Great Cars: ORPHAN CARS

thousands of car companies were formed in the early part of the 20th century by the mid-1950s only a handful survived the independence days were numbered soon only the biggest would be left they struggled and tried to combine but it was impossible for most to compete but all these vanished companies left their mark and fans for their orphan cars [Music] every year hundreds of people bring their cars to Ypsilanti Michigan for one of the most unusual automotive events the orphaned car show usually quiet Riverside Park fills up with the reminders of cars and car companies that have vanished there are Packard's Corvairs and a few that redefined what a car could be I've got a 1957 I set a 300 sliding window coupe it's got a single cylinder air-cooled engine 13 horsepower four-speed you shifted on the left side top speed supposedly is 53 miles an hour and it gets 60 miles to the gallon the kids call it the Urkel mobile because they've seen it on Steve Urkel's car and family matters most of the adults don't know what it is unless they remember seeing one as a kid BMW was 50s era Isetta was not the only unusual car they were out machines from America to the cars the 1947 Crosley pickup and Crosby built cars from 1946 to 1952 the Crosley automobile was the brainchild of Powell crossly had already made his fortune as a radio and appliance manufacturer it's fun and you know it's something different I'm not a person that particularly likes Fords and Chevys I like something a little unusual having a taste for the unusual is a common theme with orphaned car owners very happy car in the sense of it has no no evil spirits in it as far as it makes you if you look at it other words it's very pleasing to look at it's funny it's a funny looking car the Kaiser thrill Kade delighted audiences in the 50s with its daredevil stunts seeing that one of the cars today can be a bit unnerving I stopped one time if they help somebody on the road the guy would get out of the car looked at me there's something weird about this guy [Applause] owning an orphan opens you up to a lot of questions about what you're driving well if you've never seen this car somehow they say what is it for respect but television it was Charlie and his tiny Studebaker commissioned noted designer Raymond Loewy to create cars like this one in the early 50s when they didn't sell Studebaker was headed for trouble the park was a field of dreams filled with the reminders of the glory days of the automobile business these cars brought back memories and put a smile on everyone's face everyone loves an underdog and there were plenty in this kennel of cars it was appropriate that Ypsilanti hosted this show it used to be called the end of the line because it once was the western terminus for the railroads the railroads no longer stopped in Ypsilanti but it's still the end of the line for people who love cars that have reached the end the flame is kept alive by one resident Jack Miller who's transformed his father's Hudson dealership into a shrine for these lost cars his dealership Museum takes us back to the days right after World War two when the independence had their last stand epsilon T was booming workers had poured into town to work at the nearby Willow Run bomber plant war production put money in everyone's pocket and created a skilled workforce [Music] after the war they all wanted to buy new cars pent-up demand was bursting and people wanted to get back to living the big car companies couldn't retool from war production quickly enough to satisfy the onslaught of buyers this created an opportunity for smaller more flexible companies to fill the void they could design and build a new car faster than the auto giants and with less expense Packard Studebaker Kaiser and Hudson rushed new cars out and beat the big three to market [Music] Jack Miller's father had no trouble selling all the Hudsons he could get by 1946 Miller's dealership was full of shiny new Hudson's Hudson's were special because they had very good performance it was considered a very good-looking car appealing car and up through the years Hudson was always recognized as being a high quality vehicle with a lot of performance potential the Hudson motor car company began with immortal 20 in 1909 one of the partners had married the niece of the owners of Detroit's Hudson's department stores and they backed this ambitious automotive venture JL Hudson were thanked by having a company named after him it was very competitive and scored a PR coup when it convinced America's aviatrix Amelia Earhart to christen their new Essex Terraplane in 1932 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] the Terraplane was rugged and fast this was the value leader for the company during the 1930s it set 46 speed and endurance records and helped to establish Hudson's performance reputation [Music] by the 1950s if new Hornet had become the car of choice for hot rodders and stock car races in the fifties the Hudson was king of stock car racing just absolutely dominated it not because it was the very fastest but it had a combination of excellent Road ability with its low center of gravity the step-down design where you was the first car he actually stepped down into and of course in combination with the the six-cylinder engine 308 cubic inches which was probably the largest at that time of anything even a truck engine and the availability of the the dual carburetors it was just