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1. TorqueFlite
(Matching tags: 1950s)
TORQUEFLITE
The Hydra-Matic, GM's first fully automatic transmission, was a great success, inspiring a host of rivals -- including some within General Motors itself. This week, we look at the origins of Dynaflow and ...
By any standard, the original Hydra-Matic transmission was one of the most important innovations in the history of the automobile. It wasn't the first automatic transmission, but it was the first one that ...
4. Jet Crash: Hudson's Compact Jet
(Matching tags: 1950s)
When it was first announced in 1952, Hudson officials thought the compact Jet would be a renaissance for the venerable automaker. Today, many historians will tell you it was Hudson's fatal mistake. This ...
In 1956, GM's Pontiac Motor Division was close to death. Its sales were down, its market share declining, and its image at a low ebb. That summer, however, help arrived in the form of Bunkie Knudsen, Pete ...
As the 1950s dawned, Packard was down, but not yet out. In 1952, a hotshot salesman from the appliance industry tried to turn it around with new tactics and new technology. He came close to succeeding, ...
Between 1935 and 1956, the Packard Motor Car Company went from the top of the heap among American automotive brands to just another independent, struggling to survive on the scraps of the Big Three. This ...
Some cars are seemingly immortal, but the Studebaker Hawk had more reincarnations than the Dalai Lama. Originally developed by the design firm of Raymond Loewy as a show car, it became a highly acclaimed ...
Ford's ill-fated Edsel Division was born in 1957, part of an ambitious plan to match General Motors division for division. It died only two years later, but it remained the butt of jokes for decades, while ...
As we saw in our first installment, Kaiser-Frazer's initial success in the postwar automotive boom came to an abrupt end in 1949. The debacle that followed ended the partnership of Henry J. Kaiser and ...
It seemed like a sure thing: an alliance between the auto industry's most dynamic and respected salesman and one of the 20th century's most visionary industrialists. It was a partnership that promised ...
Popular Mechanics once dubbed Chevrolet's peculiar hybrid of passenger car and pickup truck "the Cowboy Cadillac." Ford and Chevy prosaically described these crossovers as sedan pickups, while our Australian ...
By 1963, Studebaker was already doomed, but its dynamic president, Sherwood Egbert, was not yet ready to admit defeat. Not only did he launch the Avanti, he hired Andy Granatelli to develop a series ...
Every ten years or so, the American market rediscovers the compact economy car. This "discovery" is inevitably treated by both company PR flacks and credulous journalists as a revelation, as is the idea ...
15. Step-Down: The 1948-1954 Hudsons
(Matching tags: 1950s)
Best known today for the "Fabulous Hudson Hornets" of 1951-1954, the Hudson Motor Car Company merged with Nash in 1954 to form the American Motors Corporation, disappearing as a separate marque in 1957. ...
16. The Little Sister: The Mercedes 190SL
(Matching tags: 1950s)
In February 1954, Mercedes-Benz introduced its first two postwar production sports cars. One was the remarkable "Gullwing" 300SL, the street version of the race car that won Le Mans in 1952. The other ...
The old saw "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan" could well have been coined for this week's subject. Immediately embraced by everyone but sports car purists and Ford accountants, it remains ...
For more than 50 years, the Corvette has represented a curious paradox for General Motors. The product of GM's humblest division, it has frequently been among the corporation's most expensive cars. Designed ...
As enjoyable as convertibles can be on beautiful, sunny summer days, they can be a terrible burden any other time -- drafty, noisy, and vulnerable. We suspect that anyone who's ever owned one has at least ...
20. Grace in Motion: The Jaguar XK120
(Matching tags: 1950s)
Some cars are recognized as milestones only after the fact, dismissed and overlooked in their own times. Others, like this one, are standouts from the moment they first appear. This car stunned the world ...
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