Ahlstrom

Ahlstrom, Chance
Professor Thomas
UWRT 1102
Feb. 12, 2015

Limitless
Hello there, the paper you are about to read is about my inquiry question for my writing
class. Being a huge car fan, I have always grown up around cars and have always wondered how
companies keep coming up with original designs for their automobiles. This has prompted me to
ask the question, How close have we come to reaching the full potential of car manufacturing
with todays date and age accompanied by the technology of the twenty first century? This is a
question I have been pondering about since I was little. I am curious to where it might take me as
I further research this topic within my paper.
The question I ask has many sides to it as well as many questions that can be brought up
in relation to it. When I dig deeper into this question I have asked, I see two ways that will be
taken. The manufacturing pathway which leads to the engineering and assembly line processes
that occurs within the factories themselves. On the other side of this question there is a path that
takes me through the history of cars until we arrive here in the modern car world. In fallowing
these two pathways research will be key and be prepared to see lots and lots of names and dates.
I see it fit to bring this question up to expand my mind on how far we have come as a civilization
as well as an ever-evolving society, but where can we go from here?
The question is researchable no question about it. The problem is going to come when I
cannot find enough paper to write out all of the research. Joking of course, the research will start
off back when Henry ford launched the first automobile. This was done through his assembly

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line process from within the factory itself and arrive within the modern factories of Ferrari,
Lamborghini, Pagani, Nissan and Chevrolet to name a few. The automobile started off a just a
people carrier. It was made only for the wealthy due to the very expensive price of $825 back in
1908. This is pocket change to the average American now a day yet back then you were very
well off to be able to afford this kind of pocket change. To give you an idea of how much money
that is, the hourly wage was twenty-two cents. Ten hours of work would barely be able to buy
you a pack of chewing gum today. The Ford Model T was ahead of its time, even though it had
many flaws it was the first production vehicle to every be mass-produced. The assembly line
was the brainchild of Henry Ford and has been in use everywhere in the world ever since. The
simple idea of a worker having one task and thats the only task he or she has to do makes
bringing product to market much faster. Now the invention of the gas engine brings up many
more inventions that were either made by or used this engine. The technique to making all of
this happens, referring to the assembly line, brings about the beginnings of the industrial
revolution and the age of industrializing everything possible. Now when it comes to the
automobiles themselves they were often broken down and problematic in terms of durability.
These factories where the foundations to almost every modern day manufacturing process that
exists today. The fallowing years to Henry fords assembly line and the model T, new
manufacturers of automobiles are starting to come into appearance. These manufacturers were
mostly in France believe it or not. The French had almost half of the cars (33,000) that were
manufactured in that time. This was Henry Fords main competition.
Mercedes Benz, a name that was originally found within planes same of that as Bugatti
and Ferrari to name a few. These manufacturers started like I said with planes during the war,
making them faster, lighter and more maneuverable. Soon the war would be over and it with the

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demand of war planes, but these names in particular would find root within the automotive
world. Enzo Ferrari, this man would be the gatekeeper to a generation of cars that would
triumph over the world in luxury, motorsports and beauty. This name is famous not because of
the Enzo Ferrari, but because this is the man that started the whole company up way back when
the war was winding down and the allies, France, Great Brittan, Italy and many more soon found
no need for high performance war planes. So out of a job, Enzo Ferrari started making cars,
building them from the ground up and utilizing what he knew of planes to get high revving and
powerful engines to put in these cars. The cars themselves were beautiful and resembled some of
the earlier fighter planes with the riveted bodies of aluminum and carefully crafted curves.
These first cars would be the dream of Enzo Ferrari and an empire unbeknownst him. Ferrari
was on of the few manufacturers to not use a true assembly line till the mid to late 1900s. The
company took pride in making each car piece by piece ensuring quality and perfection to each
car. The heart and soul of Ferrari though was racing, this is where the Ferrari stood out amongst
the rest. Ferrari seemed to have an extra edge on the competition due to the lightweight of the
cars and the high revving engines. This was because of the smaller piston size and aluminum
body that the cars were crafted with.
The other name I mentioned was Bugatti, known for their beautiful aircraft and highly
skilled workers and their ability to make an airplane beautiful. This would be a competitor of
Ferrari down the road, but in the meantime Bugatti was a very small company. A company made
up of only a handful of very skilled workers that made each part by hand. Again after the war
had ended like Ferrari, Bugattis attention turned to the ever-evolving automobile industry, it to
started out small but with its craftsmans reputation grew fast. These racecars at first were some
of the best around often trading places with Ferrari, Ford and many more. The ever-evolving

