In looking through this list, it is easy to conclude that the world has passed me by, as I am not familiar with any of these guys except Lil Wayne! Again, the list was compiled in 2020 by Uswitch:
https://www.uswitch.com/car-insurance/guides/most-name-dropped-cars-in-music/
1. JUL -- 113 Songs
2. Kollegah -- 112
3. Migos -- 68
4. Join FabQ -- 67
5. Lil Wayne -- 58
6, Yvng Benj -- 46
7. Ngoc So’n -- 46
8. Noah -- 46
9. AK AusserKontrolle -- 42
10 Lam Truo'ng -- 41
Data mining! The London-based firm Uswitch analyzes web data like no one else. And to demonstrate their abilities, in 2020 they prepared a list (maybe the best list to date!) of the most car makes mentioned in song lyrics and the artists who mention car makes the most.
How is popular culture and automoibilty connected? What does this say about an object of desire and consumer preferences as conditioned by what is listened to? How does an inanimate object infuse into the human spirit?
See the post here: https://www.uswitch.com/car-insurance/guides/most-name-dropped-cars-in-music/
Top Ten Rankings:
1. Mercedes -- 16,415 songs
2. Lamborghini -- 9546
3. Bentley -- 8474
4. Ferrari -- 7212
5. Porsche -- 6874
6. BMW -- 5807
7. Audi -- 4056
8. Honda -- 3608
9. Tesla -- 3316
10. Rolls-Royce -- 2556
A few comments about this list. Note that with the exception of Honda, Asian cars are absent -- Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi, Kia, Hyundai. Also what is striking is the total absence of American cars! Considering that at the beginning of the 20th century the Ford Model T was ever present in popular culture, and that at the beginnings of Rock and Roll in the 1950s the Cadillac, Oldsmobile Rocket 88, and other US models were at the heart of the emerging genre.
Cars and Rock and Roll
It is not surprising that the automobile was at the center of artistic enterprise during the 1950s, given its place in popular thought, its presence throughout our society, including in everyday life, and its importance economically. It was particularly significant in the emergence of the new music of the 1950s, rock and roll, as well as integral to the plot and backdrop of many films, and as the stage upon which literary drama and self-discovery was played out. However, no form of popular artistic expression celebrated the automobile and the highway with more feeling than rock and roll. This vast body of music, difficult to define and ever-changing, often featured themes derived from the automobile. Furthermore, even a cursory examination of record jackets starting with the 1950s reveals an astonishing number that feature the photographs of “cool” cars.77 Rock music praised the car, and its performers drew on the wealth that followed success to buy cars that were excessive and extravagant. These materialistic values characterize popular music performers today.78
For rock and roll performers who had beaten the odds and had “made it,” much like Hollywood film stars of the 1920s and 1930s, cars and fame went hand in hand. Just as love from the opposite sex followed famous musicians who had become famous, so too cars became the object of artists’ love. Loving women and loving cars could be convoluted together in a confusing and complicated way in this new music of the 1950s, as exemplified in the words of Chuck Berry’s “Maybelline”.79
It was at the mid-point of the decade, the year of the Chevy V-8, the Forward Look, and the introduction of the Ford Thunderbird, that rock and roll began to influence American life in a profound way. With its energy, rock moved listeners, as did the automobile, in ways that intimately touched the soul. Rock conveyed messages that could be individually interpreted, as did custom cars and hot rods.
Richard A. Peterson provides a deft explanation of why rock music emerged when it did in an article entitled “Why 1955?”80 Peterson diminishes the importance of the appearance of individual artistic genius that would include Chuck Berry and Elvis, and the role of the Baby Boomer generation in his analysis. Rather, he stresses legal, technological, and organizational changes, without dismissing the role of historical continuity between earlier Blues and Country and Western forms of music and rock.
The introduction of new technology was a part of the rock and roll and automobile story of the 1950s. Transitioning away from 78 RPM records made of shellac to 33 and 1/3 RPM vinyl discs, and especially with the 45 RPM, the format for music changed dramatically after WWII. The immensely popular and inexpensive 45 RPM record shortened the length of a recording to approximately three minutes or less.
