under GM’s corporate structure, he shepherded Corvette to its greatest early successes.

one thousand nine hundred fifty five Chrysler C300. (Credit: National Motor Museum/Heritage Pictures/Getty Photos)

1955 CHRYSLER C-300 TWO-DOOR HARDTOP

A smoking-fast luxury car for grown-ups

In automotive terms, few years suggested as much reason to go car crazy as 1955, which spotted the release of V-8 versions of both the Thunderbird and Corvette, along with the popular ’55 Chevy. But for many car enthusiasts, that year will be best remembered for the introduction of the Chrysler C-300, which combined testosterone-fueled horsepower and sporty suspension with a gorgeous, muscular design.

Based on the already opulent Fresh Yorker Deluxe, it was styled under the supervision of Virgil Exner, whose famed “Forward Look” design conveyed an antsy, poised-for-action look. It came in just one assets style, which was configured from stock parts, and in only three colors (white, crimson or black). It was upholstered in sunburn leather.

Chrysler engineers beefed up the C-300’s suspension to cope with its 331-cubic-inch Hemi engine (so-called for its hemispherical combustion chambers), which boasted dual four-barrel carburetors and three hundred horsepower—more than any other one thousand nine hundred fifty five American car.

Despite weighing in at a hefty Four,000-plus pounds, the C-300 proved its temper on the track. A fleet of them entered by Mercury outboard-motor company proprietor Karl Kiekhaefer swept the one thousand nine hundred fifty five racing season almost clean, winning some thirty seven AAA and NASCAR races of one hundred miles or more. Instantly recognizable on the street, it commanded respect at every stoplight, yet its cost meant that in pretty much every case a suit-and-tie-wearing erect was at the wheel. Tom McCahill, auto writer for Mechanix Illustrated magazine, called it “as solid as Grant’s Tomb, and one hundred thirty times as rapid.”

Two-tone one thousand nine hundred fifty five Chevrolet Bel Air with whitewall tires in a used-car lot. (Credit: Eric Rickman/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Pictures)

1955 CHEVROLET

The debut of the ‘smallblock’ Chevrolet V-8

How many built: 1,830,029 in all bod styles

Embarking price: 2-Door Sedan V-8 prices ranged from $Trio,055 for a one hundred fifty to $Three,125 for a Bel Air

An argument can be made that it was the ’55 Chevrolets’ redesigned bodies—with their balanced proportions and restrained chrome—that helped thrust Chevrolet’s one thousand nine hundred fifty five model-year production to its highest ever. But those results most likely wouldn’t have been achieved were it not for the car’s brash under-the-hood bonafides: a high-revving 265-cubic-inch V-8 that powered Chevy’s success that year.

Developed under the supervision of Chevrolet chief engineer Ed Cole, the ’55 Chevy would ultimately help propel him to the chairmanship of GM. The small-block engine bristled with innovations. Very first was its light weight: an incredible forty one pounds less than the Chevy six. Its brief piston stroke, big valves and excellent cylinder-head design gave it unparalleled high rpm spectacle. The very first modern short-stroke V-8, the Chevy smallblock V-8 would rigidly cement Chevrolet’s place at the head of the pack in the horsepower race that was to come.

one thousand nine hundred fifty seven DeSoto Adventurer. (Credit: German Medeot/Flickr Commons/CC BY Two.0)

1957 DE SOTO ADVENTURER

How many built: Three,069 inbetween one thousand nine hundred fifty seven and 1959

Commencing price: $Trio,997 for the hardtop, $Four,272 for the convertible

Nowhere was Virgil Exner’s jet-age “Forward Look” bod styling taken further than in the top-of-the-line DeSoto Adventurer. The aesthetic emphasized length and sleek, swept, dart-like features. It was reinforced by dramatic two-tone paint schemes with bright chrome borders. Taillights were housed in the trailing edges of the fins. Bumpers and grille were treated as massive chrome appendages. The Adventurer got standard TorqueFlite automatic transmissions and power brakes among many other standard features. It also had gold plating for the trim accents.

