Archive for the 'Automobiles' Category
A CHRISTMAS GIFT GIVING IDEA IN 1956
THE LAST PACER OFF THE ASSEMBLY LINE
On December 3, 1979, the last Pacer rolled off the assembly
line at the American Motors Corporation (AMC) factory in
Kenosha, Wisconsin.
When the car first came on the market in 1975, it was a
sensation, hailed as the car of the future. “When you buy
any other car,” ads said, “all you end up with is today’s car.
When you get a Pacer, you get a piece of tomorrow.” By
1979, however, sales had faded considerably. Today, polls
and experts agree: The Pacer was one of the worst cars of
all time.
THE SUN SETS ON THE FORD ROTUNDA
On November 8, 1962, the famous Ford Rotunda stood in
Dearborn, Michigan for the last time: the next day, it is
destroyed in a massive fire. Some 1.5 million people
visited the Rotunda each year, making it the fifth most
popular tourist attraction in the U.S. (behind Niagara Falls,
Smokey Mountain National Park, the Smithsonian, and the
Lincoln Memorial).
Ford had commissioned the Rotunda for the 1933 Century
of Progress exposition in Chicago and had moved it to
Dearborn when the fair ended.
Christmas exhibit at Ford Rotunda, December 1955.
AUTOMOBILE WAS INTRODUCED ON THIS DAY
On October 16, 1958, Chevrolet began to sell a car-truck hybrid
that it calls the El Camino. Inspired by the Ford Ranchero, which
had already been on the market for two years, the El Camino was
a combination sedan-pickup truck built on the Impala body, with
the same “cat’s eye” taillights and dramatic rear fins. It was, ads
trilled, “the most beautiful thing that ever shouldered a load!”
“It rides and handles like a convertible,” Chevy said, “yet hauls
and hustles like the workingest thing on wheels.”
MOVING ASSEMBLY LINE DEBUTED IN 1913
For the first time, Henry Ford’s entire Highland Park,
Michigan automobile factory is run on a continuously
moving assembly line when the chassis, the automobile’s
frame is assembled using the revolutionary industrial
technique.
A motor and rope pulled the chassis past workers and
parts on the factory floor, cutting the man-hours required
to complete one “Model T.”
Within a year, further assembly line improvements reduced
productivity effected by Ford’s use of the moving assembly
line allowed him to drastically reduce the cost of the Model T.
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