Back in 2008 when I was recording and publishing motoring podcasts, I recorded a piece about a new car company that had been created to deliver purpose built police cars. Unfortunately the company and concept didn't succeed despite being a sensible option for police forces the world over. A typical police car today is basically a modified car from an existing manufacturer, be … [Read more...]
Auburn
In recent posts I have described the brief history of the brands owned by EL Cord. The last manufacturer he owned for a while was Auburn. Auburn was founded around 1900 and formed out of the Eckhart Carriage Company by the brothers Frank and Morris Eckhart. They absorbed a couple of smaller local companies (Zimmerman Manufacturing and W. H. Kilbinger) and produced cars … [Read more...]
Checker Motors Corporation
Checker Cabs are icons of the US industry – everyone knows the image of the Yellow cabs in New York or any major US city. You will have seen them in hundreds of movies from the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. Checker Motors Corporation was founded in 1922 by Morris Markin, an immigrant from Russia when he combined several companies including Commonwealth Motors and … [Read more...]
Duesenberg
Like Studebaker, the Duesenberg brothers Fred and August were of German ancestry and arrived in the US in the early part of the 20th century. Fred built cars and racing bicycles for other companies and then moved into engine building. They started the Duesenberg Automobile and Motors Company in 1913 to build sports cars and had immediate success when one of the cars finished … [Read more...]
Cord
The Cord Corporation was instrumental in the development of several American car brands and aviation companies during the 1920s and 1930s. Errett Lobban Cord founded the Cord Corporation in 1929 as an umbrella for the 150 companies that he controlled – mostly in aviation or automobile manufacturing. During the 1920s and 1930s he owned Lycoming and Stinson … [Read more...]