Automotive designer and executive Harley J. Earl was born on this day in 1893 in Hollywood, California. Earl began his automotive career when he dropped out of Stanford to join his father’s coachbuilding business, Harley Automotive Works.

 There he learned the art of crafting custom car bodies, many of which were going to Hollywood’s biggest stars at the time, including Tom Mix. After Cadillac dealer Don Lee purchased the business, he named Earl director of the custom body shop. Cadillac General Manager Lawrence P. Fisher would pass through the shop and witness Earl’s talent.

While on a national tour of dealerships, Fisher observed Earl at work. He noticed how he used innovative design methods for sculpting his bodies, such as using clay to define lines. Fisher, impressed with what he saw, commissioned Earl to design a body for the 1927 LaSalle, Cadillac’s brand new companion brand. Earl accepted the task. When it finally rolled onto showrooms it sold in great numbers. Its success landed Earl as the director of GM’s new Art and Color Section. 

Harley Earl’s Car Contributions

In 1937 the Art and Color Section was renamed the Styling Section. GM President Alfred Stone soon promoted Harley Earl to VP, making him the first styling person to ever make VP at a large automotive corporation. In his career, Earl would introduce many iconic vehicles, including the Buick Y-Job in 1939, recognized as the first concept car. He would also assist with Allied camouflage research during WWII and authorized Frank Hershey’s 1948 Cadillac design, which would usher the tailfin era. Perhaps his most lasting contribution was starting Project Opel, which would become the Chevrolet Corvette. 

Earl retired as a VP in 1958 at 65 years old, then a mandated retirement age. His influence on the automotive industry lasted well beyond that. His own motto of making American cars long and low remained in practice among most major automakers through the 1970s. Earl passed away in 1969 following a stroke. In 1986 the Automotive Hall of Fame inducted him and the Detroit Free Press named him the third most influential Michigan artist of the 20th century, behind Aretha Franklin and Stevie Wonder.

 After finding massive success as a partsmaker in Detroit’s blossoming auto industry in the early 1900s, the Dodge Brothers, John and Horace, signed a deal to build parts exclusively for Ford. 

Since Henry Ford didn’t have the capital to pay them directly for their services, he awarded them $10,000 in Ford Motor Company stock. As the brothers produced engines and other parts for the new Ford Model T starting in 1908, Ford’s success amplified their own wealth beyond their wildest dreams. However, the two were not content building other peoples’ cars. In July of 1914, the pair produced their last Ford part and went all in on building a vehicle with their name stamped on it. Just a few months later, on this day in 1914, the first Dodge car built for production purposes rolled out of their Hamtramck factory. It proudly carried a Dodge Brothers badge on its radiator.

By the end of 1914 less than 250 all steel Dodge Brother touring cars, the first all metal production vehicles, had been build. The new car cost featured a highly engineered L-head 4 cylinder engine and rode on a 110-inch wheelbase. When new, it went for $785, about $22,000 in 2022. The meager production numbers at the end of 1914 hardly foreshadowed the success they would find. By the end of 1915, after introducing a roadster model, more than 45,000 Dodge Brothers car would be on the road. This set a new record for highest production for a car company’s first full year and made them the third biggest automaker in the country.

What happened to the Dodge Brothers?

In 1919 Henry Ford was able to purchase the Dodge Brothers’ remaining Ford stock shares for $25 million. Adding the $5.4 million from dividends and $1.7 million from contract profits, all in they earned $32.1 million off their original $10,000 investment in the company. Unfortunately, they would not live to enjoy the wealth for long.

In 1918 a flu pandemic was sweeping the nation. The disease did not care about wealth, as John Dodge found out. He contracted the disease and died in January 1920. Horace fell sick with the flu the following December and suffered a similar fate. With John and Horace dead, their widows were given control of Dodge Brothers Inc. In 1925 the women penned a deal to sell the company to Dillon, Read & Co, investment bankers, for $146 million, about $1.7 billion in 2020. Only three years later the company sold again, this time to Chrysler, where it remains today as part of Stellantis..

 Louis Renault, the founder of the French automobile company that bears his name, died in prison on this day in 1944 at age 67. 

The Frenchman found himself behind bars after being named as a suspected Nazi collaborator, a charge he denied. The circumstances leading up to his arrest and death remain mysterious, but he cemented his legacy in the auto industry long before the rise of the Nazi party.

The first Renault car

Louis Renault, born in 1877, build his first car in 1898 with the help of two hired workers. Dubbed the Voiturette, the car featured a De Dion-Bouton 1 cylinder engine, giving the car a top speed of about 20 miles per hour. After demonstrating the vehicle could maneuver hilly roads without issue on Christmas Eve of 1898, he received 13 orders. A friend of Louis father purchased that first car, paving the way for production for the rest. After officially founding the company that would become the Renault known today in 1899, he continued to build Voiturette cars until 1903. As each year passed, he added new features to the car, such as a roof and doors. This was the early days of the automobile after all.

The last iteration of the Voiturette was the Type G. It featured semi-elliptical springs that gave the car a rather comfortable ride for the era. It also had a highly engineered water cooling system that reduced the operating temperature of the 8 horsepower De Dion-Bouton engine. That same year, Renault would begin to manufacture its own engines. Orders for cars soon began to flow in, including a large purchase of taxis that would roam French streets. In 1908 Renault had its biggest year yet, producing 3,575 cars.

