This Month in Automotive History

February 1

1898 First Auto Insurance Policy
The Travelers Insurance Company of Hartford, Connecticut, extended coverage to an automobile owner, making them the first company to issue an automobile insurance policy to an individual. Dr. Truman J. Martin of Buffalo, New York, paid a premium of $11.25 for the policy that covered $5,000 to $10,000 of liability. In 1925, Massachusetts became the first state to mandate automobile insurance, "requiring owners of certain motor vehicles and trailers to furnish security for their civil liabilities." Today, auto insurance is a fact of life for American drivers as nearly every state requires some insurance for the operator of a motor vehicle. In a country where the driver's license serves as the primary form of identification, the challenge of selecting a coverage policy and paying the car insurance premium has become a rite of passage for many young Americans.

February 2

1923 Leaded Gasoline Goes on Sale
Gasoline mixed with Tetraethyl lead was first sold to the public at a roadside gas station in Dayton, Ohio, owned by Willard Talbott. Coined “ethyl gasoline” by Charles Kettering of General Motors, the blend was discovered by General Motors laboratory technician Thomas Midgley to beneficially alter the combustion rate of gasoline. Reportedly, in seven years of research and development General Motors labs tested at least 33,000 compounds for their propensity to reduce knocks. Leaded gasoline would fill the world’s gas tanks until emissions concerns lead to the invention of unleaded gasoline..

1880 Let There Be Lights
The first electric streetlight was installed in Wabash, Indiana. The city paid the Brush Electric Light Company of Cleveland, Ohio, $100 to install a light on the top of the courthouse. A month later the city commissioned four more lights to be installed. Residents of Wabash became the first Americans to wear their sunglasses at night.

February 3

1929 The Golden Arrow
Major H.O.D. Seagrave set a new land speed record of 231.4 mph at Daytona Beach, Florida, driving a car called the Golden Arrow. Seagrave and Sir Malcolm Campbell dueled for land speed supremacy from 1925 to 1935, when Campbell decisively ended the competition by driving his Bluebird III over the three-hundred-mph-mark at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. These two competitors established Great Britain as the dominant force in land speed technology, a supremacy it maintained until jet engine technology became the norm for land speed racecars.

February 4

1941 Seventy-Six Years Olds
On this day, seventy-six-year-old Ransom Eli Olds received his last automobile patent for an internal combustion engine design. An innovator throughout his career, Olds built the first American steam-powered vehicle in 1887 when he was only eighteen. In 1897, Olds received a patent for his “motor carriage,” a gasoline-powered vehicle that he built the year before. He is also credited with having developed the first automobile production line. In an effort to meet the production demands for the Olds Runabout, Olds contracted with the likes of the Dodge brothers for the parts to his cars, which he then assembled in his own factory space. Olds’s assembly line was able to produce a higher volume of automobiles in a shorter period of time than was possible using the traditional method of building each vehicle individually. Olds Motor Works sold 425 Runabouts in its first year of business, 2,500 the next year, 5,000 in 1904, and the rest is automobile history.

February 5

1952 Don't Walk
The first “Don’t Walk” sign was installed in New York City on this day. The city erected the signs in response to the growing awareness of pedestrian fatalities in the increasingly crowded Manhattan streets. Pedestrian fatalities are essentially an urban problem, so city dwellers, next time you see a Don’t Walk sign, please don't run. In 1997, 5,307 pedestrians died as a result of automobile accidents. Fatal collisions between pedestrians and motor vehicles occur most often between six and nine p.m., a period that roughly coincides with rush hour. In 1998, in hopes of minimizing gridlock, New York City began strictly enforcing its J-walking laws during rush hour. Pedestrians are subject to a fifty dollar fine if they walk, or run, when faced with a Don't Walk sign.

February 6

1954 The Wings of the Gull
On this day, Mercedes introduced their 300SL coupe to the public. A stylish sports car characterized by its gull-wing doors, the coupe was a consumer version of the 300SL race car. With a six-cylinder engine and a top speed of 155 mph, the two-door coupe created a sensation among wealthy car buyers who were actually seen waiting in line to buy it. Because of the impracticality of the gull-wing doors, the company only manufactured 1,400 300SL coupes. Nevertheless, the 300SL is widely considered the most impressive sports car of the decade. Unfortunately, the 300SL racecar also played an infamous role in car racing history. Careening out of control in the 1955 race at Le Mans, the SL crashed into the gallery. Eighty spectators died and Mercedes-Benz pulled its cars out of racing competition for nearly three decades.

