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48-455: From its debut in 1928, it went through a number of permutations over the years, being called at various points in its life, Modern Mechanics and Inventions , Modern Mechanix and Inventions , Modern Mechanix , Mechanix Illustrated , Home Mechanix , and, in its final incarnation, Today's Homeowner . Although it featured many how-to articles, the most eagerly awaited and read features were Tom McCahill 's monthly automobile tests which ran from

96-612: A German Palatine . He was one of a group of Protestants who had left their German homeland in the Rhine Valley , gone to the Netherlands , thence to England and embarked, finally, from Plymouth for New York." Other researchers have since traced his ancestors in more detail. Karin Holl's monograph on the subject traces the family tree to a Johann Philipp Kreißler, born in 1672, who left Germany for Canada in 1709. Chrysler's ancestors came from

144-518: A 1957 Pontiac to be as "smooth as a prom queen's thighs". The 1957 Ford "cornered as flat as a mailman's feet" and the 1954 De Soto is "as solid as the Rock of Gibraltar and just as fast." He described one model of Studebaker's gray-painted hubcaps as a feature "only an engineer could love." In 1952 McCahill entered his own Jaguar Mark VII sedan in the Daytona Beach NASCAR speed trials and won in

192-540: A 90-mile-an-hour cruising speed. The car became known as the "M.I. Ford" as it was frequently featured in the magazine. He purchased a new 1952 Cadillac Series 62 sedan which he eventually raced in NASCAR speed week events. He also purchased new and reported on the '54 Jeep CJ 3A, stating that while his Lincoln was the finest road car available at the time, in the end, the Jeep was the best idea that mankind had ever made. He claimed

240-408: A Jeep would outrun a contemporary M.G. McCahill purchased the first Ford Thunderbird built in 1954 and proceeded to race the car at Daytona Beach. In a 1958 M.I. article McCahill accused the U.S. Auto Industry of causing the recession and poor auto sales of 1958 by standardizing styling and eliminating factory- or factory-sanctioned racing. He focused on AMC 's George Romney , who claimed that

288-665: A controlling interest in the ailing Maxwell Motor Company . Chrysler phased out Maxwell and absorbed it into his new firm, the Chrysler Corporation , in Detroit, Michigan , in 1925. In addition to his namesake car company, Plymouth and DeSoto marques were created, and in 1928 Chrysler purchased Dodge Brothers and renamed it Dodge . The same year he financed the construction of the Chrysler Building in New York City , which

336-650: A degree in fine arts . (McCahill's father had been a football all-American at Yale). He is credited with, amongst other things, the creation of the "0 to 60" acceleration measurement now universally accepted in automotive testing. He became a salesman for Marmon and in the mid-1930s operated dealerships in Manhattan and Palm Springs , featuring Rolls-Royce , Jaguar , and other high-line luxury cars. The depression and his father's alcoholism wiped out his family's fortune. After graduating from Yale, McCahill managed and later owned Murray's Garage in New York City . During

384-504: A month for three years, with a $ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 14 million in 2023) bonus at the end of each year, or $ 500,000 (equivalent to $ 14 million in 2023) in stock. Additionally, Chrysler would report directly to Durant, and would have full run of Buick without interference from anyone. Apparently in shock, Chrysler asked Durant to repeat the offer, which he did. Chrysler immediately accepted. Chrysler ran Buick successfully for three more years. Not long after his three-year contract

432-563: A new "Mimi" in the January issue. One Mimi did, however, hold the job for a few years in the sixties. An actress from Southern California, she left to live in Hawaii, and a readers' poll was conducted to choose a replacement from a short list. The readers' choice only lasted a short while, and was replaced by one of the runners-up. "Mimi" was discontinued with the change to Home Mechanix . A long-running cartoon feature, Roy Doty 's " Wordless Workshop ,"

480-441: A new domestic car. McCahill railed against unfair trade with Canada and Europe. He demanded that the U.S. stop accepting imports and, in lieu of war reparations , force England, Canada and France (where one could purchase an English or German car, but no U.S. makes) to accept the forced sale of hundreds of thousands of used U.S. cars, a plan which he claimed would increase the sale of new vehicles by more than six million annually over

528-715: A protege who had risen through the ranks at the Weston-Mott axle manufacturing company, by then a subsidiary of Buick . Chrysler was then hired to attempt a turnaround by bankers who foresaw the loss of their investment in Willys-Overland Motor Company in Toledo, Ohio . He demanded and received a salary of $ 1 million (equivalent to $ 17.6 million in 2023) a year for two years, an astonishing amount at that time. When Chrysler left Willys in 1921 after an unsuccessful attempt to wrestle control from John Willys , he acquired