Renault in WWI

Following a trip to the US to visit Henry Ford in Detroit in 1911, Renault instituted a variety of manufacturing techniques that would bolster production. By 1913 he had mastered mass production at his plant, just in time for World War I. Like most industrial companies of the era and area, civilian production ceased so munitions and other military equipment could be manufactured. During the war Renault built airplane engines, trucks and tanks.

In peacetime, Renault began producing more commercial vehicles and agricultural agreement. It struggled to produce a successful affordable vehicle for the French people. This led to Citroen, Renault’s fiercest rival, overtaking it as the largest French automobile company by the late 1920s. All the while, Renault churned out Grand Renault automobiles. As the name suggests, they were quite grand. However, in the midst of the Great Depression, Citroen faced major financial hardship and went bankrupt, relieving the production title back to Renault as it became a part of Michelin.

As the global financial crisis grasped the French auto industry, so did labor disputes just prior to World War II. Renault eventually fired more than 2,000 workers. During this era, Renault remained in complete control of his company and continued to invent new automobile systems. Some, such as hydraulic shocks and certain drum brakes, remain in use to this day by modern automakers. Then war found its way to France once again.

Louis Renault in WWII

in 1940, while Renault was in the USA to ask for tanks the Germans invaded. He returned to find the Franco-German armistice in place. Renault ultimately had to decide if he would have his factories dismantled and moved to Germany or if he would continue production for the Nazis in France. He chose the latter going to work for the French Vichy, the new independent government of France with strong ties to the Nazis. In Renault’s words, he kept his factories active he would prevent thousands of French from being transported to Nazi Germany. His company went on to produce more than 30,000 vehicles for the Nazis.

Just three weeks after the liberation of France in 1944 Renault was arrested on charges of industrial collaboration with the Nazis. By that time, Renault’s health had been greatly diminished. Despite his frail state he found himself in Paris’ Fresnes Prison. As his mental and physical state continued to decline he was moved to a hospital and then a nursing home. He died there after claiming to have been mistreated at Fresnes. No autopsy was completed at the time and uremia was listed as the cause of death. More than ten years later his wife would claim he died after being beaten by guards.

His body would later be exhumed and he’d be found to have a broken vertebrae. However, his family’s claims went unheard. For decades his heirs would fight to restore his name and claim that his company was illegally confiscated. Court battles continued as late as 2011 in which his family sought damages for the death of Louis Renault and the nationalization of Renault.(automotivehistory,motorssportplus)

 Ferrari 640 iz 1989, kojeg su vozili Mansel i Berger je bio prvi Ferrari od narednih u nizu do 1995 koji je koristio atmosferski V12 3.5 L motor.

Ali nije to jedino po čemu je ostao jedinstven taj bolid, nego to što ga je vozio Nigel Mansel, a koga je posljednjeg za života potpisao Enzo, plus što je to bio prvi F1 bolid u povjesti koji je umjesto klasičnog ručnog šestostupanjskog menjača imao sedmostupanjski sekvencijalni menjač koji se je uz nadogradnje tokom godina zadržao na bolidima sve do 2013, a koji su 2014 nasljedili osmostupanjski sekvencijalni menjači koji se koriste i do dan danas.

Medjutim taj Ferrari 640 najviše baš zbog tog sekvencijalnog mjenjača, koji u to vrijeme nije bio doveden na dovoljnom nivou pozudanosti, od 16 trka kolko je bilo te sezone i 30 moguća završetka trke (15 za svakog od vozača jer su po jednu trku propustili oboje). Gerhard Berger je odustao na 12 trka i to na 10 prvih uzastopno, došao do dva druga mjesta u Monzi i na Jerezu i jedno prvo u Estorilu, a u Monacu nije vozio zbog povrede koje je doživio na Imoli a u predhodnoj trci.A Mansel je odustao na 7 trka, u Španjolskoj nije vozio zbog odrađivanja kazne zbog diskvalifikacije na predhodnoj trci zbog sudara sa Sennom, diksvalificiran je bio i u Kanadi nekolko trka prije toga jer je napustio pit lane u krugu za zagrijavanje prije nego što je bilo pušteno zeleno svjetlo.

Pobjedio je u Interlagosu i na Hungaroringu, osvojio je dva druga mjesta u Paul Ricardu i Silverstonu i dva treća mjesta u Hocheinhaimu i na Spa. Čak do tih mjera u Ferrariju nisu vjerovali u taj mjenjač, pošto su još prije početka prve trke u sezoni Manselu iz Ferrarija nakon katastrofalnih predsezonskih testova ponajviše zbog kvarova na mjenjaču, rekli da nevjeruju da taj mjenjač moze trenutno izdrzati vise od 6-7 krugova, ali on je ipak pobjedio na toj trci u Interlagosu a upravo jer ga nije izdao menjač.

Ferrari 640, Monaco Top Cars Collection

A na kraju kolko je bio brz taj bolid ponajviše baš zbog tog novog revolucionarnog sekvencijalnog menjača, pokazuje to da bukvlano u svim trkama kad ih nije izadao Ferrari 640,sa oba vozača su bila na nekom od tri pobjednička postolja i da je taj Ferrari bio pouzdaniji sad bi Mansell vjerojatno imao 2 sp titule umjesto 1 iz 92( Williams) a Prost 3 umjesto 4 i Ferrari bi imao 17 konstruktorskih titula umjesto 16, a McLaren 7 umjesto 8.