February 7

1938 Firestone Founder Dies
Harvey S. Firestone, founder of the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, died in Miami Beach, Florida, at the age of eighty-nine. At the age of thirty-one, Firestone developed a new way of manufacturing carriage tires and began production with only twelve employees. Eight years later, Henry Ford asked Harvey Firestone to provide the tires for the Ford Model T, and Firestone Tires became a household name. Firestone and Ford remained fast friends, but, unfortunately, neither man would live to see the marriage of their grandchildren and the legal union of their empires.

February 8

1936 Riches to Rags
On this day, General Motors founder, William Durant, filed for personal bankruptcy. Economic historian Dana Thomas described Durant as a man “drunk with the gamble of America. He was obsessed with its highest article of faith--that the man who played for the steepest stakes deserved the biggest winnings.” GM reflected Durant’s ambitious attitude toward risk-taking in its breathtaking expansionist policies, becoming in its founder’s words “an empire of cars for every purse and purpose.” However, Durant’s gambling attitude had its down sides. Over a span of three years Durant purchased Oldsmobile, Oakland (later Cadillac and Pontiac), and attempted to purchase Ford. By 1910, General Motors was out of cash, and Durant was forced out of control of the company. Durant got back into the big game by starting Chevrolet, and eventually regained control of GM only to lose it a second time. Later in life, Durant attempted to start a bowling center and a supermarket, but met with little success. Durant’s trials and tribulations are proof that, even in America’s most successful industry, there were those who gambled and lost.

February 9

1909 The Founding of the Brickyard
On this day, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation incorporated with Carl G. Fisher as president. The speedway was Fisher’s brainchild and he would see his project through its inauspicious beginnings to its ultimate glorious end. The first race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway took place on August 19, 1909, only a few months after the formation of the corporation. Fisher and his partners had scrambled to get their track together before the race, and their lack of preparation showed. Not only were lives lost on account of the track, but the surface itself was left in shambles. Instead of cutting losses on his investment in the Speedway, Fisher dug in and upped the stakes. He built a brand new track of brick, which was the cheapest and most durable appropriate surface available to him. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway would later be affectionately called “the Brickyard.” Fisher’s track filled a void in the international racing world, as there were almost no private closed courses in Europe capable of handling the speeds of the cars that were being developed there. Open course racing had lost momentum in Europe due to the growing number of fatal accidents. Recognizing the supremacy of European car technology, but preserving the American tradition of oval track racing, Fisher melded the two hemispheres of car racing into one extravagant event, a five-hundred mile race to be held annually. To guarantee the attendance of the European racers, Fisher arranged to offer the largest single prize in the sport. By 1912, the total prize money available at the grueling Indy 500 was $50,000, making the race the highest paying sporting event in the world. However, the Brickyard almost became a scrap yard after World War II, as it was in deplorable condition after four years of disuse. The track’s owner, Eddie Rickenbacher, even considered tearing it down and selling the land. Fortunately, in 1945, Tony Hulman purchased the track for $750,000. Hulman and Wilbur Shaw hastily renovated the track for racing in the next year, and launched a long-term campaign to replace the wooden grandstand with structures of steel and concrete. In May of 1946, the American Automobile Association ran its first postwar Indy 500, preserving an American tradition. Today, the Indy 500 is the largest single day sporting event in the world.

February 10

1966 Nader Testimony Culminates Safety Hearings
Ralph Nader testifies before the Senate Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization of the Senate Government Operations Committee, chaired by Abraham A. Ribicoff (D-CT). Robert Kennedy (D-NY) was a member of the subcommittee, as was Jacob Javits (R-NY). The Subcommittee's investigation of auto safety public policy began March 22, 1965 and Nader served as an unpaid consultant to the subcommittee staff, members of which were unaware he was writing "Unsafe at Any Speed" at the same time. The book was published in October 1965, making public his consulting role, and he was added to the witness list. Nader attacked the automotive industry's unwillingness to consider the safety of the consumer, or as Nader put it, "insisting on maintaining the freedom to rank safety wherever it pleases on its list of considerations." General Motors (GM) responded to Nader's criticism by launching an investigation into his personal life and accusing Nader of being gay and anti-Semitic. Nader filed an invasion of privacy suit against GM and ultimately exacted $425,000 from the automotive giant. A hearing report released in May 1966 indicated that safety defects in the automobile industry were more pervasive than the public knew. The report and the publicity surrounding GM's actions led directly to the September 1966 passage of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act.

