These Are Your Favorite Bits of Automotive Trivia

Motorola is a portmanteau of motor and Victrola because their first product was a record player for your car.

Submitted by: Slow Joe Crow

WWII production also makes for some interesting stuff. General Motors made more Grumman Wildcat fighters and Avenger bombers than Grumman. Ford made B24 bombers at Willow Run. Buick developed the M18 Hellcat tank destroyer, and M5 light tanks used Cadillac engines. GM also made gus, lots of guns. The M3 submachine gun was designed and made by Guide Lamp Division, Saginaw made M1 carbines and Inland made M1 carbines and .50 caliber machine gun parts. Toyo Kogyo (Mazda) also made rifles in WWII. International Harvester made M1 rifles and refrigerators.

Also submitted by: Slow Joe Crow

The Chrysler Multi-bank 30-cylinder engine is my absolute favorite from WWII.

and

Yeah, so enormous it required an extended rear hull on M3 and M4 tank chassis. The other four engines all fit in the original space. (for reference Continental gasoline radial Caterpillar/Guiberson diesel radial, both based on Curtiss Wright designs, the Ford GAA gas V8 and the twin GM 6-71 I-6 diesels on a common crankcase)

Submitted by dustynnguyendood and Slow Joe Crow

The last new car sold in the US with a carburetor was the 1993 Subaru Justy with the 1.2l 3-cylinder engine.

Submitted by Earthbound Misfit I

The last car sold in the US with a factory cassette player was a Lexus SC430. 

(A minor disagreement broke out in the comments regarding this fact, but Slow Joe Crow is the winner. According to the New York Times, it was the Lexus that last received a factory cassette player back in 2010.)

Chrysler made hemi powered air raid sirens.

We actually wrote about this one! It remains my preferred mode of death in a nuclear exchange.

Submitted by the great Slow Joe Crow, others.

Thomas Midgley, Jr. invented leaded gasoline for GM and Standard Oil and then chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s) also for GM. Easily two of the most destructive inventions of all time.

Submitted by Theoretics

I also like that Honda NR engine has 8 connecting rods but only 4 cylinders.

and

Titanium to boot! Super fancy. Even in Japan if you found an NR these days it would run you somewhere in the neighborhood of $100,000++ USD

Submitted by Theoretics, waruta.

I like the story of Elsinore:

HOnda was big into motorcycle racing in the 60s and 70s; however, in the early 70s, the two-strokes started kicking butt over the four-stroke bikes. Mr. Honda, being a four-stroke kind of dude, insisted his company stick with four-stroke engines. Unbeknownst to him, a small team of engineers secretly developed a two-stroke motor. When Mr. Honda found out, he was livid, but said “if we’re going to do it, let’s do it right” (paraphrasing here!).

The new two-stroke bike was named Elsinore. It changed offroad motorcycling forever.

It’s just funny how Honda just dabbles in little projects here and there and excels. Like the CVCC 350 Chevy that GM said was impossible. Or the 100+ mph lawn mower. Or the afterthought pickup truck (Ridgeline) that does most truck stuff better than the competition.

At the same time, their mass market vehicles are very frustrating, in that they are two or three tiny steps from perfection, but the company refuses to take those steps.

Funny company...

and

Honda had absolutely no idea what they were doing, trying to make an emissions efficient car, and somehow came up with the CVCC, which was so good, it didn’t even need a catalytic converter!

Submitted by Grasscatcher2 and Knyte

Don’t forget the Hondajet, which gained efficiency by putting the engines on top of the wings. It wasn’t the first plane to put the engines there, but it was the first plane that got more efficient by doing it.

Of course, I think it’s funny that they built a jet at all. It’s not like Gulfstream dabbles in sedans just for fun.

Submitted by iska2000

Back in the day when Pininfarina was Ferrari’s go-to design house, they built numerous semi-official limited runs of heavily modified or basically brand new Ferrari models, famously for the members of Brunei monarchy, such as the 456GT Venice wagon and convertible. The crown jewel of these project was the FX supercar, which was loosely based on the F512 M, but so heavily modified that it came equipped with a Williams F1 transmission unit during a time when Ferrari was regularly getting beaten by Williams in the constructor championship. Surprised that Ferrari didn’t end its relationship with Pininfarina right then and there. (Ferrari supposedly blacklisted its once-preferred customer James Glickenhaus who tried to build an unauthorized racing version of the Pininfarina-built P4/5 one-off. Hell, Ferrari apparently did the same for customers painting their Ferraris pink.)

and

We could have an entire QOTD thread just about the weird shit Ferrari does that only Ferrari could get away with.

Submitted by Pessimippopotamus and ghost650

There were no 1960 Edsels produced in calendar year 1960

Production of the 1960 Edsel began on September 14, 1959 and ended November 19, 1959

Total Production for all 1960 models: 2,846

and

This is true of 1994 Saab 900 convertibles as well. They were all built in 1993. The requirement for a passenger side airbag took effect for cars produced on or after 1/1/1994. The NG900 convertible was not going to be ready until 1995, so Saab ramped up production of the old car in 1993 so they would still have convertibles to sell in the meantime. Other than convertibles, 1993 was the last model year for the original Saab 900. 30 years ago - how the heck did THAT happen?

That passenger airbag requirement was the death knell for a bunch of cars in the US, combined with the recession of the time nuking expensive car sales.

Submitted by Earthbound Misfit I and krhodes1

In the 1970's, the North Korean government purchased a large amount of goods from Sweden, such as heavy machinery, and it included 1000 Volvo 144s. North Korea never paid for any of this, and sends twice yearly reminders to the North Korean government that they still haven’t paid their bills.

You could also still occasionally see Volvos running around until the early 2010s.

Submitted by Anscoflex-II

Pablo Escobar raced in the local Copa Renault 4 in the mid-seventies driving a clearly irregular Quatrelle, but no one had the guts to question his performance. That was one of his first forays into racing, but early in his career as a drug trafficker he was conducting his business in a Renault 4 and was allegedly a Quatrelle aficionado throughout his life.

Submitted by Comment Box Sanitation Dept. - never sticks to cars

This is getting less well known as push button starters take over, but the “you opened the door with the key in the ignition” warning alarm in Hondas is 4 short beeps, which is Morse code for H.

Submitted by iska2000

The first automotive recall in US history was due to Henry Ford stuffing the Model T seats with Spanish moss.

Chiggers and all.

Submitted by dug deep