It's Lincoln Day at #DavesCarIDService, where we commemorate the reelection of Abraham Lincoln on November 8, 1864, the car brand named in his honor, and the rivalry story that connects them.

I am quite fond of both Honest Abe and Lincoln automobiles. My great-great-grandfather was a farmer who fought with the 8th Iowa Volunteer Infantry Regiment 1864-65, and my daily driver is a Lincoln MKZ. Plus I own a 1932 Ford hot rod coupe, copper colored like a Lincoln penny, with a 1932 Lincoln penny imbedded in the shift knob. Not a Lincoln motor in it, but hey, it's still my hot rod Lincoln.

And I'm also very fond of meandering stories about the automobile industry, and the Lincoln story I'm about to recount is one of my favorites.
The rivalry I alluded to regarding Lincoln was between two of the true titans of the car industry: Henry Leland and Henry Ford. It's a rivalry that still exists today, nearly 125 years later.

Henry Leland was a Vermonter who was a 21 year old machinist and engineer at Colt firearms in 1864, and enthusiastically cast his first vote for Abe Lincoln in that election. When he founded Lincoln Motor Company in 1917 he explained this as the inspiration for the brand naming.

But in between, Henry Leland also founded Cadillac Motors in 1903, which he sold to the fledgling General Motors in 1909. He remained head honcho at Cadillac 1909-1917, working with Charles Kettering to develop the first electric starter in 1913.

But here's where the rivalry comes in: Cadillac was formed from the ashes of the Henry Ford Company. It was Henry Ford's second failed startup car company, and Leland was one of the appraisers brought in by Ford's creditors for its liquidation sale. Long story short, Leland ended up with much of Ford's machinery and tooling, which were used to make the first Cadillacs.

After those first two strikeouts, in 1903 Henry Ford hit a towering home run with the Ford Motor Company. It made him the richest man in the world, but that 1902 liquidation sale, and the success of Cadillac, really stuck in his craw, by cracky.

https://twitter.com/KevinRobertsTX/status/1983958755613262324

"no enemies on the right" promises to be the same boffo ballot box winner for the GOP that "no enemies on the left" was for the Dems

I don't understand why anybody would spend one second minimizing or defending somebody else's murder fantasy texts or chatroom Nazi shtick. I'm lazy and that shit seems like it'd be totally exhausting Sure, it's easy and "fun" to merciless drag some unfortunate obese unattractivee professional political staffer after their career is ruined by a chat room leak. And this is my entire point, it's easy AND extremely fun

Today's #DavesCarIDService crosses the streams on two of my avid interests, American cars and American college football, with a salute to the Cars of the Big Ten.

Yes, there are 18 schools in the Big Ten. I'm sorry if you don't get ironic Midwest humor. The quality of its football versus other conferences is debatable, but there's no debating that it encompasses America's historic vehicle-making region. Not just Michigan, every state represented in the Big Ten played a non-trivial role in America's car history. Even the Johnny-come-latelys who ironically pushed the school count above Ten.

To illustrate, I have selected a vehicle to represent each university in the conference, one that was made nearby.

Illinois: there were over 100 car companies founded in the state of Illinois, most in Chicago. But since UI is in Champaign-Urbana I selected one made downstate: behold an 1898 Duryea Peoria Motor Trap. The Duryea brothers were born in nearby Canton IL, and this 127 year old baby is still driving the streets of Peoria.

Indiana: Hoosiers rank only second to Michigan in importance to Michigan in car history. IU, your all-star is a 1915 Indy-made Stutz Bearcat, the Bugatti Veyron of the pre-WW1 era.

Iowa: the Hawkeye state had a few notable marques; including Colby and Maytag-Mason. But its claim to Automotive fame are native sons Fred & Augie Duesenberg. In #3, Eddie Rickenbacker driving one of the first Duesenberg branded cars ever made, a 1913 race car made in Des Moines at the Sioux City 300.

Maryland: you Terps get an 1908 Maryland, with a grille that looks a bit like a turtle.


I could blather endlessly about Michigan car industry, a had hundreds of of choices for its two conference reps. In this case, I could pick brands made just off-campus.

Michigan: Wolverines get a very spacious 1911 Ann Arbor, the Big House of early touring cars.

Michigan State: a layup for Sparty, because Lansing was forever the home of Oldsmobile. 1903 curved dash Olds model R, the Model T before the Model T.

