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03-02-2006, 05:11 PM
Some of you may or may not know the name of David Dunbar Buick . He is the founder of the Buick Motor Co. Inc. and has an amazing story, a literal rags to riches story. David Dunbar Buick was born Sept. 17, 1854 in Scotland and Moved to the United States when he was two years old David Buick was a successful plumbing manufacturer and inventor but loved to dabble in the new horseless carrage and gasoline engine so hestarted to build gasoline powered horseless carrages back in 1899-1900
On May 19, 1903 He offically started to build <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobiles with his engineer Walter L. Marr when it moved its operation from Detroit to Flint (michigan). In 1904 a year after Buick was in operation Buick was teetering on the edge of <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=bankruptcy onmouseover="return (window.status='bankruptcy');" onmouseout="window.status='';">bankruptcy</a> because Buick only made two cars in three years of production, his engineer left his, and his financial backer didnt want to back him any longer. if it wasnt for Billy Durant, owner of General Motors Buick wouldn't be in production today . as the Buick Motor Division of GM within four years of near <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=bankruptcy onmouseover="return (window.status='bankruptcy');" onmouseout="window.status='';">bankruptcy</a> Buick was the #1 producer of <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobiles far surpassing ford and cadillac.
The main reason that Buick was to stay in the #1 spot and the same reason it climbed its way to #1 was because of the creation of the overhead valve single cylinder motor was more powerful and more reliable than most any car on the road, in its day, at 22 to 29 horsepower.
It was all because of Buick that we know GM as it is today, int he beginning Billy Durant built Carrages and disliked the idea of an <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobile but was so impressed with buick that he bought the company as took it to the New York <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a> Show of that year and sold over 900 before 50 vehicles were built. Also because of Buicks success GM created a racing team of Louis Chevrolet and Wild Bob Burmann who won 500 trophies from 1908 to 1910 using a Buick <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>. The success of Buick engines was evident on the race tracks (including 1909 successes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in its inaugural year -- two years before the Indy 500 started), and in endurance tests across the country and around the world. Buick was the only car to complete a 1,000-mile Chicago to new York relay race in 1906; a Buick was the first car to <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=travel onmouseover="return (window.status='travel');" onmouseout="window.status='';">travel</a> across South America, driven from Buenos Aires, Argentina, over the Andes to Santiago, Chili, in 1914. Buicks won hill-climbs across the country -- including one in 1904 with one of the first 40 Buicks ever built.
Buick's star climbed steadily during the roaring twenties, with production reaching more than 260,000 units in 1926. The car's reliability was world famous. but Buick was hard hit by the great <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=depression onmouseover="return (window.status='depression');" onmouseout="window.status='';">depression</a>. In 1933, production plummeted to a little more than 40,000 units. By late that year, Harlow H. Curtice, the 39-year-old president of AC Spark Plug, was tapped by GM to bring Buick back to its former greatness. A super salesman in the Durant mold, Curtice brought power and speed back to Buick. In 1934, the small Series 40 was launched. It gave exceptional performance for its price of $865. Production that year topped 78,000.
Next he issued a simple challenge to Harley Earl, GM's design chief, who always drove Cadillacs. Curtice's challenge: "Design me a Buick you would like to own." The result was the 1936 line which added Roadmaster and other successful names to the Buick stable: Special, Super, Century, Limited. That year production was close to 200,000. Buick, said a GM executive, was "off relief."
Buick continued to break ground in styling and engineering until it turned to World War II military production Feb. 2, 1942. During World War I, Buick had built Liberty aircraft engines and Red Cross ambulances (the division today displays a letter of thanks from Great Britain's then minister of munitions, Winston Churchill, to Durant for war production). In World War II Buick helped make Flint an "arsenal of Democracy" by building aircraft engines, Hellcat tank destroyers and other military hardware. Buick was awarded more than 30 separate military contracts and Buick-built material could be found at virtually every fighting front.
After the war, Buick expanded its facilities under Curtice, who in late 1948 became a GM executive vice-president, a job that led to the GM presidency a few years later. But despite the fact his responsibilities now included all the car and truck divisions, he never really left Buick or Flint. He maintained his home in that city and never owned any other make of car but a Buick
Curtice was succeeded by Ivan L. Wiles, his comptroller at Buick. The postwar period was a great era for Buick in styling, engineering and sales. Sales rose rapidly, to 550,000 in 1950, to 745,000 in 1955. The first torque converter <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>matic transmission, Dynaflow, was introduced on the 1948 Roadmaster; a high-compression V-8 was introduced in 1953. Buick's famous vertical-pillar "toothy" grille, introduced in 1942, became more massive in the postwar era. "Hardtop convertible" styling was introduced on the 1949 Roadmaster Riviera. Buick's famous "portholes" came along that same year.
