Higher Station

A rare completed piece of his utopian Broadacre City, Wright’s only gas station opened in Cloquet, Minnesota, in 1958.

A slice of Frank Lloyd Wright’s auto-utopia marks its golden anniversary.
By Michael Silverberg
Posted October 15, 2008“Watch the little gas station,” Frank Lloyd Wright wrote in 1930, just as he was beginning to conceive what would become Broadacre City, his plan for a sprawling, automobile-based utopia. The gas station was its social nexus and its symbol. Wright’s vision was incredibly prescient—he anticipated the current suburban landscape of endless cloverleafs and mammoth truck stops—and it strongly colored the last 25 years of his work, which was largely dedicated to the kind of small-scale residences called for in his decentralized city of the future. “In one sense, everything Wright built post-1932 was a piece of Broadacre,” says Tim Quigley, a Minneapolis architect and a Wright scholar. Yet only a handful of buildings from the project were ever fully realized; one, appropriately enough, was a gas station in the small town of Cloquet, Minnesota, and it celebrates its 50th anniversary this month.


In the early 1950s, Wright built a house for a local family, the Lindholms, after Joyce Lindholm, whose father distributed gasoline and home-heating oil, studied the architect in college and encouraged her parents to seek him out. “Wright had designed a gas station for Broadacre probably thirty years earlier,” Mike McKinney, Joyce’s son, says, “and when he learned about my grand-father’s business, he basically took that concept and applied it to the station.” The Lindholm station is reminiscent of the architect’s Prairie homes, with a cantilevered, copper-clad canopy and skylit service bays. “The mechanics are always working in natural light,” says Jennifer Webb, a professor of art history at the University of Minnesota Duluth. “If you ask them, they say that that is absolutely the greatest feature.” The design was never replicated en masse as the architect had intended, but, according to Wright Sites, it helped popularize the now ubiquitous overhang, and other elements (including an angled plan that afforded sight lines, and generous, slanted windows) were appropriated for Phillips 66 stations across the country.


Wanting motorists to think of the gas station as a social space rather than a pit stop, Wright designed a glassed-in lounge on the second floor with commanding views of the river, and he hoped that residents would gather there over coffee. But as with his grandiose plan for Broadacre (“He imagined that we were all going to have pseudohelicoptors and nuclear-powered barges,” Webb says), he got the broad strokes right but failed to anticipate how the small social connections would eventually fray. Customers didn’t want to spend time in a gas station—and those who did often had unseemly ideas. “People did unpleasant things in it, spit gum in it,” Webb says. “All the things that people do when they think they’re not being watched.” Ultimately, after the lounge was vandalized in the 1960s and ’70s, the family locked it up. But this summer’s anniversary celebration—which brought Robert Pond, the Wright apprentice who supervised construction, back to Cloquet—could help restore Wright’s vision. McKinney and his brother, who own and lease the station, refurbished it before the festivities and are considering a sweeping renovation, in anticipation of perhaps turning it into a museum one day. McKinney shared his idea with Pond, now 82 and living in Montana. “I said, ‘I wish we could have spent more time,’” he recalls, “and Bob says, ‘I want to come back and finish this job.’”

Source: Metropolis Mag

1950 Oldsmobile Futuramic 88 - Rocket Launcher

Did Oldsmobile inspire the first rock 'n' roll song? Possibly, but its Futuramic 88 was the first modern musclecar

Source: http://www.motortrend.com/classic/roadtests/c12_0612_1950_oldsmobile_88_coupe/index.html#ixzz0YnWGHbOe


Ike Turner's Fats Waller-like stride piano sets off two minutes, 51 seconds that changed music and signaled a new age of automotive power in America. The fuzz guitar, reportedly the result of a speaker damaged while Turner's Kings of Rhythm were on tour, that quickly joins in is part of the new sound. Raymond Hill's tenor sax break, taking 56 seconds, could've come from blues or jazz. It's the beat that pulls this all together into something new, although the tune owed much to rhythm and blues songs of the era. Indeed, the tune made the R&B charts-after all, there was no rock-'n'-roll Top 40 at the time, since many consider "Rocket 88" the very first song of the genre.


Click to view GalleryWhether you agree, there's no denying the impact of the opening line of "Rocket 88," sung by Jackie Brenston. One manufacturer, Oldsmobile, had successfully challenged the garage-built street primacy of the hot rod with a smooth, quick car, shiny and new and straight from the factory. The 1949 Rocket 88 came with the same high-compression (7.25:1) overhead-valve V-8 installed in the larger, heavier Ninety-Eight; thus, the Great American Musclecar was born. And it was launched with a high-compression, short-stroke power to match a postwar exuberance that had automobile styling mimicking the conveyances of the emerging space age.


