Posts
“In order to know who you are you must know where you come from…”
The History of Car Culture
If you’re like me you owe the whole the seat of your pants to Henry Ford and The Daimler Benz Group. This two started the concept of what I’ve been eating, sleeping and drinking for the most part of my life.
In the late 1800’s Daimler Benz developed one of the first concepts for the automobile in Germany. Not more than 20 years later a business man name Henry began tinkering around with the idea of not only progressing on Daimler's’ vision for the automobile but also making automobiles with command amenities. More Importantly Henry wanted to make automobiles affordable enough for everyone to own. We all know Henry Fords’ dreams came to life; as today the average American home has more than two vehicles.
The basic concept of why we breathe cars came from these two auto manufacturers but all credit goes to General Motors for the idea of customization. Almost one hundred years ago GM made a dramatic change in their vehicle line up that left a permanent mark on the car culture….
Anyone know what it is? You guessed it! As a competitive edge over Ford Motor Company; GM offered their vehicles in different colors. So, essentially Fords’ vision was about productivity and GM‘s focused on style and personality; hints the strong presents of customization in automotive culture today.
During the First World War the automobiles made a dramatic change. Vehicles began to emphasize speed. In the 1930’s the concept of going fast was embarrassed strongly by strong armed bank robbers and alcohol bootleggers. These criminal liked to hop their cars up so that they could out run the police during prohibition. Around this time automotive makers began to product coupes- like the famous 32’ deuce coupe. The first automotive enthusiast began tinkering with the cars by adding horsepower and popular paint jobs of America’s WWII fighter planes to their cars. This was the birth of the hot rod.
In the 1920’s to 1940’s us war veterans built vehicles that where built for speed and often had elaborate paint schemes. These pioneers where the first car enthusiast (equivalent to IT geek today); these enthusiasts dove head into a undeveloped culture and formed it to into a lasting American past time.
The first major drag races where held by bootleggers/hot-rodder in the middle of the dessert.
One of the more popular of these races was the March Meet:
CLIP OF BAKERSFIELD DRAG RACING/ Author unknown
“In evolutionary terms what we call Drag Racing today is really a hybrid resulting from a cross between two other forms of racing, dry lakes racing and illegal street racing. In the years immediately following WW II a relatively small group of racers from Bakersfield started a car club know as the Bakersfield Coupe and Roadster Club so that they could be sanctioned by the Southern California Timing Association and race competitively on the dry lakes of Southern California. However, the lure of Drag Racing was growing, not only in Southern California and Bakersfield, but across the entire country”
These innovative new ideas on how to enjoy vehicles begin a lot of the cool stuff we enjoy today like Rally Racing, Drifting and Hydraulics.
So before you go in public broadcasting that you’re a car guy; KNOW YOUR HISTORY!
Geoff Morris- Drive em’ hard
The History of Car Culture
If you’re like me you owe the whole the seat of your pants to Henry Ford and The Daimler Benz Group. This two started the concept of what I’ve been eating, sleeping and drinking for the most part of my life.
In the late 1800’s Daimler Benz developed one of the first concepts for the automobile in Germany. Not more than 20 years later a business man name Henry began tinkering around with the idea of not only progressing on Daimler's’ vision for the automobile but also making automobiles with command amenities. More Importantly Henry wanted to make automobiles affordable enough for everyone to own. We all know Henry Fords’ dreams came to life; as today the average American home has more than two vehicles.
The basic concept of why we breathe cars came from these two auto manufacturers but all credit goes to General Motors for the idea of customization. Almost one hundred years ago GM made a dramatic change in their vehicle line up that left a permanent mark on the car culture….
Anyone know what it is? You guessed it! As a competitive edge over Ford Motor Company; GM offered their vehicles in different colors. So, essentially Fords’ vision was about productivity and GM‘s focused on style and personality; hints the strong presents of customization in automotive culture today.
During the First World War the automobiles made a dramatic change. Vehicles began to emphasize speed. In the 1930’s the concept of going fast was embarrassed strongly by strong armed bank robbers and alcohol bootleggers. These criminal liked to hop their cars up so that they could out run the police during prohibition. Around this time automotive makers began to product coupes- like the famous 32’ deuce coupe. The first automotive enthusiast began tinkering with the cars by adding horsepower and popular paint jobs of America’s WWII fighter planes to their cars. This was the birth of the hot rod.
In the 1920’s to 1940’s us war veterans built vehicles that where built for speed and often had elaborate paint schemes. These pioneers where the first car enthusiast (equivalent to IT geek today); these enthusiasts dove head into a undeveloped culture and formed it to into a lasting American past time.
The first major drag races where held by bootleggers/hot-rodder in the middle of the dessert.
One of the more popular of these races was the March Meet:
CLIP OF BAKERSFIELD DRAG RACING/ Author unknown
“In evolutionary terms what we call Drag Racing today is really a hybrid resulting from a cross between two other forms of racing, dry lakes racing and illegal street racing. In the years immediately following WW II a relatively small group of racers from Bakersfield started a car club know as the Bakersfield Coupe and Roadster Club so that they could be sanctioned by the Southern California Timing Association and race competitively on the dry lakes of Southern California. However, the lure of Drag Racing was growing, not only in Southern California and Bakersfield, but across the entire country”
These innovative new ideas on how to enjoy vehicles begin a lot of the cool stuff we enjoy today like Rally Racing, Drifting and Hydraulics.
So before you go in public broadcasting that you’re a car guy; KNOW YOUR HISTORY!
Geoff Morris- Drive em’ hard
No comments:
Post a Comment