Car Talk!

With the recent federal bailout of GM and Chrysler, it seems like a good time to take a look at America's love affair with the automobile. One thing about this subject, it offers a good way to introduce one of the library's newest, coolest resources Pop Culture Universe. This new database lets users explore all the fascinating facets of popular culture--past and present. (You can use the database off campus by logging in using your DACC user i.d. and password.) PCU lets you explore such varied aspects of car culture as travel and recreation, how it affected personal relationships, how it changed the way towns developed and what car design and customization revealed about our dreams and fears.

U.S. Automakers Today

BusinessWeek offers a number of stories and analyses that do an excellent job of putting the crises at Chrysler and GM in perspective. Written over time, these stories follow the road to GM's bankruptcy as well as looking closely at causes and impacts of these corporate failings, putting them in the context of other large-scale business failings. One thing that you hear less of on the news are the stories about areas where the U.S. auto industry is not suffering. Reuters examines the case of the southern foreign auto plants, which have handled the economic downturn with much less stress on their workforce.

Automotive History

Who invented the automobile? That question is actually more complicated than it sounds because in the beginning there were so many different types of automobiles. Arguably, a case can even be made for Leonardo Da Vinci, who was drawing independent transport vehicles in his sketchbooks in the fifteenth century. (Here is a second design, this one for an armored car.) The Library of Congress offers this page of answers to this problem, noting that Karl Benz comes closest to earning single credit for the automobile as we think of it today. The Museum of Automobile History offers online visitors the opportunity to look at billboards, plaques and pictures of of its exhibits, hundreds of images covering the range of automotive history. You can also view online videos, send e-cards, or take an automobile history quiz. To look at a range of automobiles owned by an enthusiast who can truly afford to indulge in maintaining a living history of vehicles, check out Jay Leno's Garage. As the site makes explicit, Jay's collection isn't a museum. All of his vehicles are intended to be driven. The site includes a wealth of other car-related material, from video and articles on related topics to a featured visitor's vehicles section.

Vanished Brands

Should either GM or Chrysler disappear entirely, they would enter a special area of automotive culture. Automotive history is littered with famous and infamous vanished vehicle brands. For example, the Tucker, featured in a film starring Jeff Bridges, was a much-anticipated vehicle of which only 51 models were ever ever actually produced. The extent to which Tucker's car was a victim of bureaucratic wrangling as opposed to a deliberate effort on the part of the big three automakers to eliminate a possible competitor remains a point of contention. Another automobile with a storied past is the Edsel. Named for a son of Henry Ford's who had passed away, the Edsel was actually a line of automobiles Ford intended to be premiere vehicles. But as the article from the Washington Post makes clear, nothing about the production of the car, from the selection of its name to its design to the pony promotion used to seduce test drives (yes, they were real ponies), was well thought out. And the Edsel would go on to become a synonym for commercial failure. It also became a pop culture icon. Finally, given the success of the recent film Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, it seems only appropriate to give a nod to the film's iconic automobile, the Yugo. More properly, the Zastava Koral but sold in the U.S. as the Yugo, this automobile entered the U.S. market as an incredibly inexpensive alternative to all other vehicles on the market (only $4500 in 1985), got excellent gas mileage and came with an extended warranty. The car soon got a reputation for being of poor quality however, although some contest this saying that the type of engine requires regular maintenance to perform and cannot withstand owner negligence in the way other types of vehicles can.

On the Track

If you are a motorsports fan, then you'll want to hit Motorsport.com for information on all the different varieties. F1 fans will find statistics of all kinds at ChicaneF1, which lets you delve in Formula1 in all different arcane ways, while F1.com provides all the latest news, video and information about the sport. For NASCAR fans, besides NASCAR's home page, there's Catchfence.com, which includes news, interviews, race information and fan commentary. Want to check out what's going on locally? Check out Vermilion County Speedway's web site.