February 11

1951 Hornet Stings Big Three
Marshall Teague drove a Hudson Hornet to victory on the beach oval of the 160-mile Daytona Grand National at Daytona Beach, Florida, beginning Hudson’s extraordinary run on the NASCAR circuit. In 1948, Hudson introduced the revolutionary "step-down" chassis design that is still used in most cars today. Until Hudson’s innovation all car drivers had stepped up into the driver’s seats. The "step-down" design gave the Hornet a lower center of gravity and, consequently, better handling. Fitted with a bigger engine in 1951, the Hudson Hornet became a dominant force on the NASCAR circuit. For the first time a car not manufactured by the Big Three was winning big. Excited by the publicity generated by their success on the track, Hudson executives began directly backing their racing teams, providing the team cars with everything they needed to make their cars faster. The Big Three, fearing that losses on the track would translate into losses on the salesroom floor, hurried to back their own cars. Thus was born the system of industry-backed racing that has become such a prominent marketing tool today. The Hudson Hornet would contend for nearly every NASCAR race between 1951 and 1955, when rule changes led to an emphasis on horsepower over handling.

February 12

1900 Patented Packard
J.W. Packard received his first automotive patent a year after forming his company with partner George Weiss. Packard became interested in building cars after purchasing a Winton horseless carriage. The Winton proved unreliable and after nearly a year of fixing up his horseless carriage, Packard decided he would manufacture his own automobile. Among Packard’s necessary automotive innovations were the "H" gear-slot pattern and the gas pedal, begging the question would anyone ever have been able to "drop the hammer" or "step on it" without him?

February 13

1958 T-Bird Gets More Sitting Room
The first Ford Thunderbird with four seats was introduced. The four-passenger "square bird" converted the top-of-the-line Ford from a sports car to a luxury car. The new four-seater packed a 352-cubic-inch 300 horsepower V-8. 38,000 cars were initially sold, making the T-Bird one of only two American cars to increase sales between 1957 and 1958. The T-Bird has become a symbol of 1950s American culture, immortalized in movies like Grease and rock songs like the Beach Boys’ "I Get Around."

1898 U.K.’s First Auto Fatality
Henry Lindfield of Brighton, England, died on this day after being involved in an automobile accident, becoming the first driving fatality in Great Britain.

February 14

1948 NASCAR Runs
A week before the organization was officially incorporated, NASCAR held its first race for modified stock cars on a 3.2 mile-course at Daytona Beach. In the 150-mile race that featured almost exclusively prewar Fords, Red Byron edged Marshall Teague to become NASCAR’s first champion. Stock car racing would become a tradition at Daytona, but prewar Fords would not. By 1949 the Olds 88 had become NASCAR’s dominant vehicle.

February 15

1902 Olds Ads
Oldsmobile ran its first national automobile advertisement in the Saturday Evening Post. Ransom Olds was no stranger to innovations in the field of publicity. A year earlier Olds had sent one of his assistants, Roy Chapin, on a voyage from Detroit to New York in a 1901 Olds Runabout. In spite of the absence of proper roads, gas stations, or repair garages, nine days and 800 miles later, Chapin arrived in New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel unscathed. Newspaper accounts of the journey boosted publicity for the Runabout. In one year Olds’s company increased its sales of Runabouts from 425 to 2,500. With the help of newspaper advertisements annual sales would jump another 100 percent to 5,000 cars by 1904.

