This Day in Automotive History

[Landrover]

November 24, 1849
John Froelich, the inventor of the first gasoline-powered farm tractor, was born in Froelich, Iowa, on this day. Froelich's tractor, completed in 1892, featured a Van Duzen one-cylinder gasoline engine mounted on wooden beams to operate a threshing machine. Froelich manufactured several more tractors of this type during the year, and in September shipped one of his engine-powered tractors to a farm in Langford, South Dakota, where it was employed in agriculture activity for the first time. Froelich established the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1893, and began to manufacture tractors on a larger scale. In 1918, the Waterloo Traction Engine Company was purchased by the John Deere Plow Company. John Deere, a long-established plow company, mass-produced gasoline-powered tractors based on Froelich's designs. During the 1920s and 1930s, tractors rapidly changed the face of agriculture in America, and many traditional farmers were pushed off their land by the encroachment of large agricultural interests who utilized the efficient new farming technology.

November 24, 1900
On this day, the first gasoline-powered Pierce automobile was taken on a test drive through the streets of Buffalo, New York. George N. Pierce first founded the Pierce Company in 1878 as a manufacturer of household items, but in the late nineteenth century shifted to bicycle production. Pierce bicycles became known for their high quality, and after achieving a substantial capital base, Pierce and his company decided to try their hand in automobile production. The first few Pierce prototypes involved steam power, but in 1900 the designers shifted to gasoline engines. The first production Pierce, test driven on this day, featured a modified one-cylinder deDion engine capable of producing nearly three horsepower. The automobile would be christened the Pierce Motorette, and between 1901 and 1903 roughly 170 Pierce Motorettes were made. In 1903, Pierce began manufacturing its own engines, and later in the year, the Pierce Arrow was introduced, followed by the Pierce Great Arrow in 1904. By 1905, the George N. Pierce Company was producing some of the biggest and most expensive automobiles in America, with prices in excess of $5,000. In 1908, the Pierce-Arrow Motor Car Company was officially launched, and in 1909 U.S. president William Howard Taft ordered two of the prestigious automobiles, a Brougham and a Landaulette, for use by the White House.

John Froelich

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia
http://www.froelichtractor.com/tractor.htm
superstock.com​

 

[Landrover]

November 25, 1920
Gaston Chevrolet, the younger brother of famous automobile designer and racer Louis Chevrolet, was killed during a race in Beverly Hills, California, on this day. Gaston, born in La-Chauz-de-Fonds, Switzerland, came to America in the early nineteenth century to join his brothers Louis and Andre in the establishment of a racing car design company: the Frontenac Motor Corporation. Frontenac replaced Louis' earlier racing car design company, the Chevrolet Motor Company, which he sold to William C. Durant in 1915. After some initial success, the Chevrolet brothers were faced with obsolete vehicles after World War I, and not enough financial resources to make them competitive again. However, in 1920, the new management at the Monroe Motors Company asked Louis to run his racing team. The Chevrolets moved their operations to Indianapolis, and rapidly made the Monroe racers ready for the 1920 Indy 500, the first to be held since 1914. During the 1920s, the Indy 500 was the most important racing event in America, and Gaston Chevrolet, driving a Chevrolet-adapted Monroe, won the first post-war competition with an average race speed of 86.63mph. The Chevrolet brothers did not have long to enjoy their success, however, because just a few months later Gaston was killed along with his riding mechanic Lyall Jolls during the Beverly Hills race.

November 25, 1973
On this day, in response to the 1973 oil crisis, President Richard M. Nixon called for a Sunday ban on the sale of gasoline to consumers. The proposal was part of a larger plan announced by Nixon earlier in the month to achieve energy self-sufficiency in the United States by 1980. The 1973 oil crisis began in mid-October, when 11 Arab oil producers increased oil prices and cut back production in response to the support of the United States and other nations for Israel in the Yom Kippur War. Almost overnight, gasoline prices quadrupled, and the U.S. economy, especially its automakers, suffered greatly as a result. The Sunday gasoline ban lasted until the crisis was resolved in March of the next year, but other government legislation, such as the imposing of a national speed limit of 55mph, was extended indefinitely. Experts maintained that the reduction of speed on America's highways would prevent an estimated 9,000 traffic fatalities per year. Although many motorists resented the new legislation, one long-lasting benefit for impatient travelers was the ability to make right turns at a red light, a change that the authorities estimated would conserve a significant amount of gasoline. In 1995, the national 55mph speed limit was repealed, and legislation relating to highway speeds now rests in state hands.