As with the Chrysler C-300 two years before, the real excitement growled under the Adventurer’s fetish mask, in the form of a 345-cubic-inch Hemi V-8 with dual four-barrel carburetors that twisted out three hundred forty five horsepower. DeSoto pridefully noted it was the only standard (i.e., not ordered as an option) engine in one thousand nine hundred fifty seven to make one horsepower per cubic inch displacement. In a horsepower race, this was the car to have in 1957, with flamboyant style to match its spectacle.

one thousand nine hundred fifty eight Edsel Corsair for Motor Life Magazine. (Credit: Ken Fermoyle/The Enthusiast Network/Getty Pics)

EDSEL

A dramatic fresh middle-market entry marked by utter failure in the marketplace

How many built: 110,847 inbetween one thousand nine hundred fifty eight and 1960

Beginning price: $Trio,500 for top-of-the-line Citation hardtop coupe

By the mid 1950s, Ford’s marketers believed the company was missing the chance to upgrade existing customers by having only one middle-market brand, Mercury. The fix, which fell to the Special Product Operations office under Edsel’s son, William Clay Ford, was aimed at packing an ill-defined and little niche just below Mercury.

Ford Motor Company’s ad agency pitched Legal,000 possible names for the fresh marque. But in a display of respect for their late father’s fights to bring style and modern technology to Henry Ford’s automobiles, the family-controlled company chose “Edsel.” The final design marked a distinct stylistic departure from past Fords, with scalloped coves in the rear fenders and a dramatic grille with an ovoid center section that quickly became known as a “horse dog collar.” Aside from styling elements, the push-button automatic transmission selector in the hub of the steering wheel, some rudimentary safety features and different engine displacements, the Edsel was lightly identifiable as what it was: derivative of Fords and Mercurys. Consumers weren’t fooled, sales stalled and Edsel disappeared after three years.

Ford Mustang, which was introduced to the public on April 17, one thousand nine hundred sixty four at the Fresh York World’s Fair, Florida, 1963. (Credit: Underwood Archives/Getty Pics)

1964½ FORD MUSTANG

The original Pony Car, creator of an entire category

How many produced: 263,434 inbetween April and December of 1964, almost tremendous Ford’s production capacity; 1,288,557 first-generation Mustangs inbetween one thousand nine hundred sixty four and 1966

Beginning price: $Two,368 for a notchback hardtop coupe

Named after a WWII fighter plane, the Mustang was unveiled by Henry Ford II at the one thousand nine hundred sixty four World’s Fair. It was just a Falcon with fresh bodywork, built at the same plant in Dearborn, but that made no difference to America’s car buyers in 1964. They impatiently adopted Mustang as an entirely fresh concept of a moderately priced “personal car” with room for four—with a sporty profile aimed squarely at the emerging market of baby boomers, who had commenced hitting driving age just a few years earlier.

The Mustang’s significance in American automobile history can’t be understated. It rivals that of Henry’s Model T. Without it, there would never have been a “pony car” category, which includes Camaros, Barracudas, Firebirds, Javelins, Challengers and Cougars. It spawned things like Carroll Shelby’s GT350, a rip-snorting pony car on steroids. It won uncountable races as the Boss 302. It set drag-racing records as the Boss 429. And almost ten million sales later, it still exists today, cleverly styled by Ford’s designers so if you draped a two thousand seventeen Mustang with a parachute it is still recognizable as a Mustang.

Lee Iacocca, ever the marketing showman (in one stunt, he had a Mustang cut in three lumps so he could get it to the top of the Empire State Building), championed the Mustang’s development and railed it to success, becoming president of Ford and later, chairman of Chrysler.

Advertisement featuring the one thousand nine hundred sixty Chevrolet Corvair. (Credit: John Lloyd/Flickr Commons/CC BY Two.0)

CHEVROLET CORVAIR

An ingenious concept felled by one fault: swing-axle rear suspension

How many built: 1,695,765 inbetween one thousand nine hundred sixty and 1969

Kicking off price: $1,984 for Club Coupes

“Compact” cars emerged as a category on the bumpers of Volkswagen’s Beetle and other successful imports. Petite, lightweight and modestly powered, a compact served basic transportation needs—and maybe a little bit of counter-cultural disdain for prestige. A flood of them came from Detroit in 1960, and the driving public gobbled them up.

