Honda introduces its first Civic, a new breed of subcompact,
fuel-saving car. It arrives just in time for the energy crisis of
1973, which brought higher gas prices, long lines and
occasional fistfights at the pump.

The last Thunderbird, Ford Motor Company’s iconic sports car,
emerged from a Ford factory in Wixom, Michigan on July 1, 2005.

Ford began its development of the Thunderbird in the years
following World War II.

On June 30, 1953, workers at a Chevrolet plant in Flint, Michigan,
watch as the first completed Corvette, a two-seater sports car
that would become an American icon, rolls off the assembly line.

It was one of just 300 Corvettes made that year.

The last Packard—the classic American luxury car with the
famously enigmatic slogan “Ask the Man Who Owns One”—
rolled off the production line at Packard’s plant in Detroit,
Michigan on June 25, 1956.

The Packard brothers, William Doud (left) and James Ward
(right) as seen in company portraits.

On May 30, 1911, Ray Harroun drove his single-seater Marmon
Wasp to victory in the inaugural Indianapolis 500, now one of
the world’s most famous motor racing competitions.

The Indiana automobile dealer Carl Fisher first proposed building
a private auto testing facility in 1906, in order to address car manufacturers’ inability to test potential top speeds of new cars
due to the poorly developed state of the public roadways.

The result was the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, built on 328
acres of farmland five miles northwest of downtown Indianapolis.

By the mid-1920s, the Indy 500 had become what it is today–a
high-paying event for the world’s most expensive cars.

Carl Graham Fisher
(January 12, 1874 – July 15, 1939)

Ray Harroun takes the checkered flag.

   Ray Harroun ( 1879 – 1968)