New automobile radio designs were integrally connected to the new length of musical performances. Push button radios, introduced in the late 1930s but popular by the 1950s, enabled listeners to switch from station to station as they made choices while sitting at a traffic light.81 Since red lights are generally set for 100 seconds and green lights for 60 seconds, the pause enabled riders to listen and switch songs with minimal distractions. Indeed, the push button and signal-seeking auto radios of the 1950s were like juke boxes on wheels.82
Finally, the transistor radio was introduced as a portable car radio in the mid-1950s and made optional equipment in cars beginning in 1955. Lighter, generating less heat, incorporating improved automatic volume control, and with fewer electronic components to go wrong, car audio began its ascent in importance in American culture.
With the FCC greatly increasing the number of AM radio licenses after 1947, stations rapidly doubled in number. Previously, national networks had dominated radio, and these network-affiliated stations had used their own bands and orchestras, rather than recorded music. Now the airwaves were open to any musician who had recorded his work. An all-popular music format was first adopted at KWOH in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1949, and the same station went to a “Top 40” format in 1953. These programming ideas caught on elsewhere rather quickly. In sum, all the prerequisites were in place for a revolution in modern music directed at an emerging youth culture.
Beyond broadcasting changes and a transition that took place in the material culture of the music industry, another important technological development was the introduction of the electric guitar. Beginning in 1946, Leo Fender improved the electric guitar in terms of eliminating feedback.83 His Telecaster was later replaced in 1954 with the Stratocaster. Competition came from Gibson with the Les Paul guitar, first produced in 1952. With either guitar, the artist could now play high frets with emotion, and in the process exude sexuality while on stage. One cannot imagine rock and roll, with its pace and tones, without the electrification of musical instruments. The electric guitar enabled artists to break new ground and become showmen in the process.
While the origins of modern rock are somewhat nebulous and remain controversial, it is clear that its form and content had roots in the work of several Blues artists, including Robert Johnson. Historian E.L. Widmer and others suggested that Jackie Brenston and the Kings of Rhythm song “Rocket 88,” produced on March 5, 1951, in Memphis on the Chess label, was the first to bring together the various elements now associated with modern rock.84 Later, Ike Turner would receive credit for its words. The Oldsmobile 88 was a new kind of post-war automobile, one with an overhead V-8 engine, yet light and usually stripped down, closer to a Chevrolet than an Oldsmobile 98. For its day, the 88 was fast and clean. An advertisement in 1950 exclaimed, “you’ve got to drive it to believe it.”
The fuzzy guitar in the song, the consequence of amplifier that had fallen out of the trunk of a car before the recording session in Memphis, was one distinctive aspect of “Rocket 88” that made it unique. And the pace of the piano segment in the song foretold the performances of Jerry Lee Lewis.
Chess Records’ Sam Phillips, who was known for his discovery of both Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, would later assert that the recording of “Rocket 88” marked the birth of rock. Bill Halley and his Saddlemen played it as well, a reflection of the lack of color lines that was characteristic of rock and roll, ironic at time when the color line was perhaps drawn tighter than ever in American life.
The success of “Rocket 88” was followed by many similar songs, including a follow-up number by Brenston himself called “Real Gone Rocket” (July 1951), that flopped. As E. L. Widmer has so adeptly chronicled, Chess Records followed with Betty Love’s “Drop Top” (November 1951), Rosco Gordon’s “T-Model Boogie” (December 1951), Howlin Wolf’s “Cadillac Daddy” (January 1952), Johnny London’s “Drivin’ Slow” (March 1952), and Joe Hill Louis’s “Automatic Woman” (September 1953). “Cadillac Daddy” was one of many songs about Cadillacs written during the post-WWII era, but down deep in the lyrics, one can discern a fearful and subservient tone, so prevalent on the part of Blacks towards Whites along Route 61 in Mississippi.
The Blues tradition was an important – and indeed a necessary – precursor to a song that undoubtedly is the first true rock and roll tune – “Maybellene,” performed by the great Chuck Berry in 1955. Berry, borrowing from the old song “Ida Red,” spun the tale of a car chase and a troubled love affair. The song has been carefully dissected and analyzed by Warren Belasco, on a level that is undoubtedly far deeper than Berry was ever thinking while he penned the lines to the music.85 Driving a modified Ford V8, our hero pursues his woman who is riding in a Cadillac. For a time the focus is on the woman, then it shifts to the car, and the real question is, which is more important? The song alternates between describing the vehicle and the woman. Berry invents a new word – “motorvating” – which he is doing in his Ford before he sees his two loves, the woman and the Cadillac Coupe Deville. A chase subsequently follows, only ending after a shower cools the Ford, enabling him to catch the female and the car. “Maybellene” merged Black and White musical traditions, as perhaps only a St. Louis performer like Chuck Berry could do. It is suggestive in terms of sexuality, but leaves much to the imagination. Somehow, if we are to believe Berry, a Ford can keep up with a Cadillac. In sum, “Maybellene” was energetic and happy, unlike the typical Blues fare of the day.
