Let’s go back in time and learn a little piece of history about hybrid engines and fuel cells during the 20th century. I bet this stuff is older than your Mercedes S430 radiator hose. Anyway, let’s dig in with the details provided by my source!

THE 20TH CENTURY

1904: Henry Ford starts his assembly-line production of “low-priced, lightweight, gas-powered vehicles” and as a result, the Electric Vehicle Company was unsuccessful in the next few years.

1905: American engineer H. Piper records a copyright for a petrol-electric hybrid car.

1913: Steamers and electrics were about to be phased out with the discovery of the self-starter which provided convenience to drivers to start gas engines. Sales of electric cars went down to 6,000 and the Ford Model T sells nearly 182,000 gasoline vehicles.

1920-1965: The period which the mass-production of electric and hybrid cars went stationary.

1966: First bill introduced by Congress with a recommendation to use electric vehicles to reduce air pollution.

1970s: The Arab oil embargo of 1973 brings increased gasoline prices and a new interest in electric and hybrid vehicles.

1975: Government program to develop electric and hybrid technology is applied by the U.S. Energy Research and Development Administration.

1976: Public Law 94-413, the Electric and Hybrid Vehicle Research, Development, and Demonstration Act of 1976 – Congress endorses regulation to start work with production to develop “batteries, motors, controllers, and other hybrid-electric components.”

1977-1979: Electric vehicles are likely to be in production by the mid-1980s.

1991: United States Advanced Battery Consortium (USABC) unveiled a program to create a “super” battery that expects of achieving electric vehicles on the road ASAP.

1992: Toyota Motor Company released a document that summarizes objectives to expand and promote vehicles with the lowest emissions possible. It was called the “Earth Charter.”

1997: Japan – the Toyota Prius rolls in dealerships and sells about 18,000 vehicles in the first year.

After researching some details about the Acura transmission mount, I hurriedly searched for vintage stuff at TheAutoChannel.com. And here’s what I got…

The Barrett-Jackson Auction Company will bring their well-known collector car extravaganza to the marvelous city of Las Vegas next year. The famous event will happen on October 16-18, 2008 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. It will feature fabulous autos, from classic muscle cars to pre-war classic.

“Las Vegas as a city mirrors the dynamic atmosphere of a Barrett-Jackson event. We believe the two are an ideal match and we intend to become a significant part of the city’s landscape in the coming years,” says Craig Jackson, the Chairman/CEO of Barrett-Jackson.  

“Barrett-Jackson represents the gold standard in classic car auctions by providing an exhilarating mix of vintage vehicles, high-energy crowds and thrilling bidding wars. The energy and excitement of Mandalay Bay and Las Vegas will provide the perfect complement to this highly anticipated event,” says Mandalay Bay President and COO Bill Hornbuckle.  

“Auto collecting continues to grow at an amazing pace. Adding the Las Vegas auction allows an even greater audience to participate in the Barrett-Jackson experience, with the added excitement of Las Vegas as a backdrop,” says Steve Davis, the president of Barrett-Jackson.

The Holiday Season is just around the corner and for classic car lovers, the best gift might be a 1934 Packard Eight Sedan or some other vintage car. But looking for vintage cars in good condition is hard work. But in the United Kingdom, if you are looking for your dream vintage car, you might easily find it at the upcoming auction come November 27.

The Vintage and Collectors sale will be held at Blackbushe and numerous high quality vehicles will be up for grabs. Here are some of them according to this site:

• 1934 Packard Eight Sedan: was originally supplied to Fiorello H. LaGuardia, a prominent political figure in the US who served three terms as Mayor of New York from 1934 to 1945; was imported to the UK and restored some years ago and has been maintained as part of an impressive stable of Packard motorcars.
• 1924 Talbot 10/23 All-Weather Coupe: offered with a bulging history file, which shows the car was previously the property of Howard Carter, the famous Egyptologist; retains its original Hertfordshire registration number and is offered with a V5 registration document and MOT certificate current until July next year
• 1961 Jaguar Mk 2 3.4: finished in Cotswold Blue with grey leather trim and is in superb condition following a detailed restoration undertaken between 1996 and 2000.

These vehicles are so rare that’s why they are also very valuable. The vehicles to be auctioned off at the event are still in good condition as they are made tough just like VW shocks. Apart from vintage cars, sports cars will also be auctioned off. A 1999 Ferrari 360 GT Race Car is expected to be one of the many sports cars which will attract the attention of event goers.

Who would ever forget this famous sedan car in the US car market? Everybody is familiar with this vehicle and I guess I don’t even have to speak much about it. But anyway not everybody knows its history. Let me bring you a slight snippet of the Nissan Sentra history.

The Nissan Sentra is small car made by the Japanese automaker Nissan Motors. Sunny was the real name of the Sentra in the Japanese car market. It certainly does not have Dodge heater cores as one of its car parts. The Sentra name is not used in Japan but the current model in Japan is named the Bluebird Sylphy.

In the US, the current Sentra is a compact car and is presently in competition with other compact cars such as the Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus, Chevrolet Cobalt, Mitsubishi Lancer, VW Jetta, and the Honda Civic. The MSRP for the Nissan Sentra in the US is $15,000 for a base model to $21,000 for a loaded top-of-the-line Sentra. Previous models were subcompacts. However, Nissan had to replace the Sentra with another subcompact car called Nissan Versa. It is rated by EPA as a midsize car because of its interior volume.

The Nissan Silvia is one among the very first coupes made by the Nissan Motor Corporation under the S platform. The Silvia car model has also shared its chassis with other Nissan cars and because the vehicle does not have interchangeable chassis codes, the name was not changed.

Nissan has finally stopped its production of the S platform in 2002 and started the Silvia S15-series as its final variant.

