Speeding is not, as we might suspect, a problem of recent creation, fueled by teenagers on Red Bull. Some might mention the depression-era bootleggers whose speeding led to NASCAR’s creation after World War 2. Others might go back to the pre-Depression era when Hollywood’s leading men dashed about town in their Packards and Duesenbergs.
No, the problem of speeding dates back much further. Police felt obligated to rid the world of the new scourge of overzealous motorists (new word to them, that). But how do you do that with horses or, if your department aspired to be progressive, bicycles? You can’t. So their solution was fight fire with fire. (Or in this case tire with tire.)
The article below, from the Washington Post of Sunday, April 14, 1912, reveals the nation’s automobile capital’s solution.
The brand featured (Regal) is one of hundreds which came and went during the automobile industry’s early days. Setting up a car company was relatively easy: Comeback! details how Henry Ford started his third company with less than $30,000 in cash. Several of Billy’s associates started their own automobile companies which either faded away (The Dort by Dallas Dort and the Flint Roadster by ABC Hardy) or were absorbed by Billy (Jim Whiting’s eponymous Whiting).
The trick, as Billy and only a few others grasped, was twofold: build a distribution network (dealers) and what we today call brand awareness. In most new industries it’s only matter of time before hundreds of competitors merge or die until only a handful remain.
What set Billy Durant apart from hundreds of automobile pioneers with better credentials? His remarkable lack of ego and greed. Comeback! lets you see the people Billy involved, and how he allowed them to prosper and benefit following his vision of a car in every driveway.