This Day In Automotive History

[SirAlec]

April 17 1964
Ford Mustang was unveiled on the very first day of World Fair in New York.
Mustang was the brainchild of Lee Iacocca and his team of engineers. It was so well marketted that it became Ford's best seller then.

For more info:
First-generation Ford Mustang - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



PS: Just started this thread to keep track of automotive history timeline. bhpians please contribute, mods please keep track of descrepencies, ALso please move to proper heading, if this is out of place.

[SirAlec]

April 18th, 1882
Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach reached an agreement to work towards the creation of a high-speed internal combustion engine. Daimler had purchased a house with 75k goldmark from his Deutz compensation. In its garden they added a brick extension to the roomy glass-fronted summerhouse which became their workshop.Working in Daimler's greenhouse, the two men finished their first gas-powered engine in 1883. Four years later the two men achieved a major breakthrough when they constructed the first water-cooled, gas-powered internal combustion engine. Their activities alarmed the neighbours who suspected they were engaged in counterfeiting and, in their absence, the police raided the property using the gardener's key, but found only engines.

18th April 1906
Sunset Automobile Company, a startup company in San Francisco was totally destroyed by fire. Production of the Sunset never resumed, and the firm was legally dissolved in 1909. Throughout the history of American automobile production no company ever succeeded on the West Coast. they developed one of the most silent engine of that time.

18th April, 1949
18 times Nascar winner Geoff Bodine was born.

[SirAlec]

19th April, 1955
Volkswagen of America, Inc. was established in Engelwood, New Jersey. Also 1955 was a banner year for Volkswagen as the company produced its 1 millionth car and exceeded, for the first time, the production benchmark of 1,000 cars per day on average. Less than five years after that the VW Bug had almost single-handedly ended the years of "virtual monopoly" that Detroit Big Three had previously enjoyed.

April 19, 1962
Two time Indianapoli 500 winner Alfred Unser, Jr. was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, He was famously known as "Little Al" and the Unser family has a history of Indianapolis wins.
He also has video games on nintendo & PC named after him.

[SirAlec]

20th April 1925
Pete Depaolo, wins his first Indy 500 in cluver city, California for Dusenberg family averaging an impressive 135mph.

20th April 1927
Phil Hill, american F1 racer was born in Miami Florida, He won the 1961 F1 championship racing for Scuderia ferari, driving the famous 'sharknose' Ferari 156

20th April 1931
Matilda Dodge Wilson, the widow of John Dodge, was named to the board of the Graham-Paige Motors Corporation, becoming the first woman to sit on the board of a major auto-manufacturer. Graham-Paige was founded by the Graham brothers, whose initial car-making endeavor, Graham Brothers Truck Company, had been purchased by Dodge in 1926.

20th April 1946
Gordon Smiley, another Indy 500 racer was born. Though he raced twiced in 1980,81 in Indy500 but never won. He tragically died during qualifying run in 1982 Indy500, and to date is the last driver ever to die during qualifying run.

20th April 2003
Dajiro Kato, Japanese MotoGP racer died at Suzuka, crashing hard at 125mph to a wall at final chicane of the circuit.

Source:
History Channel
Wikipedia
Club Hemmings

[SirAlec]

April 21, 1985
The legendary Ayrton Senna won his first of 41 F1 Championship victories driving a Lotus-Renault at the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril.

Source:
History Channel
Wikipedia
Club Hemmings

[SirAlec]

April 22nd, 1970
Earth day was celebrated for the first time.

[Technocrat]

How is this related to Automotive world ?

[RPMPKDMFF]

Originally Posted by SirAlec

April 22nd, 1970
Earth day was celebrated for the first time.

Originally Posted by Technocrat

How is this related to Automotive world ?

Techno, I was thinking the same but when I checked on History.com, turns out that Earth Day is listed under the Automotive section... wonder why...

[SirAlec]

Originally Posted by Technocrat

How is this related to Automotive world ?

Its not but I had nothing to post today. Also there were no births or deaths of people related to autos. hence I posted it.

Yeah history channel also posted the same in automotive section, maybe cars around the world are one of the anti environment thingy.

[SirAlec]

23rd April 1987
Chrysler purchased Lamborgini from Mimran brother who were trying very hard to float it after its bankruptcy in 1978, due to oil crisis that plagued sale of high performance cars like these.
After Chrysler's own hardship it was bought by an Indonesian investment congolomerate headed by then President's Son (Megatech). So TATA is not the first Asian auto-major to own top European Brand. Unable to turn the company into a profitable one, they put it for sale, And Audi the present owner found interest in it and bought it in the late 90s.