Gaston Chevrolet

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

November 26, 1927
On this day, the Ford Motor Company announced the introduction of the Model A, the first new Ford to enter the market since the Model T was first introduced in 1908. The hugely successful Model T revolutionized the automobile industry, and over 15,000,000 million copies of the "Tin Lizzie" were sold in its 19 years of production. By 1927, the popularity of the outdated Model T was rapidly waning. Improved, but basically unchanged for its two-decade reign, it was losing ground to the more stylish and powerful motor cars offered by Ford's competitors. In May of 1927, Ford plants across the country closed, as the company began an intensive development of the more refined and modern Model A. The vastly improved Model A had elegant Lincoln-like styling on a smaller scale, and used a capable 200.5-cubic-inch four-cylinder engine that produced 40hp. With prices starting at $460, nearly 5,000,000 Model As, in several body styles and a variety of colors, rolled onto America's highways until production ended in early 1932.

November 26, 1980
Peter DePaolo, who won a dazzling victory at the 1925 Indy 500, died at the age of 82 on this day. DePaolo, who was the nephew of racing legend Ralph DePalma, first started racing for Duesenberg in the 1920s. During the first half of the 1920s, Fred and August Duesenberg's expertly crafted racing cars were dominant competitors at the Indianapolis 500. In 1922, a Duesenberg engine won the event, and in 1924 a complete Duesenberg, featuring cutting-edge centrifugal superchargers, blew the competition away. For the 1925 Indy, racing car designer Harry Miller showed up with a dramatic new supercharged front-drive Miller Junior Eight, and Peter DePaolo, who was set to drive for Duesenberg, had his work cut out from him. However, DePaolo had set a promising 135mph record on the Culver City boards that same year, and as the race got underway, he took an early lead over racer Dave Lewis in the Miller Junior Eight. By the halfway point of the race, the blisters on DePaolo's hands had become intolerable, and Fred Duesenberg replaced him with Norman Batten. When DePaolo returned from the track hospital, he learned with horror that Batten had fallen to fifth place, and Dave Lewis was leading in the Miller. DePaolo reentered the race, and slowly but surely, DePaolo fought his way to the front of the pack again. When the dust cleared on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Peter DePaolo had prevailed. It was a great victory for the Duesenberg team, made greater by DePaolo's passing of the 100mph Indy speed barrier with an average speed of 101.13mph.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

November 27, 1901
Clement Studebaker died in South Bend, Indiana on this day. He was the co-founder of H & C Studebaker Company, which built Pennsylvania-German conestoga wagons and carriages during his lifetime, and automobiles after his death.

November 27, 1979
Ricky Carmichael a former professional motocross and supercross racer was born in Clearwater, Florida. He is now transitioning to a stock car career as a development driver with Ken Schrader. While racing pro motocross and supercross, his nickname was GOAT (Greate st of All Time).

Ricky Carmichael

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

November 28, 1890
Max Duttenhofer, managing director of Köln-Rottweiler Pulverfabrik, Wilhelm Lorenz and Gottlieb Daimler formed Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft, joint-stock company. Wilhelm Maybach joined as chief engineer. He however left on February 11, 1891 over terms of contract.

November 28, 1895
The "Great Chicago Race", first automobile race first race featuring gasoline-powered automobiles, organized by Chicago Times-Herald Publisher Herman H. Kohlstaat, took place between Chicago and Waukegan, IL; six vehicles competed: two electric cars, three German Benz automobiles, one American-made two-cylinder Duryea automobile; $5,000 in prizes, first-place prize of $2,000; Frank Duryea = winner in 10 1/2 hours with no other car in sight, average speed of 7.5mph; 2nd place - German Oscar Mueller, completed the race an hour and a half later.