Whereas Ford’s Falcon and Plymouth’s Valiant were conventional American cars with front engines and rear-wheel drive, Chevrolet’s sporty looking Corvair was anything but conventional, the only mass-produced American passenger car with a rear-mounted, air-cooled six-cylinder engine. Its distinctive styling, with its stubby nose insolently free of any semblance of the unnecessary radiator grille and extended tail around the pancake engine, left no doubt it was “different.” It was Motor Trend magazine’s “Car of the Year” in 1960.

But Corvair had one fatal flaw: a swing-axle independent rear suspension. Drivers of cars like the Porsche three hundred fifty six understood how to treat it, and only cautiously approached its boundaries in high-speed cornering, but the average American driver had less practice with the “tail-happy” character of the rear engine and sway axle, which sometimes led to spinouts.

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader featured the Corvair in his pejoratively named book “Unsafe at Any Speed.” In one thousand nine hundred sixty five Chevrolet switched to wishbone rear suspension that eliminated the problem in a seductively redesigned Corvair, but it was too late. Even with the attraction of a turbocharged 180hp version of its 164-cubic-inch engine. Corvair passed away after 1969, a daring concept tripped up by negative publicity and the burgeoning auto-safety movement.

one thousand nine hundred sixty four Pontiac Le Guy’s GTO. (Courtesy of Rick Carey)

PONTIAC LE Boy’s GTO

The prototype for ‘muscle cars’ with big engines in mid-sized chassis

How many built: 514,793 inbetween one thousand nine hundred sixty four and one thousand nine hundred seventy four

Kicking off price: $Two,963 for the GTO-equipped 2-door hardtop

Pontiac Division president E.H. “Pete” Estes and his chief engineer John DeLorean wished Pontiac to challenge Chevrolet as GM’s most successful division. Choosing spectacle as their weapon, they proceeded to introduce terms like “broad track” and “Tri-Power” into automotive parlance.

DeLorean had developed a powerful 389-cubic-inch V-8 that would drop right into Pontiac’s existing Tempest model after its one thousand nine hundred sixty four redesign, but the suits at GM Headquarters on the 14th floor of the GM building in downtown Detroit had put out an decree that big engines could not be used in fresh models of mid-sized cars. So Estes and DeLorean found a elementary workaround to the new-model rule: Make the 335-horsepower engines a mid-year option in the Le Boy’s. It paid off with one of GM’s most successful offerings ever, blossoming into its own model in one thousand nine hundred sixty six when the management realized how much it appealed to buyers. With sales success, all confinements were off.

The GTO helped propel Estes to the presidency of General Motors and DeLorean to be head of Chevrolet. It also ignited muscle car madness.

one thousand nine hundred seventy one Chevy Vega. (Credit: NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Pics)

CHEVROLET VEGA

An ingenious treatment to a subcompact car

How many built: 1,966,660 inbetween one thousand nine hundred seventy one and 1977

Beginning price: $Two,090 for the 2-door sedan to $Two,328 for the Kammback station wagon

In one thousand nine hundred seventy one GM looked to have a hit when it introduced the killer, front-engined, rear-wheel-drive, sub-compact Vega. Its fresh engine, with a groundbreaking die-cast cylinder block, contributed to the Vega’s light weight. Its single-overhead-camshaft cast-iron cylinder head aided spectacle. Individual bucket seats and a floor-shift 3-speed manual transmission came standard, providing Vega a sports car flair. It was chosen by Motor Trend magazine as its Car of the Year.

Unluckily for Chevrolet, it also rusted quickly and the engine had stimulation and cooling issues. A major redesign after a few years couldn’t overcome the negative impression that had been made and the Vega was discontinued after one thousand nine hundred seventy seven with just over two million built.

Car and Driver chided Motor Trend by including the Vega on its list of “The ten Most Embarrassing Award Winners in Automotive History.” The editors commented: “It was so unreliable that it seemed the only time anyone spotted a Vega on the road not puking out oil smoke was when it was being towed.”

one thousand nine hundred seventy one Ford Pinto. (Credit: Joe Haupt/Flickr Commons/CC BY-SA Two.0)

FORD PINTO

Economical, hugely successful in the marketplace—but with a fatal flaw

How many built: Trio,150,943 inbetween one thousand nine hundred seventy one AND 1980

In 1971, Time magazine named Richard M. Nixon its person of the year. The movie “Love Story” was released. And Ford introduced a spiffy fresh petite car called the Pinto. Despite promising starts, none of these would end well.