February 16

1852 The Studebaker Story
Henry and Clement Studebaker founded H. & C. Studebaker, a blacksmith and wagon building business, in South Bend, Indiana. The brothers made their fortune manufacturing during the Civil War, as The Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company became the world’s largest manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages. With the advent of the automobile, Studebaker converted its business to car manufacturing, becoming one of the larger independent automobile manufacturers. During World War II, Studebaker manufactured airplanes for the war effort and emphasized its patriotic role by releasing cars called "The President," "The Champion," and "The Commander." Like many of the independents, Studebaker fared well during the war by producing affordable family cars. As its advertisement claimed, "Studebaker is building an unlimited quantity of airplane engines, military trucks and other material for national defense… and a limited number of passenger cars which are the finest Studebaker has ever produced." However, after the war the Big Three, bolstered by their new government-subsidized production facilities, were too much for many of the independents. Studebaker was no exception. Post World War II competition drove Studebaker to its limits, and the company was absorbed by the Packard Corporation in 1954.

February 17

1911 A Real Self-Starter
The first self-starter, based on patented inventions created by GM engineers Clyde Coleman and Charles Kettering, was installed in a Cadillac. In the early years of fierce competition with Ford, the self-starter would play a key role in helping GM to keep pace. The Ford Model T’s crank starter caused its share of broken jaws and ribs. Charles Kettering, the founder of Delco (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company), devised countless improvements for the automobile, including lighting and ignition systems, lacquer finishes, antilock fuels, and leaded gasoline. Prior to his work with cars, Kettering also invented the electric cash register.

February 18

1898 Birth of a Legend
Enzo Anselmo Ferrari was born in Modena, Italy, on this day. After fighting in the First World War, where he lost both his brother and his father, Ferrari became a professional driver with the Costruzioni Meccaniche Nazional (CMN.) The following year, Ferrari moved to Alpha Romeo, establishing a relationship that would span two decades and take Ferrari from test driver to the director post of the Alpha Racing Division. In 1929, Enzo founded Scuderia Ferrari, an organization that began as a racing club but that by 1933 had absorbed the entire race-engineering division at Alpha. For financial reasons Alpha took back control of their racing division from Ferrari in 1939. His pride wounded, Ferrari left Alpha Romeo in 1940, transforming the Scuderia into an independent manufacturing company, the Auto Avio Costruzioni Ferrari. Construction of the first Ferrari vehicle was delayed until the end of World War II. Like Ferdinand Porsche, Enzo Ferrari suffered during the war, as his factory was bombed on numerous occasions. Still, Ferrari persisted with his work. In 1949, Ferrari’s 166 won the 24 Hours at Le Mans, Europe’s most famous car race. Ferrari would not look back. His passion for racing drove his company to become one of the world’s premier racecar builders. Ferrari cars would win twenty-five world titles and over 5,000 individual races during Enzo’s forty-year reign. Off the track the company faired just as well. Responding to Ferrari’s personal demand that his engineers create the finest sports car in the world, the company produced the F40 in 1987. With a top speed of 201 MPH and a 0 to 60 time of 3.5 seconds, the F40 may have been Ferrari’s crowning achievement. Enzo Anselmo Ferrari died on August 14, 1988.

February 19

1954 T-Bird Hatches
The Ford Thunderbird was born in prototype form on this day. It wouldn’t be released to the market on a wide scale until the fall of 1954, the beginning of the 1955 model year. The T-Bird was a scaled-down Ford built for two. It came with a removable fiberglass hard top and a convertible canvas roof for sunny days. Armed with a V-8 and sporty looks, the T-Bird was an image car. For $2,944 a driver could drop the top, turn the radio dial, and enter a more promising world. GM had created the Corvette two years earlier to meet the needs of the GI who had developed a taste for European sports cars. In keeping with Ford’s cautious tradition, the T-Bird, its response to the Corvette, still looked like a Ford and was classified as a "personal car" and not a "sports car." But it was popular. Just as it had relied heavily on one car, the Model T, in its early stages, Ford would rely heavily on the T-Bird to bolster its image as a progressive car maker capable of keeping pace with GM. A decade later the Mustang would take the torch from the T-Bird, but to remember Ford in the 1950s one only needs call to mind the stylish growl of the Thunderbird’s V-8.