November 28, 1942
On this day, the first production Ford bomber, the B-24 Liberator, rolled off the assembly line at Ford's massive Willow Run plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Two years before, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt had urged an isolationist America to prepare for its inevitable involvement in the war, declaring that U.S. industry must become "the great arsenal of democracy." Roosevelt established the Office of Production Management (OPM) to organize the war effort, and named a former automotive executive co-director of the OPM. Most Detroit automobile executives opposed the OAW during its first year, and were dubious of the advantages of devoting their entire production to war material. However, on December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and American citizens mobilized behind the U.S. declaration of war against the Axis powers. Since profit ruled Detroit, the government made Ford and America's other automakers an economic offer they could not refuse. For their participation in the war effort, automakers would be guaranteed profits regardless of production costs, and $11 billion would be allocated to the building of war plants--factories that would be sold to private industry at a substantial discount after the war. In February of 1942, the last Ford automobile rolled off the assembly line for the duration of the war, and soon afterward the Willow Run plant was completed in Michigan. Built specifically for Ford's war production, Willow Run was the largest factory in the world. Using the type of assembly line production that had made Ford an industrial giant, Ford hoped to produce 500 B-24 Liberator bombers a month. After a gradual start, that figure was reached in time for the Allied invasion of Western Europe, and by July of 1944, the Willow Plant was producing one B-24 every hour. By the end of the war, the 43,000 men and women who had worked at Ford's Willow Run plant had produced over 8,500 bombers, which unquestionably had a significant impact on the course of the war.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

November 29, 1948
On this day, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley and 1,200 hundred other people attended the unveiling of the first car to be manufactured entirely in Australia--an ivory-colored motor car officially designated the 48-215, but fondly known as the Holden FX. In 1945, the Australian government had invited Australia's auto-part manufacturers to create an all-Australian car. General Motors-Holden's Automotive, a car body manufacturer, obliged, producing the 48-215, a six-cylinder, four-door sedan. The 48-215 was an instant success in Australia, and 100,000 Holden FXs were sold in the first five years of production. During the next few decades, General Motors-Holden's Automotive went on to introduce a number of other successful marques, including the Torana and the Commodore. Four million Holdens, with their trademark "Lion-and-Stone" emblem, were sold in Australia and exported around the world by the 1980s. In 1994, General Motors-Holden's Automotive finally adopted Holden as its official company name, and today Holden continues its mission of meeting Australia's unique motoring needs.

November 29, 1996
Volkswagen executive Jose Ignacio Lopez resigned on this day under charges of industrial espionage from General Motors, his former employer. As part of a major lawsuit against Volkswagen, GM charged that Lopez, its former worldwide chief of purchasing, had stolen trade secrets from the company in 1993 when he defected to Volkswagen along with three other GM managers. Lopez's resignation was likely a result of pressure from the German carmaker, which sought to reach a settlement before the scheduled lawsuit began under U.S. jurisdiction. In January 1997, VW and GM announced a settlement in which Volkswagen would pay General Motors $100 million and agree to buy at least $1 billion in parts from GM. VW also confirmed that the three other former GM managers accused of industrial espionage had all either resigned or were due to take administrative leave. In return, GM agreed to drop all legal action.

Launch of the Holden 48-215 by Prime Minister Ben Chifley.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

November 30, 1866
Work on the first underwater highway tunnel in the United States began on this day in Chicago, Illinois. Over a three-year period, workers and engineers tunneled underneath the Chicago River, finally completing the 1,500-foot tunnel at a cost of over $500,000. The tunnel had two roadways, each 11-feet tall and 13-feet wide, and a separate footway 10-feet wide and 10-feet tall. In 1907, the tunnel was lowered to provide better air circulation, and for the first time it began to allow regular automobile traffic.

November 30, 1960
On this day, the first Scout all-terrain vehicle rolled off the assembly line at International Harvester's Fort Wayne plant. The history of International Harvester dates back to the early 1800s, when the company sold Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper. Around the turn of the century, the company took the name of International Harvester (IH), and, in 1907, produced the Auto Buggy, an early motorized truck marketed to farmers. During the next few decades, IH specialized in industrial vehicles and agricultural machinery. During the 1950s, IH truck production flourished with the rapid emergence of interstate highways. In 1959, IH began work on a new 4x4 utility vehicle, which would be offered to the average American as an alternative to the popular Jeep vehicle. Designed by Ted Ornas, the first Scout was introduced to the public as a versatile, affordable vehicle for both passenger and cargo transport. It was available in both two- and four-wheel drive and featured a four-cylinder engine, with three-speed, floor-mounted transmission. The Scout became the best-selling vehicle in IH history, enjoying a full 10 years of production before being replaced by the improved Scout II in 1971.

