Car Crazy, G. Wayne Miller
Car Crazy, G. Wayne Miller
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Car Crazy
The Battle for Supremacy between Ford and Olds and the Dawn of the Automobile Age

Author: G. Wayne Miller

Narrator: Don Hagen

Unabridged: 11 hr 21 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 12/01/2015


Synopsis

In Car Crazy, G. Wayne Miller, author of Toy Wars: The Epic Struggle Between G.I. Joe, Barbie, and the Companies That Make Them and Men and Speed: A Wild Ride through NASCAR's Breakout Season, takes listeners back to the wild and wooly years of the early automobile era-from 1893, when the first U.S.-built auto was introduced, through 1908, when General Motors was founded and Ford's Model T went on the market. The motorcar was new, paved roads few, and devotees of this exciting and unregulated technology battled with citizens who thought the car a dangerous scourge of the wealthy which was shattering a more peaceful way of life. As the machine transformed American culture for better and worse, early corporate battles for survival and market share transform the economic landscape. Among the pioneering competitors are: Ransom E. Olds, founder of Olds Motor Works, inventor of the assembly line (Henry Ford copied him), and creator of a new company called REO; Frederic L Smith, cutthroat businessman who became CEO of Olds Motor Works after Olds was ousted in a corporate power play; William C. "Billy" Durant of Buick Motor Company (who would soon create General Motors), and genius inventor Henry Ford.

The fiercest fight pits Henry Ford against Frederic Smith of Olds. Olds was the early winner in the race for dominance, but now the Olds empire is in trouble, its once-industry leading market share shrinking, its cash dwindling. Ford is just revving up. But this is Ford's third attempt at a successful auto company-and if this one fails, quite possibly his last. So Smith fights Ford with the weapons he knows best: lawyers, blackmail, intimidation, and a vicious advertising smear campaign that ultimately backfires.

Increasingly desperate, in need of dazzling PR that will help lure customers to his showrooms, Smith stages the most outrageous stunt of the era: the first car race across the continental United States, with two of his Olds cars. The race pits the dashing writer Percy Megargel, a wealthy New Yorker, against Everyman mechanic Dwight B. Huss, a sturdy Midwesterner-men who share a passion for adventure and the new machine. Covered breathlessly by the press and witnessed by thousands in the communities they pass through, Megargel and Huss encounter marvel, mishap, conflict, and danger on their wild 3,500-mile race from Manhattan to Portland, Oregon, most of it through regions lacking paved roads-or any roads at all...Meanwhile, the Ford/Smith battle develops in the newspapers and courtroom dramas. Its outcome will shape the American car industry for a century to come.

Car Crazy is an exciting story of popular culture, business, and sport at the dawn of the twentieth century, filled with compelling, larger-than-life characters, each an American original.

About G. Wayne Miller

G. Wayne Miller is one of the most acclaimed journalists in New England. He is a staff writer at the Providence Journal, where he has won numerous journalism awards. He is also the author of a novel, Thunder Rise, and a number of highly acclaimed nonfiction books. He lives in Rhode Island and can be reached at www.gwaynemiller.com.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Cameron

I am giving this book a rating of four stars. This book came across to me as pretty interesting because I am so interested in the automobile industry today. It was nice being able to go back and see how everything started and how far we have come today. It was interesting reading about Henry Ford br......more

Goodreads review by SHANKAR

The car stories from more than a century ago are great. The epilogue was a bit flat, though.......more

Goodreads review by William

Great book, well researched and presented. I learned a lot about the early car companies in the US, and, of course, especially of Ford and Olds. The court battle over the Selden Patent was ongoing during the period covered in the book, so the author uses it as an ongoing background story (meanwhile,......more

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