February 20

1993 From Farm to Fame
Ferrucio Lamborghini died on this day in 1993, leaving behind a remarkable life story of a farm boy with big dreams. Born on his family’s farm outside of Bologna, Italy, Lamborghini grew up tinkering with tractors. He enrolled in an industrial college near Bologna, where he studied machinery. Graduating just before World War II, Lamborghini then served as an engineer in the Italian Air Force. After the war he returned to his family’s farm and began assembling tractors from leftover war vehicles. Lamborghini built such high-quality tractors that by the mid-1950s, the Lamborghini Tractor Company had become one of Italy’s largest farm equipment manufacturers. But Ferrucio dreamt of cars. In 1963 he bought land, built an ultra-modern factory, and hired distinguished Alfa Romeo designer Giotti Bizzarini. Together they set out to create the ultimate automobile. In 1964 Lamborghini produced the 300 GT, a large and graceful sports car. By 1974 Ferrucio Lamborghini had sold out of the business bearing his name, but the company would never deviate from his initial mission to create exquisite vehicles at whatever cost.

February 21

1954 Victory with no Brakes
The 1954 Grand National at Daytona was a microcosm of early NASCAR history. The crowds gathered to see which of the two dominant models of stock car--the fast Olds 88 or the tight handling Hudson Hornet—would take control of the race. However, the first car into the last turn of the first lap wasn’t a Hudson or an Olds, but rather Lee Petty’s Chrysler New Yorker. Unfortunately, Petty was going faster than his car was, and the New Yorker crashed through the wooden embankment at the back of the turn. Unperturbed, Petty got back in the race. Nineteen laps later his brakes failed. Driving the rest of the race with no brakes, Petty downshifted his way into a competitive position. A late stop for fuel, though, sealed his fate, as he overshot his pit and lost precious seconds. Petty crossed the finish line second to the favored Olds 88 car driven by Tim Flock. The next morning Petty, eating breakfast with his family in a hotel restaurant, learned that Flock’s Olds had been disqualified. Petty had won Daytona with no brakes.

February 22

1923 Landmark Chevy
The 1,000,000th Chevy was produced on this day. Chevrolet began when William Durant hired Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss racecar driver and star of the Buick Racing Team, to design a new car. Durant hoped to challenge the success of the Ford Model T with an affordable, reliable car. Chevrolet wanted to design a finer sort of automobile, however. Their product, the Classic Six, was an elegant car with a large price tag. But Durant built two more models, sturdier and cheaper, and Chevy was on its way. Durant eventually made over a million dollars in profits on his Chevrolet marque, money that allowed him to reacquire a majority interest in GM stock. Durant eventually merged the two companies and created GM’s current configuration. Louis Chevrolet left the company before the merger, leaving only his name to benefit from the company’s success.

February 23

1893 Diesel Engine
Rudolf Diesel received a German patent for the diesel engine on this day. The diesel engine burns fuel oil rather than gasoline and differs from the gasoline engine in that it uses compressed air in the cylinder rather than a spark to ignite the fuel. Diesel engines were used widely in Europe for their efficiency and power, and are still used today in most heavy industrial machinery. In 1977, GM became the first American car company to introduce diesel-powered automobiles. The diesel-powered Olds 88 and 98 models were 40 percent more fuel-efficient than their gas-powered counterparts. The idling and reduced power efficiency of the diesel engine is much greater than that of the spark engine. Diesel cars never caught on in the U.S., partly because the diesel engine’s greater efficiency is counter-balanced by its higher emissions of soot, odor, and air pollutants. Today, the argument over which engine is more environmentally friendly is still alive; some environmentalists argue that in spite of the diesel engine’s exhaust pollution, its fuel efficiency may make it more environmentally sound than the gasoline engine in the long run.

February 24

1909 Hudson Motor Incorporated
The Hudson Motor Car Company, founded by Joseph Hudson, in Detroit, Michigan, was incorporated on this day. Hudson is perhaps most famous for its impact on NASCAR racing, which it accomplished thanks to a revolutionary design innovation. In 1948 Hudson introduced the Monobuilt design. The Monobuilt consisted of a chassis and frame that were combined in a unified passenger compartment, producing a strong, lightweight design with a beneficial lower center of gravity that did not affect road clearance. Hudson called the innovation the "step-down design" because, for the first time, drivers had to step down to get into their cars. In 1951, Hudson introduced the Hornet. Fitted with a bigger engine than previous Hudson models, the Hudson Hornet became a dominant force on the NASCAR circuit. Because of its lower center of gravity, the Hornet glided around corners with relative ease, leaving its unstable competitors in the dust. For the first time a car not manufactured by the Big Three was winning big. In 1952 Hudson won twenty-nine of thirty-four events. Excited by their success on the track, Hudson executives began directly backing their racing teams, providing the team cars with everything they needed to increase success. The Big Three responded, and in doing so brought about the system of industry-backed racing that has become such a prominent marketing tool today. The Hudson Hornet would dominate NASCAR racing until 1955 when rule changes led to an emphasis on horsepower over handling.