Click to view GalleryBefore this, General Motors's hierarchy was clear, with only Cadillac/LaSalle producing V-8s, Buick building inline-eights, Olds and Pontiac straight-eights and sixes, and Chevy sixes. Cadillac experimented with OHVs to replace its L-heads in the 1930s, while after the war, Olds looked at new engines to power more stylish models for the "experimental division" known mostly for introducing the Hydra-matic four-speed automatic.

GM engineering wiz Charles F. "Boss" Kettering wrote a paper for the Society of Automotive Engineers that posited a compression increase from 6.25:1 to 12:1 could boost gas mileage by up to 40 percent and horsepower by 25. Better postwar availability of premium fuel also gave high compression a push.

Olds experimented with a 288-cubic-inch V-8, but Cadillac management complained. Olds switched to developing 60- and 70-degree V-8s and V-6s until GM approved a $9.4-million budget for Olds's 90-degree engine. With Kettering in charge, Olds upped its 90-degree V-8 to 303 cubic inches, prompting Cadillac to increase its 1948 models' V-8 from 309 to 331 (remember the word "hierarchy").

The Olds 98 was new for 1948, a year ahead of the rest of the Big Three, save for the Cadillac lineup. But Kettering and his crew were still busy working on the 303 V-8, and so the flagship with "Futuramic" styling had to launch with the carryover 110-horse, 257-cubic-inch L-head inline-eight. For 1949, the three-model Oldsmobile line featured Futuramic styling, including the six-cylinder 76 and the OHV 88s. Harley Earl's new two-door hardtop design was offered in the 98 series only in 1949 and trickled down to the 88 and 76 Holiday Coupes, with their wraparound rear windows, for 1950.

Vintage Cabovers & Transporters

I wonder if anyone remembers this type of car haulers of the 1950's. I found these pictures online I just wanted to share them with you.









Source: The Jalopy Journal

Steyr automobile

Steyr (or Steyr-Puch) was an Austrian automotive company from 1915 until 1990.


Swedish Ad for 1928 Steyr Type Xll 6cyl 4seat Convertible

Formed as a branch of Steyr Osterreichische Waffenfabriks-Gesellschaft (Steyr AG) in 1915, to diversify manufacturing, the founders hired 38-year-old designer Hans Ledwinka after he resigned from Nesseldorf. Ledwinka developed Steyr's new six-cylinder car and supervised hiring engineers and mechanics.


1939 Steyr 220.

This, the 12/40PS, featured the fashionable spitzkuhler (pointed radiator) of the prewar Mercedes and had very modern features: a 3255 cc (199ci) engine with SOHC, ball bearing-mounted crankshaft, four-speed gearbox, and multi-plate clutch, but not including four wheel brakes, though Ledwinka's designs had used them as early as 1909. The ability of the engine to rev led to 4014 cc (245ci) Type VI and 4890 cc (298ci) Type VI Klausen sport versions, and it was employed in a 2½ ton truck.

Ledwinka again came into conflict with management when the company wanted luxury cars and he preferred a cheap, simple car, the sidevalve four-cylinder Type IV. Steyr concentrated on luxury cars. Ledwinka did not give up, creating a car with and aircooled flat-twin and backbone chassis. Management ignored him, and he quit to join Tatra, taking the design with him; it also inspired the early Volkswagen Type 1.

Steyr realized their mistake too late, but Ledwinka acted as consulting engineer, influencing the 1925 Type XII, with a 14/35 hp 1.5 liter OHC six, crankshaft ball bearings, four-wheel brakes, half-elliptic front springs, and swing axle IRS. It came in two models, a four- or five-seater tourer at ₤440 and a four-door saloon at ₤560. This was joined by a 3.3 liter Type VII interior drive limousine, a luxurious four-door that seated up to seven and cost ₤1000; it shared its 17.75 kW (23.8 hp) chassis with the five- to seven-place, ₤975 Coupe de Ville.

The 1926 Olympia Motor Show premiered a new 10 kW (14 hp) tourer for ₤510. There was also another new small car in 1928, the 2060 cc (126ci) 16/40 hp Type XX and a 4 liter 29/70 hp six Type XVI, with vacuum servo-assisted brakes by Bosch-Dewandre.

In January 1929, Dr. Ferdinand Porsche joined Steyr from Mercedes. He quickly produced the 37/100 hp Austria, with a 5.3 liter straight eight, dual magneto ignition, and twin spark plugs, four-wheel Lockheed hydraulic brakes, and Steyr's first detachable cylinder head. It also had Steyr's half-elliptic front and swing axle rear suspension. It showed at the Paris Salon and Olympia, the cabriolet offered at ₤1550.

