Have you ever thought about the history of your vehicle, where it came from, the company that built it? There are millions of vehicles currently being built in America and hundreds of different vehicle manufacturers, each one with their own story. The Dodge Motor Car Company is simply one amongst the clouds. John and Horace Dodge built the Dodge Motor Company from the ground up and even after more than a century, the company has remained one of the highest selling automotive companies in history.
The Dodge Brothers formed their own company in 1914 after slightly over a decade of working for Henry Ford of Ford Motor Company. “Henry Ford contracted with the brothers to build engines, transmissions and axles. Ford was unable to pay the Dodges fully in cash, so he gave them stock in his company. In 1919, the brothers sold their Ford Motor Company stock back to Henry Ford for $25 million” (History, Automotive 1920). Over the eleven year span of working for Ford and building millions of Model Ts, however they did notice weakness in the build.
After Henry Fords repeated refusal to take their solutions into consideration for the build of the next Model T, the Dodge brothers decided to manufacture their own version of Fords Model T. “The first Dodge had a 35-horsepower four-cylinder L-head engine, far better than the Fords, with a rare-for-the-time 12volt electrical system and an all steel Budd-designed body. The cars weighed 2,000 pounds and, at $785, were nearly double the price of the Model T, leaving the cheap field to Ford. Accounting for inflation, $785 in 1914 would be around $18,685 today” (Zatz , Allpar). After the first Dodge was a major success, n 1915 the Dodge Brothers decided to start production. In the first year of production, forty-five thousand cars were built, however the Dodge Motor Company did not make profit and it turn lost money the first few months of production. The company was an amazing success due to the Dodge Brothers prior reputation; Dodge had thirteen thousand dealers prepared to sell their automobile before the vehicle was released to public viewing. The Dodge Motor Company made multiple variations of their automobile by 1919; including a winter vehicle, a four door sedan, as well as military vehicles.
After the year of 1919, the Dodge Motor Company built the 400,000th vehicle and had an estimated yearly total of 104,000 units (Dodge 100Years). In 1920 success turned to tragedy. John Dodge died of a fatal combination of Influenza and Pneumonia in New York City on January 14, 1920, after the death of his brother, Horace Dodge passed away from the same combination of Influenza and Pneumonia with the addition of slight depression in Palm Beach Florida on December 10, 1920. These unfortunate deaths less than a year apart caused troublesome decisions to make regarding the Dodge Motor Company.
The brothers’ wives inherited all of the company, worth around $60 million; they were smart enough to promote Frederick J. Haynes, who had been with the brothers since the bicycle days, to run the company” (Zatz, Allpar). Without the Dodge brothers, it was believed that the company would disappear once they passed, however those who presumed that were wrong. Haynes expanded Dodge Motor Company more than ever before. The company was soon pushed into the truck automotive assembly line in order to appeal to a larger market of buyers.
After the United States went to war and their larger vehicles were shipped over seas for military transport use, the vehicles demanded more power. In 1930 Dodge introduced “an eight-cylinder engine that offered 75 horsepower and 145 foot-pounds of torque. ” (ConceptCarz). This power increase was a very substantial succession over the prior engines. This was the beginning of an entire new breed of engines. In 1956, Dodge’s Mopar devision began developing “the LA series of V8 engines [that] was based on a lightweight casting of the A engines, appearing in 1964. (Allpar, Mopar A Engines). This engine layout led to the development of the Hemi V8 engine, one of the most powerful V8 engines in the industry. The notorious 426 Hemi V8 was introduced in 1964, however it was rarely used in passenger cars, used only in race cars for the early years of its life. The engine was only produced from 1964 to 1972. “Little changed inside the 426 Hemi throughout its eight-year production life; camshafts were updated (more duration was added in 1968, and a hydraulic bumpstick was used beginning in 1970) but little else separated the model years.