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technology that was used within the racecars was eventually introduced into the everyday Joe
blow car. When Ford mass-produced its most popular car to date, the Ford Mustang, Ford knew
his factories would need updating to keep up with the public demand for the car. He added
robots into the assembly line along with workers to help with the heavy objects like the chassis,
frame, engine and other heavy or big objects. This allowed assembly time to be reduced
dramatically as well as cost because of the excess workers needed to help move these heavier
objects. I found that the cars also got a make over as the years progressed, coming from all steal
bodies and frames to aluminum bodies. This reduced not only weight but cost as well. This
trend continued until factories became semi-autonomous. This means that in parts of the
factories robots are in control of certain operations like welding, bending, and painting, placing
things and delivering objects to other stations or parts of the factory. The cars that came up to
this point within the manufacturing process have gone from carbureted engines; which means the
air fuel system was mechanically controlled by a couple of screws, to electronic fuel injection
that can be changed at any given time with the right computer and software. Safety had also
increased from only having a seat belt to having air bags in every panel of the car to protect the
driver and passengers from any type of collision. Cameras had only been installed on the most
prestigious cars at one point but not they are a dime a dozen, every car by 2016 has to have a
back up camera installed in it as demanded by the U.S government. The materials for the cars
have changed as well; some base model cars are mostly plastic on the interior to save money
while others have carbon fiber at every inch of the car. (Carbon fiber- A super light weight
material that is stands of carbon woven together and coated with a chemical then baked, this
creates a super light weight part that can have the strength of steal with the weight of plastic.)

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The range of materials available now is very extensive, some companies like Rolls Royce
has millions upon millions of color combinations, so many that they say no Rolls Royce is the
same as another, it is almost impossible to run out of combinations between the color of the car
where there are over 80 different colors not including the 50 different ways you can have that
color displayed and thats only on the outside. The interior is made up of over 450 different
pieces of leather cut from 15-18 full cowhides. They do not use an assembly line though, they
make sure the car is perfect to a literal T before the customer even gets to see his or her car
that they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars on. If something isnt to spec they will redo
whatever is wrong weather it be a small scratch or paint imperfection to recovering a new seat
because there was a small scuff in the leather. Each car is made by hand and takes between 2-3
months per car to make and assemble. This is a small example of the luxury car life, there are a
many of other companies with the same passion like Morgan, Maybach and more.
There was a person that had asked me the other day, what makes a super car so super?
and, why do they cost so much? These questions actually had me baffled to be honest, I
personally have never met someone that didnt know about Ferraris or heard of a Lamborghini.
I didnt know where to start so I did some digging.
A super car by definition is, (alsoknownasexoticcar)isaveryexpensiveandhigh
performancesportscarorgrandtourer.[Dictionary.com,April10th,2015]
Thisstatementmadethemurkywateralittleclearerforthisperson,buttheystillwantedtoknow
more.AgainIdugalittledeeperwithoutoverwhelmingtheindividual,andcameupwithmy
versionofadefinition.Mydefinitionofasupercaris,Acarthatexceedssixtymilesanhourin
lessthanfoursecondsthatcostsmorethat100,000dollarsandismadeupofmaterialsnot
commonlyfoundwithintodaysmodernvehicles.Thisfurtherexplainsthepreviousdefinition

