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Opel

Autonaut — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:10:25 +0000

Adam Opel GmbH is a German automobile company founded by Adam Opel in 1863. At the beginning, Opel just produced sewing machines in a cowshed in Rüsselsheim. Above all, his success was based on his perfectly customized sewing machines. Because of the quick growth of his business, in 1888 the production was relocated from the cowshed to a more spacious building in Rüsselsheim. Encouraged by success, Adam Opel launched a new product in 1886: He began to sell high-wheel bicycles, also known as penny-farthings. Besides, Opel’s two sons participated in high-wheel bicycle races and thus promoted this means of transportation. Therefore, the production of high-wheel bicycles soon exceeded the production of sewing machines. At the time of Opel’s death in 1895, he was the leader in both markets.

The first cars were produced in 1899 after Opel’s sons entered into a partnership with Friedrich Lutzmann, a locksmith at the court in Dessau in Saxony-Anhalt, who had been working on automobile designs for some time. These cars were not very successful and so the partnership was dissolved after two years, following which Opel’s sons signed a licensing agreement with the French Automobiles Darracq S.A. to manufacture vehicles under the brand name “Opel-Darracq”. These cars were made up of Opel bodies mounted on a Darracq chassis, powered by a 2-cylinder engine.

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Austin-Healey

Autonaut — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 19:43:34 +0000

Austin-Healey was a British sports car maker. The marque was established through a joint venture arrangement, set up in 1952 between Leonard Lord of the Austin division of the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and Donald Healey, a renowned automotive engineer and designer.
Austin-Healey produced cars until 1972 when the 20-year agreement between Healey and Austin came to an end. Donald Healey left the company in 1968 when British Motor Holdings (BMC had merged with Jaguar Cars in 1966 to form BMH) was merged into British Leyland. Healey joined Jensen Motors who had been making the “big Healeys” since their inception in 1952, and became their chairman in 1972.

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Land Rover

Autonaut — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:19:08 +0000

Land Rover is a 4×4, SUV and all-terrain vehicle manufacturer, based in Solihull, West Midlands, England.
Originally the term Land Rover referred to one specific vehicle, a pioneering civilian all-terrain utility vehicle launched on 30 April 1948, at the Amsterdam Motor Show, but was later used as a brand for several distinct models, all capable of four-wheel drive.
Starting out as a model in the Rover Company’s product range, the Land Rover brand developed, first as a marque, then as a separate company, developing a range of four-wheel drive capable vehicles under a succession of owners, including British Leyland, British Aerospace and BMW. In 2000, the company was sold by BMW to the Ford Motor Company, becoming part of their Premier Automotive Group. In June 2008, Ford sold its Jaguar and Land Rover operations to Tata Motors.
Land Rover is one of the longest surviving four-wheel drive (4WD) brands, coming in a close second to Jeep.

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Volvo

Autonaut — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:24:47 +0000

Volvo is a Swedish automobile manufacturer founded in 1927 in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden. The name Volvo, Latin for “I roll” was thought to be a good trademark for a ball bearing as well as for an automobile.

The Volvo symbol is an ancient chemistry sign for iron. The iron sign is used to symbolize the strength of iron used in the car as Sweden is known for its quality iron. The diagonal line (a strip of metal) across the grille came about to hold the actual symbol, a circle with an arrow, in front of the radiator.

The symbol for Mars has been used since ancient times to represent iron.

Volvo was originally formed as a subsidiary company to the ball bearing maker SKF. It was not until 1935 when Volvo AB was introduced on the Swedish stock exchange that SKF sold most of the shares in the company. Volvo Cars was owned by AB Volvo until 1999, when it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company as part of its Premier Automotive Group.

Older models were often compared to tractors, partly because Volvo AB was and still is a manufacturer of heavy equipment, earlier Bolinder-Munktell, now Volvo Construction Equipment. Considered by some to be slow and heavy, they earned the distinction “brick”[5] as a term of endearment for the classic, block-shaped Volvo, with the more powerful turbo charged variants known as “turbobricks”. More recent models have moved away from the boxy styles favored in the 1970s and 1980s and built a reputation for sporting performance, but not before the phenomenal success of factory-supported Volvo 240 turbos winning both the 1985 European Touring Car Championship (ETC) and 1986 Australian Touring Car Championship (ATCC).

Owners are often proud of achieving prodigious mileages with one well-documented 1966 Volvo P1800S having been driven over 2.6 million miles. According to some figures the average age of a Volvo being discarded is 19.8 years, second only to Mercedes.

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Heinkel

Autonaut — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:22:13 +0000

Heinkel Flugzeugwerke was a German aircraft manufacturing company founded by and named after Ernst Heinkel. It is noted for producing bomber aircraft for the Luftwaffe in World War II and for important contributions to high-speed flight.

Heinkel introduced the “Kabine” bubble car in 1956. It competed with the BMW Isetta and the Messerschmitt KR200. It had a unit body and a four-stroke single-cylinder engine.
Heinkel stopped manufacturing the Kabine in 1958 but production continued under licence, first by Dundalk Engineering Company in Ireland and then by Trojan Cars Ltd., which ceased production in 1966.