In “Maybellene” and the others that followed related to automobiles, Berry conveyed to his audience the joy of driving. A later (1964) popular hit, “No Particular Place to Go,” continued to extol the sheer exuberance of riding, without purpose or specific goals. Berry’s artistic genius – apart from the humor that is embedded in his lyrics – was that he somehow knew that Americans were restless and seeking a kind of happiness that only the automobile and the highway could provide. It might not last, but escape from our environment and ourselves was part and parcel of the 1950s music scene and beyond.
Yesterday we took stretches of I-70 and I-71 on our way to family near Oberlin, Ohio. I was really struck by the uniformity of Crossover and SUV Vehicle designs and the absence of any cars that interested me along the way. For the most part all these Kia, Toyota, Subaru, Honda, and Fords look the same if you have something like 20-50 vision! Sure, there are the Kia Souls, the 1 in 10,000 Corvettes, the one in 100,000 Lamborghinis, but for the most part the auto world on the Interstate is one of near total conformity. Blah!
I saw two cars along the way that were worth an expression of joy. One was a pristine (get his, driven on a road that still has some salt on it) BMW 528 e, probably from the early 1990s, and perhaps the most rusted out Mercedes- Benz 190d, maybe from the late 1970s. The Benz was more iron oxide than steel. But it ran well. I first noticed it from afar because it appeared so small on the horizon. But if you remember them, they are not small cars. It was surrounded by bulbous Crossovers.
This conformity in personal transformation -- what does that say about us as Americans? Are we more alike than we wish to admit? Do we not car about vehicles anymore? Has car spotting as a current activity largely disappear for lack of varied species?
I’ll attach photos of a 528e and 190d, but they are not of the cars I saw on I-71 north of Columbus.
Following down the list compiled by Alex Telatco cited in the previous post.
4. Richard, 1914 -1916.
Motor Age, July 2, 1914, p.45.
“Plans Glass Factory.” “Work will commence soon on a manufacturing plant in Cleveland for the Richard Automobile Co. The Factory will be enclosed in glass. It will be built on property owned by F.M. Brady associated with Francois Richard, a Fresh motor car engineer.”
Motor age, July 2, 1914, p.94. Age of car.
Advertisement : 96 horsepower rated at 25 horsepower. 80 miles per hour. 4 cylinder, 4 inch bore, 8 13/16 stroke. 7 passenger, $1,850, fully equipped.
5. Ben-Hur 1916-1918
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The Ben Hur Touring Car from McClure's Automobile Yearbook 1917–18.
Below begins a listing of Cars and Trucks made in Cleveland to 1931. Compiled by Alex Telatco and published on p. 168 of Clymer Scrapbooks, volume 3, 1946. I will add the images if easily available. This will be an ongoing compilation over numerous posts due to its breadth.
1. Grant, 1916-1922.
Based in Finlay, OH. Several thousand were made, and even exported to England as the Whiting-Grant.
1919 shown below
2. Templar, 1918-1925
Manufactured in Lakewood, Ohio.
Advertising themselves as "The pioneer builder of quality small cars", the first Templar car had a four-cylinder, overhead-valve engine of 3.2 liters capacity coupled to a three-speed transmission mounted in a chassis with a 118-inch (3,000 mm) wheelbase. The entry of the United States into World War I severely curtailed production, the company making artillery shells for the war effort. Only around 150 cars were made in 1918. Body styles included a coupe, a Victoria Elite tourer, a 3-door sedan and a sports model called the Sportette. The cars were extremely well equipped with a compassions and Kodak camera as standard equipment.
Full production resumed in 1919 with 3 body types, the coupe, Sportette and sedan. 1800 cars were built by the 900 employees. While the post war boom continued, the company could sell every car it made and Templar even increased prices in 1920 and 1921. The 1921 coupe, still basically the 1917 car, cost US$3785, as did the five-passenger sedan, while the five-seat tourer, four-passenger Sportette, and two-seat touring roadster were US$2885.