If I was the CEO of Dollar Tree I'd expand to the UK and call it Pound Towne For more special content like this please like/ share/ subscribe on the socials

The most hilarious boomerang in the history of boomeranging approaches its ultimate denoument

https://twitter.com/TheFP/status/1975179343438467095

This thing is not over until the wails and lamentations after Paramount buys CNN

That Des Moines school superintendent is the greatest charming grifter to fleece dimwitted gullible Iowans since Professor Harold Hill He even rolled into town in the same wardrobe, you just gotta respect that kind of dazzle-the-rubes audacity

A happy #DavesCarIDService birthday to the GOAT of all cars, the Ford Model T. The first completed Flivver rolled out of Henry Ford's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit on September 27, 1908.

"GOAT of all cars??" Let me explain. Not the fastest, or sexiest, but hands down the most important history-altering vehicle ever made. It put America, and pretty much the rest of the planet, on wheels. Circa 1918, half the cars on the road worldwide were Ford Model Ts. And by far, it's the most common car I see in the old photos of readers.

As you can see in this 1908 ad its introductory price was $850, about one year's income for an average Joe at the time. Still, reasonably affordable to doctors and small businessmen. Over its 20 model year run (1908-27) it had some body styling changes but its drive train and suspension remained virtually unchanged, driving economies of scale resulting in a 1927 price of $270.

Its combination of low price, durability, and serviceability resulted in over 15 million Ford Model Ts sold, a record that would last for many decades until it was surpassed by the VW Beetle. It would never win a drag race (at least in stock trim) or a beauty contest, and will never be a big collector's item due to its sheer numbers. But there's a very high likelihood that the first car owned by your family (like mine) was a T, an every true gearhead has a soft spot in his heart for the beloved Tin Lizzie. Being of a hot rod bent, my favorite Model Ts tend to be a little juiced up. #1 here is my late pal Norm Grabowski and his Cadillac-powered 1922 roadster, later to become the "Kookie T" of 77 Sunset Strip. #2, "TV" Tommy Ivo with his 1925 T-bucket sporting a fuel injected Buick Nailhead. #3, the Camfather, Ed "Isky" Iskenderian behind the wheel of that 1924 OHV conversion flathead hot rod that he built in 1939. 104 year old Isky and his 101 year old hot rod are still alive and kicking. #4, Blackie Gejeian - the closest thing ever to a real life Fonzie - and his chromed-out, flathead V8 powered 1926 roadster.

The FCC is a anachronism of a long-ago expired world where people watched The Love Boat on rabbit ear antenna TVs. Its only remaining value is as a government cudgel to beat campaign donations and contrary opinions out of the media industry

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Initially it was set up to regulate bandwidth through licenses for radio & TV stations, so that some dick wouldn't set up his own more powerful transmitter at 670 AM. And then of course conditions came with those licenses: call letters on the hour. No smut! And then of course a "Fairness Doctrine" to force airing "equal time" for other opinions, which coincidentally only applied in cases where the opinion needing contradiction offended the prevailing power in DC.

Above all, we must safeguard our precious, precious Public Airwaves, lest our innocent children be accosted by offensive radio and television waves floating in the very air about them! We stand on guard for you, citizens of America!

I am reliable told that the assassin was a groyper, and now I'm worried that we've let groyper sympathizers overtake our university faculties, school administrations, and health care professions

https://twitter.com/nypost/status/1967193532289970319

The cognitive dissonance between "Kirk was killed by a violent right wing extremist" and "no public school teacher celebrating this violent murder by the extreme right wing should lose their job" is truly a wonder to behold

Pour a bowl of Frosted Sugar Bombs and scootch up to the console TV, today's #DavesCarIDService salutes the daring racers of Saturday morning cartoons! Starting with Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races, which debuted on CBS this day in 1968.

The series was a near-copyright infringement homage to Blake Edward's 1965 comedy "The Great Race" starring Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, and Jack Lemmon. Its principle characters were all doppelganger for that film; Penelope Pitstop: Natalie Wood (Maggie Dubois). Peter Perfect: Tony Curtis (The Great Leslie). Dick Dastardly: Jack Lemmon (Professor Fate). Even Dastardly's sidekick pooch Muttley was a stand-in for Peter Falk (Professor Fate's hapless sidekick Max).