April 23 1992
Smithsonian Museum bought one of Miller 91 Packard Cable Special Car. Harry Miller was one of very famous race car builer of his times. Cars and engines built by him won Indy500 12 times which was then dominated by Dusenberg family. This car bought was one of 12 racing cars built by Harry A. Miller. Its 1500cc supercharged V8 rated at 230 horsepower drives front wheel. Strangely it weighted only 108kgs. This particular car was driven by Ralph Hepburn in the 1929 Indianapolis 500 and set speed records of 143mph. In 1991 the car also won two of the most rigorous antique auto competitions in the world: the Pebble Beach Concours in California and the Bagatelle Concours Paris.

Source:
History Channel
Wikipedia
Club Hemmings
Smithsonian Institute
Milleroffy
Discovery
Leydon Restorations

[SirAlec]

24th April 1983
Rolf Stommelen, a German race car driver fatally crashed in his porsche 935 while racing in Camel GT trophy on Riverside Raceway, California.
He was one of the best race car drivers of the '60s and '70s, He won the Daytona 4 times and the pole position for the 1969 Le Mans in a Porsche 917, during which he became the first person to reach speeds exceeding 350 km/h. In 1970, he made his Formula One debut with Brabham and raced both sportscars and F1 throughout the 1970s.
Unfortunately, he is also remembered for killing 5 spectators when he crashed his car, Embassy-Hill- Lola during the 1975 season Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona.


24th April 1995
After producing about 6939 cars Lotus tuned Chevy Corvette ZR1's production was ceased. The heart of this car was lotus built LT5 V8 engine, which had a very unique intake manifold. It had 4 valves per cylinder and 4 camshaft to control them. It could shut off half of the intake valves and fuel injectors when the engine was at part-throttle, It was rated at 375bhp-405bhp in later models. There is also the news that Chevy is going to revive ZR1 in 2009, spy pictures of which are all over the www.

Source:
History Channel
Wikipedia
Drag Times
Chevrolet
Jalopnik

[SirAlec]

25th Apriil 1901
Registration of vehicle which is today mandatory for all vehicle first started on this day in the state of New York. The fee to register the vehicle was $1. Total registration fees collected amounted $954 for very first year.

25th April 1926
Alfieri Maserati's first car, the Tipo 26, made its racing debut by winning its class at the Targa Florio. Alfieri Maserati drove the car himself.

25th April 1956
The legendary Mario Andretti, raced for the first time and winning driving his own '48Hudson at Nazareth Speedway.

[SirAlec]

Pierce Arrow purchased 16 acre of land to create its new manufacturing unit. The factory that was constructed on it was of reinforced concrete and was absolutely fireproof. Albert Kahn, the architect of the factory, achieved a breakthrough with his single story, top-lit modular design. With its uniform lighting and physical flexibility, it rapidly became the prototype for American factory design, particularly in the emerging motor industry.

Pierce was the only luxury brand that did not created a lower price car. Its cars are collectors item world over.

Source:
The History Channel
buffaloah.com
Wikipedia

[theMAG]

April 27, 2005: Airbus A380 makes its first flight from Toulouse, France

April 27, 1989: Mandatory seatbelt law goes into effect in Italy.

PS: Great thread.

[SirAlec]

28th APril 1916
Legendary Ferruccio Lamborghini was born in a small Itallian village called Renazzo. His interest in automobile began early, modding and racing his souped up Fiat Topolino. His racing career ended when he crashed his fiat in Milli Migelia.
After the WWII he acheived great success manufacturing tractors and airconditioners. Race became his passion and collecting race cars became his hobby, including bunch of Ferraris.
Lamborgini jumped into making sports cars after a very ironic situation when he went to Enzo to advice on Ferarri's clutch issue. Enzo insulted him by saying that he doesn't need any advice from a tractor maker.
In order to achieve his goal, he hired ex-Ferrari engineers Gianpaolo Dallara and Bob Wallace to design and develop his own sports cars. The output was outstanding mid engined beauty like Lambo 350gt and Muira, which were way ahead of its time

28th April 1939
Powel Crosely, an American industrilaist produces first American compact car. Initialy it was offered as a two-door convertible that weighed just 450 kg and sold for $250. It was powered by a 580cc 2 cylinder air cooled engine. It was mated with a 3speed gearbox The chassis had an 80-inch wheelbase, half elliptic springs with beam axle in front and quarter elliptics in the rear.
Later many body style were released viz., four-passenger convertibles, a convertible sedan, a station wagon, a panel truck , a pickup , and two models called "Parkway Delivery" (a mini-panel with no roof over the front seat) and "Covered Wagon" (a convertible picion wagonkup truck with a removable back seat).

Source:
The History Channel
croselyclub.com
Wikipedia