VCCA Home Forums GENERAL DISCUSSION General Discussions Car Related Quiz

Using my book source, I came up with some facts (I assume they are facts, I have not proven their provenance) that I think make some interesting questions:

Some are hard and others are easy: See how many you can answer:

a. Who said, "History is more or less bunk?"

b. Who created the automobile assembly line?

c. In what state were the first Burma Shave signs posted and what year?

d. What U.S. petroleum company was the first to distribute free road maps?

e. Re "d" above: What year?

f. To whom was the first driver's license issued in the U.S.?

g. Re "f" above: What city, state and year?

h. Who was the chief designer of the 1965 Pontiac GTO?

i. The "Jeep" was named for an animal in what comic strip?

j. In what state was the world's first 4-lane highway constructed?

k. Where and when was the first commercial oil well in the U.S.?

l. Where is the world's longest street?

J. Where does it begin and where does it end (what two cities or towns) and how long is it?

k. What year and model is the best looking Chevrolet of all time? (This one is easy.)

Have fun,

Charlie

BTW: I'll post my source and answers after a few days.

L. Who has too much time on his hands??????

Sorry Charlie. It had to be said.

I'll bite for a few of them...

B) R.E. Olds.

l) Yonge St. in Toronto Canada

J) It runs 1 896 km from Queens Quay in Toronto to Rainy River on the Ontario/Minnesota border. It was listed in the Guinness book of World Records until 1999 when several towns began renaming their sections from either "Yonge St." or "Highway 11" to names of their own choosing. I'm assuming that Charlie's fact book is from 1941, so this should still be relevant...

K) 1950 Deluxe convertible (No Brainer, that one!)

Every quiz usually contains potentially contentious answers, and this one is likely to generate some difference on several of the questions. While Henry Ford is often credited with developing the Auto Assembly Line, not sure anyone knows for sure if he or someone like R,E.O.were first. Most dictionaries describe a street as a travelway in a city or town with usually with houses on both sides or one side. I see Wiki lists the Pan American Highway from Argentine to Alaska (nearly 50,000km)as the worlds longest street, really!!

Jeep is contested as the phonetic sound of GP (Government Purpose, or General Purpose) going back to WWI. GI's related it to Popeye's pet Eugene, but which came first?

Finally, I see DeLorean, Collins, and Gee share design credit for the GTO, but I am not sure any of them were automotive stylists, so who actually created its flowing lines, who knows. The 3 named were more into engineering and marketing.

As for which year Chevrolet is most revered, just look at the incontrovertible facts. Most Chev's of one model year owned by the enthusiastic crowd of owners in VCCA, 1931 is first and 1957 second, I rest my case!!

Brewster is correct on the long street and the assembly line. My source saysR.E. Olds and indicates that Henry improved on it. He named the second best looking Cheverlot instead of the first most. That question is still open and should be a snap for any true blooded Chevrolet enthusiast.

Gonsmoke is correct on the "Jeep" one. My source says the Poyeye character but that may be debatable owing to Gunsmoke's other information. Delorean is correct on the GTO question. He missed the best looking question by a long shot.

Charlie

Sounds like something Ben Franklin or W.C. Fields might have said, but I think it was actually Henry Ford.

Ken,

Henry Ford is correct.

Charflie

Ford did have the first assembly line but it was co designed by employed engineers to help the failing Ford company. One of the brains behind the invention was to start his own company after a dispute with Ford, Walter Flanders started the Flanders Automobile Company a short-lived US-American automobile manufacturer which operated in Detroit, Michigan, from 1910 to 1913. It was the brainchild of Walter E. Flanders (1871…1923), who formerly held a position as General Factory Manager at the Ford Motor Company's Piquette avenue plant. There he co-invented the ingenious manufacturing methods which made the Model T Ford so famous.

Item K would be the Drake Oil well. It was the first well drilled for oil, other wells were producing oil but only as a by product.

