Cars

American LaFrance (ALF), the company that built the pumping apparatus on this 1971 Ford F750, had a long and storied history. ALF was known for its innovative and distinctive equipment designs, most notably the cab-forward style utilized on many fire trucks today.

While a young man, Henry Ford took a job with the Edison Illuminating Company in Detroit, Michigan.  While serving as Edison’s chief engineer, Ford began building his first car.  Like other car makers of his day, he had no ready-made components with which to work.

Introduced at the Turin Motor Show in 1972, the Fiat 126 or “Bambino” was a direct replacement for the aging Nuova 500. This fresh but somewhat bland design resembled a scaled-down Fiat 127, but used the tried-and-true Nuova 500 drivetrain under the creased modern envelope.

The Syrena was first shown to the Polish public in 1955 at the Poznan Trade Fair.  Production of the Syrena started in 1957, and continued to 1960 when the updated model was introduced.

The first appearance of the Irat name was in 1914 but there is no record of car production until 1921. Apart from the bodies, the whole of the car was made at the factory in France. 

Bill Buckle of Sydney, Australia, was a distributor of the German Goggomobil in the late 1950s. In an effort to get away from the punishing import taxes imposed by Australia, he found it cheaper to import the chassis and then build his own fiberglass body.  

Hansa was founded in 1905 to build light cars. The company merged with Lloyd in 1914 and built commercial vehicles. Carl Borgward became involved with cars and commercial vehicles in the 1920s and merged with Hansa-Lloyd in 1929.