Thread: A couple of automotive trivia items

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This may already be known by a lot of you but here are a couple of interesting tidbits I recently came across.

Champion Sparkplugs were actually named after a man with the sir name of Champion. Albert Champion (a Frenchman) started racing bicycles in France and eventually moved on to cars and car racing and became a manufacturer of sparkplugs and magnetos. In the early 1900s he moved to the United States and founded the Champion Sparkplug company in Boston. In 1908 a disagreement with his backers resulted in him leaving the company and moving to Flint Michigan. In Flint he established the Champion Ignition Company.

And now the rest of the story....... after a legal dispute over the Champion Company name, Champions new company changed its name to the AC Sparkplug Company.



Growing up in the 60s I knew the story of how the band REO Speed Wagon got its name (supposedly it was taken from a slow moving truck they were following behind which happened to be a REO (actually pronounced as a word rather than the individual letters) Speed Wagon truck.

What I did not know until recently was that the REO actually stands for Ransom E Olds it’s founder and the founder of Oldsmobile.

Kewl stuff Mike! I knew about the REO trucks, but the tid-bit about Mr. Champion is a new one for me!!!! Have to share that with the guys at Monday morning coffee! Thanks!

Seems I have heard those tidbits before somewhere; interesting read, none-the-less. Reminded me of the first "semi" I ever drove, a mid fifties REO with double chain drive rears. I was stylin' if I could get it up to fifty with the low bed and the dozer on it; took a long time to get up there and a long time to slow down and stop.

Auto trivia brings out the best stories. I never knew Paul Newman raced a Datsun, but apparently he did.

280ZX

David Buick was a plumber before he built cars, draw your own conclusions.

Anybody here ever hear about the Seldon Patent??

Seldon patented the internal combustion engine and immediately started collecting fees from all the US automakers!!

One refused to pay and took his challenge of the patent to court and many years later won the case. Saving carmakers millions of dollars.
Any body want to guess who the carmaker was who refused to pay?

They're still in business today.

Selden patent was challenged by Mr. Ford

I would venture to say it was Mr. Henry Ford who challenged Selden; he (Ford) was reputed to be a cranky and stubborn individual.

a link to some interesting worthless information:

http://www.asecc.com/data/index.html

Some photos of the REO. I only knew the band name thanks for the trivia, those trucks looked cool!

Henry Ford it was

I love automotive trivia! :-) I read my collection of several thousand car magazines cover-to-cover! They ran from some '46 issues I had, up to about 2000, when I quit buying them, and sold most of them off.

I still didn't know about the spark plug story... OR the patent challenge! {:-(


Here is one I have mentioned on chat groups. Some of you will know this.....

What was the car manufacturing center of the U.S. before Detroit? It was home to about 125 different automobile brands!!!

What happened to most of those companies?

Why did Detroit become the center for builders?

The huge AC complex in Flint, Michigan, that was mentioned in the first post was where zillions and zillions (I mean a LOT) of spark plugs, guages, speedometers, and untold other stuff was made, was leveled a few years ago. Now all that remains of this great company is a vacant area of about 10 or 15 acres. I never worked there, but I knew many people who did. Thousands of jobs lost. It's just a memory, now.

Originally Posted by HOTRODPAINT

What was the car manufacturing center of the U.S. before Detroit? It was home to about 125 different automobile brands!!!

What happened to most of those companies?

?

my guess is that place where the studebakers were made .. i just cant think of it .. my home town huntsville had a car maker too a long time ago ...

Cleveland Ohio?

Chicago prior to 1928?