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576-664: A quick temper, but his roaming was also a way to become more well-rounded in his railroad knowledge. He worked his way up through positions such as foreman in Trinidad, Colorado , superintendent, division master mechanic, and general master mechanic. From 1905 to 1906, Chrysler worked for the Fort Worth and Denver Railway in Childress in West Texas . He later lived and worked in Oelwein, Iowa , at

624-576: Is currently appearing in " The Family Handyman " magazine. John August Media, LLC acquired the Mechanix Illustrated trademark and revived the magazine as part of TechnicaCuriosa.com, along with sister titles Popular Electronics and Popular Astronomy. Tom McCahill Thomas Jay McCahill III (1907–1975) was an automotive journalist, born the grandson of a wealthy attorney in Larchmont, New York . McCahill graduated from Yale University with

672-448: The Rambler handled better than U.S. full-size makes. McCahill performed tests to prove him wrong. He was at odds with Walter Reuther of the U.A.W. over the issue of poor quality in U.S. cars and the fact that European imports – at the time SAAB and Volvo in particular – were of high quality, outstanding performers and no more costly than a good used car for those who could not afford

720-606: The Rhineland-Palatinate town of Guntersblum . His family belongs to Old Stock Americans . Chrysler apprenticed in the railroad shops at Ellis as a machinist and railroad mechanic. He then spent a period of years roaming the west, working for various railroads as a roundhouse mechanic with a reputation of being good at valve-setting jobs . Chrysler moved frequently, first to Wellington, Kansas , in 1897, then to Denver, Colorado for two weeks, and finally Cheyenne, Wyoming . Some of his moves were due to restlessness and

768-782: The United States Merchant Marine Academy . Chrysler also built a country estate in Warrenton, Virginia , in what is referred to as the Virginia horse country and home to the Warrenton Hunt. In 1934, he purchased and undertook a major restoration of the Fauquier White Sulphur Springs Company resort and spa in Warrenton. Sold in 1953, the property was developed as a country club. Chrysler turned 61 in

816-576: The "Rooster" (McCahill was forced to sell the Rooster in 1967 to pay off back taxes to the IRS). McCahill was an avid fisherman, hunter and deep-sea diver. At age 68, McCahill died at the Daytona Community Hospital on May 10, 1975. Mechanix Illustrated never publicly acknowledged his death, because his name was synonymous with it. He "amounted to the franchise" and management never wanted to admit he

864-411: The 600 road tests he performed and reported on, his favorite cars were the 1953 Bentley Continental and the 1957–1962 Imperial , each model year of which he owned as his personal vehicles. In 1950 he purchased a new Ford and proceeded to acquire the assistance of Andy Granatelli in "hopping it up" by switching to high-performance heads and manifolding. He then tested the car extensively and noticed

912-566: The Eastern climate. McCahill conducted and reported on the first road test of the Chevrolet Corvair in 1959. In the presence of Zora Arkus-Duntov , chief engineer of the Corvair project, McCahill ran the car at speed on the G.M. testing grounds. McCahill reported that he was pleased with the handling characteristics and that the Corvair handled better than the 1959 Porsche . This conflicts with

960-537: The Ohio River. Chrysler's automotive career began in 1911 when he received a summons to meet with James J. Storrow , a banker who was a director of Alco . Storrow asked him if he had given any thought to automobile manufacture. Chrysler had been an auto enthusiast for over five years by then, and was very interested. Storrow arranged a meeting with Charles W. Nash , then president of the Buick Motor Company , who

1008-548: The Sedan class. Each year he attended and reported on world-renowned speed events, especially the Le Mans 24 Hour in France. He purchased the first Thunderbird built and raced it successfully in the 1955 Daytona speed trials. The Tom McCahill trophy was named for him. As director of the yearly speed trials at Daytona beach, he was responsible for overseeing the rules as well as the safety of

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1056-592: The United States after 1858. A Freemason , Chrysler began his career as a machinist and railroad mechanic in Ellis. He took correspondence courses from International Correspondence Schools in Scranton, Pennsylvania, earning a mechanical degree from the correspondence program. Walter Chrysler's father, Henry (Hank) Chrysler, was a Canadian, of German, English and Dutch ancestry. He was an American Civil War veteran who

1104-515: The United States and Europe to facilitate testing. His stepson with his fourth wife, Brooks Brender, served as McCahill's assistant in his later years. McCahill was a personal friend of band leader Paul Whiteman , with whom he shared his love of hunting and fishing. Every year, McCahill would make a ten-day boating trip from his home in New York to his home in Florida aboard his thirty-foot Egg Harbor Cruiser

1152-414: The assertions by Ralph Nader in his book Unsafe at Any Speed criticizing the Corvair's handling. At the time Nader wrote Unsafe at Any Speed , it is to be remembered he had neither an automotive engineering degree nor a driver's license. In response to Nader's book, McCahill tried to get a 1963 Corvair to flip, at one point sliding sideways into a street curb, but could not turn over the vehicle. In