The Pinto, a project of marketing wizard Lee Iacocca, was Ford’s entry into the sub-compact market that year, a homegrown reaction to the leisurely widening stream of puny cars being imported from Japan and Germany. It used two different cast-iron four-cylinder engines engines (one seventy five horsepower, the other 100) which had been built in England and Germany and were already proven in their home markets. Bucket seats, a floor-mounted shifter for the standard four-speed manual transmission and rack-and-pinion steering sported up the driving practice. In one thousand nine hundred seventy two an attractive and practical 2-door station wagon was added, and these three models would remain in the Pinto lineup until it was discontinued in 1980.

Pretty much anyone with a passing skill of cars, or who lived through the 1970s, knows what happened next. With more than a million Pintos on the road soon after its introduction, the car displayed a sometimes-fatal tendency to catch fire when hit in the rear. The problem was ultimately traced to the location of the fuel tank and its filler neck. Ford relocated those components for one thousand nine hundred seventy six and later models. But in 1977, facing an emerging recall order from the U.S. government, the company voluntarily recalled all pre-1976 Pintos to be fitted with shielding and reinforcements.

It proved to be a devastating and expensive suck to Ford and its prestige—particularly when, in 1980, the State of Indiana charged Ford Motor Company with reckless homicide in a rear-ended Pinto fire. Albeit the company was acquitted, the charge and trial were devastating to Ford’s broader reputation.

1960s magazine advertisement for the Ford Shelby Cobra. (Credit: Classic Film/Flickr Commons/CC BY-NC Two.0)

SHELBY COBRA

Brawn meets beauty in the ultimate European-American hybrid

How many built: sixty two with two hundred sixty engine, four hundred fifty three with two hundred eighty nine engine (street cars only) in 1962

The blistering-fast brainchild of American racing driver and entrepreneur Carroll Shelby, the Shelby Cobra made incarnate the belief that you can never have too many horses under the bondage mask. It was powered by an American V-8 and was final-assembled in California, but the chassis, assets and interior were built by AC Cars in Thames Ditton, UK.

Theirs was a nifty marriage: Shelby was looking for an American engine-European chassis project. And AC was looking for a fresh engine for its light, beautiful AC Ace roadster. Shelby approached Chevy for engines. Chevy said something like, “For a Corvette competitor? We think not.” Ford thought differently.

Introduced in 1962, the Shelby Cobra created a sensation among the automotive media—and wreaked havoc among its racing competitors. In one thousand nine hundred sixty five Cobras won the GT class in nine of twelve FIA World Championship races, taking the GT Championship. It would be a very first for an American manufacturer.

Shelby’s original Cobra spawned a separate industry to race, maintain, restore, demonstrate them and track their histories. Yet another industry creates replicas—some good, some bad and a few downright ugly. The Shelby Cobra, whether in its original leaf-spring 260/289 configuration or its later coil-spring 427/428 evolution, has proven to be an American legend that still produces thrills to owners and onlookers alike.

one thousand nine hundred eighty one DeLorean DMC-12. (Credit: Ian Weddell/Flickr Commons/CC BY-NC Two.0)

DELOREAN DMC-12

The final fling of a Detroit legend, John Z. DeLorean

How many built: 8,742 produced in one thousand nine hundred eighty one and 1982

This isn’t truly a story about a car. It’s about a car dude, John Z. DeLorean, whose flamboyant lifestyle grated with suit-and-tie-wearing Detroit managers, but who produced results wherever he worked. It was DeLorean who ignited the Muscle Car years with the LeMans GTO while he was Pontiac’s chief engineer. At Chevrolet, he drove development of the compact Vega and the frighteningly powerful Chevelle, leading Chevrolet to its very first year of 3-million-car-sales in 1972.

In inbetween, he courted models and movie starlets, splitting his week inbetween working in Detroit and partying in Los Angeles.

