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Automotive Histories Archive
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Automotive History: Factory Four Speed Transmission Behind a Slant Six? Yup, For a Couple of Years Anyway
Posted on September 21, 2023 | 81 Comments(first posted 9/21/2017) I’ve long had a fixation on the lack of four speed transmissions being available on American compacts in the 1960s. The standard three […] -
Automotive History: The 1996-2000 Chrysler “NS” Minivans – The Culmination Of Nineties Chrysler
Posted on September 17, 2023 | 102 Comments(First Published 3/20/2014) It’s no secret that of the Big Three, Chrysler seems to have the worst luck with extreme ups and downs. Throughout nearly every decade of its ninety-year […] -
Dealer Classic: 1958 Cadillac Coupe DeVille – Forget the CTS, I’ll take the DeVille – A History of the 1957-58 Cadillacs
Posted on September 13, 2023 | 92 Comments(first posted 9/13/2017) While traveling earlier this year, I stayed in a hotel that was just up the street from a Chevrolet-Cadillac dealership. Normally I don’t have much […] -
Automotive History: 1963 Days – Popular Science Tests the Hot Compacts
Posted on August 19, 2023 | 88 Comments(first posted 10/16/2013, Revised and updated 8/19/2023) We keep coming back to this topic, first with yesterday’s Comet and then today’s Falcon Sprint. That era was indeed the beginning […] -
Automotive History: A Tribute To The Australian Ford Falcon
Posted on August 7, 2023 | 92 Comments(first posted 7/7/2017) I started writing this article as news came through that the very last Ford car to be produced in Australia had started its journey down […] -
Warm Comfort: What Was the Last American Car Available Without a Heater?
Posted on July 23, 2023 | 82 CommentsRegular readers of my Cold Comfort series of posts know that I am fascinated (obsessed, really) with automotive air conditioning. Well it is time to see how the other half […] -
Automotive History: One Box To Rule Them All – An Archeology Of The Minivan
Posted on July 16, 2023 | 65 Comments(first posted 7/16/2017) Automotive pundits and experts around the world routinely claim that the minivan (a.k.a the MPV, the people-carrier or whatever you wish to call Puff the […] -
Automotive History: Six Tail Light Corvettes
Posted on July 12, 2023 | 122 Comments(first posted 7/12/2017) I was at a car show last summer when I photographed the Corvette above with an unusual six tail light configuration. Now […] -
GM North America’s FWD Platform Proliferation of the 1980s – A Guide To All 15 Platform Codes
Posted on July 10, 2023 | 103 Comments(first posted 7/11/2017) General Motors invested heavily in downsizing its lineup during the second half of the 1970s. With CAFE targets to meet and the potential threat of […] -
Automotive History – An Outline History Of Renault, 1963-1986, Or The CC Guide To Renault Bingo
Posted on July 2, 2023 | 100 Comments(first posted 7/2/2017) Renault long played the understudy to the leading role of innovator taken by Citroen. From the 1930s to the late 1980s, Citroen undisputedly was the […] -
Automotive History: 50% Better – A Half-Baked History of Half Model Year Cars
Posted on June 28, 2023 | 90 Comments(first posted 5/27/2020, updated 6/28/2023.) Half-model year vehicles are an interesting historical oddity that you don’t see anymore. They briefly gained favor in the sixties as a way […] -
Engine Prototype: The Stillborn Corvair Gen2 Modular Engine – From Two to Twelve Cylinders
Posted on June 23, 2023 | 57 Comments(first posted 6/14/2017) A ten cylinder Corvair engine installed in a FWD ’62 Impala? How’s that to get the juices of a hard-core Corvair air-head going? One of […] -
Automotive History: Shockingly Low Volume Production Cars – The Buick Edition
Posted on June 22, 2023 | 106 Comments(first posted 6/22/2017) Welcome to the Buick Edition of our journey into shockingly low volume production cars produced between 1946 and 1995. As always, car models whose production is […] -
Automotive History: Corvair Warm Comfort – Heating Optional (1960-1961); Your Choice of Gasoline or Engine Heat
Posted on June 15, 2023 | 54 Comments(first posted 6/15/2017) I may fancy myself a bit of a Corvair-O-Phile, but there’s still lots to learn. The trip to the Ypsilanti Museum yielded some new information about […] -
Automotive History: Chevrolet’s Torque Drive – A Dumber Powerglide
Posted on June 14, 2023 | 108 Comments(first posted 5/22/2013) Was it in response to VW’s Automatic Stickshift? In the spring of 1968, Chevrolet introduced its own semi-automatic transmission, called Torque Drive. It turned out to be […]