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thatIhadfoundearlier.Itooaskedthisquestionandfoundsomeshockingresults,somesuper
carsliketheNissanGTRin2009costonly70,000dollarswhichisthesamepriceassomeof
todaysCadillacEscaladesthataredrivingaround.Thisshockedmethatsomethingcouldcost
lessthan100,000dollarsandbeatalmosteverycarthatcosttwiceoreventhreetimesasmuch.I
continuedtodigdeeperatthispointandfoundsupercarswith1000HPandcarbonfiberbodies
andwheelsthatweighlessthana25pounddumbbell.Thesecarsaretrulysuper,060MPHin
2.32.6seconds,topspeedof270MPHandweighslessthan1.5tonsonoccasion.Self
adjustingsuspension,enginemanagementthatmakesthemostpowerthatthecarcanhandleata
specificmomentsothedriverdoesnotloosecontrolandevenbrakesthatapplythemost
pressurepossiblewithoutmakingthetiresloosegrip.Complexalgorithmsthatcontinuously
adjustforthisandthatmakingeachturnofalapfasterandfasterforthedriver,somecarshave
activeaerodynamicsthataddorreducedownforcebasedonbrakingorvelocityofthecarand
canevenbeusedasanairbraketohelpslowthecar.ThesecarshaveblowntheWebsters
dictionarydefinitionoutofthewatercostingclosetoamilliondollarsthatisntasportscar
anymore;ithasevolvedintoaracecar.Thecompanythatproducessuchacaristhatof
Koenigsegg,ahighperformancesuperCarCompanythathasproducedsomeofthefastestcars
intheworld.Bringingthisbacktothesecondpartofmymainquestion,theyalsodonotusean
assemblyline,eachcarinhandcraftedpiecebypiece.Eachmoldismadebyhandwhetheritis
adoororawheelthatismadeofcarbonfiber.Thecompanypridesitselfinmakingtheworlds
firstproductioncarthatcomeswithasetoftheserims.Theyalsopridethemselveswithbeing
ontheleadingedgeoftechnologythatisapplicabletotheautomotiveworldandprocessesused
tomakethecarsthemselves.ThisiswhereIleaveoffwiththeresearch,Ihavecoveredonly

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smallportionsofhistoryhereandtherethathaveleadfromMr.Benzmakingthefirst
automobileandHenryFordconstructingthefirstassemblylinetocarsthatarebuiltbyhandand
canexceedspeedsof270MPHandcostmorethantwicetheaveragehome.The continuing
effort of manufacturers and development of cars has come a really long way. The model T and
Henry Ford were the most influential and laid the foundation for the past one hundred and seven
years for not only the automotive industry but the industrial industry as well. Cars have gone
from barely ten horsepower to a thousand and some change and have everything from cameras,
traction control, magnetic ride suspension and active aerodynamics. My question of How close
have we come to reaching the full potential of car manufacturing with todays date and age
accompanied by the technology of the twenty first century? has been answered to the best of my
knowledge through my research. I could not believe some of the things I personally have
learned through this paper and question. I am an avid car guy that seeks the latest and greatest
cars and trucks but never thought to take a second and see where it all stemmed from. It blew
my mind that I had always thought Henry Ford was the creator, the godfather of the automobile
when in fact it was actually Karl Benz from Germany. That car companies owe everything they
have now to the modern assembly line, which was in fact crated and patented by Henry Ford in
1913. But none of this would have crossed my mind had I not asked this question and really and
truly fallowed it wherever it took me.
The future holds a lot for the car industry as well as the industrial processes as new
technology has been pushing cars further and further into the history books every year. Will
there ever be a car that can run on hydrogen or natural gas? Will cars eventually become
completely electric? When will we hit the ceiling in terms of research and development for the
next super car? These are a few of the many, many questions that I have after creating,

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researching and defining this question. But Ill leave these questions for another paper, I now
wish to bid you a due, good-bye, and I hope you enjoyed this paper as much as I did.

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Works Cited

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"AutomobileandtheEnvironmentinAmericanHistory:TheAutomobile'sImprintonthe
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Link:http://classicponycars.com/history.html

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"100YearsoftheMovingAssemblyLine."FordCorporate.Web.28Mar.2015.
<https://corporate.ford.com/innovation/100yearsmovingassemblyline.html>.
Link: https://corporate.ford.com/innovation/100yearsmovingassemblyline.html
"BlogKoenigsegg."Koenigsegg.Web.11Apr.2015.
Link:<http://koenigsegg.com/blog/>.

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