DeLorean abandon GM in one thousand nine hundred seventy three after only six months as group vice president, and in one thousand nine hundred seventy five began the DeLorean Motor Company to build what he called an “ethical sports car.” He talked the UK government into building a big fresh factory in Northern Ireland, and in one thousand nine hundred eighty one announced with excellent fanfare the DMC-12, powered by a rear-mounted Two,850cc/130hp V-6 sourced from a Peugeot/Renault/Volvo consortium.

The bod was clothed in brushed stainless steel that retained fingerprints like a policeman’s blotter. Production quality, in a word, sucked. The Ulstermen weren’t familiar with assembly-line production. And coordination inbetween DMC’s British-based engineering, Northern Irish production and parts suppliers was convoluted. The DMC-12 lasted two years.

Then John DeLorean was caught in a drug nibble. Albeit he was acquitted of those charges— and a later fraud charge brought by DeLorean Motor creditors and investors—his high-flying automobile career had crashed and burned. For its part, the DMC-12 was immortalized in one thousand nine hundred eighty five when it was featured as Marty McFly’s time machine in “Back to the Future.”

‘K-Car’ advertising from the 1980s. (Credit: John Lloyd/Flickr Commons/CC BY Two.0)

1981 PLYMOUTH/DODGE ‘K-CAR’

A plain, efficient little car that rescued an entire corporation

How many built: 100,137 Plymouth Reliants, 95,450 Dodge Aries in 1981

Beginning price: $Five,880 (2-door base sedan) to $7,254 (4-door station wagon)

At the beginning of the 1980s, Chrysler Corporation was moribund and roped for bankruptcy. Its premium cars were dated. Their production totals scarcely registered on industry sales charts: In 1980, Plymouth sold just over 14,000 front-engine, rear-wheel-drive Gran Furys.

Into this mix arrived two veteran Ford refugees, Hal Sperlich and then Lee Iacocca, both cast out of the kingdom by Henry Ford II. They seized upon the transverse-engined, front-wheel-drive K-car platform to resuscitate Chrysler Corporation, with the help of a federal government assured loan.

The 30-mpg K-car may not get much respect these days, but it turned out to be the right medicine for the early 80s: Hal Sperlich was the right car stud to get it built efficiently, with reasonable quality, and Lee Iacocca was identically right to sell it. Plymouth, Dodge and Chrysler ended up being saved by the K-car, and Chrysler Corporation paid off its government loan in 1983, seven years before it was due.

one thousand nine hundred eighty four Dodge Caravan at the Walter P. Chrysler Museum. (Credit: Greg Gjerdingen/Flickr Commons/CC BY Two.0)

1984 PLYMOUTH/DODGE VOYAGER/CARAVAN MINIVAN

An entirely fresh class of vehicle that redefined the family car; the origin of the ‘crossover’

How many built: 209,895 in 1984

Beginning price: $8,280 for both Plymouth and Dodge

Sneer if you like. Call it a testosterone killer. And just attempt to find one that isn’t a magnet for half-drunk juice boxes, stray soccer shin guards and Goldfish-cracker crumbs. But 30-some years ago, as station wagons became an increasingly endangered species, the minivan proved a godsend for busy, growing families.

It was an idea Hal Sperlich had long championed at Ford: a front-wheel-drive van, based on a car chassis instead of a truck one, with “one-box” design designed for families careening inbetween the grocery store, clarinet rehearsal and hockey practice. Ford summarily rejected the idea. But after the success of the Chrysler Corporation K-cars, it was no spread for the now respected Sperlich to renew his envisioned project with a K-car base.

The minivan debuted in late one thousand nine hundred eighty three as a one thousand nine hundred eighty four model. The front-engine, front-wheel-drive platform meant the Chrysler minivan had a low floor, effortless entry and exit and unencumbered interior space. A sliding door on the right side meant kids and groceries could be loaded and unloaded in cramped garages and parking-lot spaces. Three-row seating accommodated up to five rear passengers. And seats could be eliminated to open up cargo space, accessible through a rear hatch.

Sperlich’s long-simmering idea ended up creating an entirely fresh class of vehicle. And despite feeble attempts from GM and Ford to adapt front-engine, rear-wheel-drive vans to the concept, it would become the superior minivan design for a generation.

Rick Carey is an automobile historian and founder/author of Collector Car Auction Reports at rickcarey.com.

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