Welcome to The Auto Show
by John H. Davis

Thank you for joining us at the 1999 Washington Auto Show, the first major automotive extravaganza of the year. This 57th annual edition fills two huge floors of the gleaming Washington Convention Center with an almost endless collection of the newest in cars and trucks. If you need product information, knowledgeable representatives from dealers throughout the area are on hand to provide you with as much help as you may desire. By making the most of the 1999 Washington Auto Show, you'll be able to make a most informed purchase or lease decision about that next new car or truck.

Celebrating The Centuries

The theme of the 1999 Washington Auto Show is "Celebrating The Centuries". Appropriate since the 20th century is generally regarded as the century of the automobile, and the coming 21st century offers so much promise for the vehicles we depend on everyday.

In 1900 most people had never seen, let alone actually ridden in, a motorcar. The "horseless carriage" was still mostly a curiosity and a fragile toy for the privileged few. While the first auto show was held that year in Madison Square Garden, it would be almost a decade before Henry Ford's Model-T would begin to ignite the average American's fascination with the motorcar. Yet now, as the calender nears the dawn of a new hundred years, it is clear that no single machine has had more impact on the 20th century than the automobile.

Of Nuts, Bolts, And Wheels

No sooner had the new century dawned than inventors accelerated their interest in the motorcar. 1901 marked the opening of a machine shop by John and Horace Dodge, while appliance maker David Buick pieced together his first vehicle. At the same time the Curved-Dash Oldsmobile became the first American car to be made in quantity. 1901 was also the year that a car called Mercedes appeared. During the first decade of the 20th century the first V-8 engine was developed, as well as the first steel bodied car. Society and government were catching on to the motorcar too as states began issuing licenses and passing statutes against drunk driving. History also tells us that a car was first stolen in St. Louis in 1905.

It's surprising how many mechanical features on today's cars are little more than improvements on ideas formulated nearly a century ago. While GPS-satellite on-board navigation systems are all the rage in today's luxury cars, it should be noted that the Hoffman Road Indicator moving map system dates to 1909. Likewise, the tube-type shock absorber, adjustable air suspension, overhead-cam engine, automotive storage batteries, and even pneumatic tires for motorcars all had their origins prior to 1910.

Pedal To The Metal

Automotive technology hit a torrid pace from 1910 to 1920, due to how motorized vehicles affected the outcome of World War I. The mechanized tank forever changed how ground wars would be fought. Faster, reliable battlefield mobility for troops and supplies became crucial, and that translated into making civilian cars less of a toy and more of a convenience. In 1914, French taxis were used to move badly needed troops to the front lines and are credited with helping stop the Axis powers advance on Paris.

In 1912, Cadillac added a starter motor and independent electrical system to its cars, and the renown Bendix self-starter drive arrived a year later. Once started, automotive speed picked up rapidly. 1919 saw the first car to reach 100 miles per hour at the Indianapolis Speedway, while that same year the first powered brakes surfaced in Europe on a Hispano-Suiza.

Inventing The Car Culture

By 1920, the corner gas station was becoming a common sight, and the automotive industry was already America's biggest business. The first drive-in restaurant opened in Dallas in 1921, while the suburban shopping mall dates to 1922. The next year, Henry Ford's Model-T reached its peak annual production of over 1.8-million units.

During the 1920s and 1930s, automotive technology continued to blossom, but more and more of it focused on comfort and safety, not just getting around. Henry Firestone introduced the balloon tire in 1923. It provided more cushion than the high pressure air-filled treads of the day. The first Lockheed four-wheel hydraulic brakes graced a pricey Duesenberg in 1922, but found their way quickly to a far more affordable Chrysler only two years later. Cadillac introduced shatter-resistant glass in 1926, and the non-grinding synchromesh transmission in 1928. That was the same year that engineers managed to install a car radio that wasn't drowned out by static when the vehicle was in motion. That event began a trend towards fast lane entertainment that is still a driving force behind car selection today.

In 1925, two automotive milestones were reached. The 25 millionth domestic car was built, and the transcontinental Lincoln Highway was completed. American was clearly now a nation on the move.

Never Out Of Gas

The depression of the late 1920s and 1930s marked the demise of many of the smaller and most prestigious motor companies. For the most part, only the strongest firms with their eyes fixed firmly on providing affordable transportation managed to hold on. Plus, with much of the auto business going bust, the competition for remaining sales grew frantic. Differentiation between brands and models became paramount, and for the first time, styling was a factor in automotive marketing.

The concept of streamlining was catching on with car makers around the world, even if the public was not quite so sure. Mimicking early airliners and streamlined trains, Chrysler's sleek Airflow was billed as "The Car Of Tomorrow." After enormous publicity, including the radical safety test of tumbling a prototype off a cliff, the public began to warm to the wave-shaped Airflow. However, production problems doomed the car almost before it was launched, and Airflow efforts ceased in 1937. Overseas, however, streamlining seemed to have a wider appeal ­ all the way from the prestigious 1932 Maybach to the 1937 "People's Car," forerunner of the Volkswagen Beetle. Still, with war clouds on the horizon, it would be another twenty years before automotive design firmly embraced fenders that cheat the wind.

Despite hard times, there was no shortage of automotive engineering innovations during the 1930s. Bendix did its best to incorporate as much advanced technology as it could muster into a swoopy 1936 concept car that included a front-wheel drive engine, electric vacuum gear shift, brake cooling hub caps, and the first true interior ventilation system. It would be only three more years before the first fluid drive automatic transmission would go on sale as the 1940 Oldsmobile Hydra-Matic. 1940 also saw the introduction of another device we now take for granted ­ sealed beam headlights.