Competition was increasing, so in 1922, two cheaper models were announced, a roadster and a Deluxe Sports. Production was severely affected following a major fire which had swept through the factory in December 1921, and receivers were appointed in October 1922.
The company was re-financed and became the Templar Motor Car Company in 1923, and work started on a 4.3-liter six-cylinder engine, as the new management decided the future was in larger cars. The new models were based around a 122-inch wheelbase frame with a range of four- and five-seat bodies. Four-wheel brakes were also introduced. However, only 125 cars were sold in 1923.
By late 1924 it seems the money ran out, and the company passed into the ownership of a local bank who had called in a loan, and production ceased.
1919 below
3. Peerless, 1900-1932 -- Steam and Gasoline
1931 Below
Established in Cleveland in 1900 at 43 Lisbon Street, Peerless Motors began manufacturing automobiles while using DeDion-Bouton engines under license from the French company. Engineer Louis P. Mooers designed the first Peerless models, as well as several proprietary engines. The first Peerless-branded vehicles appeared in 1902, with a front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels through a shaft. This later became the standard vehicle propulsion layout for automobiles. In 1904, Mooers designed the Green Dragon racecar and enlisted Barney Oldfield to drive it. The Green Dragon brought notability and success to Peerless, as Oldfield used it to set a number of early world automobile speed records.
n 1905, the 35 horsepower (26 kW) Green Dragon competed the world’s first 24 hour endurance race in Columbus, Ohio. Piloted by Earnest Bollinger, Aurther Feasel, and briefly by Barney Oldfield, the Peerless led the race for the first hour before crashing into a fence, later finishing in 3rd place.
From 1905 to 1907, Peerless experienced a rapid expansion in size and production volume. As the Peerless namesake grew in fame, the company began producing increasingly higher-priced models with a focus on luxury. In 1911, Peerless was one of the first car companies to introduce electric lighting on their vehicles, with electric starters added in 1913.[1] In 1915, the firm introduced its first V-Eight, intending to compete with the Cadillac introduced a year earlier.[3] This model became Peerless' staple production vehicle until 1925, when engines produced by other manufacturers were first used in Peerless model
In 1929, the entire Peerless range was redesigned to compete with other vehicles produced by Stutz and Marmon. This move saw increased sales, and for 1930 another design refresh was undertaken. The Peerless-designed V8 was replaced by a Continental Straight Eight as a cost-saving measure. However, the Great Depression that began in 1929 greatly reduced the sales of luxury automobiles. Peerless stripped down its production and attempted to market one line of vehicles to wealthy Americans who were not affected by the depression. In 1930–31, Peerless commissioned Murphy Body Works to design what the company envisioned as its 1933 model. A single V-16 1931 Peerless was finished in June 1931, the last Peerless ever produced.
Increased power: What is the function of the circular component with the hole pattern on the front of the 1899 Daimler motorised business vehicle? The inlets behind the sieve-like plate are the air ducts of a tubular radiator invented by mobility pioneer Wilhelm Maybach. With this innovation, Maybach significantly improved engine cooling and thus the performance of the automobiles built by Daimler. The tubular radiator was first used 125 years ago, in the Phoenix model, and utility model protection was registered on 24 December 1897. December of that same year saw the introduction of the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) motorised business vehicles.
Evolution: DMG continued to improve its van models. The exhibit in Legend Room 1: “Pioneers – The invention of the automobile” at the Mercedes-Benz Museum was built in 1899, two years after the premiere of this model family. This motorised business vehicle was designed for a 500-kilogram payload. It is powered by a 4.1 kW (5.6 hp) two-cylinder engine with a displacement of 1,527 cubic centimetres and has a top speed of 16 km/h. By comparison, for the year 1900, the sales list mentions business vehicles with payloads of 800 to 3,200 kilograms and power ranging from 2.9 kW (4 hp) to 5.9 kW (8 hp) with a two-cylinder engine and 4.4 kW (6 hp) to 8.8 kW (12 hp) with a four-cylinder engine.