an unbeatable combination [Music] herb Thomas and his fabulous Hudson Hornet was the Dale Earnhardt of his day stock car racing was an exciting grassroots sport that sprang from bootleggers needs to outrun the law stock car racing eventually morphed into NASCAR [Music] Hudsons were the leaders in its embryonic stage [Music] it was a great time for Hudson no one thought it would ever end [Music] another store word of the American automotive scene with Studebaker it had the first new car out after the war it said its cars were different by design [Music] it had been a fixture of South Bend Indiana since the 1840s it made the transition from buggy building to cars [Music] they hired a noted designer Raymond Loewy to help them create cars that stood out from the pack even before the war Studebakers like the champion threatened the big freest control of the industry many car makers were waiting for things to happen Studebaker made them happen it challenged the domination of the big three in the low-priced field their aggressive marketing created a stir nothing excites the interest of the public as a good fight and a gallant fighter it is no exaggeration to say that millions of Americans have been thrilled by Studebakers challenge to the Giants of the industry the independence took on at the big three with innovation and style they competed for buyers by offering more but the tide in this battle was turning keeping up with demand in the post-war boom required a tremendous amount of capital for design engineering production and marketing it was more than the small players could afford after World War two things were great they were good up until 53 now touring America's principal cities General Motors 1953 Motorola is attracting crowds like this one of 55,000 New Yorkers who run to the Waldorf Astoria are an opening day in the hotel's Grand Ballroom the show is our focal point is the two-level mechanized stage which rises above the 38 1953 automobiles on display fashion first GM Ford and Chrysler were all back to full-time production with a lineup of new cars designed to dazzle the crowds suddenly there were more choices than ever the competition was getting tough and the small independence needed to find a way to stand out in this crowded market but few had the money needed to keep up Judy Baker struck back with the star miners in 1953 these Raymond Loewy designed co-pays offered American buyers european-style and American simplicity different by design wasn't just the company's motto it was the only way an independent car company could stand out from the crowd one of the most different designs available to car buyers in the 1950s was the Amphicar part sports car part speedboat the Amphicar appealed to a very select group of buyers aquatic recreationalists in the 1950s snapped the cars up and headed to the lake it was very convenient you didn't have to tow a boat anytime the lake court you could just drive in but as much fun as these cars were they didn't pose much of a threat to the big three finding a niche that wasn't being served was the salvation of many independents Nash saw a market for small cars that wasn't being filled and plunged in with the Metropolitan in 1954 nash's President George Mason looked at the ever larger cars that the competition was building and thought Americans would want an economy car but he knew that Americans didn't want to give up their roomy interior 'he's his cars would have a combination of european space efficiency and american sized interior room he needed to prove that his little car could withstand the rigors of daily driving Mason put two cars through their paces at a NASCAR racetrack in North Carolina one was tested for endurance the other for fuel economy the fuel economy car ran for 24 hours straight without stopping it is refueled on the go when it came time to change drivers the new drivers had to hop in while the car kept going the car got 41.57 miles per gallon the endurance car average speed was 60 1.24 miles per hour neither car required any repairs or adjustments after the test [Music] Mason was convinced the Metropolitan was the reliable economy car that Americans needed he sold at 7500 in the first year not the huge numbers he had hoped for but they were extremely popular with people who bought them they still are today the Metropolitan was were sold until 1962 over 84,000 in the US sales had picked up a bit in 1959 when they added a trunk but others like Volkswagen and Studebaker had jumped on the small car bandwagon and since most Americans just weren't in the market for a small car there weren't that many sales to go around the Metropolitan faded away the 1950s were a hard time for independent car makers they didn't have the resources to compete with the giants in Detroit one by one they merged or disappeared Hudson and Nash joint forces in 1954 to create American Motors George Romney took over and tried to carve out a niche for the company with the Rambler with the American Motors the merger into American Motors with Nash Hudson dealers got the Rambler which was recognized and was very competitively priced and that was a lot of dealers salvation including ours the Rambler was bigger than the Metropolitan but still delivered good fuel economy and it was affordable a new Rambler could be had for a little over $2,000 and a convertible for a few dollars more in 1957 Romney dropped the gnash and Hudson brands and focused exclusively on the new