The Great Depression intervened, however, and Steyr was bailed out by Austro Daimler, which killed the project as competing with its own very similar car, while Porsche resigned to form Porsche Büro in Stuttgart. The crash hit hard. Steyr in 1929produced short of 5000 cars and 1000 trucks in all, and in 1930, just twelve.

Aid turned to buyout in 1935, and in the interim Steyr relied on a Porsche design, the Type XXX. Its 2078 cc (127ci) six had plain bearings and pushrod valves. It was developed into the 2.3 liter 530 of 1936. Steyr also displayed the unconventional, with the 120 of 1934, with double transverse-leaf independent front suspension and streamlined body; they sold 1200 cars of this model, and improved it into the 2.3 liter 220 of 1937.


Haflinger

There were also licence-built Opel P4s (Steyr-Opel, nicknamend "Stopel") and, still in 1934, the Type 100, a less attractive, low-cost economy car, of exactly the type (if not the appearance) Ledwinka had advocated ten years before, with a 1.4 liter sidevalve four of 34 hp, but similar streamlined appearance as the 120. The Type 50 in 1936 was smaller and "surpassingly ugly" (which was a lot to surpass in that era), the child of a Chrysler Airflow, and as aerodynamically efficient as the contemporary VW; even so, the Kleinwagen was popular (as its Type 1 cousin would be a generation later), due to a rather roomy interior and a metal sliding roof. The bigger 1158 cc (71ci) 25 hp (19 kW) engine and new number, Type 55, of 1938 could still hardly push it past 80 km/h (50 mph), but even so, some 13,000 were built by end of production in 1940.

During the war, Steyr built vehicles for the Wehrmacht, and afterwards, modified FIATs for Austrian consumption, adding swing axles and, in some models, engines of their own design. These were the 1100 Mod E, followed by the 1400, which got an Austrian 2-liter engine, and was namend Steyr 2000. From 1957 to 1973 the Puch 500 was built in the Graz plant with great success (almost 60,000 sold), using the FIAT 500 body but Steyr mechanics (to varying degrees - but always with the Austrian opposed twin engine); important versions were the 650 TR sports model and the 700 C microvan. From 1973 some few FIAT 126 were equipped with the boxer twin engine for the Austrian market.

In the 1960s, Steyr introduced the remarkable Haflinger (named for a Tyrolian horse) four wheel drive truck, "probably the most versatile off-road vehicle ever produced." Able to cross almost any terrain and scale mountains, they typically had only a two-cylinder aircooled boxer 643 cc (39ci) engine of 20 kW (27 hp). The performance attracted military orders, and led to the much heavier and stronger 4x4/6x6 Pinzgauer. Finally Steyr-Daimler-Puch collaborated with Mercedes in the design and manufacturing of the similar, but more comfortable, Puch G.

Do Tou Remember The LLoyd Cars?

Source: LLotd Automobiles

Hupmobile

Hupmobile Nameplate


1929 Hupmobile

The car in the foreground, on the back of a $10 bill is a 1925 Hupmobile.

The Hupmobile was an automobile built from 1909 through 1940 by the Hupp Motor Company of Detroit, Michigan, which was located at 345 Bellevue Avenue. Their first car, the Model 20, was introduced to the public at the Detroit Auto Show in February 1909. The company initially produced 500 vehicles.

History

Robert Craig Hupp (June 2, 1877 in Grand Rapids, Michigan – 1931), a former employee of Oldsmobile and Ford founded the company with his brother Louis Gorham Hupp (November 13,1872 in Michigan – December 10, 1961 in Michigan) in 1908. Production began in 1909. In 1910, production increased by more than 5000. Following disagreements with his financial backers Hupp sold his stock in the Hupp Motor Car Company and established the short-lived RCH Automobile Company, later the Hupp-Yeats Electric Car Company.


Hupmobile Model 32 Touring 1913

Hupp Motor Company, however, continued to grow after its founder had left. A new plant was purchased in 1924 as Hupp competed strongly against Ford and Chevrolet and by 1928 sales had reached over 65,000 units. To increase production and handle the growth in sales, Hupp purchased the Chandler-Cleveland Motors Corporation (Chandler Motor Car) for its manufacturing facilities. Hupp advertising began to take cues from the romantic Ned Jordan style of automotive prose. A 1930 Hupmobile advertisement read.