Heinkel introduced the “Tourist” motor scooter in the 1950s. A large and relatively heavy touring machine, it provided good weather protection with a full fairing and the front wheel turning under a fixed nose extension. The “Tourist” had effective streamlining, perhaps unsurprising in view of its aircraft ancestry, and although it had only a 174 cc (10.6 cu in), 9.5 bhp 4-stroke engine, it was capable of sustaining speeds of up to 70 mph (official figures 58 mph), given time to get there. Heinkel also made a lighter 150 cc (9.2 cu in) scooter called the Heinkel 150.

Heinkel built the Perle moped from 1954 to 1957. The Perle was a sophisticated cycle with a cast alloy unit frame, rear suspension, a fully-enclosed chain with part of the chain enclosure integral with the swingarm, and interchangeable wheels. This high level of sophistication came at a high cost. Approximately twenty-seven thousand Perles were sold.

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Saab

Autonaut — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:41:09 +0000

“Svenska Aeroplan AB (aktiebolaget)” (Swedish for “Swedish Aeroplane Limited”) (SAAB) was founded in 1937 in Trollhättan, with the merger of SAAB and Linköping based ASJA. The headquarters moved to Linköping. The style “Saab” replaced “SAAB” around 1950.
Originally manufacturing airplanes, the company sought ways in which to diversify its business and in the late 1940s began manufacturing automobiles. The Saab Automobile division was based in Trollhättan. The first car was the Saab 92001 on 10 June 1947. The company soon developed a reputation for safe and reliable automobiles, with a notable competition history.
In 1955 the SAAB 92 was reworked and became the SAAB 93. The engine was upgraded from two to three cylinders but unusually remained a two stroke. The car received a facelift, including the first Saab with the brand’s trademark trapezoidal grille. A wagon variant, the 95, was added in 1959 and would remain in production for the next twenty years. The decade also saw Saab’s first foray into true performance cars with the Saab 94, the first of four Saab Sonetts.

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Svenska Saabklubben

Gammelsaabens venner

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Saab Club Nederland

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Porsche

Autonaut — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:20:07 +0000

Professor Ferdinand Porsche founded the company called “Dr. ing. h. c. F. Porsche GmbH” in 1930, with main offices at Kronenstraße 24 in the center of Stuttgart. Initially, the company offered motor vehicle development work and consulting but did not build any cars under its own name. One of the first assignments the new company received was from the German government to design a car for the people, a “Volkswagen” in German. This resulted in the Volkswagen Beetle, one of the most successful car designs of all time. The first Porsche, the Porsche 64, was developed in 1939 using many components from the Beetle.
Porsche’s company logo was based on the coat of arms of Free People’s State of Württemberg of former Weimar Germany, which had Stuttgart as its capital and became part of Baden-Württemberg after the political consolidation of West Germany in 1949.

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Volkswagen Karmann Ghia

Autonaut — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:32:46 +0000

The Karmann Ghia was marketed from 1955 to 1974 by Volkswagen as a 2+2 coupe and as a convertible — both incorporating the commonplace chassis and mechanicals of the Type 1, evocative styling by the Italian carrozzeria Ghia, and hand-built bodywork by German coach-builder Karmann.

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The Karmann Ghia Club of North America

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Alvis

Autonaut — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 22:20:54 +0000

Alvis cars were produced by the manufacturer Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd of Coventry, United Kingdom from 1919 to 1967. The company also produced aero-engines and military vehicles, the latter continuing long after car production ceased.
The original company, TG John and Co. Ltd., was founded in 1919. Its first products were stationary engines, carburettor bodies and motorscooters. The company’s founder T.G. John was approached by Geoffrey de Freville with designs for a 4-cylinder engine with aluminium pistons and pressure lubrication, unusual for the period. Some have suggested that de Freville proposed the name Alvis as a compound of the words “aluminium” and “vis” (meaning “strong” in Latin) although de Freville himself vigorously denied this theory. Perhaps the name was derived from the Norse mythological weaponsmith, Alvíss, but the true origin is unknown.

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Ariel

Autonaut — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 15:05:47 +0000

Ariel was a bicycle, motorcycle and automobile marque manufacturer based in Bournbrook, Birmingham, England. The company dates back to 1847 when Ariel made an early pneumatic-tyred wheel for horse drawn carriages. The name was revived by James Starley and William Hillman in 1870 when they invented the wire-spoke wheel which allowed them to build a lighter weight bicycle and named it Ariel (the spirit of the air).
The first Ariel vehicle was a Tricycle that used a 2.25 hp De Dion engine mounted at the rear. More tricycles were produced and quadricycles were added in 1901 as Ariel then moved into car production.
In 1926 Ariel abandoned the car market to concentrate on motorcycles. Ariel motorcycles ceased production in 1967.

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Read more on Ariel vehicles at Wikipedia
Read more on Ariel motorcycles at Wikipedia