In 1959, Buick changed the names of its entire product line, discarding Special, Century, Limited and Roadmaster in favor of LeSabre, Invicta and Electra. Under a quality-committed new general manager, Edward D. Rollert, the Special name returned on a compact car with an aluminum V-8 in 1961. The following year, Buick offered the first production V-6 in the Special, which was named Motor Trend magazine's "Car of the Year." Its upper-series cars were also new that year and sales climbed to more than 450,000. In 1963, the Riviera, today considered a modern classic, was introduced.
Buick sales continued to rise through the 1960s and hit a record 821,165 in the 1973 model year. But the bottom fell out again with the oil embargo late that year, and sales totaled fewer than 500,000 in both 1974 and '75.
Buick rebounded. The division re-introduced the V-6 and continued to develop economical engines and attractively designed cars that become ever lighter and more innovative. And when the U.S. <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a> industry as a whole was severely hurt by the high gasoline prices of the early 1980s, Buick actually increased its market penetration significantly. Among its most heralded models during this period was the first front-wheel-drive Buick, the 1979 Riviera S Type with turbocharged V-6 engine, named Motor Trend's "Car of the Year."
Buick broke sales records in both 1983 and 1984 -- with more than one million Buicks sold worldwide in '84 -- and had its second-best sales year in history in 1985. Also in 1985, Buick-powered cars won the pole position and the second spot in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 -- the first time since 1931 that an American production-based car had won the Indy 500 pole. Although those cars did not finish the race itself, the qualifying success was a strong indication that Buick's high-tech engines were highly competitive on the race tracks of America. Buick engines powered 11 of the 33 cars in the 1990 Indy 500 -- more than any other manufacturer -- and in 1992 won the pole position again with a record-setting performance. Al Unser Sr. Finished third in a Buick-powered car.
Buick's 1986 and 1987 Regal Grand National, and a limited-edition 1987 GNX, were widely acclaimed as the quickest American-built cars. They were powered by intercooled and turbocharged versions of the 3.8L V-6.
Defining Buick's future direction, Edward H. Mertz, who became general manager in 1986, said Buick would provide <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobiles with qualities that made them famous -- "premium American motorcars" that would be substantial, distinctive, powerful and mature. Buick would emphasize its position of providing upscale cars -- the most American of all GM cars -- and would continue to emphasize smooth power and high performance along with rich detail and comfortable accommodation. As Buick moved into the 1990s, Park Avenue, Park Avenue Ultra and the return of Roadmaster brought that direction to reality.
Buick was serving notice that it would continue to enhance its reputation for product leadership. For the most part, that has been true for more than 90 years, since the days when David Buick, Eugene Richard and Walter Marr experimented with the valve-in-head engine, even before Billy Durant used Buick to build what became the largest <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>maker in history -- General Motors
Sourced:
http://www.buickclub.org/Misc/history.htm
&
http://www.gnttype.org/general/perfhistory.html
On May 19, 1903 He offically started to build <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobiles with his engineer Walter L. Marr when it moved its operation from Detroit to Flint (michigan). In 1904 a year after Buick was in operation Buick was teetering on the edge of <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=bankruptcy onmouseover="return (window.status='bankruptcy');" onmouseout="window.status='';">bankruptcy</a> because Buick only made two cars in three years of production, his engineer left his, and his financial backer didnt want to back him any longer. if it wasnt for Billy Durant, owner of General Motors Buick wouldn't be in production today . as the Buick Motor Division of GM within four years of near <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=bankruptcy onmouseover="return (window.status='bankruptcy');" onmouseout="window.status='';">bankruptcy</a> Buick was the #1 producer of <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobiles far surpassing ford and cadillac.
The main reason that Buick was to stay in the #1 spot and the same reason it climbed its way to #1 was because of the creation of the overhead valve single cylinder motor was more powerful and more reliable than most any car on the road, in its day, at 22 to 29 horsepower.
It was all because of Buick that we know GM as it is today, int he beginning Billy Durant built Carrages and disliked the idea of an <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobile but was so impressed with buick that he bought the company as took it to the New York <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a> Show of that year and sold over 900 before 50 vehicles were built. Also because of Buicks success GM created a racing team of Louis Chevrolet and Wild Bob Burmann who won 500 trophies from 1908 to 1910 using a Buick <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>. The success of Buick engines was evident on the race tracks (including 1909 successes at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in its inaugural year -- two years before the Indy 500 started), and in endurance tests across the country and around the world. Buick was the only car to complete a 1,000-mile Chicago to new York relay race in 1906; a Buick was the first car to <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=travel onmouseover="return (window.status='travel');" onmouseout="window.status='';">travel</a> across South America, driven from Buenos Aires, Argentina, over the Andes to Santiago, Chili, in 1914. Buicks won hill-climbs across the country -- including one in 1904 with one of the first 40 Buicks ever built.
Buick's star climbed steadily during the roaring twenties, with production reaching more than 260,000 units in 1926. The car's reliability was world famous. but Buick was hard hit by the great <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=depression onmouseover="return (window.status='depression');" onmouseout="window.status='';">depression</a>. In 1933, production plummeted to a little more than 40,000 units. By late that year, Harlow H. Curtice, the 39-year-old president of AC Spark Plug, was tapped by GM to bring Buick back to its former greatness. A super salesman in the Durant mold, Curtice brought power and speed back to Buick. In 1934, the small Series 40 was launched. It gave exceptional performance for its price of $865. Production that year topped 78,000.
