This weekend when it’s time to go see that touching (i.e. sappy) movie with your girlfriend (or boyfriend) you may finally have an option for the auto enthusiast. Flash of Genius follows the story of Robert Kerns, the inventor of the motor for the intermittent windshield wiper. He shopped his invention around to the Big 3 in Detroit, but instead they made their own motors, without paying Kerns licensing fees.
Greg Kinnear plays Kerns, who is on a quest that is more about recognition than money. Although Kerns actually had lawsuits against Ford, General Motors, Chrysler and possibly multiple import makers, the movie mainly focuses on Ford. Flash of Genius follows Kern’s entire ordeal: from the invention, to his eager pitch to auto companies, to the pain of a legacy stolen and eventual long drawn out court battles. I won’t go in to more details of the real story (or else there would be no point in seeing the movie,) but remember this is a Hollywood drama – tears work well for girlfriends.
So this movie is about the motor in windshield wipers, eh? If corporate intrigue in the automotive industry isn’t interesting then maybe you aren’t really “car material”. Besides it’s better than the latest Matthew-McConaughey-can’t-commit-until-he meets-some-somewhat-popular-actress-in-an-unreal-situation mild comedy that’s playing in the theater next door.
Phil Hill, the only US-born driver to ever win the Formula One title, has passed away at 81 years of age. Hill died at Community Hospital in Monterey, California, on Thursday from complications of Parkinson’s disease. Hill won the 1961 Formula One title for Ferrari, as well as the first American to win the 24-hour at Le Mans—a three time winner in all. He also won the Sebring 12-hour race three times. “I had an amazing amount of luck to race for 22 years and not a drop of blood or a broken bone,” Hill once said. “Maybe I wasn’t trying hard enough.”
“Phil was a very special guy and had a love for the automotive age,” said Dan Gurney, a teammate with Ferrari. “He was always a potential winner when he sat in a race car. He was both a competitor and a close friend and a fellow I could look up to.”
Today’s history lesson courtesy of Mercedes. This video shows not only the new SLR 722 edition, but also what the designation "722" means to the company. So remember, you’re not wasting time watching videos...You’re learning!
Sometimes technology isn’t a blessing. Not only did video kill the radio star, but also General Motor’s travailing showcase know as Motorama.
Motorama used to travel all around the U.S. in a caravan of specially built “Parade of Progress” busses, all used to showcase GM’s new cars and new innovations. But once television was in every household, the Motorama changed. It was still a grand spectacle, but the Motorama no longer came to your doorstep. By the mid-50s Motorama would only set up in the major cities but could be broadcast to homes nationwide through TV. The last one was held in 1961.
Enjoy as GM’s Vice President of Global Design, Ed Welburn reminisces about the Motorama and the dream cars of GM’s past before they are showcased next week at Pebble Beach (including the Chevrolet Biscayne.)
Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance is the ultimate automotive show. For a true enthusiast having a car on the lawn at Pebble beach can rank higher than the birth of a child. To be one of the rare winners may the single greatest moment in an enthusiast’s life. The showcase has traditionally been reserved for automotive time capsules that are restored to a condition as if they were factory fresh. But now intruding on this automotive aristocracy are unrestored riffraff.
Pebble Beach is starting to understand that history is preserved in the unpolished automotive gems, and no car shows this better than the Porsche No. 1.
As the name would suggest, it was the first car built under the Porsche name, and it will be featured this August at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
No. 1 has obvious ties to the entire Porsche bloodline. From the 356 to today’s 911, it shows that Porsche’s cars never changed; they just evolved.
Whenever we view our childhood pictures or snapshots that were captured during our teenage period, we tend to get transported back to the time when it was taken. Some laugh out loud, some shed a tear while others feel like calling the individual who figured alongside during that ’cheese’ moment.
U.S.A.’s beloved lensman Andrew Bush, is exactly like all of us. His random snaps of persons driving their cars on U.S roads back in the 90s are nice, but more importantly, educates us how to drive today — distraction-less driving. These motorists are paying attention to the motorway and trying to the finest of their capability to drive safe.
My favorite is the pack of students who are heading north at 0 mph. What’s yours?
American automakerGM traded 667,720 shares of its own stock, at a market value of $136 million to buy the remaining 40 percent of Fisher Body to make Fisher Body Division of GM.
June 30th 1953-
Production of the Chevrolet Corvette began. During first year, a little over 300 Corvettes were meticulously put together by hand in Flint, Michigan. Roughly 150 were sold to the public and the remaining were gifted to company executives. The first Corvette was revealed in New York City at the GM Motorama show on 17th of January in the same year, whereas prototypes were built starting on 22nd Dec 1952. The name "Corvette" comes from a type of small, light armed warship used by most Allied navies during the Second World War.
June 30th 1969-
The U.S. produced Rambler (an American Rambler) rolls off the production line in Kenosha for one last time. A total of 4,204,925 had been made until then.
The Nash Rambler was originally developed by George Walter Mason after World War II. Mason before anyone else, realized that the postwar "seller’s market" would evaporate once it was saturated with cars again. He predicted the hardships that independent car companies would experience once they were against the Big Three’s massive production capabilities.
In order to compete against the Big Three, Mason charted out a plan to market a different product. In that sense, he developed a few small cars, including the Rambler, the Nash-Healey (a collaboration with British Healey), and the Metropolitan. None of his cars succeeded in capturing the American market. But years later, after Nash-Kelvinator and Hudson merged to become AMC, the Rambler finally caught on as a sub-compact car.
In Argentina, the Rambler American, a compact car, became the IKA Torino in 1967. It then sold as the Renault Torino until 1980.
Co-founder of the automaker Renault, Marcel Renault won the four-day Paris-to-Vienna race, using a car he designed on his own. The early city-to-city races were like F1 today, in those times. Around three million people were present during that race and cheered Renault on to victory during the 15-hour, 615-mile race. Unfortunately, the races were suspended owing to the fatal accident involving Renault’s during the following year’s the Paris-Madrid race.
June 29th 1932-
Audiwerke, Horchwerke, Zschopauer Motorenwerke - DKW, Automobile Division of Wanderer joined hands to become Auto Union AG (second-largest motor vehicle manufacturer in Germany.). The new company’s logo, four interlinked rings represented each of the founder companies.
June 29th 1956-
U.S President Dwight Eisenhower approved of the bill, Highway Revenue Act of 1956, which outlined a policy of taxation which was needed to lay interstate highways measuring a distance of over 42,500 miles. It needed $50 billion to complete. A method of taxing, relying heavily on the taxation of gasoline, was carried out. Eisenhower thought of the Federal Interstate System as his greatest achievement.
June 29th 1957-
Giuseppe Bacciagaluppi, managing director of the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, flagged off the first race at his newly remodeled track, a match race between the top 10 Indy Car drivers and the top 10 Formula One drivers in the planet at that time. Monza was Europe’s fastest race track. The same competition can’t be repeated today as the gap between Indy cars and Formula One cars is wide.
June 29th 1985-
Jim Pattison bought a custom-painted Rolls-Royce Phantom V limousine for for $2,229,000 that was previously owned by John Lennon . Lennon bought the car in 1966 and asked one of his friends to paint the car with a period-typical psychedelic design pattern. The final price was 10 times Sotheby’s initial estimate.
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