Chrysler never changed the engine’s horsepower and torque ratings, 425 hp at 5000rpm and 490 foot-pounds of torque at 4000 rpm, even when ratings switched from gross to net. Four bolt mains were standard on every 426 Hemi, street or race. ” (Allpar, Chrysler 426 Hemi). The high performance Mopar engines of the 1970s were short lived. Automotive companies began to prioritize their necessities, and soon realized that power was not what the public sought after. The oil crisis of the late 1970s and 1980s led companies to migrate towards fuel efficient engines in their vehicle lineups.
In 1978, “Manufacturers of new cars that fail to meet the minimum fuel economy level of 22. 5 miles per gallon (mpg) have to pay a “Gas Guzzler Tax. ” The tax is intended to discourage the production and purchase of fuel inefficient vehicles. ” (EPA, Gas Guzzler Tax). For example, in the one decade from 1970 to 1980, “the Dodge Charger adapted from a 425 horsepower 7 liter V8 to a 175 horsepower 2. 2 liter turbo engine” (Dodge 100Years). This was a near sixty percent loss in power, however fuel economy was substantially better.
Throughout the 1980s, all vehicles were based around fuel economy, every vehicles engine was depleted of all power. As fuel prices continued to rise, vehicles grew increasingly more efficient, while sacrificing power. However, in 1990, the game had changed; fuel prices were down, along with pollution rates. This opened the door for Dodge to bring back the power. In 1992 Dodge introduced the Viper, it contained an 8. 0 V10 engine with 400 horsepower, the largest displacement engine ever used in a production car in America.
A large percentage of vehicles in the 1990s were still incredibly fuel efficient, but the government did not condemn the production of high performance, gas guzzling vehicles. The Dodge Viper was Mopar’s reemergence into the muscle car industry. In 2002, Dodge introduced the SRT (Street and Racing Technology) lineup. The Viper was the first vehicle to be added to the list of SRT vehicles and remained the only SRT vehicle produced by Mopar until 2004. In 2004, the Ram SRT10 was introduced with an 8. liter V10 engine producing 500 horsepower, skyrocketing to the top of the most powerful and fastest pickup trucks in the world, succeeding the Ford Lightning from 2003. In 2005, the Chrysler 300 SRT8 was introduced, it was powered by a 6. 1 liter 426 horsepower V8, running though a 5speed automatic transmission to a rear wheel drive platform. In 2006 the 300 was joined by the introduction of the Dodge Charger and Dodge Magnum, both of which had the available SRT8 trim package, equipping them with the same 6. 1 liter engine in a rear wheel drive platform.
In 2007, Jeep, also owned by Dodge, introduced the Grand Cherokee SRT8. This was the first SRT vehicle to be offered in an all-wheel drive platform. In 2008, Dodge reintroduced the notorious V8 muscle car coupe, the Challenger. It was only offered in the SRT package until 2009 when the 3. 6 liter V6 was standardly equipped. This high performance lineup of vehicles has been climbing up the ladder of best-known performance vehicle lineups for 14 years. The introduction of the SRT Hellcat lineup in 2015 has boosted their notoriety exponentially.
The Dodge Challenger and Dodge Charger are the only two vehicles produced by Mopar that offer the SRT Hellcat option. This option equips the cars with a 6. 2 liter Supercharged V8, pumping out 707 horsepower and 650 foot-pounds of torque through an 8-speed automatic transmission to yet another rear-wheel drive platform. The Charger Hellcat has broken many records in the past few years, it is now classified as the most powerful sedan in the world, and the quickest and fastest sedan in the world with a top speed of 204mph and a quarter-mile time of 11. 0 seconds (10. seconds on drag radials).
Over the past century, Dodge has evolved in incredible ways. Dodge Motor Company has changed history forever, if one were to search the history of the automobile back through history, it is almost guaranteed that the Dodge Brothers and the Dodge Motor Company will be part of it. Dodge motor company initiated the shipment of automobiles internationally, and being one of the largest counterparts of the automotive industry to continue to evolve for over a century. The automotive industry would have never became what is it today without the Dodge Brothers.