Innovation platform with the genes of a horse-drawn cart: Compared to the illustration in the first sales advertisement, the vehicle soon changed. In 1897, it was still a delivery van with the engine under the seat and a free-standing steering column. The example at the Museum, dating from 1899, has the engine located above the front axle, protected by a high bonnet. Directly below it is the tubular radiator with the starting crank in its centre. These innovative details stand in contrast to the traditional design features: the driver sat on an open bench with no protection from the weather. It resembles the workplace of a coachman delivering goods with his horse and cart. Nevertheless, the motorised business vehicle clearly represented a departure from the era of the horse-drawn coach: in front of the driver is the vertical steering column with wooden steering wheel. Outside, on the right, is the gear lever in an open shift gate. And the large horn commands attention in traffic.
Power transmission and rubber wheels: The engine power is transmitted to the rear wheels via two chain wheels and two roller chains. This distinguishes the transporter from the pinion-driven DMG trucks that had been built since 1896. The spoked wooden wheels are significantly larger at the rear than at the front, with solid rubber tyres all round. This was a real comfort feature in commercial vehicles at the end of the 19th century, as delivery trucks and lorries often drove on steel-tyred wooden wheels. Daimler charged an extra 350 to 400 marks for these solid rubber wheels in 1897. For vehicles with a payload of more than 1,200 kilograms, DMG advised against using the rubber-shod wheels: “Rubber tyres are not recommended for these larger wagons,” the DMG sales list states.
Five winners: The “business vehicle” was an expert when it came to flexible logistics. This strength still characterises Mercedes-Benz vans today. “Daimler business vehicles are a particular speciality among motorised vehicles,” the Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) advertised in 1897. The sales advertisement highlighted the delivery van’s versatility: the loading area can be used with a box body, as a platform or with bench seats (“for excursions and for passenger transport”). The Cannstatt-based company offered five different versions of the motorised business vehicle. The payload was between 500 and 2,000 kilograms. Initially, the vehicles were powered by engines delivering 2.2 kW (3 hp) to 7.4 kW (10 hp).
Mini to maxi: The length (3,400 to 4,600 millimetres), width (1,700 to 1,800 millimetres) and weight (1,000 to 2,500 kilograms) of the motorised business vehicles varied according to payload. This underlined the diversity of this very recently introduced vehicle concept. Only the year before, Benz & Cie. had presented a comparable vehicle in Mannheim and founded the segment with its “delivery van”.
Caught a ride into South Dakota
With two girls in a light blue Desoto
One's name was Jane, the other was plain
But they both had racing motors.
Next I caught a ride with a gambler's wife
She had a brand new lay-down Rambler
She stopped outside of town
She laid the Rambler down
She said she could dig it if I rode her.
At a truck stop for toothpick and water
Caught a ride with a fruit picker's daughter
We drove into the nightSaid 'The fruit's just right'She said 'all you can eat for a quarter.'Next I caught a ride with a hobo womanWho said she was from Texas tooThe way she did what she didWhen she did, what she did to meMade me think of you.Doing my best to get back to you
Ain't nothing I'd rather do
Look for me Sunday, gonna be there honey
Something special just for you
Special just for you.
During the early weeks of production on any new model, at least five such Packards were taken to Utica, to be driven 250 miles for operational evaluation and then thoroughly inspected for workmanship. Subsequently, one of them would be taken for a thousand miles for quality checking, both full throttle on the track, plus round after round on the torture roads. Another car might put up 2500 such miles, yet another made to endure 25,000. On two such occasions, a Packard was driven at top speed, day and night, for the seven days to reach 15,000 miles, as effective as any test possible of performance and stamina.
All this resulted in a goodly many Packard miles being racked up, both on experimental and pr-production cars, as year passed year. During 1933 alone, the company reported test driving at Utica totaled 769,573 miles – a distance more than thirty times around the world at the equator. For the first four years of its production, every Twin Six or Twelve produced was drive 250 miles at the Proving Grounds in a break-in test including maximum speed checks and a thorough inspection, with a certificate signed by Milton and Vincent issued thereafter and a sticker with the acceptance date glued to the right side of the glovebox behind the instrument panel – or the car was returned top the factory for correction of any defect or weakness noticed. Every new owner got both his car and the “graduation’ certificate.
No one was ever killed at the Packard Proving Grounds, indeed no one was ever injured. During the same time GM had several men killed at their proving grounds. “at one time we were testing tires for Goodyear…one man drove steadily at top speed just to blow tires. He did this constantly for three months and never had any trouble when the tires blew.”
again, see previous posts for proper citation of sources. A continuance from Menno Duerksen, in Kimes, ed., Packard, A History of the Motor Car and the Company.
