Hydraulic brakes weren’t offered until 1939 and independent front suspension until 1948, over a decade after having been adopted by most American cars.

1959 Ford Thunderbird © exfordy/flickr.com

Attempts were made to offer a smaller and cheaper V8 with 137ci (2245cc) and a 227ci (3720cc) straight-six but neither was successful.

In 1943 Edsel Ford had dies of cancer and Henry Ford, being in his 80th year, took over again. That meant a growing empire with little leadership or financial control. In the late 1945 things began to change though when Henry Ford II, fresh out of the navy, took over as president. He even brought a group of high-flying business brains from the air force and business became profitable again.

For the cars the only improvement in 1945 was a larger version of the V8, now with 240ci (3933cc). The new Fords weren’t launched before 1948. The new cars did not only have a new styling but also independent front suspension. To keep up with the other car manufacturers a new overhead-valve V8 engine was also needed. It didn’t arrive until 1954 though.

In 1955 the Ford Thunderbird was launched and became the most exciting car for that year. It had a standard V8, manual transmission and wind-up windows which made the Thunderbird a more complete car than the Chevrolet Corvette. It was named a ‘personal car’ by Ford and had a pretty good performance thanks to the 198bhp V8.
The Thunderbird outsold the Corvette by huge numbers and even the 1958 four-seater was more popular than the Corvette.

During those seven months Chevrolet took over Ford and thousands of Ford stuff lost their jobs. But hardly anybody cared in the end as this was the first new Ford for nearly 20 years.
It caused such excitement outside the Ford showrooms in Cleveland that police had to be called to control the crowds.

930 Ford Model A © Collector Car Ads/flickr.com

The elegant little Model A was influenced by the Lincoln and for sure an improvement. It had been extended to 18 styles within a couple of years and the estate car launched in 1929 was quickly copied by other manufacturers.
The 202ci (3310 cc) four-cylinder engine produced 40bhp and the transmission was changed to a conventional three-speed sliding gear unit and the car by now also had four brakes.

Half a million cars were ordered before the car was launched and in 1929 1.3 million were sold. But Ford was still affected by the Depression and sales in 1931 dropped to less than for 1929. Tens of thousands of workers lost their jobs and factories were temporarily closed. Besides that the Model A was soon suffering the effects of competition from the Chevrolet six.

Fords answer to that was the 1932 Model 18 with a 22ci (3638cc) eight-cylinder engine producing 65bhp and a top speed of more than 80mph. It was equipped with mechanical drum brakes and transverse leaf suspension. The engine inspired a whole generation of hot rodders and would see Ford right through the 1930s.
The half-hearted attempt to make a four-cylinder Model 18 was dropped after only seven months as the American public seemed to have outgrown fours.

The Model AC had a larger engine than the original, the Model C had a front hood and a vertical radiator and the Model B at last was totally different as it reflected Alexander Malcomson’s ambition for a larger, more expensive car. It was a four-cylinder tourer with a 285ci (4670cc) engine. Henry Ford didn’t like the car at all as he wanted to build as many cheap cars as possible. The problems between Malcomson and Ford could only be solved by Henry elbowing his partner out of the company.

1923 Ford Model T © bsabarnowl/flickr.com

By 1906 100 cars were produced per day in the new factory on Piquette Avenue, Detroit. There were still three models on offer with the Model F being the final development of the Model C. The future though was lying in the Model N, because despite of having a 150ci (2458cc) four-cylinder engine it was not even half the price of the F. The big Model K with its six-cylinder engine was an expensive luxury car that again didn’t accord with Henry Ford’s ambitions. It was a hangover from the Malcomson days and Ford had to make the dealers take one for every ten of the Model Ns they ordered. In two years less than 600 Model Ks were sold.

The Models R and S were again keeping up more with Ford’s philosophy.

But all of these were dropped in October 1908 when the new car was launched – the Model T. It rather conventionally really, even though the new 178ci (2917cc) four-cylinder engine had a detachable cylinder head. But the very same two-speed epicyclical transmission was used as in every other model. A choice of different body styles, from a two-seater runabout to a seven-seater town car was available, and the Model T soon proved to be the most popular Ford yet.

Even though Henry Ford wasn’t the sole owner of his company, he was in full control and the ace up his sleeve was the new factory at Highland Park, outside Detroit. From August 1913 the Model T was produced there on moving assembly lines. Productivity boosted dramatically and the costs went down. In 1913 over 200,000 cars were built. In 1914 it was 300,000 cars and two years on even 738,811.

