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About Me
My work has appeared in a number of major publications either as writer, photographer, or source. I enjoy talking about all things automotive. Recent Posts
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CarSpace Hudson's BlogAll around the car world there are stories and these are just a few of them. A new blog is posted every Monday. Sometimes more often. May 16, 2008 - Yet Another ObituaryYou know you’re getting older when you have to attend funerals and memorials for your idols and mentors. Only days after attending a memorial service for one mentor, word comes down of another’s passing. Beverly Rae Kimes was a world-renowned historian. She edited Automobile Quarterly for many years. She wrote volumes about some of the most significant cars in automotive history. Her name graces the covers of such great books as “The Standard Catalog of American Cars” and “The Star and the Laurel.” She was amazingly knowledgeable and approachable. I was floundering around in automotive waters when I learned about Bev. While searching for a group with which to talk cars, I spotted Ms. Kimes on a TV show. It was a show about the 10 greatest cars of all time on A&E. When Bev appeared, below her name was “President, Society of Automotive Historians.” I immediately went on a search for the group. And because of Bev, I joined and held various positions within the group. For 15 years, I enjoyed being a member of that group and I owe it all to Bev. She was the voice of the Burn Prevention Concours for many years. Her research went well beyond just the cars themselves but explored the time and the era that made each of these cars great. She was so dedicated to this particular show that she was even the announcer literally weeks after having a kidney transplant. But now her voice has been silenced. She will be missed by many. Fortunately, there are still many people who will learn from her writings and will be inspired by her research to do more. I wish you could have met her because she was something else…not only a great automotive writer and automotive historian, but a great person. If you feel so inspired, Bev’s husband has asked that donations in her memory be sent to The National Kidney Foundation, 30 East 33rd Street, New York, NY 10016, or on the web at www.kidney.org.
Feb 25, 2008 - The Shaky World of Automotive InvestingUntil around 1950, there was a Wild West-like attitude in the American automotive industry. It was a frontier to be conquered. Throughout automotive history, there have been something like 5,000 individual makers of cars and trucks in the world with about 3,500 of them being situated in the United States. Companies like General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have survived, in one form or another, for over a century. General Motors turns 100 this year but its oldest parts (Cadillac, Buick, and the late Oldsmobile) are well over the century mark. Ford was founded in 1903. And while Chrysler was created in 1924 from the remains of Maxwell, parts of the company can be traced back to Rambler which dates back to 1903 as an automobile manufacturer. There are a few minor vehicle manufacturers in the US. The most prominent of them is Panoz which is slowly approaching its 20th anniversary. Outside of these tiny footnotes, there hasn't been a major successful American manufacturer founded since World War II. And even new import brands on US soil have been a rare find in the past 30 years. Rare successes like Hyundai and Kia are at odds with struggling Mitsubishi and soon-to-be-gone Isuzu. So you might have to forgive my apprehension everytime someone announces a new venture. When Bob Lutz announced the revival of Cunningham about eight years ago, I was excited. This was the first time in half a century that a new manufacturer would be coming to the US where I trusted the founder. Bob Lutz is the consumate car guy with REAL automotive experience working with the likes of BMW, General Motors, and Chrysler. Lutz even had novel, and as I saw it workable, approaches to manufacturing (which he laid out in two issues of Automotive Industries). But when Lutz was hired by General Motors, it was obvious that all bets on the Cunningham were off. So if Lutz prefered to take the corporate route instead of laying the foundation for real history, I knew new car production was truly a tough nut to crack. When people with questionable backgrounds talk about their automotive ventures, I automatically write them off in my head. People like Malcolm Bricklin, Gerald Weigert, and many others show great enthusiasm, some even know aspects of the automotive business, but most of them are just in business to make a quick buck. So ventures trying to tap the Chinese automakers for the next big thing find their way to my "skeptical" list. I understand that these people are trying to do what the Germans did in the late 1940s, the Japanese did in the 1960s, and the Koreans in the 1980s...catch the next big wave at its beginning. People like Max Hoffman and Kjell Qvale did just that, but the market was vastly different than it is today. The members of my list have included many different types of ventures. Importers of the ARO from Romania, the Proton from Malaysia, the TVR from the UK, the Citroen from France, the Alfa Romeo from Italy, and the Chery from China, among many others, have all announced their intentions in the past 20 years. Many times, these announcements have been followed by many different setbacks, some even could be just called frauds or scams. So it was of no surprise that Automotive News revealed that the head of one of these latest ventures was hiding a shady past. CHAMCO is a New Jersey-based importer who has announced that they plan on selling Chinese trucks in the next few years. The head spokesperson for CHAMCO has stated that he's simply a consultant for the company, but it seems that his wife is actually the chief stockholder of the company. And his past, according to the newspaper, shows that "he did time for fraud" in an earlier trucking venture that he controlled. I'm a huge car fan. I would love to see new and exciting choices in cars and trucks in the US. But each time a Build-To-Order or CHAMCO or ARO America is announced, I need to take a step back and see what's actually going on. The odds of any of these ventures getting off the ground, let alone becoming successful, are becoming smaller an