I'm not sure how Hanna-Barbera was able to avoid a lawsuit from Blake Edwards. What's also surprising is only 17 episodes were ever made, each 20 minutes in length, with two races per episode. It ceased production after the final first run episode aired on January 4, 1969, and the following season appeared as rerun on the CBS schedule. From 1976-82 it appeared in syndication for a new wave of Gen Xers. A Wacky Racer reboot, with all-new episodes and voice actors, ran for two seasons on Boomerang 2017-2018.

That's a surprising amount of staying power for a 17-episode TV cartoon. But as a race fan, which character had the most wins? Over the the 34 total races, it's a 4-way tie: Penelope Pitstop, Peter Perfect, The Ant Hill Mob, and Lazy Luke & Blubber Bear with 4. All the other characters had 3 first place finishes, save for Dick Dastardly & Muttley who never once won.

For a tie-breaker I decide to compute a score based on 3-2-1 points system for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd podium finishes. Final standings by Dave Points:

1. Slag Brothers (Boulder Mobile): 28
2. Rufus Ruffcut & Sawtooth (Buzzwagon): 25
3. Ant Hill Mob (Bulletproof Bomb): 24
4T. Penelope Pitstop (Compact Pussycat): 21
4T. Gruesome Twosome (Creepy Coupe): 21
6. The Red Max (Crimson Haybaler): 20
7T. Lazy Luke & Blubber Bear (Arkansas Chuggabug): 18
7T. Peter Perfect (Turbo Terrific): 18
7T. Professor Pat Pending (Convert-A-Car): 18
10. Sergeant Blast & Private Meekly (Army Surplus Special): 14
11. Dick Dastardly & Muttley (Mean Machine): 0 Wacky Races was hardly the only automotive themed Saturday morning Boomer-Xer fare. The schedule was replete with them. I'm particularly fond of Tom Slick, a subseries within the George of the Jungle series. Tom drove the Thunderbolt Grease-Slapper, and like Wacky Racers there it featured a virtuous female heroine, Marigold, and a mustache twirling villain (Baron Otto Matic).

Tom Slick / George of the Jungle was made by Jay Ward Productions, creators of such classics as Rocky & Bullwinkle, Dudley Do-Right, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and Super Chicken. What Jay Ward productions lacked in animation quality, they always seemed intellectually a cut above Hanna-Barbera; always with a hint of subversiveness and irony.

I would add that Jay Ward also created the cereal characters Cap'n Crunch, Quisp, and Quake, thereby fueling a lot of Saturday morning boob tube watching.

There is a difference between people posthumously criticizing his rhetoric and public school employees and medical professionals posting their gleeful touchdown dances on Tik Tok

https://twitter.com/RollingStone/status/1966299973299106250

Remember when "accountability culture" was all the rage? Good times

Hot damn, now THAT'S how you Country Music

https://twitter.com/FactsAboutTexas/status/1964679857033597215

I hate you

https://x.com/slitsmoocher/status/1965036272210317734

Throroughly clean your quarter window before affixing: today's #DavesCarIDService pays homage to the art of the hot rod window decal!

No longwinded history lecture today, this is more an aesthetic appreciation of fine graphic design applied to selling speed equipment in a competitive market space.

The decals below are from the 1960s-80s high school muscle car era, and many of the logos are still in use today. If you are of that era, you will be be familiar with every product that the logos represent.

If not, the idea was like this: you bought a second hand car, went to a local speed shop, and dropped your hard earned cash for items to hop it up or gussy it up. Then you would display all the decals of the products contained in your heap (usually in its rear quarter windows) as a brag, and warning to anyone who might challenge you to a street race.

Kind of a brilliant ad strategy for the speed equipment biz, and in my opinion some of the best logos ever created. I even sent away $1 for a Hurst sticker to display on my first motorized vehicle, a 4.5 horsepower B&S go-kart, even though it had no shifter at all. Well okay maybe a little longwinded history. As I've aged, the more I've become enamored with the early days of hot rodding, 1930s-50s, when those speed equipment stickers and decals first started appearing. Less clean design-wise, but have a certain vintage oomph. Some of my favorites from that era:

Today's Iowa-Iowa State #DavesCarIDService pregame show pays homage to that most Iowan of vehicles, the tractor. And its inventor, John Froelich of Clayton County Iowa.