International Harvestor Scout 80

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 1, 1913
The Ford Motor Company introduced the continuous moving assembly line on this day. Ford's new assembly line could produce a complete car every two-and-a-half minutes. The efficiency and speed of Ford's production lines allowed the company to sell cars for less than any competitor.

December 1, 1915
John D. Hertz founded original Yellow Cab taxicab service in Chicago. The color (and name) yellow selected as result of survey by University of Chicago which indicated it was easiest color to spot.

December 1, 1921
The Detroit Steam Motors Corporation announced the Trask steam car, a favorite project of automobile distributor O.C. Trask. A steam-driven automobile had reached the world-record speed of 127.66mph in 1906, causing a steam-car craze that lasted through the 1920s. The last steam-powered cars in the U.S. were made in 1926.

December 1, 1942
The U.S. government imposed gasoline quotas to conserve fuel during the shortages of World War II. The armed forces overseas had fuel aplenty, but stateside, gasoline became costly and hard to get. People started using bicycles and their own two feet to get around.

John D. Hertz

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 2, 1899
John R. Cobb, a dominant British racer and three-time land-speed record-holder, was born in Hackbridge, Surrey, south of London, England. During the early 1930s, Cobb dominated British racing, setting a series of lap records at the famous Brooklands racetrack in England, including an unbroken record of 143.44mph in 1935. In 1938, at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, he set a new land speed record of 350.194mph in a Railton racer, breaking the 345.489mph record set by George Eyston two weeks before. Eyston, driving a Thunderbolt, went on to regain the land speed title that year. However, in 1938, Cobb returned to Bonneville to wrest the title from Eyston for good, this time racing to 369.741mph. Cobb's record speed stood until 1947, when Cobb himself returned to Utah in another Railton and set a new record of 394.196mph, although one of his unofficial runs was in excess of 400mph. In 1952, Cobb was killed at the age of 52 while trying to set a new water-speed record on Loch Ness in Scotland. His impressive land-speed record stood until 1963, when Craig Breedlove, driving a jet-propelled vehicle, broke a record that no other drivers of cars with internal combustion engines could touch.

December 2, 1902
The first working V-8 engine was patented in France by French engine designer Leon-Marie-Joseph-Clement Levavasseur. The engine block was the first to arrange eight pistons in the V-formation that allowed a crankshaft with only four throws to be turned by eight pistons. Today, V-8 engines are extremely common in automobiles that need powerful motors.


December 2, 1913
On this day in 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes.
Ford's Model T, introduced in 1908, was simple, sturdy and relatively inexpensive--but not inexpensive enough for Ford, who was determined to build "motor cars for the great multitude. In order to lower the price of his cars, Ford figured, he would just have to find a way to build them more efficiently.
Ford had been trying to increase his factories' productivity for years. The workers who built his Model N cars (the Model T's predecessor) arranged the parts in a row on the floor, put the under-construction auto on skids and dragged it down the line as they worked. Later, the streamlining process grew more sophisticated. Ford broke the Model T's assembly into 84 discrete steps, for example, and trained each of his workers to do just one. He also hired motion-study expert Frederick Taylor to make those jobs even more efficient. Meanwhile, he built machines that could stamp out parts automatically and much more quickly than even the fastest human worker could.
The most significant piece of Ford's efficiency crusade was the assembly line. Inspired by the continuous-flow production methods used by flour mills, breweries, canneries and industrial bakeries, along with the disassembly of animal carcasses in Chicago's meat-packing plants, Ford installed moving lines for bits and pieces of the manufacturing process: For instance, workers built motors and transmissions on rope-and-pulley–powered conveyor belts. In December 1913, he unveiled the pièce de résistance: the moving-chassis assembly line.
In February 1914, he added a mechanized belt that chugged along at a speed of six feet per minute. As the pace accelerated, Ford produced more and more cars, and on June 4, 1924, the 10-millionth Model T rolled off the Highland Park assembly line. Though the Model T did not last much longer--by the middle of the 1920s, customers wanted a car that was inexpensive and had all the bells and whistles that the Model T scorned--it had ushered in the era of the automobile for everyone.


