SPECIAL SECTION: The Late Great Makes
The history of the automobile is replete with stories of manufacturers that didn’t survive. In this section, we’re saluting the engineering innovators, the style leaders, and the iconic brands that are no longer part of the automotive landscape. The first part is a little subjective: we asked the HMN staff to write something about vehicles from shuttered automakers that interest them. Next, the cars of Ford’s dearly departed Mercury division take center stage, from the elegantly styled 1939 99A to the burly 21st-century Marauder and everything in between. For many of a certain age, it’s still hard to believe that the creator of the ’49 Mercury, the car that James Dean made iconic in the 1955 cinematic anthem of youth angst, Rebel Without a Cause, no longer exists.
More disbelief? How about the questionable decision General Motors made in late 2000 to close down Oldsmobile? Lansing’s firsts are legendary, dating all the way back to R.E. Olds’ pioneering assembly line. We’re covering Oldsmobile this month in a feature recapping the brand’s many innovative and now-collectible automobiles.
Do you have a special attachment to a Late Great Make? We would love to hear about it. Email a few sentences and a photograph or two to mmcnessor@hemmings.com with My Late Great in the subject field. We like letters, too: Hemmings Motor News, 222 Main Street, Bennington, Vermont 05201. Attn: Editorial/My Late Great.
Prewar
Some of the most brilliant minds at the dawn of the 20th century focused on the game-changing shift from horses to horseless carriages. As the decades passed, vehicles became sleeker, more powerful, and more accommodating. When you look back at automobiles built prior to World War II,