Next he issued a simple challenge to Harley Earl, GM's design chief, who always drove Cadillacs. Curtice's challenge: "Design me a Buick you would like to own." The result was the 1936 line which added Roadmaster and other successful names to the Buick stable: Special, Super, Century, Limited. That year production was close to 200,000. Buick, said a GM executive, was "off relief."
Buick continued to break ground in styling and engineering until it turned to World War II military production Feb. 2, 1942. During World War I, Buick had built Liberty aircraft engines and Red Cross ambulances (the division today displays a letter of thanks from Great Britain's then minister of munitions, Winston Churchill, to Durant for war production). In World War II Buick helped make Flint an "arsenal of Democracy" by building aircraft engines, Hellcat tank destroyers and other military hardware. Buick was awarded more than 30 separate military contracts and Buick-built material could be found at virtually every fighting front.
After the war, Buick expanded its facilities under Curtice, who in late 1948 became a GM executive vice-president, a job that led to the GM presidency a few years later. But despite the fact his responsibilities now included all the car and truck divisions, he never really left Buick or Flint. He maintained his home in that city and never owned any other make of car but a Buick
Curtice was succeeded by Ivan L. Wiles, his comptroller at Buick. The postwar period was a great era for Buick in styling, engineering and sales. Sales rose rapidly, to 550,000 in 1950, to 745,000 in 1955. The first torque converter <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>matic transmission, Dynaflow, was introduced on the 1948 Roadmaster; a high-compression V-8 was introduced in 1953. Buick's famous vertical-pillar "toothy" grille, introduced in 1942, became more massive in the postwar era. "Hardtop convertible" styling was introduced on the 1949 Roadmaster Riviera. Buick's famous "portholes" came along that same year.
In 1959, Buick changed the names of its entire product line, discarding Special, Century, Limited and Roadmaster in favor of LeSabre, Invicta and Electra. Under a quality-committed new general manager, Edward D. Rollert, the Special name returned on a compact car with an aluminum V-8 in 1961. The following year, Buick offered the first production V-6 in the Special, which was named Motor Trend magazine's "Car of the Year." Its upper-series cars were also new that year and sales climbed to more than 450,000. In 1963, the Riviera, today considered a modern classic, was introduced.
Buick sales continued to rise through the 1960s and hit a record 821,165 in the 1973 model year. But the bottom fell out again with the oil embargo late that year, and sales totaled fewer than 500,000 in both 1974 and '75.
Buick rebounded. The division re-introduced the V-6 and continued to develop economical engines and attractively designed cars that become ever lighter and more innovative. And when the U.S. <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a> industry as a whole was severely hurt by the high gasoline prices of the early 1980s, Buick actually increased its market penetration significantly. Among its most heralded models during this period was the first front-wheel-drive Buick, the 1979 Riviera S Type with turbocharged V-6 engine, named Motor Trend's "Car of the Year."
Buick broke sales records in both 1983 and 1984 -- with more than one million Buicks sold worldwide in '84 -- and had its second-best sales year in history in 1985. Also in 1985, Buick-powered cars won the pole position and the second spot in qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 -- the first time since 1931 that an American production-based car had won the Indy 500 pole. Although those cars did not finish the race itself, the qualifying success was a strong indication that Buick's high-tech engines were highly competitive on the race tracks of America. Buick engines powered 11 of the 33 cars in the 1990 Indy 500 -- more than any other manufacturer -- and in 1992 won the pole position again with a record-setting performance. Al Unser Sr. Finished third in a Buick-powered car.
Buick's 1986 and 1987 Regal Grand National, and a limited-edition 1987 GNX, were widely acclaimed as the quickest American-built cars. They were powered by intercooled and turbocharged versions of the 3.8L V-6.
Defining Buick's future direction, Edward H. Mertz, who became general manager in 1986, said Buick would provide <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>mobiles with qualities that made them famous -- "premium American motorcars" that would be substantial, distinctive, powerful and mature. Buick would emphasize its position of providing upscale cars -- the most American of all GM cars -- and would continue to emphasize smooth power and high performance along with rich detail and comfortable accommodation. As Buick moved into the 1990s, Park Avenue, Park Avenue Ultra and the return of Roadmaster brought that direction to reality.
Buick was serving notice that it would continue to enhance its reputation for product leadership. For the most part, that has been true for more than 90 years, since the days when David Buick, Eugene Richard and Walter Marr experimented with the valve-in-head engine, even before Billy Durant used Buick to build what became the largest <a class=l href=http://webmaxsearch.com?qq=auto onmouseover="return (window.status='auto');" onmouseout="window.status='';">auto</a>maker in history -- General Motors
Sourced:
http://www.buickclub.org/Misc/history.htm
&
http://www.gnttype.org/general/perfhistory.html