The first commercial oil well was at Oil Creek, Titusville, Pennsylvania in 1859. The best looking Chevrolet ever is a 1932 Moonlight Speedster. -----------Must have been writing this at the same time as jerrychev and the well was called the Drake Well after Col Edwin drake who drilled it.

Burma-Shave sign series first appeared in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1925

D.
The first generally distributed oil company road maps are usually credited to Gulf. In 1913 they opened the first drive-in gas station on Baum Boulevard in Pittsburgh's east end and began handing out road maps.

I got one for you:

What originated in South Africa and became an world wide Icon for a gas and oil company?

OKay,

Jerry, I can't say you are wrong. My source does credit it to R.E. Olds and says that Henry Ford improved on it.

Oil well was Titusville, PA

Burma Shave was Minnesota

Free Road Maps was Gulf

The first driver's license is a tough one. It was in a city and state way out west.

First Four land highway was back east.


No one has guessed the best looking car yet. I think there are some biased opinions being submitted. You must lay aside your personal opinions and think of what you would really and truly like to have instead of that thing you're stuck with.

BTW: The answer to the best looking car appeared in an article in the G&D ages ago. That may have been just an opinion too, but, as far as I know, nobody ever questioned it. This is the easiest question of all.

Charlie

R.E.Olds had the first automotive assembly line. Henry Ford made the first moving assembly line. The way I understood it is that Olds had the interchangeable parts come to the car. Several workers would be putting parts on the car in an assembled fashion until the car was finished. Several cars could be done at one time. Henry Ford created the moving assembly line, where the car moved from station to station, and each worker put only one part or set of parts on the car at each station for an entire shift. It's kind of like the difference between building the Corvette and the Cadillac XLR a few years back. They were both made on an assembly line, just the process was different. History has proven that Henry's model was far more successful.

O.K. Charlie I'll bite, the best looking Chevrolet is the 1941 Cabriolet. Any color is fine as long as it has tan sun visors. I speak from experience as I have owned five since 1955 (not all at one time). Another guy we know currently has three convertibles under one roof (accompanied by twelve other body styles and three 41 trucks)so there, it's offical.

Jay

1932 Chevrolet Sport Roadster best looking car, one of the most desired by collectors, and I don't own one

And I don't own one either.

Hi Jerrychev, what originated in South Africa as an oil company icon?

Okay, I think you got all the answers except for these two:

a. The first U.S. driver's license was issued in Denver, Colorado, in 1906. Cost $1.00. Who would have thought that? I'm not sure Colorado even had a road back then. Just trails. Mercy!

b. The best looking Chevrolet was the 1941 Special Deluxe 5-passenger coupe. Who would have NOT thought that?

Except for the last one the source for my questions and answers was Uncle John's Bathroom Reader, "Plunges into History, Again" Copyright 2004. The Ford quote was backed up by John Bartlett's Familiar Quotations.

The last question is a matter of opinion. I'll grant that the guesses were strong candidates. I based my question and answer on an article that appeared in the G&D a long time ago back when the publication was smaller than the present size. I think it was in the 70s. The author of the article indicated that the 41 SD coupe was possibly the best looking car ever produced, or words to that effect.

There were good guesses in in that the 32 Roadster (actually I think the 33 roadster looked a tad better) and 50 convertible (and Bel Air, I suppose) were also good looking cars. I don't recall anyone guessing that the highly popular 37 or 38 were good looking. Sorry about that.

Please don't jump all over me about the answer to this one. Like I said, it is a matter of opinion and your's counts as much as mine or the author of the article I tried to cite.

Thanks for participating,
Charlie

I had no idea that you were submitting articles back in the '70's...

The Flying Red Horse or Pegasus the horse, Mobil Oil's logo.

I was going to guess that, but came across this when looking into it…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia_Petroleum_Company

I'm not doubting you, as often Wikipedia is wrong. Just wondering how your source relates it to S. Africa?