1200-401: The automotive world but created enemies too. Ever the sportsman—at six foot two and 250 pounds—he once fought off goons hired by (as was believed at the time) General Motors . It is alleged that he sent two to the hospital and the third running. McCahill was a personal friend of Walter P. Chrysler and appreciated the handling and performance characteristics of Chrysler Corporation cars in

1248-504: The body warranted. In 1916, William C. Durant , who founded General Motors in 1908, had retaken GM from bankers who had taken over the company. Chrysler, who was closely tied to the bankers, submitted his resignation to Durant, then based in New York City. Durant took the first train to Flint to make an attempt to keep Chrysler at the helm of Buick. Durant made the then-unheard of salary offer of $ 10,000 (equivalent to $ 280,000 in 2023)

1296-584: The company which published MI , and continued publishing the magazine, renaming it Home Mechanix starting in January 1985. In August, 1996, it was again renamed as Today's Homeowner , and ceased publication with the March/April issue in 2001, being merged into sister publication This Old House . In the 1980s, the magazine featured more and more home repair, remodel and woodworking projects while featuring fewer articles on general technology and automotive projects. A long-running feature of Mechanix Illustrated

1344-407: The drivers and spectators. He was a personal friend of Briggs Cunningham and drove the fastest cars in the world. McCahill reported in detail on every car imported to the U.S. during the early 1950s, all the while ridiculing the U.S. automakers for their excesses, including soft suspensions ("Jello suspensions" as he referred to them) and poor handling qualities . An example is provided by one of

1392-452: The engine was filtered down to the smaller and lighter body/chassis used for Oldsmobile's lowest-price "76" series (powered by six-cylinder engines) and to create the Olds "Rocket 88." The Rocket V8 performed even better than in the bigger and heavier 98, thereby creating a whole new image for Olds and set the stage for similar designed V8 engines throughout Detroit over the next few years. McCahill

1440-861: The export kit; without stiffer suspension, a car with so much performance (his test car had the 345-horsepower, 410 cubic-inch V8) could prove similar to opening a Christmas basket full of King Cobras in a small room with the lights out". McCahill was in favor of lifting the Automobile Manufacturer's Association ban on factory backed stock car racing ; although the ban was agreed upon by GM, Ford and Chrysler in June 1957, manufacturers continued under-the-table efforts to provide performance parts and engines to racing teams or performance-car enthusiasts. McCahill chose to live in Florida as its climate permitted owning such cars as his Jaguar sedan, as corrosion problems inherent with this type of car would have been compounded by

1488-452: The first road tests of the 1958 Edsel in the September 1957 issue of M.I.: McCahill criticized the standard suspension as being too "horsey-back" and strongly recommended that Edsel buyers "pony up" a few extra bucks for the optional, heavy-duty (i.e. export) suspension package, which included heavier springs and shocks. He went so far as to tell his readers that "I wouldn't own one except with

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1536-428: The following five years, thus significantly accelerating the U.S. economy . McCahill had become Mechanix Illustrated public face, and the industry quickly realized that his review could make or break a product instantly. When he tested the 1948 Oldsmobile Futuramic 98 powered by a flat-head eight-cylinder engine of prewar design, he claimed that depressing the accelerator was like "Stepping on a wet sponge". General Motors

1584-474: The late 1940s to the early 1970s. McCahill's feisty opinions were delivered in a prose laced with similes that are still quoted today among car enthusiasts: "As anyone brighter than a rusty spike must know..."; flooring the accelerator pedal on a certain car is "...like stepping on a wet sponge"; the clock/tachometer combination on another car is "...about as useful as feathers on a moose." McCahill died in 1974, and three years later CBS bought Fawcett Publications ,

1632-469: The late 1950s and 1960s, which included many advanced engineering features such as front torsion-bar suspensions (combined with rear multi-leaf springs) for flatter cornering, powerful V8 engine options across the board and positive-shifting three-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmissions . In a 1959 road test of the Plymouth Sport Fury (which he referred to as the "Sports Fury"), he claimed that

1680-653: The main shops of the Chicago Great Western where there is a small park dedicated to him. The pinnacle of his railroading career came at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , where he became works manager of the Allegheny locomotive erecting shops of the American Locomotive Company (Alco). While working in Pittsburgh, Chrysler lived in the town of Bellevue the first town outside of Pittsburgh on the north side of

1728-695: The torsion bar suspensions were the finest in America. Few European sedans, said McCahill, could match the handling performance of the Plymouth. On the other hand, many of McCahill's opinions about vehicles were far less favorable. For example, he reported in a 1949 road test that the new Dodge , with its semi-automatic transmission , was a "dog." He considered early 1950s Chevrolets mundane and utilitarian. On many of his earlier road tests, his wife Cynthia would accompany him as his photographer and almost always his black Labrador Retriever , "Boji". His later assistant

