A Quiz about old American cars

[solo1]

What car maker was the first to introduce hydraulic brakes and what year?  Chrysler in 1927.

What car manufacturer was one of the first(maybe the first) to use a planetary transmission in its production cars?  Model T Ford.

What car maker made a select few cars with a body of stainless steel?  Ford, 1936.

What car maker was the first to introduce an all steel body in its production lines?  GM 1935, Body by Fisher called Turret body if my memory serves.

What car was the first of the Big Three to have a OHV V8?  1949 Olds 88,98 AND Caddy (forgot that )  Note that Chrysler made the hemi that year but it was in front of a 'slushomatic' tranny that killed its performance whereas the Olds had a four speed hydramatic that would take on any stock Chrysler that had  its version of the Chevy Powerslide (power glide)

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?  Corvette with a straight six 'stovebolt' engine

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?Buick

What car maker made a car that became known as the 'P*****head ?   Studebaker with their front end designed to look like an airplane with a propellor hub,  hence.........

A different question.  What German car's engine had wood in it?  Hint, the engine is a boxer.

The Volkswagon 'Beetle'.  I was a tech on VW's in the early '60's and the engine had spruce dowels inside the pushrods to act as one way valves to cut down the amount of oil pumped  , a German 'fix'

AND last but not least;;;;

What Car maker existed in the '30's and made three expensive BIG cars with innovations such as superchargers, straight 8's with double overhead cams, front wheel drive, boat tails, and impeccable workmanship??  Gotta answer........ Auburn, Cord, Duesenberg, of Auburn Indiana, and subject of the upcoming ACDC on June 26th,  brought to you by your brother VRCC members Mad6Gun and the old fart Solo1.    A blatant infomercial!

[R J]

Well old timer, what are the answers?

I'd like to see how close I was.

Still a workin on trying to make this run...

Going to try a converter, cigarette lighter input and then use the 110 outlet from it..

Otherwise it says the vehicle supply system for the cigarette lighten doesn't supply enough power.   That is if I plug the machine directly with theri supplied cord.        DUH...........

[Super Santa]

What car was the first of the Big Three to have a OHV V8?  1949 Cadillac

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?   1953 Corvette

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?    Buick?

Just a few of my guesses.

[solo1]

What car was the first of the Big Three to have a OHV V8?  1949 Cadillac

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?   1953 Corvette

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?    Buick?

Just a few of my guesses.

Good guesses.  I was thinking of my '49 Olds Rocket 88 as the first V8, along with the 98.   I don't know about the Caddy.
Corvette was correct.  It had a 'stovebolt' engine in '53.
Buick was right. Three and four portholes with the hood ornament sparrow strainer.

[Super Santa]

I had a '49 Cadillac and it had an OHV engine.  Later on had a 1947 Cadillac.  It was a flat head with a standard transmission.

[f6gal]

Being only 29, I couldn't possibly know those answers.   
Youse old guys are cheatin' again!   

[tank_post142]

1 model A duesenburg 1921
2 reo  about 1934-5
3 ford  in the mid 30s deluxe sedan
4 1914 dodge
5 i think it was olds?
6 53 vette
7 55-57 imperial
8 roadrunner?
9 sounds like a vw
10 auburn?

[gregc]

1. Ford traded with Dodge, paint systems for hydraulic brakes, don't know who had what
2.GM

[Grumpy]

What car was the first of the Big Three to have a OHV V8?  1949 Cadillac

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?   1953 Corvette

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?    Buick?

Just a few of my guesses.

Hat to burst the bubble, but Chevrolet made the first overhead valve v8 in 1917, not well known. here is a link to one......  http://www.gmphotostore.com/1917-Chevrolet-Series-D-Engine/productinfo/53216861/

[solo1]

Yep, I was aware that Loui Chevrolet made a OHV 8. I should have qualified my post by saying that I referred to mostly the Big Three and 1930's-on.

See my answers in the original post.  Everything was based on my memory, not Google or?
At 82, I got to make some excuses but overall, not too bad.  Might I say that 'I was there'?

Just for info, my first car was a 1929 Chevy with internal AND external mechanical brakes shoes on the rear drums.  What a PITA to adjust!  I won't even talk about the non synced tranny

[hubcapsc]

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?  Corvette with a straight six 'stovebolt' engine

I knew that one!

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?Buick

We had one... (it had port holes, what's a sparrow strainer?)

[solo1]

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?  Corvette with a straight six 'stovebolt' engine

I knew that one!

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?Buick

We had one... (it had port holes, what's a sparrow strainer?)

The hood ornament with the ring and torpedo in the center. 

BTW, here's a pic of my '49 Olds Rocket 88.  The only mod was a set of Cherry bombs mufflers.  I could easily beat any production car out even the '55 Chevy 283 OHV until the '56 Chevy with , I think, a modified 327?? engine from the Corvette.

[R J]

1. Ford traded with Dodge, paint systems for hydraulic brakes, don't know who had what
2.GM

Dodge had the hydraulic brakes.

Henry Ford was snockered into hydraulic brakes.  He felt he should have said NO, but YES was said with a stipulation.     The stipulation was to let the factory put hydraulic on 10 cars.   He told them if 7 of the 10 could maintain no leaks by morning he would switch all production cars to hydraulic.  He had them driven around town part of the night and then parked till morning.    The next morning 4 of them were leaking.      NO hydraulics for the Ford.    That came from a family member who worked for FORD and retired from FORD after 35 years service.

[Redline +]

Just for the record, first production Chyrsler Hemi engines were released in the fall of 1950 as 1951 models. Been kickin' a$$ ever since...ya...I'm a Mopar guy!

Redline 

[solo1]

Yeah, that's right.  Great series of engines back in the early '50's  However, the Chrysler auto trannys were lousy!  All that power of their hemi's was sucked up in the tranny.

Today, almost all cars have hemispherical combustion chambers now, especially the four valve heads.  Chrysler didn't start it though.  My 1946 Matchless 500 cc single had a hemi head.  It probably didn't start it either.

[f6john]

What car was the first to have a fiberglass body and what year?  Corvette with a straight six 'stovebolt' engine

I knew that one!

What car had 'portholes' and a 'sparrow strainer"  ?Buick

We had one... (it had port holes, what's a sparrow strainer?)

The hood ornament with the ring and torpedo in the center. 

BTW, here's a pic of my '49 Olds Rocket 88.  The only mod was a set of Cherry bombs mufflers.  I could easily beat any production car out even the '55 Chevy 283 OHV until the '56 Chevy with , I think, a modified 327?? engine from the Corvette.

    Nope, no 327 in '56. Maybe a dual quad 283 with the hi-po heads? 283 ci. 283 hp. rating

[solo1]

Yes, you're right!  That rings a bell.  That 283 quad would go!  My Olds didn't do too bad, not as bad as the specs indicated:  303 CI, 135hp at 3600 rpm BUT the max torque of 263 at a low 1800rpm.  Coupled with a four speed Hydramatic, the best of any auto tranny that year, the OLds would leave rubber easily from a stop.  I easily beat a 1954 Dodge with a (advertised) 140 hp OHV engine, straight shift with the overdrive locked out.