Five automotive oddities you can use to wow your car friends
The Manic GT was arguably the best Canadian car of all-time. And hardly anybody has ever heard of it.
Here are five automotive oddities to have in your back pocket – just in case
With sunshine ultimately here and local cars and coffee events ultimately ramping up, it’s time to get the dust cover off the ol’ jalopy and make sure she’s ready to run. The weather’s improving and it’s time to get together with a bunch of like-minded gearheads and stand around in a parking lot chewing the fat – but what to talk about?
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Here’s a follow-up chunk to our very first five random car facts, five more automotive oddities to bring up at your next demonstrate ‘n’ shine, or maybe just over coffee in the breakroom.
Ford’s factory in Australia was built to withstand intense snowfall
The Blue Oval is, of course, an American company, but we often leave behind just how deep its roots run in Canada. One year after Ford in America was founded, the Ford Motor Company of Canada sprang up as an entirely separate entity.
It wasn’t a subsidiary, but a totally different corporation with its own board and shareholders; founded in one thousand nine hundred four by one Gordon McGregor, it produced just over a hundred cars in its very first year, and was originally headquartered in a suburb of Windsor, Ont.
Canada’s early automotive industry existed primarily as a result of trade law tariffs. The big three U.S. automakers created their own Canadian sub-brands (Ford’s Mercury, for example) and built cars north of the border to avoid the import taxes that existed up until the Auto Pact of 1965. But there were other advantages to Ford building cars in Canada, and that included exporting cars to commonwealth countries like India, South Africa, and Australia.
Ford Motor Co. has determined to build its fresh engine in Mexico after it was incapable to reach a deal with the federal and Ontario governments to bring the investment to Windsor, Ont., Unifor said Friday.
Ford of Australia actually commenced out as a subsidiary of Ford Canada, just another strong link inbetween our countries that sees thousands of Aussies headed here to run our ski lifts, and thousands of Canadians headed to Australia to get sunburned and bitten by poisonous koala bears. The very first Fords assembled in Geelong, near Melbourne, were knock-down kits shipped over from Canada.
As the Australian auto industry came into its own, and the popularity of the mid-sized Ford Falcon grew, a fresh factory was needed. It was built in the late 1950s, and based on a standardized Canadian design.
This meant the factory had a roof designed to treat up to seven-foot snowfalls. As you may already be aware, it doesn’t snow very much in Australia, and certainly not seven bloody feet of snow in Melbourne.
Regrettably, the globalization of Ford’s product line likely means an end for the Australian Falcon and the odd-roofed factory it’s made in.
The Excellent Gatsby‘s F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote about electrified cars
The oldest car I have ever driven was electrical. It was a one thousand nine hundred eleven Detroit Electrical with the optional high roof – a feature permitting fashionable ladies to wear hats the size of wedding cakes. The batteries were formerly a Thomas Edison design, and the car was parked under the Empress Hotel in Victoria, B.C., and used regularly by the original holder until the 1960s.
It’s a pretty neat old crate, steered by a tiller, relatively quiet, and truly fairly quick. The range was pretty decent too, at one hundred thirty km on a single charge. That’s about the same as a Nissan Leaf – from a car that’s a centenarian!
1915 Detroit Electrical Brougham
In the early part of the century, electrical cars weren’t a declaration of environmental sensibility, rather they were a more convenient way of getting around than the clattery early gasoline models. In an era when crank-starting your car might result in a cracked wrist, an electrical carriage was just the thing for genteel motoring. And, at a cost equivalent to six Model T Fords, you had to be rich to own one.
When it comes to illustrating the splendour and squalor of the Jazz Age, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s name instantly leaps to the forefront of mind. Fitzgerald had a pretty good eye for cars as well as characters, like Gatsby’s big cream-coloured Rolls-Royce, headed straight for the fated Myrtle Wilson.
“The train slowed up with midsummer languor at Lake Geneva, and Amory caught glance of his mother waiting in her electrical on the gravelled station drive. It was an ancient electrical, one of the early types, and painted gray.”