A result of the savings being made due to this mass-production, Ford was able to double the workers’ wages and the famous ‘Five Dollar Day’ gave Henry ford huge publicity. Crowds of job-seekers came to Detroit to work at the Highland Park plant even though the work was pretty hard as the pace of work was now dictated by the speed of the assembly line.

The cars also got cheaper of course. By 1915 the Model T tourer was only $440. The best year for the Ford Model T was in 1923 with over 1.8 million built and in 1924 it only cost $260. But even though in the early days people were happy to buy any car as long as it was cheap, customers became more demanding and now demanded four-wheel brakes, six-cylinder engines and a choice of different colours. So even Henry Ford had to admit that the Model T could not last forever and production was stopped in May 1927.

Ford was a more or less typical self-made man with a dominant and even autocratic character, maintaining a tight grip on his industrial empire right into his 80s. And even though General Motors became a bigger corporation, hardly anybody today has ever heard of its founder William C Durant. Henry Ford though is a household name throughout the world. A reason for this probably is the fact that the industrial dynasty has maintained the family name to this day. After having been assisted by his son Edsel, Henry Ford was succeeded by his grandson and today’s head of the company is William Clay Jr. a forth-generation Ford.

Ford Model A © LaertesCTB/flickr.com

Born in 1863, Henry Ford was the son of a farmer, fleeing the potato famine in Ireland, and grew up on a farm in Dearborn, Michigan. Henry Ford had no ambition to take over the family farm as the sight of a steam traction engine at young age encouraged his natural aptitude for mechanical things. From school he went straight to a machine shop in Detroit and later became chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Co.

Unlike his fellow pioneers who were still pretty young, Henry Ford already was in his 30s when he built his first car and 40 when finally settling down to series production.

He built his first car, a quadricycle with a simple two-cylinder engine driving through a two-speed epicylical transmission and chain drive in a workshop behind his house. In the end Ford had to use a sledgehammer to get it out there as is was too big for the door.
The car being capable of 20mph was soon sold and Henry Ford started to build a more sophisticated version. He had a proper financial backing and the car could have gone into production. But the newly founded Detroit Automobile Co. flopped as Ford fell out with his backers.

The Henry Ford Company followed and the famous 999 built there broke several records. Even Henry Ford himself drove it to 91.37mph on frozen Lake St Clair. But once again disagreements with his backers ended the cooperation.

In 1903 Alexander Young Malcomson agreed to finance Henry’s third company and this was the breakthrough. Another simple chain driven car was built which was very similar to a Cadillac recently built by the Henry Ford Co. Hardly surprising as both cars were designed by Henry Ford. Even though the Model A was a car made of bought-in parts, it was a success and 670 cars were sold over the next 15 months.

It was the time of the estate cars and in 1941 the first Chrysler estate car, being partly of wooden construction was launched. This ‘Town & Country’ look was after the war extended to the saloons and convertibles too.

Chrysler New Yorker © sahlgoode/flickr.com

The Chrysler models of the late 1930s and early 1940s – such as the six-cylinder Windsor or eight-cylinder New Yorker – were still built after the Second World War, but completely restyled in 1949.

After 25 years of straight-six and straight-eight engines in 1951 the new generation of ohv V8s came on the market. They were called ‘hemi’ because of the hemispherical combustion chambers allowing big valves and good breathing. In 1955 the hemi produced 300bhp and up to 500bhp in the 1960s.

The horsepower race of the 1950s, usually led by Chrysler, was started by the 333ci (5457cc) engine. This was also clearly reflected by the new Chrysler 300 of 1955. The car was a two-door hardtop based on the New Yorker and was equipped with a 300bhp hemi. The 1962 300H offered 405bhp and a top speed of 135mph (217 km/h). Even though the Chrysler 300s never sold in very large numbers they did a lot for Chrysler’s reputation.

But in the 1970 Chrysler too was forced to follow the new trend of downsizing. One of the cars built at that time was the Chrysler Cordoba with a 318ci (5211cc) V8 and a 115in (2.9 m) wheelbase. This car was the company’s best seller in 1975.

After the long period of nearly 20 years the sales figures of 1927 were exceeded and Chrysler usually was placed outside the top ten U.S. marques. The post-war production saw alternating periods of good and poor sales and in the late 1970s the company was close to bankruptcy.