John R. Cobb



Ford Model T Assembly Line

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 3, 1917
Quebec Bridge opens near Quebec, Canada. At the time, it was the world's longest cantilever truss span in which stiff trusses extend from the bridge piers, without additional support.

December 3, 1979
The last Pacer is produced by the American Motor Company. The bubble-topped Pacer was a reasonably popular economy car, though its Jetson-styled body attracted flack from car critics and stand-up comedians alike.

AMC Pacer

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 4, 1915
Automobile tycoon Henry Ford set sail for Europe on this day in 1915 from Hoboken, New Jersey, aboard the Ford Peace Ship. His mission: to end World War I. His slogan, "Out of the trenches and back to their homes by Christmas," won an enthusiastic response in the States, but didn't get very far overseas. Ford's diplomatic mission was not taken seriously in Europe, and he soon returned.

December 4, 1928
"Dapper Dan" Hogan, a St. Paul, Minnesota saloon keeper and mob boss, is killed on this day in 1928 when someone plants a car bomb under the floorboards of his new Paige coupe. Doctors worked all day to save him--according to the Morning Tribune, "racketeers, police characters, and business men" queued up at the hospital to donate blood to their ailing friend--but Hogan slipped into a coma and died at around 9 p.m. His murder is still unsolved.
As the newspaper reported the day after Hogan died, car bombs were "the newest form of bomb killing," a murderous technology perfected by New York gangsters and bootleggers. In fact, Hogan was one of the first people to die in a car bomb explosion. The police investigation revealed that two men had entered Dapper Dan's garage early in the morning of December 4, planted a nitroglycerine explosive in the car's undercarriage, and wired it to the starter. When Hogan pressed his foot to that pedal, the bomb went off, nearly severing his right leg. He died from blood loss.
The first real car bomb--or, in this case, horse-drawn-wagon bomb--exploded on September 16, 1920 outside the J.P. Morgan Company's offices in New York City's financial district. Italian anarchist Mario Buda had planted it there, hoping to kill Morgan himself; as it happened, the robber baron was out of town, but 40 other people died and about 200 were wounded in the blast. There were occasional car-bomb attacks after that--most notably in Saigon in 1952, Algiers in 1962, and Palermo in 1963--but vehicle weapons remained relatively uncommon until the 1970s and 80s, when they became the terrifying trademark of groups like the Irish Republican Army and Hezbollah. In 1995, right-wing terrorists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols used a bomb hidden in a Ryder truck to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.


December 4, 1971
General Motors recalled 6,700,000 vehicles that were vulnerable to motor mount failure. It was the largest voluntary safety recall in the industry's history.

December 4, 1984
General Motors (GM) announced that it would stop production of diesel engines. According to GM, diesel motors get excellent mileage and produce plenty of power, but tend to be noisy and produce heavy exhaust. Tightening emissions laws drove GM to abandon diesels altogether.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 5, 1932
The first Ford Model C automobile was introduced on this day in 1932. It boasted the first four-cylinder engine made by Ford with a counter-balanced crankshaft. The Model C was largely eclipsed, however, by Ford's other 1932 offering: the Ford V-8. The V-8 was the first eight-cylinder Ford automobile, and boasted the first V-8 engine block ever cast in a single piece. The V-8 sold well, but Ford's fortunes had fallen from their peak. The one-time industry giant was trailing General Motors and Chrysler in sales.

December 5, 1951
Parking Services Inc. openedfirst push button-controlled Park-O-Mat garage opened in Washington, DC (open building with 16 floors and 2 basement levels); no ramps, no aisles and no lanes; used a "vehicle parking apparatus" such that single attendant, without entering a car, could automatically park or return an auto in less than a minute; two elevators parked 72 cars on a lot 25 by 40 feet.

December 5, 1977
The Plymouth Horizon was introduced on this day. It was the first American-made small car with front-wheel drive. Technical advances in drive technology had reduced the size and cost of front-wheel drive systems.

Ford Model C

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 6, 1955
On this day in 1955, the US Federal government standardized the size of license plates throughout the U.S. Previously, individual states had designed their own license plates, resulting in wide variations.

December 6, 1955
Volkswagenwerk G.M.B.H. Corporation, Wolfsburg, Germany, registered "Volkswagen" trademark.

