|
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
Categories
Links
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. Jan 21, 2008 - Car AuctionsIt's that week again. That week in January where I plop myself down in front of the tube with an A-Treat soda in one hand, pretzel sticks in the other, and both eyes glued to the Speed Channel for another 40 hours of auction coverage...the Barrett-Jackson auction from Scottsdale. Back in 1990, FNN (the Financial News Network...now CNBC) covered this auction for one Sunday afternoon and it was wonderful. Watching some of my dream cars like the Ford GT40 roll across the block and sell for, as I recall, right around a million dollars each; there were two that sold to the same person for a combined total of $1.9 million. And this was in the days before the Muscle Car boom. Now the true classics and exotics have been replaced by 1950s American classics and 1960s muscle cars. It's still an exciting event, especially now with SIX DAYS of coverage. But I wish the hosts were better at describing the vehicles (they sometimes don't know details that they should know before the car reaches the auction block like what engine's under the hood) and I wish the directors showed more cars instead of long boom shots of people parading in and out of the auction. And I wish the vehicles were more interesting. Sure, a Hemi Cuda is a great car just like a Yenko Nova or a Shelby Mustang. But on TV, it's just a Plymouth or Chevrolet or Ford. The occasional Packard or Kaiser Darrin or pre-War anything stands out above these modern vehicles that were basically everyday drivers with rare powertrains. But this weekend, I actually got up from my easy chair to see a live auction. Not too far from home, an auction featuring a variety of oddball and interesting vehicles was held. About 60 vehicles in all were there. And not one featured a 426cid Hemi V8. Actually some of them featured engines with substantially less than 60 cubic inches of displacement. I don't get up early for many things, but a good car event will make be part from my bed. And this one required that I get up around six...something I don't even do for work. The early start was required to see the auction items before the 9 o'clock sale. We arrived at the auction site only to find that the cars were at another site about a mile away. We checked out the parts and automobilia that was on sale which numbered in the thousands! There were pallets and crates of stuff...parts and tools and supplies collected over many decades. Steering wheels in various states and doors dating back to the 1920s and various parts that only a model specific expert would be able to identify. After quickly checking out the parts, we headed across town to where the vehicles were stored. The Hatfield Auto Museum had about 50 cars on display and ready for auction. Only two or three looked to be in a state to be driven away and the rest would have had to have been hauled. The relatively common vehicles were a late-1990s Ford Taurus SHO, 1970s-vintage Mercedes-Benz S-Class, and a 1960s Mercury Comet Caliente. Oh, and there were the two Volkswagen Beetles, two Volkswagen Buses, and one Volkswagen Vanagon, none of which could be driven in their current state. But the reason I was there was to see the oddball cars. And this place had them: four Isettas, two Bianchinas, a Saab Sonnet III, no fewer than seven "bugeye" Austin-Healey Sprites, a Mini Moke, a Goggomobil, and a Austin Bantam van, just to name a few. Oh, I was in heaven. Maybe it wasn't heaven since I would have bought one or ten in my heaven, but it was a fun Saturday afternoon. If you're a fan of odd little cars, check out my pictures from the auction. I'm trying to find out what some of these vehicles sold for but I'm not entirely sure if I want to know. What if I should have purchased one? The license plates at the auction site which ranged from Connecticut to Virginia and the fact that the auction was being offered on eBay as well makes me think that nothing went cheap.
Jan 14, 2008 - The Downside of Putting the World on WheelsAs countries develop, they all seem to go through similar stages. These stages may take progress quicker or slower, depending on the country and/or culture, but they all tend to follow a similar pattern. And part of this development encompasses their automotive industry. Car companies are a sign of an economy's arrival. The US, France, Germany, and the UK all developed their automotive industries beginning in the late 1800s and other regional countries followed. As each economy develops around these car-related businesses, specific automotive needs are found and met. Trucks and buses and luxury cars are among the first. Later comes the car for the masses. The US developed their first "people's car" as the 1901 Olds but it was the 1908 Ford Model T that really set the global standard for such a vehicle. It was simple and rugged and could carry a family (or livestock) as needed. And it was inexpensive..a key component for a "people's car." France had their Citroen. England had the Austin Seven. Italy had the Fiat Topolino. Germany had the Volkswagen. Each developing nation brought their idea of the basic car to the market. In the early 1980s, India started to bloom and basic transportation was needed there. Suzuki of Japan came to India and worked with the local firm Maruti Udyog to produce a knock-off of the Japanese market small car. Maruti's little car was wildly successful in India and 20 years later, about 7 out of 1,000 people in India had a car. While 0.7% of over a billion people is still a large number, a large untapped market still remained. The global conglomerate made up of Renault and Nissan developed a little car through their Romanian subsidiary just a few years ago. The Dacia Logan introduced basic, reliable, and modern transportation to Eastern Europe in the early part of the 21st century. So well suited to the modern developing world was the Logan that it became an overnight success wherever it was introduced, including India. But the Logan was still priced high for the poorest of markets since the car was designed to be the €5,000 car; quite a bit of money in the Indian economy. Indian truck market Tata entered the car field in the 1990s with a compact car called the Indica. It was a luxury car compared to the basic Logan, but Tata had other plans. And after years of planning, Tata finally showed the fruits of their labors last week when the Tata Nano was shown to the public. And throngs of reporters rushed the stage at the car's introduction. Why would such an extremely basic car with average looks engender such a reaction? Mainly because the Nano was designed to break the Rs 1,000,000 barrier...the equivalent of $2,500! Nobody expects this little car to take over the world with its 33hp two-cylinder engine and lack of nearly every feature expected in the West. But it is the right car to take over the streets of India. For good and bad. Global oil supplies are being tapped by all of these emerging automotive markets. China is experiencing amazing growth in car production and sales. India's growth may be slower, but it's still growing at an alarming rate. And adding a basic car, albeit one that gets 50mpg, will put added pressure on the global supply of oil. It doesn't help that Americans are taxing the world's oil supply with (relatively) gas guzzling six- and eight-cylinder engines while much of the rest of the world is using four-cylinder gas and diesel engines as its primary source of power. It doesn't help when the American people see affordable gas prices as their RIGHT no matter how much they use. And it doesn't help that nobody is really doing anything to stop this demand for oil. Sure, the next generation of the automotive industry will bring about alternative fuels, but we've been waiting for that to be "right around the corner" since the early 1970s. Car companies have been working on fuel cell vehicles since the 1960s and electric vehicles since before 1900, but we're not going to see these (or any other alternative fueled vehicles) anytime soon. Between necessary infrastructure change for fueling these vehicles that nobody's funding to a significant lack of desire by car and oil companies and government agencies to push these new technologies, we'll be lucky to see any of these new vehicles hitting mass market prices before oil prices reach $200 a barrel...or more. I want to remove myself from the problem, but I can't afford to. My best move reduce my intake of oil as radically as possible. I hope to have my 100mpg moped available for my daily commute by spring time. On bad weather days and when the seasons change, I'll be back to my 25mpg sedan. Part of me wants the people of India to enjoy the thrill of driving their own car. Part of me wants Tata to drop the whole Nano project right now to limit the number of potential drivers further eating away at the finite petroleum resources available. I'm torn. But there are thousands of Indians, right now, anxious to get their hands on their first new car. Many of them ready to bring cash to a Tata dealer for a car that won't be availble until the fall. I'm happy for them...but sad for every car owner (and potential car owner) around the world.
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.
|