Initially, the Packard Proving Grounds were not independent of Detroit, but rather were an adjunct to the engineering department then headed by chief engineer Al Moorhouse (Jesse Vincent had by now moved up to vice-president in charge of engineering.) This system did not prove to work well at all, as one rather costly mistake demonstrated. Charles Vincent remembers:
“It was during the period when Packard was phasing out production of six-cylinder engines in favor of straight eights [the 626-633 models]. Due to some miscalculation either by the purchasing department or sales department, about $250,000 worth of frames for six-cylinder cars had been carried over from the year before and management was most anxious to salvage these if possible.
Beginning in 1921, the L-head engine was once again the only engine offered with a 116" wheelbase. It was officially identified as the Packard Single Six. Once the eight cylinder engine was introduced, the Six was repositioned as a mid-level luxury car competing with the Buick Master Six and later the Chrysler Six with a retail price of a 1921 5-passenger sedan listed at US$4,940 ($75,049 in 2021 dollars).
This generation introduced updated vehicle identification: 1st digit is series (Six only, Twin Sixes and Eights had their own series designation), 2nd and 3rd digits refer to wheelbase. F.e.: 233 is 2nd series Six, (longer) 133" wheelbase. 326 is 3rd series Six, (shorter) 126" wheelbase.
The line consisted of:
The Six was discontinued after the 5th series, and there was no Packard six cylinder car until the 1937 One-Ten. As the complicated naming system was revised for 1929, 626 and 633 refer to the new 1929 Packard Standard Eight in a similar way.
To accomplish this and still find room for an eight-cylinder engine, Moorhouse had designed a new and very thin water pump that required a minimum of space between the cylinder block and the radiator. Shortly after starting high speed tests, the fan belts began to fail and when I reported this, he sent out special fans that had been cut down in diameter to reduce the load on the belts. His feeling was that no customer would drive at high speed long enough to wear out the belt. With this combination, the cars completed their 25,000 miles tests with only one or two failures and the model went into production. Unfortunately, the radiators were also a bit small that year and in many sections of the country it was necessary to install larger than usual fans, this being a common remedy in those days. In every case where the larger fan was installed and, in many cases, where the regular fan was used, the water pump bearings failed in a few thousand miles. After these pumps had been redesigned a few times and. Each car campaigned [called back for repair] that many times, it was necessary to design a full-sized pump and mount it on the left side of the crankcase on a special bracket. The fan problem was then solved by counting it on a special bracket where the thin water pump had been located. All this redesigning and campaigning ran into a lot of money—about five million, as I recall.”
A five-million dollar loss to save a quarter of a million dollars is no way to run a business. Alvan Macauley quickly decided that the Packard Proving Grounds should be independent of, not responsible to, Engineering (as had always been the case at Milford with General Motors). And Charlie Vincent would be Lord of the Grounds.
Thereafter, any new car or new feature had to have Proving Grounds approval, in addition to an okay from Engineering and Distribution and other departments in volved in the overall scheme of production – or as Alvan Macauley admonished vice president of manufacturing E.F. Roberts in a memo, “There should be separate certificates because it is intended that each … shall pass upon the prosed improvement, particularly from the standpoint of his own department.”
Continued form the previous post. Taken from Menno Duerksen, “Testing the Product: The Packard Proving Grounds,” in Beverly Rae Kimes, ed. Packard A History of the Motor Car and the Company (General Edition, 2nd Printing, Automobile Quarterly, 1978), pp. 682-695. Images from the Detroit Public Library.
Still, the board was unconvinced, so the land was sold, eventually becoming Selfridge Field, a U.S. Army Air Force base – and the proving grounds idea lay dormant for nearly another decade, until steadily mounting traffic congestion, speed laws and outraged cries from the citizenry dictated a little fresh rethinking. In 1924 General Motors opened its gigantic proving grounds at Milford, thirty miles west of Detroit, and soon thereafter the Packard Motor Car Company concluded as well that Henry Joy had been right all along.
