The most innovative cars America has ever madeCadillac’s 1912 range inaugurated a major breakthrough: an electric starter. It made driving safer, because the cranks commonly used to start engines in the early 20th century often caused injuries, and considerably more convenient. It didn’t take long for Cadillac’s invention to spread across the industry.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/autos/enthusiasts/the-most-innovative-cars-america-has-ever-made/ss-AAXbMDk?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531&cvid=d339a74af407479f9c8e04826816ba4e#image=2In July 1941, Willys secured a lucrative contract to provide the American military with a light-duty utility vehicle that could allow soldiers to navigate battlefields around the world should the government decide to enter World War II. Affectionately nicknamed Jeep, the off-roader played a significant role in liberating Europe and it was copied by over a dozen companies around the world during the 1940s and the 1950s. Today, its spirit lives on in the fourth-generation Wrangler introduced in 2017.
Tucker nearly entered the pantheon of automotive history as one of the most innovative carmakers in America. Founded by Preston Tucker (1903-1956), it planned to release a big, rear-engined saloon called 48 packed with innovations like a directional headlight added to the middle of the front fascia, a padded dashboard, a roll bar integrated into the roof and a windscreen made with shatterproof glass.
Safety was Tucker’s claim to fame but it’s the firm’s fundraising efforts that caught the attention of the American government. It sold accessories like a radio and seat covers before it launched production, a questionable practice that landed some of the company’s top executives in court. Although the charges were abandoned, the bad publicity drove the final nail in Tucker’s coffin after it built 51 cars.
Over six decades after its introduction, the Corvair remains one of Chevrolet’s most controversial nameplates. At launch, it was celebrated as one of its most innovative models. It was powered by a rear-mounted, air-cooled flat-six engine in an era when a vast majority of American cars were front-engined and rear-wheel drive. It proved the company could think outside the box when pressed to. It retired without a successor after two generations so it’s Chevrolet’s first, last and only rear-engined car.
Oldsmobile’s quest to bring performance to the masses led it to experiment with forced induction. It introduced the Jetfire, a coupe based on the F-85, for the 1962 model year. Power came from a turbocharged V8 that made 218 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque, though motorists needed to keep the Turbo Rocket Fluid tank topped off with a blend of distilled water, methanol and rust inhibitor.
Jetfire production totalled 3765 units in 1962 and 5842 units in 1963 (pictured). Oldsmobile put turbo technology on the backburner and later celebrated displacement as a cheaper, simpler way to deliver horsepower. Sister company Chevrolet, which offered a turbo on the Corvair, came to the same conclusion.
AMC took a highly unusual approach to developing a compact car. It argued city-friendly dimensions and generous interior space weren’t mutually exclusive when it introduced the Pacer in 1975. Marketed as the world’s first wide small car, it stood apart from its rivals with an unusual hatchback body, large glass surfaces made possible by a low belt line and a passenger-side door that was longer than the driver-side door to facilitate the task of accessing the rear seats. It could have been even more innovative: AMC planned to launch the Pacer with a rotary Wankel engine sourced from General Motors. It redesigned the engine bay around a straight-six in record time when the Wankel project was cancelled.
Cadillac’s V8-6-4 engine is not remembered as one of America’s best automotive innovations but it was nonetheless a smart solution to a common problem. After weathering two oil crises, the company knew it needed to build more fuel-efficient cars to fend off competition from German rivals. It developed a relatively complicated, microprocessor-powered cylinder deactivation system which turned the 6.0-liter V8 into a 4.5-liter V6 or a 3.0-liter V4 by closing the corresponding valves when its full output wasn’t needed. This engine was standard in every 1981 Cadillac with the exception of the Seville, which shipped with a diesel-burning V8 built by Oldsmobile.
It didn’t take long for motorists to complain about problems - some said the engine took too long to wake up the sleeping cylinders - and Cadillac chose to abandon the technology instead of fine-tuning it. It was replaced for the 1982 model year. Cylinder deactivation made a comeback in the 2000s.
General Motors could have proved that an electric car doesn’t need to be as anodyne as a golf cart over a decade before Tesla introduced its first model. Launched in 1996 as a 1997 model, the EV1 represented a serious attempt at making a modern, highway-capable electric car suited to the needs of commuters. It was put in the hands of over 1000 motorists across America through a lease program.
Officials warned motorists that they were participating in “a real-world engineering evaluation” and that they could be asked to return the car at any moment. That’s exactly what happened. General Motors recalled all 1117 examples of the EV1 before the end of 2003 and crushed most of them. It didn’t introduce another electric car until it began manufacturing the Chevrolet Bolt in 2016.
Few took California-based Tesla seriously when it turned the Lotus Elise into an electric roadster unimaginatively named Roadster. It proved it could do much more than electrify someone else’s car when it launched the Model S in 2012. Tesla developed the saloon in-house with electricity in mind from the get-go and motorists gave it a spectacular reception. It inspired a growing list of rivals and imitators.