That requires a little definition of terms; Froelich was the inventor of the gasoline tractor. When 42 year old Froelich rolled it out of his grain elevator in 1892, steam threshers had been around for a while. But those ginormous, locomotive-sized device were incredibly expensive, required a coal source, were dangerous on hill sides, and useful for the most part only at harvest time.

What also had been around for a few years were stationary gasoline engines: big single slug pop-pop-pop engines with a large flywheel, used to power devices but with no wheels. Froelich might've had one in his grain elevator. Whatever the case, he figured out how to mount one on a frame with drive wheels, steering, and forward and reverse gears. Thus the first modern concept of "tractor" was born (seen in #2).

It was light, nimble, and could potential be equipped with implements for plowing, planting, cultivating, etc. And with a potential price point making it affordable to the average Joe Farmer. In some respect John Froelich fed the world.
Froelich only sold a few copies of his invention, but in 1895 sold his company to John Miller of Waterloo, Iowa, who established the Waterloo Gasoline Engine Company. Oddly Miller was more interested in making Froelich's engine than in making tractors; but in 1911 WGE rolled out the Waterloo Boy Tractor, which would become the Model T of agriculture.

WGE and the Waterloo Boy was sold to John Deere in 1918. Prior to that Deere was only an implement company, selling plows, planters, etc., and thus the Waterloo Boy became the very first John Deere tractor and is beloved of fanatical John Deere collectors. Waterloo, Iowa remains Deere's primary tractor building location.

Waterloo became sort of the Detroit of tractors; cross-town rivals Interstate Tractor Company produced the red Plow Boy to rival the green Waterloo Boy. By 1920, 1/5 of all tractors in the world were made in Waterloo.

In the worst sports league in the world, this is Mission Accomplished
I like their fervent belief that if only they hospitalize their only cash machine, her popularity will somehow be redistributed to the rest of them

I would like to note that, according to ISU fans "Iowa State fans went to ISU, and Iowa fans didn't go to Iowa." I think this proves their point

https://twitter.com/iowahawkblog/status/906196993831264257

Yeah, and honestly probably half of them, and they're 100% of the biggest shit talkers

https://x.com/gbtiepolo1/status/1962932989123342840

A very happy week 1 college football Saturday from #DavesCarIDService! Today we pay tribute to those old timey, pep-talkin', vim & vinegar campus legends with a look at Coaches and Their Coaches.

First up: the GOAT of pep talks, Notre Dame's immortal Knute Rockne. Who also had an entire car brand named for him - behold the 1932 Rockne Model 65. Rockne was a product of Studebaker, also located in South Bend IN, and a quite handsome vehicle.

The Rockne brand only lasted 1932-33; Knute Rockne died in 1931 and was never photographed with one. But in #2 he's seen with a 1931 Studebaker and an unidentified member of the 1931 Irish squad.
Another legend of the era was Amos Alonzo Stagg, coach of the mighty Maroons of the University of Chicago 1892-1932, here stiff-arming a 1919 Milburn Electric coupe wearing 1922 Illinois plates.

The car was a gift from U of C alumni. Stagg had suffered a back injury and it was difficult for him to walk, and he coached the 1919 team from the seat of the car on the sidelines.

Chicago was a member of the Big Ten at the time (and still is, sorta-kinda) and somewhat of a gridiron powerhouse. The first Heisman Trophy in 1935 was won by Chicago's Jay Berwanger. But in 1939 it abolished its football team, never to return to Division I competition.

Stagg Field at U of Chicago remains an important world historical site as site of the world's first controlled nuclear reaction. And the University still owns Stagg's 1919 Milburn.

Look, it you're going to group Cracker Barrel with Yves Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, I'm calling that a marketing win for Cracker Barrel

https://twitter.com/KTmBoyle/status/1958257588467896817

Coming soon: 6 month waiting list for reservations at the Cracker Barrels on Rodeo Drive, Bond Street, and the Champs Elysees

Live from Chicago, it's #DavesCarIDService On The Road!

Today we salute my host city with a brief look back at the greatest car dealership strip ever assembled, Chicago's Automobile Row, a/k/a 1200-2800 South Michigan Avenue. Once home to dealers of 123 brands of automobiles. Yes you read that correctly: one hundred and twenty-three different brands. Here's a shopper's guide in case you want to hop in the time machine and kick a few tires in 1912.

Hey Chicago, I’m here ya jagoffs Poll: Most Chicagoish street name?