STORY LINE:     AMERICAN HIGH PERFORMANCE AND LUXURY                       

Somewhere around the turn of the 20^th Century, the automobile-as we know it today, four wheels, a steering mechanism of sorts and a fossil fuel gasoline burning engine/drive-train for motivation (it ain’t changed since)-started grabbing the fancy of the American public. Gasoline powered contraptions that we now hold in museum reverence were pretty much the realm of the rich and powerful in the early 1900’s … a rich person’s toy for sure. Thankfully, the likes of bankers and monied groups saw fit to make sure that the young entrepreneurial types-who engineered these fire breathing horseless carriages-procured the needed and required funds to make the automotive industry what it has become-quite literally a motorized world.

First let us state and understand here, that the automobile was and still is a high performance commodity … and certainly was and still is a luxury, at least in the civilized world. Think ….for anything to be high performance it must perform at a high level of success continuously … like the human body does and hopefully for years. Just you go ahead and try to run 70 mph from here to Los Angeles nonstop. I guarantee your body will not make it without the likes of motorized or winged transporter. Luxury, certainly-as it sure beats a cart, buggy or the horse/mule drawn Conestoga wagon of times gone by. That-the Conestoga wagon-could be an adventure that I would like to try though.

The automobile was indeed a luxury in the beginning, but with the likes of Henry Ford, William Crapo Durant, Walter P. Chrysler and countless many other upstart automotive entrepreneurs, the masses could now somewhat afford …. a car.  The connotation of luxury started an industry within the new automotive industry to support the luxury buyers preferences. The names of Marmon, Duesenberg, the 3 P’s; Packard, Pierce Arrow and Peerless, Cadillac, Lincoln, Chrysler Imperial, Buick-some still with us-will live in the historical annals of luxury performance automotive lore. All were luxury and performance in one package.          

A Marmon Wasp won the Indianapolis 500 inaugural race in 1911. Duesenberg automobiles were regaled and still recognized today as the finest vehicle ever built in the US, a 5,000+lb supercharged behemoth claimed capable of accelerating to 100 mph in second gear, won the French Gran Prix in 1921-the only American car that ever did, won Indy three times in the 1920’s and the car that coined the phrase-“That’s a Duesey”. Packard advertised simply, “Ask the man who own’s one.” Pierce Arrow and Peerless cars were driven by the super wealthy of Wall Street and Park Avenue. Cadillac-‘The Standard of the World’ and Lincoln automobiles were and are still the only survivors of the infant American luxury car era of the 1930’s. Both companies-Cadillac/Lincoln-began and ran by a brilliant engineer, Henry M. Leland. Walter P. Chrysler who had at one time been the president of Buick Motor Cars, left that company over a tiff with Durant-who founded mighty General Motors with the assets of Buick, began Chrysler Corporation in 1924 and launched Imperial as a company luxury model in 1926.     

DOHC, straight-8, V8, V12, V16, dual cowl, long wheelbase, custom bodies-this is what real American luxury began as in the early 1920’s and lasted up till the ‘Great War’ of World War II.

Today only the Cadillac and Lincoln automobiles are the last true American icons of luxury still in production. No dynamics of today’s vehicles have changed-four wheels, a steering mechanism and a fossil fuel gasoline burning engine/drive-train …just way better longevity, comfort, power, design, drive-ability …. and still American.