December 6, 1976
On December 6, 1976, the professional stuntwoman Kitty O'Neil sets the land-speed record for female drivers at the Alvord Desert in southeastern Oregon. The record hovered around 400 mph; O'Neil's two-way average speed was 512.710 mph. The rules that govern land-speed records require that a driver make two passes across a measured course, one out and one back; officials then average the two speeds. Observers reported that O'Neil's car actually reached a top speed of more than 618 miles per hour on her first pass, but she ran out of fuel and had to coast to the end of the course.
O'Neil's bravery was wide-ranging: She was born deaf; became a champion three-meter and platform diver whose Olympic aspirations were dashed by a bout of spinal meningitis that doctors said would permanently paralyze her; and survived two grueling sets of cancer treatment, all before her 28th birthday. In 1976, she became a Hollywood stuntwoman and was featured in TV shows like "Quincy," "Baretta" and "The Bionic Woman" and movies like "Smokey and the Bandit," "The Blues Brothers" and "Airport '77." When she took her shot at the land-speed record, she already held the record for the highest stunt fall by a woman (105 feet).
Through her husband, a stunt performer himself, O'Neil met Bill Fredrick, a jet-car builder who had just put the finishing touches on a hydrogen-peroxide–fueled machine called the "Motivator" and was looking for a driver who could make it famous. So, in early December 1976, O'Neil found herself squeezed into the tiny three-wheeled rocket car on Oregon's alkali flats. (Alkali flats, or salt flats, are dry lakebeds whose smooth, hard surfaces are perfect for driving low-slung cars very, very fast. For this reason, people pursuing land-speed records often travel to places like Alvord, the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah and Nevada's Black Rock Desert.) On each of her practice runs, O'Neil pushed the car up to speed with ease, and when she officially broke the record, she was still only using 60 percent of the Motivator's power. "There is no doubt," Sports Illustrated reported, "that by dialing in more power...Kitty would have gone still faster"--past the overall land-speed record (638.388 mph, set by Californian Gary Gabelich in 1970) and maybe even past the sonic barrier.
But dialing in more power was not an option for O'Neil: under her contract, she was only permitted to drive the "Motivator" to a new women's record. The movie director Hal Needham had paid $25,000 for the chance to steer the car to a new overall world record, and he was determined not to lose that chance to a woman. So, after O'Neil set her record, Needham rather unceremoniously demanded that she be pulled from the drivers' seat. (His spokesman even told reporters that it would be "degrading" for a woman to hold the "man's" record.) While the lawyers squabbled, it began to snow, and Alvord was closed for the season. Needham never even got behind the wheel.

Kitty O'Neil

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[Landrover]

December 7, 1931
The last Ford Model A was produced on this day. The Ford motor works were then shut down for six months for retooling. On April 1, 1932, Ford introduced its new offering, the high-performance Ford V-8, the first Ford with an 8-cylinder engine.

December 7, 1965
Chevrolet produced its 3,000,000th car for the year. It was the first time Chevrolet had produced an annual total surpassing 3,000,000 vehicles.

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

 

[jalex]

November 30, 1960
On this day, the first Scout all-terrain vehicle rolled off the assembly line at International Harvester's Fort Wayne plant. The history of International Harvester dates back to the early 1800s, when the company sold Cyrus McCormick's mechanical reaper. Around the turn of the century, the company took the name of International Harvester (IH), and, in 1907, produced the Auto Buggy, an early motorized truck marketed to farmers. During the next few decades, IH specialized in industrial vehicles and agricultural machinery. During the 1950s, IH truck production flourished with the rapid emergence of interstate highways. In 1959, IH began work on a new 4x4 utility vehicle, which would be offered to the average American as an alternative to the popular Jeep vehicle. Designed by Ted Ornas, the first Scout was introduced to the public as a versatile, affordable vehicle for both passenger and cargo transport. It was available in both two- and four-wheel drive and featured a four-cylinder engine, with three-speed, floor-mounted transmission. The Scout became the best-selling vehicle in IH history, enjoying a full 10 years of production before being replaced by the improved Scout II in 1971.

International Harvestor Scout 80
View attachment 13538

Source:
The History Channel
Wikipedia​

I love that Scout. Looks neat but Macho without being too loud. An SUV for the gentleman planter.