The 1920 were pretty good times though and in 1928 Chrysler took over Dodge to give it a place in the intermediate market. The newly launched Plymouth was able to compete with Chevrolet and Ford.

1934 Chrysler Airflow © dok1/flickr.com

In 1931 straight-eight engines of 242ci (3966cc), 262ci (4293 cc), 284ci (4654cc) und 387ci (6342cc) were added to the range. The latter was used by the new Series CG Imperial and offered 125bhp. That was enough for a top speed of 95mph (153km/h) as long as one of the lighter body options was chosen. There was a great variety of factory and Le Baron semi-custom styles available. But even though the straight-eight Imperial was able to compete with a Lincoln or Cadillac, it wasn’t a good time for luxury saloons and not many cars were sold.

But as Chrysler so far had not produced any milestone car, it was time to design one. It is said that Carl Breer, one of the young designers Walter Chrysler had brought in from Willys, one day saw a group of fighter planes that were so streamlined that they resembled geese. He thought that a streamlined car would not only look good but also slip through the air very efficiently. After six years of experimentation the Chrysler Airflow was launched in 1934. It was a streamlined monocoque construction and to have a better weight distribution the passengers were moved forward and seated within the wheelbase. This guaranteed better handling and superior ride quality.

But even though the car was a great step forward it seemed to be too radical for the customers and only a little over 11,000 were sold in the first year. A milder version named Airstream was launched in 1935 but sales kept dropping and after three years production ceased. But the Airstream’s influence on car design had been of great importance.

The fact that he didn’t built cars that bore his name before 1924 had nothing to do with him being inexperienced. At that time he was nearly 50 and had not only worked for General Motors but also for Willys-Overland. From the latter he even got a million-dollar salary just to join in. And as the troubleshooter that he was, he succeeded in cutting Willys debts in no time.

1930 Chrysler 70 © Pat Durkin-Orange County, CA/flickr.com

He was asked to do the same for Maxwell-Chalmers even before his contract was terminated and soon realized that Maxwell was in need of an up-to-date car. Therefor he bought tree young designers from Willys, who came up with the Chrysler 70 (not a Maxwell!) launched in 1924.

The car had a great performance from an advanced 203ci (3326cc) side-valve six and a top speed of 75mph (121 km/h). Nine different body styles were offered as well as hydraulic for-wheel brakes.
The car was a great success and in the first year 32,000 Chrysler 70s were sold. After Maxwell-Chalmers had become Chrysler even the smaller four-cylinder was renamed Chrysler 58. By 1926 both cars were improved. The new Model F-58 had a new four-cylinder engine with a capacity of 187ci (3064cc) and the 70’s six had a capacity of 220ci (3605cc).

A new Series I-80 was powered by a 290ci (4752cc) six.

Due to the large network of about 4000 Maxwell-Chalmers dealers, Chrysler could rise rapidly and in 1927 over 180,000 cars were sold. Chrysler became the seventh best-selling marque in the U.S. that year. But even though Chrysler soon became one of the Big Three, they always stayed in third place behind General Motors and Ford.

It was more successful with over 5,700 cars being sold in 1930/31. And besides the mass-produced Fisher body styles, the semi-coach-built Fleetwoods were still available.

In 1938 the V16 was renewed and equipped with a new monoblock engine which at 185bhp and a capacity of 433ci (7096 cc) was slightly more powerful than the original V16. It was not only Cadillac’s but the world’s final V16. In three years little more than 500 were sold.

The cars though that were really making profit were the V8s. In 1936 a new lightweight V8 was launched. It was available as 330ci (5408cc) in the Series 50 and 348ci (5703cc) in the Series 60/70. For the cars a choice of three mass-produced body styles available: sedan, coupé and convertible.

Even though they were totally different to the coach-built V16, they doubled Cadillac sales to over 25,000 in 1936. Throughout the 1930s Cadillac managed to update the cars regularly with features like hydraulic brakes, independent front suspension or all-steel bodies, and in the late 1930s Harley Earl’s protégé Bill Mitchell also changed the styling. The 60 Special Cadillac introduced in 1938 based on the Series 60 but had a longer and lower look. It was not only 3in (8 cm) lower but also had a 32 per cent larger area of glass.

