Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/139371
42 www.bigrigowner.com J u ly 2 0 1 3 By Gary Bricken Legends of The Road Autocar's Forever It's highly likely that a thousand of years from now when archeologists are excavating the remains of 20th century they will find few remnants of any long forgotten big rigs. But if they do, it will most certainly be an Autocar. And it will probably still run. Autocar, which is the oldest continuous truck nameplate still made today, began life as an automobile maker in Ardmore, Penn. about 1900 but concentrated solely on making trucks from 1911 onward. From the beginning, Autocar was an innovator with the first practical cab forward design, a short 8' wheelbase 2 cylinder 2 ton truck that enjoyed almost 18 years of production. By the 1930's, they were producing 4x4 heavy haul units and re-introduced the cab forward design to the American market which was quickly copied by other leading manufacturers of the day. In the late 1930's, they acquired large military contracts, especially for armored half-tracks and in all produced 50,000 military vehicles during WWII. After the war, they ramped up civilian production when materials became available and did very well up until 1950 when a slowdown in the heavy truck market took its toll and an Autocar legends 0713.indd 1 was sold to the White Motor Company. After that they were primarily custom truck builders for customers in the logging, mining and the oil field industries until 1958 when production series Over The Road trucks were again available featuring aluminum cabs and frames. In 1981, a new series of very handsome OTR rigs came on the market after Volvo acquired the assets of White Motors but they slowly evolved into using the Volvo bodies by the late 1980's. For a time the Autocar nameplate disappeared in 2000 but was saved by the Grand Vehicle Works Holdings, LLC of Highland Park, Ill., and currently the Autocar nameplate if featured on the Xpeditor® series of innovative refuse trucks. The heyday of the Autocar highway trucks in the modern era was between 1980 and 1987 and quite a few of these rigs are still seen occasionally on the big road and at truck shows. They were handsome, powerful and built to last. Many older units saw service as tow trucks because the lasted forever and were built like tanks. With so many great rigs produced in America, Autocar's claim to the title they once advertised as the "World Finest" may be a bit of stretch, but it in the history of American trucking it certainly deserves a place in the top 10 forever. • 6/6/13 10:05 AM