Word: auto
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...Studebaker is the biggest design gamble in the auto industry since Chrysler's Airflow (which was a flop), a test to see whether Americans will buy a semi-sports car in big quantities. In its gamble, Studebaker staked $27 million for new tools, sure that the growing interest in sports cars indicates an entirely new trend in U.S. auto design. From Belgium's annual auto show in Brussels, where the car was first publicly shown last week, came the first evidence that the bet might pay off. Alongside the fanciest cars of Europe and 20 U.S. makes...
Mixmaster Needed. In a sense, the new car is as old as the auto industry, which was weaned on sports cars and road races. In the first two decades of the century, such iron-armed drivers as Barney Oldfield and Louis Chevrolet were the heroes of the day. In 1906 a Stanley Steamer achieved an unofficial speed of 197 m.p.h. Young bloods roared along the dusty roads in Mercers, Stutzes, Mercedes and Locomobiles, exhausts thundering like Catling guns, driving horses and timid folk into the fields...
However, another exchange in 1922 showed that when Du Pont had a big chance to exercise a monopoly, it refused to do so. The chance came with its perfection of Duco, the quick-drying, auto-body finish which revolutionized painting in the industry. Before Duco, Body Builder Lawrence P. Fisher testified at the trial, it took 21 days to paint and dry a Cadillac. "If we had carried on with paint," said Fisher, so much storage space would have been needed that "we'd have had a roof over Michigan." Had Du Pont limited the sale of Duco...
...years back, the man who drove a 100-h.p. car was considered a dashing fellow with some of the glamour of a Barney Oldfield. But by this week, when General Motors rolled out four of its new 1953 lines, the 100-h.p. auto was almost as dated as the linen duster. Chevrolet's horsepower was boosted from 105 to 115, Buick's from 170 to 188 (in the Roadmaster), Oldsmobile's from...
...Chevrolet brought out a redesigned auto that is wider and lower than last year's. Other improvements this year: a new Powerglide transmission intended to eliminate complaints of high gas consumption, a one-piece curved windshield, a moisture-proof ignition system. A new, higher-priced line, the Bel Air series, is designed to compete with such medium-priced cars as Dodge. Prices are relatively unchanged...