If you can recall, last September of this year, the Japanese carmaker has released a report to an unnamed magazine that they are building a new 4-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive, and turbo sports coupe. The net has been very evidential in terms of this as they revealed new photos of the said car as the test mule FM chassis. The car appeared to be the test mule FM chassis which was heavily chopped and welded back together. However, the mule was seen to be a little shorter than the FM chassis - it is somewhat like the normal 350Z and resembles what appears to be like a much smaller hatchback hybrid.

The absence of the famous Nissan Silvia in the market has marked the fame of the GTR after it will be released to the markets all over the world. It will follow the success made by Nissan’s FM chassis and the market is once again ready for an affordable, turbo, rear drive sports car.  Wikipedia says, “The new iteration of the Silvia is rumored to be priced in a very affordable range of 21,000 to 23,000 USD and will be available as soon as 2010.”

We have seen this car model from Nissan being in the car market for a very long time but not everybody has the interest to know everything about the previous compact car which is now known as one among the best mid-size cars in the US car market. Well of course, it was made by the Japanese car market Nissan Motor Corporation.

The Altima is pronounced as ALL-timah and is an ongoing mid-size car. It was a fact that the Altima was the previous Nissan Bluebird which was made back in 1957. During those times, the Bluebird is a large car that is capable of running with huge horsepower and is even regarded to be more luxurious than the present Nissan Sentra. It’s quality is made identical to the Volkswagen brake booster. “It competes with the Mazda 6, Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Subaru Legacy, Mitsubishi Galant, Hyundai Sonata, Volkswagen Passat, and Ford Fusion,” Wikipedia.com informs.

Aside from being one among the famous cars in the US car market specifically in North America, the car model is also famous in the Middle East. In some other car markets, Nissan sells another related mid-size car called the Nissan Teana and that one is built on the same FF-L platform.

Altima was originally taken from the trim line of the Nissan Laurel mid-size car famous in the Caribbean before 1992. Nissan decided to build the first generation Nissan Altima in 1993. It was the same time that Nissan discontinued the Stanza, replacing it with the US-made Altima but remained as a compact car. The first ever Altima car was seen last June 15, 1992 but was officially tagged as a 1993 model car.

Smyrna, Tennessee is where all these Altima cars are built until 2004 and was transferred to the Canton, Mississippi plant to meet the high demands of the US car market.

The Altima has had four design generations: 1993-1997, 1998-2001, 2002-2006, and 2007-present.

The Mitsubishi Lancer is a compact car manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors. It has been popularly known as the Colt Lancer, Dodge/Plymouth Colt, Chrysler Valiant Lancer, Chrysler Lancer, Soueast Lioncel, Eagle Summit, Hindustan Lancer, Mitsubishi Carisma, and the Mitsubishi Mirage in a variety of countries at different periods and will be sold as the Galant Fortis in its original market starting this year.

I didn’t witness the origin and the complete evolution of the Lancer. However, the 4th generation Lancer has given a summarized story of its history, and it has given a statement that says, “Goodbye to the box type designs!” The innovative structure of the fourth generation Mitsubishi Lancer implied the start of an advanced beginning! A more aerodynamic-looking Lancer was introduced in 1988, following the mold of the marvelous Galant. A five-door hatchback was added to the Lancer series. The production of Mirage and Lancer classification was pushed through.

The launching of the fourth generation was successful from 1988 up to the last year of its production. Until now, you can still spot a few of the breeds from the fourth generation! It’s still bouncy as Isuzu shocks and the appeal of the 4th generation Lancer lives on… 

Honda’s most famous car model is the Civic and it was first made in July 1972 as a two-door coupe. It was followed by the three-door hatchback version that September. Honda gave the car model a transverse engine placement of its 1169 cc engine and front-wheel drive, just like the British Mini. Honda gave the car an overall good interior space despite the small dimensions.

The first models were placed with only the basic AM radio, rudimentary heater, foam cushioned plastic trim, two-speed wipers, and painted steel rims with a chromed wheel nut cap, Wikipedia.com says. But the newest Civic was given the satellite-linked navigation, a six-speed manual transmission, power locks and power windows available.
 
They did not put the Volkswagen brake booster on the car but it has the 1170 cc engine back in 1973 with larger capacities and more creature comforts like air conditioning as well as power windows and many more. Then it was made available to car models of 1980s, 1990s and into the 2000s.

In the US, Civic is the second largest Japanese car model and the longest running sedan car in the market next to Toyota Corolla.

Who would not recognize the Toyota Corolla? I see no hands. Well of course because it is the most popular car made by the Toyota Motor Corporation back in 1966. The car model became the best selling car in the world in 1997 after selling almost 30 million units throughout the world in 2007. Over the years, there is a unit of Toyota Corollas sold in every 40 seconds.

The Corolla does not wear the Dodge control arm bushing but its car parts and other features are manufactured in “Japan, the United States (Fremont, California), the United Kingdom (Derbyshire), Canada (Cambridge, Ontario), Malaysia, China (Tianjin), Taiwan, Pakistan,Bangladesh, South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, Philippines, Thailand, Venezuela, and India,” wikipedia.com says.

The car model is wearing the chassis designation code "E", which has been described as Toyota’s chassis and engine code.

Toyota Motor Corporation is building a new Toyota Corolla in Canada to commemorate the 20th year of being in the market. The 20th Anniversary Edition Corolla CE for the 2008 model year is now being offered by the Toyota Canada. It’s a Corolla that is installed with power locks with keyless entry, cruise patrol as well as power windows with side auto down. It also wears special edition badging, aluminium alloy wheels, and a power moon roof on top of Corolla CE. The 20th Anniversary Edition wears the price tag of $18,855.