It's Time to Play "WHO AM I"?

Mr_Shiftright

I'm ANOTHER one of those engine-inventors. My status was considerably higher than Herr Wankel's, and yet my failure was far greater than his. In the same way he predicted that his engine would replace the conventional piston engine, I predicted (rather loudly, unfortunately for me) that my engine would replace the conventional water-cooled engine. The company I worked for only built about 500 of these engines before we all realized that this was going to be a disaster. Given my past record, everyone was quite surprised I didn't see this coming.

Who Am I and What Was My Engine?

hpmctorque

Could this have been one of Henry Ford's experimental engines? Don't have time to research these now, but as I recall Ford Motor Co. built some unusual experimental engines while Henry I was still president (I believe it was in that time period). Will do some research later if someone doesn't come up with the answer in the meantime.

texases

Might it be Powell Crosley and his copper-jacketed engine that sprang leaks? But I don't put his engine designing status very high, so probably not...

stickguy

no name, but Chrysler Turbine?

lemko

Here's a shot in the dark, but are you Charles Kettering and is the engine the copper-cooled Chevy?

Mr_Shiftright

Gee, these were all good, imaginative guesses, and all incorrect :P

I examined them carefully to see if we could in fact have two answers to my puzzle but upon reflection I don't think so. Ford's experimental engines never were released to market; The Chrysler turbine was perhaps a marketing disaster but it worked pretty darn well for what it was, and the Crosley.....well, that was kind of a disaster but really wasn't invented, nor hyped, by such a famous person as I have in mind.

So keep going.....

Hint: MAJOR figure in automotive history and MAJOR make of automobile.

If you still don't get it, next hint will be the time period.

andys120

Gottlieb Daimler? IIRC Mercedes experimented with air-cooled rear engines ca. 1930

Mr_Shiftright

Nope.

Okay, another couple hints.

This happened in America in the 1920s

The inventor was a real self-starter.

texases

Not Lemko's answer in #1162?

lemko

I mentioned Charles Kettering and the Copper-cooled Chevrolet.

Mr_Shiftright

Oops! Missed your answer...or maybe it wasn't up yet.

Anyway, YES, you're right lemko---Charles Kettering's Chevy Cooper-Cooled engine. A disaster for Chevy in 1923, because they had been gaining on Ford and this was a black mark on the GM reputation.

isellhondas

I had a three year run during the sixties with minor changes cosmetically until they changed my body style.

During those three years, while I pretty much looked the same, I used a different automatic transmission during every one of those three years.

Who am I?

uplanderguy

The first Riviera.

isellhondas

You got it!

fezo

I introduced the first self adjusting brakes to the American road but didn't get much respect for it....

omarman

I'll guess Joseph J. Cole who died in 1925 along with the last cars produced by the Cole Motor Car Company - "Designed and built especially for those who appreciate the finer motor car." They made several different models in 1925 but I don't know if all of them were equipped with self adjusting brakes. He was in the process of shutting down the company when he became ill and died.

fezo

If so it's way ahead of the folks I'm thinking of. A few years before all cars had them around 1962.

omarman

I assumed a bit of irony or bad timing with my answer. Someone who developed a gadget or better mouse trap a bit too late to reap recognition or take it to another level. "It's a death row pardon two minutes too late." I may be on the wrong track by looking for that...

J.J. Cole was a pioneer car maker in Indiana but also had a real passion for aviation. That and competition from other upscale marques was a big factor in closing down his car company. Dead at age 56 he's now remembered more as an innovative car guy rather than a Howard Hughes man searching for "The Next Big Thing" in life.

Somehow early 20th century America fostered a number of bigger than life pioneers who changed the world. Repeatedly. The timing of his death with the end of Cole auto production left J.J. Cole as an odd footnote in early American industrial history. By all accounts he was more than that, but "self adjusting brakes" is where it lands with an asterisk! For example in the pic below the aging J.J. Cole is shaking hands with a pilot of a plane bearing the Cole emblem. But what plane? What event? What year? Don't know. It's easier to find sheet music for a song written about the Cole 30 Flyer cars from 1910!

isellhondas

In 1963, Fords and GM cars had self adjusters. I'm not sure about Chrysler products.

A lot of brake wear problems were blamed on the self adjusters and they made conversion kits to convert them back to manual adjusters.

I remember Fords, especially Thunderbirds and the wagons would just eat through linings depending on driving conditions. It wasn't until 1965 when disc brakes were introduced on these that the problems went away.