compact Ramblers AMC sales quadrupled in two years and past Plymouth to become the third best selling make in the US some believe that if the company had not abandoned Romney's strategy at concentrating on a single compact platform it might be around today Studebaker and Packard were supposed to be a part of the merger with Nash and Hudson but they were left behind instead they merged in 1955 neither company was in great shape and the combination proved to be worse like Romney they tried to find a niche for their cars [Music] Studebaker jumped into the compact market with the lock but the field was too crowded by then packard just faded away by 1959 Studebaker was gone by 1966 but they went down fighting they knew they were out of step but they try to sell that as an advantage [Music] my daddy is a Studebaker a very good car not super Vegas silly speakers the public didn't believe that different was better there weren't enough people with row boats who needed a sliding top its last-ditch effort was the Avanti in 1962 it generated interest but didn't bring enough people into Studebaker dealerships to keep the company going after a hundred and eight years Studebaker was finally gone in 1966 American Motors was the last independent standing they'd abandoned Romney's small cars only philosophy and built a variety of models these various models like the gremlin and the Pacer didn't share common components like a chassis AMC's cars couldn't amortize the expense of designing engineering and building they kept chasing market segments and getting in too late with too little to offer they jumped into the pony car race with the AMX the AMX gave AMC a performance car but it wasn't that different from a Camaro or Mustang and it came out just before the gas crisis hit AMC held on until 1986 when it sold out to Chrysler AMC joined the ranks of the other orphans but it's cars found homes like the rest that Forgotten vehicles you can see at the orphan car show even the bubble backed pieces found at loving owners to adopt them all the cars that the orphan car show have a story there are literally hundreds of different vehicles that have almost been forgotten but reappear every year in Ypsilanti Jack Miller works tirelessly to keep the hudson name in lights some people adopt an orphan car he's adopted the last hudson dealership in the world I was raised in the Hudson garage I started working there when I was between 12 and 13 years old part time it was a family owned business classic example of the my entrepreneurial spirit in the auto industry he's transformed the dealership into part museum and part active sales room he still sells restored Hudson's it's almost like the dealership had never closed over the years the the media head has given it the the title the LAT world's last operating hudson dealership and that's still true today even in the status of being part of an automotive museum we will sell one or two Hudson's yet this year to keep up the advertising value naturally they're used Hudson's they even have an operating service department that can make sure your Hudson is taken care of as well it was new visiting Miller's dealership is like stepping back in time [Music] vigilante was the perfect place for the orphan car movement it had been the home of many car companies the ace in the 1920s Preston Tucker's Tucker torpedo after World War 2 Henry Kaiser and Joseph Fraser transformed the Willow Run bomber plant to make Kaiser cars later GM used the same plant to build Corvairs and transmissions epsilon T was the place to remember the bygone glories of faded automotive dreams all this history gave Jack Miller the idea to create the orphan car show it will give the owners an annual event where they could reminisce and celebrate the past the orphan car show was talked about for many years by myself and Randy Mason the retired curator transportation of the Henry Ford Museum and finally in 1996 we decided that we should stop talking and do it [Music] well what's neat about this shows it isn't it's an auto show that's totally unlike all the others that you go to you're in a park you get to walk around you get to almost the touchy-feely of the cars but you also see a lot of cars that you never get to see any other time there's something here for everyone from a hand-cranked Maxwell to a sleek front wheel drive cord to an electric car it's a reminder of the many innovations that made the automobile part of our culture this whole show is book on the history of the automobile industry and say you go to this show I don't think there's another so that's quite like history comes back alive every year in Ypsilanti it's a rolling account of the trials and tribulations of the automotive pioneers who created an industry some were nimble some were not some were brilliant some not so some preferred elegance and others thought plainness was a virtue this is the place to come if you love to root for the underdog the orphan car show is their last hurrah [Music] you

Channel: King Rose Archives

Views: 681,590

Rating: 4.8258181 out of 5

Keywords: Corvair, Hudson, Tucker, Nash, Rambler, Studebaker, Hupmobile, Crosley, Maxwell, Edsel, Hispano Suiza, Duesenberg

Id: iTaoJAVh2fg

Length: 25min 7sec (1507 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 07 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/benzethonium]

I remember those AMC Hornets back in the 70's. Cool stuff.

[u/Mumblix_Grumph]

What about SAAB?