—This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald, 1920
Rolls-Royce armoured cars fought in both World Wars
Little known to car enthusiasts but commonplace to military historians, the armoured Rolls-Royce is an amazing animal. It began out life as a homebuilt idea, rescuing downed airmen in the early stages of the Very first World War, and ended its days in the desert, still fighting after fifty years.
A one thousand nine hundred twenty four Pattern Rolls-Royce Armoured Car with open-topped turret.
Lawrence of Arabia was particularly fond of the armoured Rolls-Royce, calling them more valuable than rubies. Perhaps the most swashbuckling example of Rolls-Royce derring-do was the Duke of Westminister’s cross-desert raid to save the team of a warship taken hostage in North Africa. His squadron of nine armour-plated steeds dashed two hundred km across enemy territory and shot up the enemy encampment with perverse fire from air-cooled Vickers machine guns.
Rolls-Royce built these early armoured cars under orders from the British War Office in the Very first World War, but the lasting craftsmanship and durability of early Rollers meant that the cars would be used on shore patrol in the 2nd World War as well, during the Battle of Britain and afterwards. They’d also fight in the desert well into the 1950s, protect civilians in Shanghai, get involved in the Irish Civil War, and be present in a dozen fields of conflict around the world. Several are still operational today.
The most Canadian car of all time is the little-known Manic GT
Quick, what’s the best all-Canadian car? The Bricklin SV-1? Nice attempt, but never sold here. The Mercury Montcalm or Pontiac Beaumont? Sure they were made for Canadian tastes, but they weren’t truly unique. No, the best all-Canadian car is the Manic GT, and hardly anybody’s ever heard of it.
Made in Quebec by a company founded by one Jacques About, the Manic GT is a fibreglass special cut from approximately the same cloth as the Renault Alpine. In fact, the GT existed because Renault commissioned a probe to see if Canadians wished the Alpine, but when we responded with an emphatic “Oui!”, they abruptly couldn’t be bothered any more and went off to eat creme brulee. Monsieur About spotted an chance.
The Manic GT was arguably the best Canadian car of all-time. And hardly anybody has ever heard of it.
Investors in the project were an unlikely hodgepodge: snowmobile manufacturer Bombardier, the Quebec pension fund, and a supermarket chain. At very first, everything seemed very promising, and the rear-engined, utterly light Manic GT looked as if it’d have the spectacle chops to live up to its name.
Regrettably, Renault’s sluggish treatment to supplying parts with any regularity crippled the Manic factory with constant delays. They eventually shuttered operations in May of 1970.
Because of the way the fibreglass is bonded directly to the framework in a Manic GT, restoration is utterly difficult (imagine attempting to substitute the stick in a lollipop without violating the candy). As a result, it’s an utterly uncommon car – but a fascinating one.
Louis Mattar’s one thousand nine hundred forty seven Cadillac had a submerge, shower, grille, ironing board, toilet – and could switch tires on the budge
Louis Mattar is perhaps my favourite automotive nut. A garage holder based out of San Diego – his car is still in the San Diego automotive museum, should you be passing through – he bought a fresh one thousand nine hundred forty seven Cadillac Sedan and went about converting it into a masterpiece of weirdness.
Along with a colossal on-board supply of water, Mattar’s Caddy had the following: a rear-seat grille for cooking hot dogs, a refrigerator, a washing machine, a kitchen submerge, a medicine cabinet, an ironing board, an on-board toilet, a mobile telephone (in 1947!), a PA system, a bar, a hookah, a shower, and a drinking fountain hidden in the rear tail light.
That’s not all. Mattar’s Cadillac could also switch its own oil when on the stir, switch its own radiator fluid, and the wheels were fitted with hydraulics so they could be individually lifted to switch a tire – while on the stir.
With this car, Mattar set several coast-to-coast records for continuous driving, travelling thousands and thousand of miles without stopping; he’d refuel on the budge from trucks carrying gasoline, just like a military aircraft refuelling operation. Amazing.
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