What's Your Best Piece of Car Trivia?

Here are my three:

1. The 2006 Challenger concept's stripes are clear-coated carbon fiber- not vinyl tape like the production models. In fact, the entire body was made of carbon fiber by Metalcrafters.

2. An abbreviation for the shaker hood on the 1970-1971 'Cuda was i.e.q.c.a.g. It stood for Incredible Exposed Quivering Cold Air Grabber.

3. The billboard stripe on the 1971 'Cuda was a joke. The designers became frustrated at Plymouth executives because every side stripe was deemed too conservative. In spite, the designers submitted an outlandish design that covered almost half of the car's side. To their amazement, the executives loved it and it became an iconic feature on the 'Cuda.

 

Here is another one.

In WW II, Chrysler received a contract with the Department of Defense for $54.5 million to construct and staff a tank-building plant. This contract, an incredible amount of money for the time, demonstrates the magnitude of governmental interest and trust in the reliability of Chrysler production, as at the time the second largest tank contract had been for $11 million dollars. The Chrysler-produced Sherman M4 tank would be the main combat vehicle of U.S. ground forces. The tank plant contracted in 1940 was operational and produced tanks in quantity by 1941. There was a total of 6,258 M3 tanks built during WWII, with Chrysler building 3,352 or 53% of the total. It built 17,947 of the M4 Sherman series tanks, or 36% of the total 49,234 built. At the end of the war Chrysler manufactured 473 T26E3/M26 and 185 T26E2/M45 tanks. It also produced 250 T23 medium tanks bringing the total of tanks built by Chrysler at the Detroit tank arsenal to 22,207.

 

The top speed of the experimental 1963-1964 Chrysler turbine car was only 105 mph. The engine produced 130 hp. and 425 lb/ft of torque.

 

The designers of the production Challenger, Jeff Gale and Brian Nielander, fought with the corporate execs to remove the concept's Dodge trademark cross-hair grill for the 2008 model. They preferred a clean grill based on the 1970 model. Fortunately, for us, they won their argument.

 

I posted it because it was trivia about a car manufacturer.