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Pontiac

Autonaut — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:32:53 +0000

The Pontiac brand was introduced by General Motors in 1926 as the ‘companion’ marque to GM’s Oakland Motor Car line. The Pontiac name was first used in 1906 by the Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works and linked to Chief Pontiac who led an unsuccessful uprising against the British shortly after the French and Indian War. The Oakland Motor Company and Pontiac Spring & Wagon Works Company merged in November 1908 under the name of the Oakland Motor Car Company. The operations of both companies were joined together in Pontiac, Michigan (in Oakland County) to build the Cartercar. Oakland was purchased by General Motors in 1909.
An American Indian Headdress was used as a logo until 1956. This was updated to the currently used American Indian red arrowhead design for 1957. The “arrow-head” logo is also known as the Dart.

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Buick

Autonaut — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 10:45:07 +0000

Buick is a marque of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, China, Taiwan, Qatar, Kuwait, and Israel by General Motors Corporation. Since the demise of Oldsmobile in 2004, it is GM’s only North America-based entry-level luxury brand.
Buick originated as an independent motor car manufacturer, the Buick Motor Company, incorporated on May 19, 1903, by the Scottish-American David Dunbar Buick in Detroit, Michigan. Later that year, the struggling company was taken over by James H. Whiting (1842-1919), who moved it to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and brought in William C. Durant in 1904 to manage his new acquisition. Buick sold his stock for a small sum upon departure, and died in modest circumstances twenty-five years later.
The first Buick made for sale, the 1904 Model B, was built in Flint, Michigan. There were 37 Buicks made that year, none of which survive.

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Read more on Buick at Wikipedia

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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Hudson

Autonaut — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:20:32 +0000

The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.
The name “Hudson” came from Joseph L. Hudson, a Detroit department store entrepreneur and founder of Hudson’s department store, who provided the necessary capital and gave permission for the company to be named after him.

The company had a number of firsts for the auto industry; these included dual brakes, the use of dashboard oil-pressure and generator warning lights, and the first balanced crankshaft, which allowed the Hudson straight-6 engine, dubbed the “Super Six” (1916), to work at a higher rotational speed while remaining smooth, developing more power for its size than lower-speed engines. Most Hudsons until 1957 had straight-6 engines. The dual brake system used a secondary mechanical parking brake system, which activated the rear brakes when the pedal traveled beyond the normal reach of the primary system; a mechanical emergency brake was also used. Hudsons transmissions also used an oil bath and cork clutch mechanism that proved to be as durable as it was smooth.
At its peak in 1929, 300,000 cars were produced in one year, Hudson and Essex combined, including contributions from Hudson’s other factories in Belgium and England; a factory had been built in 1925 in Brentford in London. Hudson was the third largest U.S. car maker that year, after Ford Motor Company and Chevrolet.

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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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