Soon, however, consumer automotive development all but ceased. You can make a good case that the 1940s war effort actually saved the American auto industry from financial disaster. Government funds for weapons construction filled factories for the first time since the late 1920s. However, during the years that the army's GP, or Jeep, became the best known automotive marque in the world, automotive engineers continued to learn. The simpler and more robust components they were designing would foster a golden age for the American auto industry in the 1950s.

Fins And Chrome

While the first post-war cars were basically the same ones made prior to the conflict, designers were tuning up for an anticipated economic boom. From 1950 to 1955 watershed innovations included GM's introduction of the first power steering system, Michelin's marketing of the first radial ply tire, and a switch from 6- to 12-volt electrical systems. The latter was needed to more reliably power a host of new convenience features like electric-eye headlight control, power windows, and the first factory air conditioning.

However, with the good times rolling, consumers turned their automotive attention more and more towards what a car looked like, and what its appearance said about them. Automotive artists like Raymond Loewy, Brooks Stevens, and the legendary Bill Mitchell would have much to do with defining the American car of the next three decades. Spurred on by annual sheetmetal redesigns, it wasn't really conspicuous consumption to buy a new car every year. With the rebirth of streamlining and the influence of such graceful passenger aircraft as the Lockheed Constellation, the era of bigger and bigger fins, laden with more and more chrome, was at hand.

Behind the styling, and less obvious, racing technology was having an impact on car design like never before. Lightweight construction, needed in competition, was a big influence on development of the first volume plastic-bodied production car, the 1953 Chevrolet Corvette. Gasoline fuel-injection, another racing and aircraft inspiration, found public acceptance first on the 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL. In 1959, Ford of Europe introduced a passenger car suspension system designed by Earl MacPherson that was inspired by road racing hardware. His simple combination of spring over damper, what we know as the MacPherson strut, would pave the way to affordable, precise-handling front-wheel drive car designs of the 1970s and 1980s.

With Age Comes Responsibility

But, as the 1960s dawned, it was the import of the first Toyota to America that best foretold how car design would evolve towards the close of the 20th century. While the 1960s saw experimentation with high-tech concepts like the Chrysler Turbine Car, the birth of lifestyle cars like the Ford Mustang, and the heady V-8 muscle car days, all was not normal in autodom. Even casual observers couldn't help but notice the swarm of VW Beetles and other tiny imports appearing on college campuses across the land.

In 1965, the Motor Vehicle Air Pollution Control Act became law. For the first time, a national government set standards as to how much pollution could emit from a car's exhaust. It was followed by the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act in 1966, and the even more environmentally friendly Clean Air Act in 1970. Legislated automotive design had arrived. By the time the 1973 Oil Embargo took a strangle hold, the traditional idea of the carefree automobile was under siege.

During the 1970s, automotive engineering was consumed with how to make cars cleaner, safer, and more fuel efficient. Those goals virtually always worked at cross purposes, since safer cars tended to weigh more, yet lighter car designs were needed to boost fuel economy. Anti-smog devices also pushed a car's weight up and economy down. It was a frustrating and very difficult time for the automotive designers. But the 1975 introduction of the exhaust system catalytic converter showed there was light at the end of the engineering tunnel. The catalytic converter cleaned up the exhaust after it left the engine, It remains the primary means of cutting automotive pollution today. However, those first catalytic converter-equipped cars ran poorly, broke down frequently, and had marginal passing power. That is where a second important addition to 1970s automotive design cames into play ­ the microprocessor. By using small on-board computers to vary engine fuel/air mixture and control ignition spark, engineers were able to improve engine performance while making the cars cleaner.

By the mid-1980s, virtually all cars had microprocessor-based engine controls. Computer chips allowed car makers to start building back performance levels, and to turn their attention to using high-tech electronics to make driving more enjoyable.

Today, virtually every system in a car is microprocessor-controlled from seat position to climate control, to the effective use of modern safety features like airbags and anti-lock brakes. While both anti-lock brakes and airbags were around in the late '60s and early '70s, it took miniaturized electronics to make them practical for the 1990s. Plus, such increasingly common 1999 new car features as memory and heated seats, automatic dimming mirrors, dual zone climate control, remote door locks, and ignition immobilizer would be impossible or far too expensive without on-board computers. Automated driving assist systems like traction and stability control, as well as state-of-the-art four-wheel drive systems, also owe their affordability to the tiny microprocessor.

Years Roll Ever Onward

So, as the end of the century of the automobile nears, where does time drive the car from here? The generous personal freedom and prosperity that the motorcar has provided assures its continued existence. However, demands of an expanding population will put more stress on car designs and the environment. There is little question that automotive technology has to shift into an even higher gear to keep pace with the priorities of both the overseers and the buyers. During the early part of the 21st century it is probable that electric or hybrid cars will finally find acceptance, and that other new fuels may accompany the tiger in our tanks.

As you walk around the 1999 Washington Auto Show, make a special effort to take in all of the features the average new car provides today. The old saying "...they don't make them like the used to" has never been more thankfully appropriate. But the hundreds of 1999 cars and trucks on display are not only the combination of an exciting century of motoring evolution, but the foundation of an even more promising 21st century automobile.

Copyright @ 1998 John H. Davis Comm.

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