Oldsmobile
Brief History
In 1895, Ransom Olds, a manufacturer of stationary gasoline engines, teamed up with Frank Clark, the son of a small carriage shop operator, to achieve what many believed impossible. They successfully produced a self contained, gasoline- powered carriage. Hoping to capitalize on the innovation, R.E. Olds and a group of Lansing businessmen invested $50,000 to create the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in 1897. At the first board meeting, Olds was named general manager, and the mission was set "to build one carriage in as nearly perfect a manner as possible."
In 1899, Olds moved to Detroit and the Olds Motor Vehicle Company became the Olds Motor Works. Olds built a new plant on the banks of the Detroit River, the first designed specifically to produce automobiles, and retained the Lansing facility as an engine plant. After the move to Detroit, the company developed the Oldsmobile curved dash runabout. It had a 66-inch wheelbase and was powered by a single-cylinder gasoline engine which developed seven horsepower and “one chug per telegraph pole,” as the wags put it. The curved dash, the first car to carry the nameplate “Oldsmobile,” spurred the small company into the forefront of the American automotive scene. Olds sold 425 cars in 1901, 2,500 in 1902, 4,000 in 1903 and a staggering 5,508 in 1904; the Olds Motor Works (which by this time was back in Lansing) was selling more cars than anyone in America had ever sold before. A large number were being exported as well, some finding their way to the royal houses of England and Italy, even to the Middle East and Russia.
The Olds Motor Works in 1908 became part of a fledging corporation called General Motors, whose chief asset at the time was Buick Motor Company. Olds under General Motors continued to flourish, with production rising to nearly 8,000 cars in 1915. During World War I, Oldsmobile built mobile kitchen vans for the army and had just completed a plant for manufacturing Liberty aircraft engines when the war ended.
The post-war economic boom of the Roaring Twenties pushed Olds to nearly 45,000
cars in 1925-the same year that Oldsmobile pioneered the use of chromium-plated trim on automobiles. Though the lean years of the Depression affected Oldsmobile along with all other manufacturers, sales of new Oldsmobiles reached a record 183,000 units in 1935. (Also the year that the 1-millionth Oldsmobile was built.) The first fully automatic transmission offered for volume production, the Hydra-Matic, was pioneered by Oldsmobile for the 1939 model year. This important advance contributed to strong sales which saw the 2-millionth Oldsmobile built in 1941.
On January 1, 1942, the Olds Motor Works officially became Oldsmobile Division of General Motors Corporation; within two months, the last Oldsmobile passenger car had been built and Oldsmobile was converting to the production of artillery ammuntion, machine guns and tank cannon, high-precision aircraft engine parts and forgings for military guns and vehicles.
Several important milestones occurred after World War II, chief among them the introduction of the first high-compression, overhead valve V-8 engine- the Oldsmobile Rocket engine. Other milestones through the 1950’s were the introduction of air conditioning and power brakes on 1953 Oldsmobiles; the building of the 5 millionth Olds in 1955; the “Trans-Portable” radio in 1958 (when you left the car, you could take the radio with you); the “Econo-o-Way” carburetor in 1958 and a split choke system in 1959, both for improved fuel economy.
In 1960, Oldsmobile introduced its first import fighter- the compact F-85. Rated by
Motor Trend magazine at 18 miles to the gallon on the highway, the F-85s were aimed at people who were put off by the austerity of most imports then available but who like the idea of a small car with good economy. In 1962, Oldsmobile introduced the sport F-85 cutlass series (the first use of the popular Cutlass nameplate) and the turbo-supercharged F-85 Jetfire.
One of the biggest innovations of the decade was the introduction of front-wheel-driveon the 1966 Toronado. Though it struck many observers as strange that a volume manufacturer like Oldsmobile would bother with something as chancy and unusual as front wheel drive on a large American car, it allowed Oldsmobile to accomplish some long-sought objectives a flat floor for more room and comfort, and a chassis/drivetrain arrangement which would provide standards of handling and traction unknown in cars of this size.
The ‘60s were also the decade of the “muscle car” and Oldsmobile responded with the 4-4-2(400 cubic inch engine, 4-barrel carburetor, and 2 exhaust pipes), the Hurst Olds, and “Dr. Oldsmobile’s W-Machines”- the W-30, W-31, and W-32, some very respectable performance cars.