1776-466: The war he wrote articles on a variety of subjects for magazines such as Popular Science , Reader's Digest and Mechanix Illustrated Magazine ("M.I."). Hitting on the idea that an auto-starved post-wartime public might be interested in articles on new cars, he sold the concept to M.I. in February 1946, first reporting on his own 1946 Ford . His opinions were fearless and this endeared him to some in

1824-401: Was "Mimi," a shapely young woman dressed in skimpy overalls with blue and white vertical stripes; and, in the early sixties, a matching railroad engineer's cap (later discontinued). She was in a picture holding, standing beside, sitting on, lying on or just in the picture with a new product each month. Each "Mimi" held the job for a year. Their names were never given except for the announcement of

1872-758: Was a locomotive engineer for the Kansas Pacific Railway and its successor, the Union Pacific Railroad . Walter's mother was born in Rocheport, Missouri , and was also of German ancestry. Walter Chrysler was not especially interested in his remote ancestors; his collaborative author Boyden Sparkes says that one genealogical researcher reported "that he had a sea-going Dutchman among his forebears; one Captain Jan Gerritsen Van Dalsen", but that "as to that, Walter Chrysler made it plain to me he

1920-564: Was an American industrial pioneer in the automotive industry, American automotive industry executive and the founder and namesake of American Chrysler Corporation . Chrysler was born in Wamego, Kansas , the son of Anna Maria Chrysler (née Breymann) and Henry Chrysler. He grew up in Ellis, Kansas , where today his boyhood home is a museum. His father was born in Chatham, Ontario , in 1850 and immigrated to

1968-566: Was completed in 1930. Chrysler was named Time magazine 's Man of the Year for 1928. He was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 1967. In 1923, Chrysler purchased from Henri Willis Bendel a twelve-acre (5 ha) waterfront estate at Kings Point on Long Island , New York , and renamed it Forker House. In December 1941, the property was sold to the U.S. government's War Shipping Department and became known as Wiley Hall as part of

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2016-534: Was gone. For a while, they ran a column called "McCahill Reports", which was ghostwritten by Brender. At the time of his death, he was believed to be the only living descendant of the Scottish highwayman Rob Roy . According to Canadian automotive historian Bill Vance, McCahill had lost a leg that became gangrenous after a thorn penetrated it during a duck hunt, forcing its amputation. Walter P. Chrysler Walter Percy Chrysler (April 2, 1875 – August 18, 1940)

2064-437: Was in accord with Jimmy Durante : 'Ancestors? I got millions of 'em!'." However, he thought enough of genealogy to include in his autobiography that his father, Hank Chrysler, "Canadian born, had been brought from Chatham, Ontario , to Kansas City when he was only five or six. His forebears had founded Chatham; the family stock was German ; eight generations back of me there had come to America one who spelled his name Greisler,

2112-408: Was incensed over his review of the '48 Olds and scores of angry letters from the corporation, as well as from Olds dealers and owners, came into MI's 'office demanding his firing. However, it was widely known that McCahill's report motivated GM into development of Oldsmobile's new overhead-valve, high-compression "Rocket V8" engine, which made its début the following year in the 1949 "98." The format of

2160-447: Was looking for a smart production chief. Chrysler, who had resigned from many railroading jobs over the years, made his final resignation from railroading to become works manager (in charge of production) at Buick in Flint, Michigan . He found many ways to reduce the costs of production, such as putting an end to finishing automobile undercarriages with the same luxurious quality of finish that

2208-407: Was married a number of times but died without issue. In a 1956 interview with Playboy magazine McCahill stated that he had "more cash than hair". The statement was in response to a question as to how he had been photographed in two separate issues of Mechanix Illustrated with two different wives. McCahill had homes in Florida and New York, where he would receive cars to test. He traveled all over

2256-458: Was professional driver and photographer Jim McMichael who was photographed sitting—or lying—in the trunk of so many test cars McCahill eventually began calling him the " official trunk tester". McCahill frequently used extreme metaphors and similes in his prose. For example, in M.I. he described the AC Cobra as "hairier than a Borneo gorilla in a raccoon suit" . He proclaimed the ride of

2304-418: Was up, he resigned from his job as president of Buick in 1919. He did not agree with Durant's vision for the future of General Motors. Durant paid Chrysler $ 10 million (equivalent to $ 176 million in 2023) for his GM stock. Chrysler had started at Buick in 1911 for $ 6,000 a year (equivalent to $ 196,200 in 2023), and left one of the richest men in the United States. GM replaced Chrysler with Harry H. Bassett

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