February 25

1938 Miami Drive-In Debuts
Miami’s first drive-In movie theater opened on this day. Invented in 1933 by Richard Hollingshead, the first drive-in debuted on Crescent Boulevard in Camden New, Jersey. Admission was 25 cents per car and 25 cents per individual, with no car paying more than one dollar. Hollingshead received a patent for his idea in 1933, but it was later repealed in 1939. Without a patent to hinder them, copycats began opening up drive-ins all across the country. By 1938, most metropolitan areas had drive-in theaters. The drive-in craze would reach its peak in 1963 when 3,502 theaters were in operation across the country.

February 26

1903 Winton's Bullet
Alexander Winton, driving his Winton Bullet, sets the first speed record ever achieved at Daytona Beach, Florida. Built in 1902 the "Bullet Number 1" drove a measured mile at over 65 MPH. The first automobile race at Daytona was held a year earlier when Winton and his Bullet took on Ransom Olds. The race was declared a tie as both cars reached a top speed of 57 MPH. For hardware lovers, the "Bullet 1" carried a massive water-cooled four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 792 cubic inches. It had automatic intake valves, operated by compressed air, and an overhead cam. Winton’s "Bullet 2" carried two four-cylinder engines bolted together, creating a straight eight. Winton’s cars were driven by legendary speed demon Barney Oldfield whose celebrated competitions with Ralph DePalma carried car racing through its first decade. Oldfield was America’s first racing icon. Fans loved to watch him speed to victory with an unsmoked cigar clamped in his teeth.

February 27

1948 Who Made the Jeep?
The Federal Trade Commission issued a restraining order, preventing the Willys-Overland Company from representing that it had developed the Jeep. Willys-Overland did, in fact, end up producing the Army vehicle that would come to be known as the Jeep; but it was the Bantam Motor Company that first presented the innovative design to the Army.

February 28

1903 Ford hires the Dodges
Henry Ford hired John F. and Horace E. Dodge to supply the chassis and running gear for his 650 Ford automobiles. John and Horace, who began their business careers as bicycle manufacturers in 1897, first entered the automobile industry as auto parts manufacturers in 1901. Manufacturing car bodies for Henry Ford and Ransom Olds, the Dodge Brothers had become the largest parts-manufacturing firm in the U.S. by 1910. In 1914, the brothers founded the Dodge Brothers Motor Car Company and began work on their first automobiles. Dodge vehicles were known for their quality and sturdiness, and by 1919 the Dodge Brothers were among the richest men in America. Their good fortune didn’t hold, however. Both brothers died of influenza in 1920. Their company was sold to a New York bank, before eventually being purchased by Chrysler in 1928. Under Chrysler’s direction, Dodge became a successful producer of cars and trucks marketed for their ruggedness.

1932 End of A Era
The last Ford Model A was produced, ending an era for the Ford Motor Company. The successor to the Model T, the Model A was an attempt to escape the image of bare bones transportation that had driven both the Model T’s success and its ultimate failure in the market. The vastly improved Model A boasted elegant Lincoln-like styling, a peppy 40 horsepower four-cylinder engine, and, of course, a self-starting mechanism. The Model A was as affordable as its predecessor, however, and with a base price at $460, five million Model A’s would roll onto American highways between 1927 and 1932.

February 29

1908 On the Road to Standardization
At the Brooklands track in Weybridge, England, a standardization test of three random Cadillacs took place under the watchful eye of the Royal Automobile Club. This test was the first step towards a heightened reputation for American motor cars overall. Proving the concept of interchangeable parts to be a valid one was a leap towards mass-production and more ease in car repair. (note: The three cars were completely disassembled, the parts mixed around between cars, then reassembled to prove that Cadillac had truly built cars with interchangeable parts. The cars were then driven 500 miles. Up to this time, most parts had to be "fitted" during assembly, including engine parts.)