Hupmobile RRS Special Roadster 1924

"A Hupmobile becomes a little more than just a car. He'll lift the hood as a veteran would, and show Hupp's mechanical fineness. He knows! He's driven Hupmobile since the old outdated out-of-context but still-revered early Hupmobiles with the tall steel spout on its radiator. There's something about Hupp's faithfulness that gets to a man. A feeling that hasn't a name. But it's the same as the feeling a seaman gets for his ship, an engineer for his engine, or a woman for her home. He's got as much use for an adjective as a cowboy for a powder puff. He's rough on claims. Promises of what a car can do. He's the old-time Hupmobile owner. He's seen cars come, seen 'em go. Only he won't talk. He'll act! Give you fact after fact, not in words but in deeds, in bullet speeds and 'Big Bertha' power."


Hupmobile Touring 1924

Sales and production began to fall even before the onset of the depression in 1930. A strategy to make the Hupmobile a larger, more expensive car began with the 1925 introduction of an 8-cylinder model, followed by the discontinuance of the traditional 4-cylinder Hupmobile. While aiming for a seemingly more lucrative market segment, Hupp essentially turned its back on its established clientele. Nevertheless, in a constant effort to remain competitive, Hupp introduced a number of new features. They were one of the very first automakers to equip their cars with "free wheeling," a device that enjoyed immense, but brief, popularity in the early 1930s. Unfortunately, the company made the same mistake that many other medium-priced carmakers were making at the same time. Namely, in an attempt to capture every possible sale, they offered many different models. With Hupmobile's relatively low production volume, the result was that no model could be produced in sufficient quantity to keep manufacturing costs low enough to provide an operating profit. Hupp abandoned its more conservatively styled product line and turned to industrial designer Raymond Loewy to design its 1932 Hupp cyclefender, a flashy roadster which did well at the track, but sales continued to decline. 1934 saw the introduction of a striking restyle called the "Aerodynamic" by Loewy, as well as the lower-priced series 417-W using Murray-built slightly-modified Ford bodies.


Hupmobile Series M De Luxe Century Opera Coupe 1929

Despite these innovations, squabbles among stockholders and an attempted hostile takeover in 1935 took their toll on the company. By 1936 the company was forced to sell some of its plants and assets and in 1937 Hupmobile suspended manufacturing. A new line of six- and eight-cylinder cars was fielded for 1938, but by this time Hupp had very few dealers, and sales were disappointingly low.


Hupmobile Series M De Luxe Century 4-Door Sedan 1929

Desperate for a return to market strength, Hupmobile acquired the production dies of the Gordon Buehrig designed Cord 810/812 from the defunct Cord Automobile Company in 1938. Hupmobile hoped that utilizing the striking Cord design in a lower-priced conventional car, called the Skylark, would return the company to financial health. Enthusiastic orders came in by the thousands, but production delays soured customer support.


Hupmobile 4-Door Sedan 1932

Lacking adequate production facilities, Hupmobile worked out a deal with the ailing Graham-Paige Motor Co. to share the Cord dies, which would be built at Graham's facilities. The Graham edition, called the Hollywood, differed from the Skylark in only a few minor details.


Hupmobile Series 417-W 4-Door Sedan 1934

Final production

In 1939 the Hupmobile Skylark finally began delivery. Unfortunately, it had taken too many years to produce and most of the orders had been canceled. Production lasted only a couple of months, and only 319 Skylarks were produced. Hupmobile ceased production in late summer. Graham-Paige suspended production shortly after the last Hupmobile rolled off the line. The Skylark's grille later inspired the grilles used on Lincoln Continental models in the 1940's.

The last preserved Hupmobile dealership in the United States is located in Omaha, Nebraska.

Reference in Hollywood movies

In the Billy Wilder's movie Some Like It Hot Hupmobile is mentioned several times. When Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon witness a gangland slaying like the St. Valentine's Day Massacre it is in a garage to get a Hupmobile borrowed from one of Curtis's girlfriends. Later, when telling a fictional story to Marilyn Monroe while pretending to be a sexually frustrated millionaire, Curtis says his problems began when his fiance, the daughter of the President of Hupmobile, got killed in an accident at the Grand Canyon.

In the TV series Leave It To Beaver, Ward Cleaver (Hugh Beaumont) would on occasion wistfully recall his family's Hupmobile.

Hupmobile production models

For specifications on various Hupmobile models:

Hupmobile Club Sedan - R

Hupmobile Touring - E

External links:

Hupmobile Building

Hupmobile Welcomed at UniversalCity

Hupmobile at UniversalCity

Motorbase "Hupmobile"

"Skylark/Hollywood"

The Hupmobile Club

'47 International Harvester Coe Car Hauler

Beautiful One of a kind. Only 8,500 miles! 454 motor. Three Speed 400 turbo Hydra-matic Transmission. . "178" wheelbase. Dual Rear axle with dual tires on both. Air Ride Suspension with auto compressor. Power windows, steering, brakes. 6 way power seat. Digital heat, air, CB Radio. Absolutely beautiful

Source: Hotrod Hotline