Hemmings Classic Car

Of Bowties and Blue Ovals

Camaro versus Mustang. Impala versus Galaxie. Silverado versus F-150. Cruze versus Focus. The battle between Chevrolet and Ford didn’t start in the Sixties. Far from it.

From 1906 through at least the year 2000, Ford or Chevrolet occupied the top spot on the annual U.S. automobile sales chart. And from 1919 on, in almost every year, the two nameplates held the top two spots.

The automobile business is big business with a capital “B,” and involves big money, with an even bigger “B.” It always has been and always will be. And it’s a cutthroat one, from the high pressure on the sales floor to the high pressure in the design studio to the constant, quarterly view from Wall Street and other financiers, whose motto can only be summed up as “What have you done for me lately?” It’s a competitive racket, not for the faint of heart, and nothing encapsulates that competition quite like the past 108 years of rivalry

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from Hemmings Classic Car

Hemmings Classic Car1 min read
Owner’s View
“Mom drove us back and forth to school, and I think of her hands on the steering wheel. And Dad drove us around for several years, using the knob on the wheel. There are a couple of little dings on it from things hitting it when my brother and I were
Hemmings Classic Car4 min read
Pop Culture Inspired This Spy Craft ’58 Edsel Ranger
I GREW UP in Southern California in the 1960s, when car culture was a big influence on a boy. Slot cars and plastic models were the gateway drugs, so to speak, which were followed by go-karts and minibikes. I lived in a rural area on the family chick
Hemmings Classic Car1 min read
To Tame the Open Road
Today’s motorsports enthusiasts point to Bonneville as a swath of salt bed that’s home to sensational land speed records man once thought impossible. When Pontiac unveiled its “action styled” Bonneville in 1957, this new model featured a sleek silhou

Related