Alvan Macauley, now Packard president, found the necessary land near Utica – no longer could it be had in the sprawling industrial center around Detroit – the eventual 640 acres bisected by a highway, leaving 504 acres on one side of the road, this area to be where the major Packard activities were to be centered. Albert Kahn, Inc. was contracted to design and supervise construction of the facilities.
Portrait of architect Albert Kahn studying a blueprint. Autographed on front: "To David J. Wilkie, in sincere appreciation, Albert Kahn."
Principal among these, of course, was the speed track. As James B. Forman, one of the men who would be employed at Utica, recalls, the result was a beauty: “The track was so perfectly banked that you could drive the curve at either end full throttle (about 100 mph) and take your hands of the steering wheel and the banking would guide the car around the curve and onto the straightaway. The drivers liked to initiate the new people on the test crew by demonstrating this.
View of construction of the track at Packard Proving Grounds in Utica, Michigan, several male workers pictured with shovels. Handwritten on back: "Packard Motor Car Co. Proving Grounds, Utica, Michigan. Track construction, 1927-28."
View of workers resurfacing the track at the Packard Proving Grounds in Utica, Michigan. Equipment is from Julius Porath & Son, Detroit, Mich. Typed on back: "Proving grounds, track. Top elevation." Stamped on back: "Sep 5, 1946." Handwritten on back: "Packard Motor Car Co. Proving Grounds, Utica, Michigan. Resurfacing track."
In addition to the track, there was the lodge, a residence for the proving grounds manager and his staff, shops and testing laboratories, hills of varying gradations, plus mile upon mile of gravel, dirt and sand roadways.
View of the lodge at the Packard Proving Grounds in Utica, Michigan. Tudor-style l.odge was designed by Albert Kahn. Typed on back: "Proving grounds, lodge views." Handwritten on back: "Packard Motor Car Co. Proving Grounds, Utica, Michigan. 1927. Lodge shortly after completion. Designed by Albert Kahn, Inc."
Workmen scattered boulders the size of watermelons along some roads, shoveled loads of sand into muck holes on others, devised a devilish stretch with railroad ties embedded crosswise at one-foot intervals, built up hills so steep a car might seemingly bound into the blue when topping the crest. Though some of this had the look of a medieval torture rack, the whole was couched into a beautifully landscaped and utterly grand setting. It had to be. Packard had a rather plush reputation to protect.
These were Packard’s golden years. The marque was outselling every other luxury car built in America—indeed the world. And Packard profits were as lush as its products; the company barely missed the better-than-a-million dollars that was expended outfitting Utica.
Put in charge at the Packard Proving grounds was Charles H. Vincent, a man whose career had included being test driver and mechanic for Thomas -Detroit shortly after then turn of the century and later experimental engineer at Ferro machine and Foundry in Cleveland, and with Hudson in Detroit during Super Six development days. He was a well-trained, self-educated engineer, and was Jesse Vincent’s brother – which factors combined to bring him to Packard in 1916. Save for a brief sojourn to work for a bank in Tulsa and to set up a Packard-Reo agency in Arizona, both of which failed during the depression at the end of WWI, he would remain at Packard through 1947.
Packard Co. file photograph of a 1934 Packard three-quarter front view, note 1933 Michigan license plate #Y-3895, two men standing at front driver's side, one taking notes, the other with papers in hand. Inscribed on photo back: "Packard 1107 twelve, eleventh series, 12-cylinder, 160-horsepower, 142-inch wheelbase, 5-person coupe (body type #737), prototype, note 1932-33 twelve bumpers, photographed by timing stand Packard Proving Grounds, left to right: Charles Helm (Charlie) Vincent inside stand, J.A. Gilray, Harold F. Olmsted.
At Utica with him was the redoubtable Tommy Milton, hired in April 1927 at an annual salary of $7500, $2900 more than Charlie Vincent was making at the time – and a figure reflective of Milton’s stature in the automobile field, his celebrity as a racing. Driver and his position as a ramrod of the Packard Proving Grounds project. Day-to-day operation of the facility was the charge of Charlie Vincent; overall inspiration was provided by Milton.
Packard Co. file photograph of a 1932 Packard left side view, top folded, owner Tommy Milton standing at side. Inscribed on photo back: "Packard 905, twin six, ninth series,12-cylinder, 160-horsepower, 142.125-inch wheelbase, 4-person phaeton (body type #571), standing by car: Tommy Milton, setting Packard Motorcar Co. Detroit, Mich."
