Celebrating a Cadillac Milestone

A hundred years ago today, three Model K Cadillacs made a historic journey. The cars were first driven 25 miles from London to the Brooklands racetrack, where each one was taken apart inside a brick shed. Three piles of parts — some 720 parts per car — were jumbled together. Then they were reassembled from the resulting shuffle and driven another 500 miles.

This was only possible because the Cadillacs were made from interchangeable parts — a first in the auto industry and an important step leading to the development of the modern assembly line.

The idea of building automobiles with interchangeable parts is usually associated with the Ford Model T — celebrating its 100th anniversary later this year — and the assembly lines used to build it. But it took several years before the Model T could be put together on a line and without fitting files and other tweaks. Before the assembly line made sense, parts had to be machined with enough precision they could be easily swapped one for another.

It was Cadillac, founded in 1902 by Henry Leland, that achieved that standard first, proving the feat at Brooklands, which won Cadillac the Dewar Trophy, given by the Royal Automobile Club in Great Britain for progress in automobile engineering and racing. History does not record the colors of the Cadillacs, but observers nicknamed the reassembled cars, with their mismatched fender and door colors, “harlequins.”

Using interchangeable parts meant that the three Cadillacs could be taken apart, jumbled together and then assembled back into three cars. (General Motors Media Archive)Mr. Leland began his career at the Springfield Armory, which realized Eli Whitney’s promise to President Thomas Jefferson to defend the new country with muskets made by interchangeable parts. Mr. Leland went on to become a national hero of precision, helping to bring the principle of interchangeable parts to sewing machines, clocks, adding machines, and other devices.

This so-called American system of production was at first more important for creating higher quality products than cheaper ones. And it was more important for ease of repair than ease of assembly. But in 1909 Scientific American magazine shrewdly predicted the future, declaring that “standardization and interchangeability of parts will have the effect of giving us a higher grade of motor car at a lower price.”


http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/05/a-great-day-at-brooklands/

So why in the hell couldn't the Americans keep that dominance and breakthrough technology ? I owned one Cadillac,,, a 1980 Eldorado, with the 8-6-4 engine. Spent 2 out of the first 6 months of ownership in the shop. The front bumper was completely ruined by techs resting their feet on it trying to figure out the problems. They ended up disabling the 8-6-4 feature so it would run on 8 cylinders all the time. I believe that was the last new American car I ever bought.

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

the 8-6-4 WAS breakdown or umm breakthrough technology. It just needed a few more years of tweaking to get it right, which never happened. It is too bad that that is the only perception you got from Caddy. Try one of the new ones. It might surprise you.

Isn't there a new car that also shuts down cylinders during cruising? I think I heard of one last year.

Back on topic, the last two months of Hemming's Classic Cars were all about GM which turns 100 in September

Some notable firsts:

The self starter
the motor/generator (forerunner of hybrid technology)
The alternator
the solid state voltage regulator
The automatic transmission
etc

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Current
Monika '74 450 SL
BrownHilda '79 280SL
FoxyCleopatra '99 Chevy Suburban
Scarlett 2014 Jeep Cherokee
Krystal 2004 Volvo S60
Gone
'74 Jeep CJ5
'97 Jeep ZJ Laredo
Rudolf ‘86 300SDL
Bruno '81 300SD
Fritzi '84 BMW
'92 Subaru
'96 Impala SS
'71 Buick GS conv
'67 GTO conv
'63 Corvair conv
'57 Nomad

Several. The new Hemi and some GM V-8's do that.

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99 Mazda Miata 183,xxx miles.