Nov 26, 2007 - It's a Fact...But It's WrongEver have a conversation with someone and they try to impress you with their automotive knowledge? It must happen with every hobby or interest: someone "knows" a fact about a subject and uses it to impress another person who actually lives the subject. Car people have to be among the most vulnerable to this type of confrontation because everybody knows about cars and many people have some hidden "fact" about them. I use the quotes because many people think they know something about this subject but it usually turns out that someone told them this "fact" and either told it to them wrong or the listener fell prey to the misplaced adjective, thereby invalidating the initial "fact." It happens all the time to me. I've learned (or tried to) that you need to be careful with the feelings of others in these circumstances. Many people have lived the better parts of their lives knowing something to be fact when it is actually partially true or a complete fabrication. Kids usually start these types of urban myths because they didn't fully appreciate the subtle modifier used when they were first taught the "fact." We've all been a victim of a half-truth. With automotive knowledge, and especially automotive history knowledge, I become a stickler. I always want to be the teacher (when I know the subject), but I have to limit myself so that I won't become the "know-it-all" that everybody hates. I fear becoming Cliff Clavin from "Cheers." I also worry that kids growing up in the automotive hobby might actually believe some of these half-truths and, as Steve Martin once called them, "made up facts." Here are some of the "facts" I've been told by various people over the years: Henry Ford invented the automobile - The first Ford Motor Company car was built in 1903 and the first car built by Henry Ford puttered around the streets of Dearborn in 1896, but most people who claim this "fact" think the Model T was the first car. My first thought is always "why would they start with 'T' and why not start with 'A'?" Of course, the first practical Otto-engined automobile was the 1886 Benz but many historians date the origins of the automobile to the 1769 Cugnot Steam Tractor. Arguments can even be made that Leonardo diVinci designed the first automobile well before that, even though he didn't build one. Ford invented the assembly line - Henry Ford did much for the automobile industry and for the industrialization of the United States, but many of his triumphs are exaggerated by people who hear half of the actual claims. Henry Ford adapted the moving assembly line to automotive production. His assembly line was developed from the production of guns which used many of the same techniques. Even the claim that the Model T was the first mass produced vehicle is wrong (or depends on your definition of "mass production") since the first mass produced automobile is generally thought to be the 1901 "Curved Dash" Olds. Volkswagen was the first US transplant - This is actually the claim that got me thinking of this subject. In a recent editorial, a well-respected automotive writer made this statement referring to the 1978 opening of the New Stanton plant in Pennsylvania. Volvo had been producing cars in Canada for years prior to the beginning of Rabbit production, but this claim is for production in the United States. Among the car companies who produced cars in the US prior to the New Stanton plant was Rolls-Royce who produced vehicles in Springfield, Massachusetts, starting in 1919; about 3,000 were produced before the plant shut down during the Great Depression. Various other manufacturers had operations in the US including Benz, Napier, and Fiat prior to World War II. Chevrolet's first V8 was in 1955 - Everyone knows that the small block Chevrolet V8 started production in 1955. And most GM and Chevrolet aficiandoes will tell you that Chevrolet had no V8 prior to that which is why the first two model years of the Corvette had six-cylinder engines only. But only the best Chevrolet fans will tell you about the 1917 OHV V8 engine that Chevrolet produced. The 288cid OHV Series D V8 engine produced 36hp and about 3,000 were produced between 1917 and 1919. Between 1919 and 1955, Chevrolet sold only four- and six-cylinder cars until the introduction of the famous small block V8. Ford's first Model A was introduced after the Model T - This is one of those trick questions that automotive historians like. When production of the Model T ended in 1927, Henry Ford introduced his next model and instead of calling it the Model U, he decided to call it the Model A. But this wasn't the first time that name had been used. The first Ford production introduced in 1903 was also called the Model A. Of course the Model A was followed by the Model B and Model C and various other letters before reaching the world-famous Model T in 1908. More than 15 million cars were built by Ford between the first Model A and the 1927 Model A.
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