Cars

Ben Gregory was from Kansas City, Missouri, and he believed that front-wheel drive was the preferred method of propelling a car. The roadster you see here is the only one he made, and he also managed to make a couple of sedans.

This German company was producing cars as early as the 1920s but they struggled financially through that decade. In 1931, Hanomag had 25% of the small-car market in Germany, trailed by DKW (19%) and BMW (17%).

The Hansa Automobile Gesellschaft was founded in 1905 to build light cars. Light cars were comparatively rare in Germany at the time. By 1913, the company was building small to medium-sized cars as well as large, luxurious cars.

Heinkel, like fellow airplane maker Messerschmitt, was prohibited from making aircraft after WWII. In 1953 Heinkel began building a high end 4-stroke scooter called the Tourist.  Scooter sales soon began to slow, and in 1956 Heinkel began building bubble cars.

In early 1940, Rudy Stoessel, Paul Erdos, and Burt Chalmers opened a small body shop in Hollywood called Coachcraft, Ltd., and began building custom bodies for movie stars and wealthy locals. 

The original Hillman Minx was a mid-sized family sedan produced from 1931 through the World War II. In 1948, a more modern-looking Minx Mk III debuted, complete with ponton styling (headlights integrated in the fenders, no running boards) that came in three different body styles: 4-door sedan, a 2-door cabriolet, and a wagon.

Hobbycar was the dream of Francois Wardevoir, a French designer of off-road and sport utility vehicles. With his well-funded partner, Serge Desmarais, they built a state-of-the-art high-tech factory in Thenay, France, approximately 200km south of Paris.