Car Crazy: The Battle for Supremacy between Ford and Olds and the Dawn of the Automobile Age

Before the &quot;Big Three,&quot; even before the Model T, the race for dominance in the American car market was fierce, fast, and sometimes farcical. <i>Car Crazy</i> takes readers back to the passionate and reckless years of the early automobile era, from 1893, when the first US-built auto was introduced, through 1908, when General Motors was founded and Ford's Model T went on the market. The motorcar was new, paved roads few, and devotees of this exciting and unregulated technology battled with citizens who considered the car a dangerous scourge, wrought by the wealthy, that was shattering a more peaceful way of life.<br><br>Among the pioneering competitors were Ransom E. Olds, founder of Olds Motor Works and creator of a new company called REO; Olds' cutthroat new CEO Frederic L. Smith; William C. &quot;Billy&quot; Durant of Buick Motor Company (and soon General Motors) ; and inventor Henry Ford. They shared a passion for innovation, both mechanical and entrepreneurial, but their maniacal pursuit of market share would also involve legal manipulation, vicious smear campaigns, and zany publicity stunts - including a wild transcontinental car race that transfixed the public. Their war on wheels ultimately culminated in a courtroom battle that would shape the American car industry forever.<br><br>Based on extensive original research, <i>Car Crazy</i> is a page-turning story of popular culture, business, and sport at the dawn of the twentieth century, filled with compelling, larger-than-life characters, each an American original.