Posts Tagged ‘cars’

Hood Ornaments

May 4, 2023

Automobiles once had hood ornaments.Until they didn’t. A video by Zack Pradel.

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A Large Detroit American Automobile

April 22, 2023

“A Large Detroit American Automobile,” written by Larry Cordle and Larry Shell, recorded by Larry Cordle, 2018.

Larry Cordle website

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Sloppy Jalopy

April 22, 2023

“Sloppy Jalopy,” a 1952 UPA theatrical cartoon featuring Mr. Magoo, directed by Pete Burness, written by Phil Eastman and Bill Scott, with music by David Raksin. Voice actors: Jim Backus and Jerry HausnerNote: In the 20th century, mocking people with disabilities was considered hilarious.

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Car Cigarette Lighters

March 6, 2023

Americans used to smoke cigarettes, and they smoked them while driving, so cars had ashtrays and cigarette lighters. The lighter’s electric elements would broil cigarette ends, filling the car with a toasty aroma. Your car probably has a vestigial lighter today. A video by Zack Pradel explains.

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C. R. Patterson and Sons Automobiles and Buses

February 24, 2023

Coachmaker and blacksmith Charles Richard (“C.R.”) Patterson of Greenfield, Ohio founded C.R. Patterson & Son coachworks in 1893, producing buggies, buckboards, phaetons, surreys and other horse-drawn carriages, about 500 each year. After the death of his son Samuel, his eldest son Frederick Douglas Patterson moved home to help Patterson senior with the business. C.R. died in 1910, and Frederick Patterson added automoblie repair to the company’s services.

The first C.R. Patterson and Sons automobile was assembled in 1915, a two-door coupe, the first motorcar produced by a Black-owned company. Of the 100 or so autos produced by Patterson, none are still in exsistence. The firm couldn’t compete with the Ford assembly line, so the company switched to producing trucks and buses. There was brisk demand for the latter, especially schoolbuses, and Patterson manufactured 500 buses a month, producing as many as 7,000 between 1921 and 1931. One-third of the school buses in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania were thought to be Pattersons. Although the Depression closed the business in 1939, some Patterson buses were still on the roads as late as the 1950s.

C.R. Patterson and Frederick Patterson were inducted into Detroit’s Automotive Hall of Fame in 2021.

More:

“How America’s first — and only — Black automakers defied the odds,”Kevin Williams, Washington Post

“The Only African American Automobile Company,” National Museum of African American History & Culture

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Autobianchi Bianchina

December 16, 2022

If a Bianchi bicycle married a Fiat 500, they’d have a cute little baby Autobianchi Bianchina. Made in Milan, it was a car for a recovering post-war Europe (and in this case, Britain). This model is probably known as the Autobianchi Bianchina Furgoncino, a pint-sized commerial van. Ian Seabrook takes it through its tiny little paces.

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Low & Slow: Cruising in California

December 2, 2022

Cruising is legal again in Sacramento after years of discriminatory ordinances targeting Chicanos. Lowriders are cruising again. Hopping, bouncing, and skipping, too.

More:

“Cruising is back in Sacramento, how locals are celebrating a change decades in the making,” Luke Cleary, KXTV ABC10

“Lawmakers Urge More Cities to Repeal Cruising Bans,” California City News

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Ferrari

November 22, 2022

How to build a Ferrari. A look inside Ferrari’s car factory in Maranello, Italy.

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Endangered Species: Stick Shifts

November 14, 2022

In 2006, 47 percent of car models sold in the US offered standard or optional manual transmissions. One decade later, only 27 percent of new cars offered manuals. By 2020, the number was just 13 percent.

More:

“8 Manual Transmission Statistics,” Pete Ortiz, House Grail

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All the King’s Cars

September 13, 2022

King Charles III motors into the throne with a garage full of autos, but his personal vehicle is a Jaguar-Land Rover I-PACE EV, and His Majesty’s Aston Martin DB6 runs on old wine and cheese.

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