Cadillac Series 61 © exfordy/flickr.com

Besides being Cadillac’s best-selling model, it also was style setting for most American cars in the late 1930s. And as this was not unnoticed by General Motors, the 61 in the following year used many of its styling features and shared its body shell with Pontiac, Oldsmobile, La Salle and Buick. In 1940 the La Salle and V16 operations had been dropped, the V12 had already died three years earlier.

The 60 Special, 61, 62, 63 and long-wheel based 75, all with V8 engines, were built until 1942 when Cadillac, as well as most of Detroit, ceased civilian production. When Cadillac resumed in 1946 it faced a backlog of demand and in that year over 66,000 cars were sold and as the order books were still full, it was clear that the company had to concentrate on production rather than innovation in the first post-war years. The pattern was set for the next three decades.

It was an all-in-one system using a dynamo as a starter motor and to charge the battery and supply lights and ignition with electricity. This was of course a great step forward in a world of hand-cranking and kerosene lamps and not surprisingly production made a great leap forward to over 12,000 cars in 1912 and over 17,000 in the following year.

But Cadillac already worked on the next innovation, and announced the first series production V8 for 1915. In the Cadillac Model 51 standardized parts were again used to build engines in large number. The 90° V8 of 316 ci produced 70bhp and a top speed of 65mph (105 km/h). The car was offered in a range of nine different body styles starting at about $2,000 and over the first year 13,000 V8s were sold.

Perhaps because of the departure of Henry Leland there were only few technical advances throughout the 1920s but at least the V8 got a power boost and produced 77bhp. The cars could maintain their position as some of the most powerful cars of their time. And Cadillac also offered bodywork from coach-builders such as Fleetwood or Judkins for the cars.

Cadillac 341 © flickr/Jorbasa

The new Series 341 Cadillacs were available either with mass-produced Fisher bodies or with coach-built Fleetwoods. The Fleetwoods were of course more expensive and you had a choice of 37 styles against a mere seven Fisher bodies. The 341 Cadillacs were named after the 341 ci V8 and sold alongside the smaller La Salles.
Despite higher prices the production rose from less than 20,000 in 1920 to over 56,000 in 1928. But Cadillac still wasn’t a mass-producer like Ford. It was a well established prestige American marque with relatively low production.

As a direct challenge to the aristocracy of American motoring in January 1930 the V16 was launched. To come up with such a car after the Wall Street crash was unfortunate but could not have been foreseen when Owen M. Nacker began to work on the engine in 1927. It were two V8s bolted together sharing a common crankshaft but with their very own fuel and exhaust system. The capacity of 455 ci and 165bhp was enough for a top speed of 90mph.

Both the Fleetwood roadster and the fully coach-built version by Murphy or Waterhouse were extraordinary cars for their time. In the first year 3,000 cars were sold but due to the Depression sales dropped to 364 in 1931. Until production end in 1940 the car didn’t sell too well.

Later that very year the Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing was taken over by the Cadillac Automobile Company and Leland became general manager.

Leland transferred the precision engineering and consisting production standards he valued to car production and in 1907 imported the ‘Jo Block’ gauges from Sweden. They were invented by Carl Edward Johannssen, ensuring that every component was identical. So no filing and fashioning of individual parts was necessary until they fitted, they could be simply bolted on. This of course not only speeded up production but also made up for more reliable cars.
Leland’s British importer, Frederick S. Bennett, demonstrated that in 1908 by completely dismantling three single-cylinder Cadillacs, mixing up the parts and reassembling them into three cars, which started and ran without a hitch.

Cadillac 1910 © wikipedia.org/DougW

In 1909 the singles were replaced by the four-cylinder Thirty, which was cheaper than the existing four and a big advance on the single. The engine measured 227 ci, which was enough to give the car a reasonable performance. A range of three body-styles was available. Of the well-engineered and affordable Thirty nearly 6,000 were sold in the first year.

Of course the success didn’t go unnoticed and Cadillac was acquired by William C. Durant in 1909. Henry Leland, assisted by his son, remained at the helm for a while but when war broke out in Europe in 1914 he wanted to produce aero engines but was overruled by Durant. As furious as he was he and his son resigned and started to make engines themselves. After the war the Lincoln Company went on to built luxury cars but was soon facing bankruptcy and was taken over by Ford. As that didn’t work very well Henry Leland and his son Wilfred left the company within months with Henry going into active retirement.