Mr_Shiftright

I was a 28 year veteran of the Studebaker Corporation in the late 1940s, and like many other ambitious men, I wanted to start my own car company, which I did in any creative fashion I could muster. However, unlike Tucker, Playboy and Davis, who fell victim to shady stock deals and the wrath of the SEC, I passed muster and got the green light to set up franchises and build a small light car for those millions of U.S. veterans hankering for a new automobile in an era of new-car scarcity.

I built a few dozen cars, secured a factory and started warming up all my many contacts in the automobile industry. Then, one day, I decided to die suddenly of a heart attack at age 56. The entire company collapsed without my guidance, since my staff and board or directors were all hapless rookies compared to me.

Out of all the men who ventured into the small car field in the 1940s, and failed, I was the one who had the skill and business acumen to actually pull it off.

WHO AM I?

fezo

You hit on it with the Fords. They introduced their first ones in the 1958 model year - on the Edsel.

isellhondas

Yeah, I seem to remember Ford had them first but I didn't know it was Edsel that pioneered them.

isellhondas

Who ever heard of such a thing when I was new?

I was the first US car to have it and what a unique option it was!

Who am I?

isellhondas

I actually got 100%!

How about you?

http://www.americantorque.com/game2/8/0/

tjc78

Chrysler Imperial?

isellhondas

Not the car I was thinking about.

When did the Imperials offer cruise control as an option?

Mr_Shiftright

I presume you don't mean the C-clamp that Harley riders put on their throttle? :P

xwesx

Ugh. I performed dismally; 25 of 48 for a whopping 52%.

Given my familiarity with 1950's automobiles, though, that's not too bad. Interestingly, I managed to pinpoint every Ford in the lineup, and even managed to ace questions 8, 10, and 12.

stever

I did good with many of the Ford questions too, and got all the hood ornaments. But overall I was at 56%.

xwesx

That makes me feel better; thanks, Steve! I suppose I was being too hard on myself, what with only isellhondas' report card for comparison. :P

stever

He must be lots older than either of us. Of course, I wouldn't have recognized them in the 60s either.

tjc78

When did the Imperials offer cruise control as an option?

1958... I dug this up. 58 Imperial

kyfdx

71%

34 out of 48..

'50s Pontiacs just kill me... I can't pick em out..

fintail

90% My worst showing was the one about some Mopars.

jwilliams2

I got 98%...course I started driving in the mid 50's....so it was easy. :P

tjc78

Ouch only 46%.... If it was 70s or 80s I would have done a little better

bhill2

I managed 96% (mixed up the Willys and the Henry J), despite starting to drive in the mid '60s. I was a car freak from toddlerhood, though.

isellhondas

No, and I don't mean the throttle levels Model A Fords had!
:P

isellhondas

I started driving in the late sixties which makes me older than most here but not all of you!

Give up on the cruise control question?

jwilliams2

I always understood cruise control was invented by Ralph Teetor, a blind man, back in 1945. And that the first car was the 1958 Chrysler Imperial as tjc78 mentioned above. Is this not so?

isellhondas

You are correct anout the inventor but off a bit on the year and the manufacturer.

tjc78

I'm just gonna throw out a wild guess at the Eldorado then.

uplanderguy

I got 100%.

The only one that gave me any pause, was the hood ornament for the '56 Lincoln.

I was born in 1958.

isellhondas

Yep, you got it.

1957 Cadillac Eldorados were available with cruise control.

I think it was 1959 when the other Caddys got cruise as an option. I've seen a couple of 59's with CC but at close to 100.00 it wasn't much in demand.

Besides, a lot of people were afraid of it hanging up and not shutting off.

isellhondas

Good job!

I kinda guessed at the Lincoln hood ornament but picked it as a process of elimination.

hoosiergrandad

You're right that the cruise control appeared first in the58 Imperial, but it was invented in 1945 by Ralph Teetor, a truly amazing guy. He was a mechanical engineer , holder of many patents, president of Perfect Circle, and BLIND from the age of 5.

hoosiergrandad

Oops....missed your post. Thought I had something to contribute. Teetor was from my neck of the woods.

hoosiergrandad

Got 46 out of 48, and for the same reason. I'm 62, and know 50's and 60's cars better than later decades.

stever

I'm sure I'd flunk '90's and '00's sedans badly too.

ateixeira

I'm the opposite. I'd have a shot at 100% if you went 1980 and later.

I got 54% in that quiz, better than I expected to do.

I think the thing is my dad was not really a car guy, so I only got in to cars in the mid 1980s.